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2 (1368) THE
EDUCATION AND UELIGION.
i (Continued from page 1.)
world ar? facts, are vital forces in the history of
mankind .... It is also certain that these beliefs
are among the most powerful of all causes of human
progress. . . . Hence the history of that progress
cnn not be truly told, or its causes explained, without
an attention to the nature and the influence of
these beliefs."
"It is through the Bible only," said an English
free-thinker, "that such people (that is, those without
wide culture) attain a sympathetic insight into
history."
How would one ignorant of Bible truths be taught
the history of the Mayflower, Plymouth Rock, the
Jamestown colony, Roger Williams, William Penn,
the arguments right and wrong in regard to abolition?
Where would be found truth enough to tie
together the story of Puritan, Huguenot, Dutch, or
sturdy Scotch-Irish settlers, without the warp ol
their religious faith? The religious acknowledgements
of the colonial charters, laws, and proclamations,
and many later documents and practices, can
not be understood without knowledge of Bible teaching.
Let us, for example, glance at some of the historic
facts in England requiring knowledge of the Bible
for their appreciation. The list is long, and the
viMuii to unci nuiveu at every puim Wltu mu very
life of the nation, aud in this brief space only hints
can be given. The influence of Augustine; the agelong
fight between Christianity and paganism; the
origin of the established Church, often and again
the storm-center of English national life; the victory
of English over Danish character; the secret
of Alfred's greatness, of Dunstan's power; the disappearance
of slavery; the gbodness and wisdom
of formerly savage Canute; the gentle reign of Edward
the Confessor; the Christianizing of the Norman
pirates before reaching England's shores; the care
of the Conqueror for the Church; the ultimate undermining
of feudalism; the religious revival of the,
11th and 12th centuries, and the consequent moral
uplift of the whole nation under'Henry II ; the crusades;
the struggles between kings and popes, universities
and Church, barons and Church; the friar
revolution; Wyollf and Bollards; the inception of
Protestantism; Joan of Arc; the revival of letters;
Erasmus, and the consequent stimulus to education;
the times of Thomas Cromwell; the succeeding
reformation; the martyrs; Elizabeth and Mary Stuart;
the final Protestantism of England; when, as
Green says: "England became the people of a book,
and that book was the Bible;" when "there was
one thing dearer to England than free speech in
Parliament, tjhan security for property, or even
personal liberty; and that one thing was. in the
phraBe of the day, 'the gospel'; then, th? Covenant,
with its far-reaching influence; Oliver Cromwell
and hds times; the Commonwealth and its spirit;
the Covenanticle Act and others of like aim; the
imprisonment of Bunyan and its immortal result;
the shifting dominance of varied religious belief
during long years of struggle; can any one not in^
structed in Bible teachings understand the history
of England? Can any one who does not understand
the history of England understand that of America?
lTme falls even to mention like facts in the history
of other nations: Holland, Spain, Germany,
France, Italy, and the Jews. Can we exclude from
our study- of history, Christianity, the greatest force
in the progress of the human race? Can we omit
from our study of biography, Jesus, the greatest
character the world has ever known, and call what
is left a fair historical education? Are teachers to
be forbidden to explain the meaning of Anno Domini?
History without knowledge of the Bible and its Influence
is a ragged, motheaten garment, all that is
left of a rich fabric.
Shall we give up Caedmon, Bede, Milton; shall we
syncopate Tennyson, Longfellow, Shakespeare, Whittler,
Lowell, Bacon, Browning, Stevenson, Hawthorne,
Macaulay, Coleridge, Arnold, and countless otherB,
for lack of knowledge of the Bible to understand
hundreds of references and allusions? Shall we deprive
our young men and women of the study of the
best specimen of English undefiled, the most attractive
narrative, the most majestic eloquence, the
noblest poetry of their native tongue at the behest of
a handful of those who would offset with a few puny
theories the witness of the ages and the testimony of
the great, the learned, the eloquent, the Infidel?
We are much concerned nowadays to educate for
good citizenship. We can do no better than go to the
Bible for our principles. "The powers that be are
PP<BBYTERIAN OF V?Hi. 8
ordained of God." "Render to Caesar the things that
are Caesar's." "Every soul" is to be "subject to the
higher powers." It is the Bible, too, that forbids civil
rulers to dictate to the people in matters of religion,
and the secularist himself can defend his views only
by a mistaken application of this -very Bible truth,
and can hardly hope to make his meaning clear to
those not familiar with its teachings. "The studious
perusal of the sacred volume," said Jefferson, "will
make better citizens."
Many of the most important of our laws are 'borrowed
from the Old Testament. Justice Brewer has
said that much of our common law can be traced
back to some provision in the Mosaic code. "Upon
these two foundations," says Blackstone, "the law
of nature, and the law of revelation, depend all human
laws." In view of the present widespread disroernrd
of 1 aw in m.inv nnrra
we need is not less Bible, but more. "Despotism,"
says De Tocqueville, "may govern without faith, but
liberty cannot"
According to the International Encyclopedia, "ReligiouB
education has been of the greatest importance
in developing cohesive and powerful nationalities."
And in the struggle that followed the Reformation,
"religious education was felt to be a meaner'not merely
of furthering man's eternal apd^spiritual welfare,
but also of strengthening the/State." "The greatest
need of Japan," says a prominent Japanese statesman,
"is said to be economic development; but the
basis of economic development is confidence, and
confidence will only come as the fruit of moral and
religious education, based upon Christianity. Our
need Is Christian character, based on Christian education."
The testimony from those competent to
3peak for many nations, that the Bible is the only
sure basis for civic, economic, and social well-being,
1b overwhelming.
All that he^i been said argues irresistibly for the
ucwBHiijr 01 me Jt3ii>ie 10 any adequate system 01
education. The progress of Christianity has been
the progress of learning; it is in the countries enlightened
by the Bible, and in them alone, that human
knowledge has reached its high altitudes. "Among
people who have a common religious faith,"^*tfyirCompayre,
"it is a matter of course that education
should be connected with religion." He speaks also
of the gap which the school, in ceasing to interest
itself in religious instruction, leaves, and quotes
President Butler to the effect that we ddcelve ourselves
if we believe that moral and civil instruction
will "prove a satisfactory substitute for religious instruction."
j,
The fact is, that the Bible has been read in our
schools from the beginning, before the constitutions
that some suppose to forbid it, were framed. It was
fifty years before Wisconsin discovered that the
UBe of the Bible was unconstitutional. We have
agreed with President Schurman, that, "No man can
be wholly uneducated who really knowB the Bible,
nor can any one be considered a truly educated man
who ie ignorant of it." The University of Toronto
officially decided that many of the subjects in the
curriculum could not be taught without the use of
the Bible. The French philosopher, Cousin, maintained
that, "education whloh is not specially re
ligious is likely to be hurtful rather than beneficial."
England. Holland, and Russia have schools under
denominational control, subsidized by the State;
Spain, Austria, Prussia, Sweden, Norway, and Denmark
allow religious instruction in the state schools
under the supervision of the religious authorities;/
parts of Switzerland allow the use of thp school house
for religious purposes; France and Italy allow time
in the school program for religious Instruction outside
of the school house; our own National Education
Association unanimously adopted a resolution in
favor of both reading and studying the Bible in public
schools; and the college entrance requirements in
English for 1912-1911. include parts of the Bible.
The truth is, those without Christian faith, or at
least some appreciation of its power, are as competent
to Judge of the value and the necessity of religious
training, as the untutored savage is to judge
of the advantages of civilization. Those who after
centuries of use are beginning to object, must show
what change in our national life and character call
for such a severe and dangerous surgery of the body
politic. In spite of a muoh louder clariior, we continue
to build battleships, equip armies, pay iniquitous
nenslona. ?nrl inanv /itho- i- ---
. _ , -W -WV1W| UUI150 lUI^C ttliu
worthy minorities oppose: shall we, then, yield to
the desire of those few specialized, It might almost
be said sectarian, groups who happen to oppose the
nse of the Bible? Shall we continue to'refer to God
in constitution, oath, proclamation, and coin; have
O D T H [December 18, 1912
cnaplainb In army, navy, prison, and legislature; appoint
days of national thanksgiving; and have in our
schools no religious teaching to tell us what all this
other is for?
Can we not penetrate below the surface of these
questions as to the interpretation of the law, and the
relation of the people who are the state to the same
people who are the church, and seek the deeper underlying
reasons why the Bible must be taught, and
known, since our history, our civilization, our national
life, and those of other nations are what they
are? Or must we take the denaturalized, devitalized
religion offered us by one high in the educational
world, a weak tea that will hurt or help no one, a
mere faith in cold science, the emanation of man's
mind, and substitute it for the faith in a living God
that has been an actual moving pqwer in the history
of mankind? When that is done, man -becomes his
..... n?a
vnvn uuu.
Tlie elimination of the Bible from education would
be on a pat with the woman's Bible, an edition omitting
all certain women did not like; its very publication
boing a testimony to the power of the book, as
well as to the folly of the womon. Foodish or learned
men may edit away what is not to their taste, but
the remainder is not the Bible; so may all trace of
religion be removed from our school texts and our
teaching, but what is left is not a whole education;
it is mutiliated remains.
Without knowledge of the Bible, literature and
history are emasculated, modern civilization is unexplained,
ethics is u castle in the air, character is
without adequate impulse to righteousness, law lacks
authority; government, high sanction; soci.il service,
strongest motive; education, completeness. For centuries
tills book has been the spring of character, the
bulwark of liberty, the warp of cvllization. Shall we
tear in sheds our past history, cut the heart out of
our body politic, syncopate our education, surrender
a priceless heritage, and without hope for even a
mess of pottage?
The use of the Bible was prohibited once before
in the history of the world, and the pen? up need for
it burst forth into t.ie great Rerorunaion, amid the
" pangs of which modern civilization was born. God
grant that we may soon feel another such great Bible
hunger.
Paper read by Chancellor William Dinwiddle of the
Southwestern Presbyterian University, before the
Southern Educational Association at Louisville, Ky.,
..November 29, 1912.
THE UTTER FAILURE OF ROMANISM AS A
BENEFICENT INFLUENCE AMONG NATIONS.
By Junn Ortz Gonzalez.
There are some who will say: "Although the Influence
of Rome In the government affairs of European
countries is not so powerful as in former days,
still she controls great masses of individuals."
T. is true that the Roman Catholic Church still controls
women, and to some extent the lowest and most
ignorant classes, but the leading and really Influential
men in Roman Catholic countries are, as a whole, today,
either entirely beyond the reach of Catholic Influence,
or even against that church.
I shall select two countries and two periods in
which these countries were absolutely under Catholic
influence, not onlv in reenrrt fn religion nnd
spiritual affairs, but also politically, and in government
affairs. Those two countries are Spain and South
America, at the end of the seventeenth century. In
no other period of Spanish history has the Roman
Catholic Church had such control in Spain, as under
Charles II., called "the bewitched," or "hechlzado."
Friars and nuns were the best friends and chief advisers
of the king. Bishops, archbishops and cardinals
were his ministers, and favorites. No law could
be passed without a thorough Investigation as to
whether It was consistent with the canonical law of
the Catholic Church. The Inquisition was brought
into*requisition during the reign of that king to an
extent never before known In Spain, and it was one
of his greatest pleasures to witness its horrible executions.
He was so delighted with the Church and so charmed
by its methods that not only during his life did
ho fillntv tho PrtnO fn <1 a no Ko nlAftB?J ... 4 K Qnnln Kilt
"v fci?v * w\? IIU ao II ^ ^icttoru Willi OI'UIH, v ?
iilfo at his death be placed his crown in the hands af
the Pope.
What does history say about that miserable and inglorious
time? It says that the population was reduced
to five and a half million, when before that it
had been at least ten millions. Later, when the op*