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Memphis, ‘Tennessee Author, Lecturer, Pastor and Magazine Writer Che ible Tndiswensable It Education rt REVEREND 8S. M. Ettis, D. D. Author, Lecturer and Magazine Writer God Speaks for Himself in His Word Published by THE NATIONAL REFORM ASSOCIATION PirrspurcH, Pa. Copyrighted by The National Reform Association 1926 CONTENTS Page Publisher's N otevin iii, ai stales tee ene swear ak ga 5 MOLE WOT” oie lc aiae as eats thle aa ee es at a a 6 GHA TERRE The Welfare of the State Demands the Cultivation of Moral? Characteree ** @. tn c.tace 21a 9 CHAP Rei Bible-less Education Fails to Develop the Moral Natures ip. ic ee a dele bee aaa ene eae 27 OHabowedhlae sii Ht Objections to the Bible in the State Schools Con- SICEredd 45: halsta.s in COE Ree URE lie nal ee AI CHAPTER IV The: Bible’in the Hands. ofthe (State 3 ae ee 55 GHAPIRER Vi The Sufficiency of the Bible for Moral Instruction .. 95 CHAPTER RIV The Footprints of Satan Revealed in Movements to Banish) the Bible trompthes schools) eee 119 APPENDIX Digest of State Laws which Control the Reading of the Bible in: thefPublicgachogls yaa. 4. ee 149 PUBLISHER’S NOTE OR thirty years, the author of this book was a pro- minent Baptist minister in Mississippi. He was educated at the Virginia Military Institute, Lexing- ton, Va.; and at Mississippi College, Clinton, Miss. ; graduating there in 1885. Five years later he received from that Institution the honorary degree of D.D. He was Secretary and Treasurer of the Board of Ministerial Education of this Institution for a number of. years; at the same time a member of the Board of Trustees. Broken health finally caused his retirement from active duties of the pastorate. He has resided in Mem- phis, Tenn., for several years, devoting his time to delivering lectures before the churches. During this period he has also been engaged in a study of some of the outstanding problems now confronting the public welfare, such as Public Morals, the Lord’s Supreme Authority in Civil Government, the State’s Obligation to render full Moral Training for Citizenship, and other vital questions of public interest. He is still active in the study of these and similar questions. At his request the National Reform Association has undertaken the publication of this book. The pub- lication committee believes that it will be useful in the present country-wide effort to make universal the prac- tice of reading the Bible in the public schools. The Association does not assume responsibility for all of the author’s positions, nor does Doctor Ellis ex- pect us so to do, but we send out the book feeling that the great fundamental truths in it speak for themselves and need only that defense which is furnished by plain proclamation, FOREWORD ORT Y years ago at a teacher’s summer school when we were brushing up for an examination for the only teacher’s certificate we ever held, the sessions of that Institute were frequently enlivened by a debate between a Scotch Presbyterian County Superintendent, and a Yankee Freethinker high school principal. Their bone of contention was, whether a public school teacher had any sort of right to read the Bible in tax-supported schools. Our recollection is, that the Scotchman had the best of the argument and we know that the Bible is still read in the schools of that county and state. Since that time the. opposers of this policy have advanced no new argument, but they have _ been strengthened in their position by a loose co-operation between the followers of Paine, Ingersoll and the Asso- ciation for the Advancement of Atheism, the Roman Catholics, the Jews and some Protestant bodies which prefer the Parochial school system, to that of the pub- lic school. Under the sway of an intense individualism that was the dynamic of evangelism, the Protestant people have offered, until recently a feeble resistance to this Opposition to the once universal practice of reading the Bible in the schools. Consequently the schools have become largely secularized. The constitutions and statutory law of all the states, guarantee freedom of conscience and worship and forbid any church establishment, or any sort of union of Church and State. The same is true of the Federal Constitution. By those opposing the use of the Bible in public instruction, these provisions have been construed to for- bid this practice. Where they have been able to influ- ence legislatures, the courts and boards of ducation the Bible has been excluded by one means or another. Much water has passed under the bridge since that debate of forty years ago. What some of the Scotch leaders of a hundred years ago predicted of the Sab- bath School has come to pass. It has supplanted home instruction, but proven a very inadequate substitute for it. It has utterly failed to reach the unchurched portion of the community. Moreover the lines between the church and the world have been much more sharply drawn than in the nineteenth century. The church is every year having a more difficult task to reach with her message those outside her own ranks. Secularism, in the mean time has a generation of opportunity and its weakness is becoming evident to all. On the other hand, the ground has been partially surveyed by the well-known decision of the Federal Supreme Court, which declares, “This is a Christian Nation.” The tendency of the Parochial school has be- come more evident. All of these facts have aroused the leaders of real American life, to an effort to replace moral and reli- gious instruction in the public school system. Under their leadership one state after another is making it mandatory to read the Bible in the public schools daily. This work of Dr. Ellis is a distinct contribution to this movement. He has covered the ground and dealt with every essential idea of the movement in his own inimitable style. We are glad to be co-laborers with him in spreading these ideals of our Amrican life. Sewickley, Pa. Wm. PARSONS. Chy Word ts a lamp unto my feet Ann a light unto my path. Psalms 119:105 for the commandment ts a lamp Ann the law ts light. Prourrhs G:23 Co the law and to the testimony, tf they speak not arrording to this word, tt ts because there ts no light in them. Isaiah 8:20 — + CIID «» — But liberty and triamyhs on the main, And laureled armies not to be withstood; What serue they? if on transttory goon intent and sedulons of abject gatn—Che State, Sorbears to shape due channels which the floon Of sacred truth may enter. —Woardswarth == eCHW ID e- — Enucation, brivfly is the leading of human minds and souls to what is right and best, and to the making what ts best nut of them. —RKruskin CHAPTER I THE WELFARE OF THE STATE DEMANDS THE CULTIVATION OF MORAL CHARACTER _. Three types of schools exist side by side in America; they are private schools, church schools and the public schools. These differ in view point, limitations and re- sponsibilities, and their differences in these things deter- 'mine their character and obligations to the public. In these pages we shall discuss solely the public schools; and seek to establish the premise that the Bible is indis- pensable as one of the instruments to be used in their work and as part of the subject matter which they must teach in order to fulfiil the end of their existence. At the outset, let us recall that State Education was organized, and has been developed, for the sole purpose of training the rising generation for the duties and re- sponsibilities of citizenship. It is not to be viewed as an organized scheme to confer benefits upon the child, for the sake of the child. . The chief design is based upon the idea of the State providing for her own welfare and safety, the benefits per se, to the child being a by-product, not the aim.) This general welfare affords both the right and the necessity for the maintenance of the public schools at the expense of all property. Thus established, and functioning after the original purpose,{ the public school is America’s greatest agency for preserving her noble ideals and her cherished institutions. Hence it 1s of first importance that the curricula of the schools have as the chief aim, the present and future welfare of the 10 Welfare of State Demands Moral Character State. Or, stated conversely: Nothing must be omitted from the school curricula, needful for the best prepara- tion of the future citizen. This statement clarifies the view and supports the proposition that a complete moral training, as found in the moral counsels of the Bible, is necessary to the safety and prosperity of the State. (1) MoraLt CHARACTER IS, AN ESSENTIAL QUALIFICA- ( TION FOR Goop CITIZENSHIP \ The moral powers, the same as the intellectual faculties, must be developed by the common processes of teaching and training. | Since the State has need of an intelligent citizenship, adequate provision has been made to meet this end, through the varied branches for intellectual study. But much more is the need of the State to develop and train the latent moral powers of the child. Failing at this point, there would be revealed a serious and radical defect in the policy of State Educa- tion. Conscience, the regulative faculty of the moral nature, is subject to education, and must be developed by moral truth, given from the source and authority of moral law, which is God’s morals, given in the Book. The moral faculties, as previously noted, are sensitive and responsive to the moral quality in an action or a teaching, even as the intellect grasps a truth in mathe- matics or physics. The State is training the whole natural man, in the person of the child, for the one end— the good citizen. In this care and training the State must ever be mindful that every faculty of the child, moral and intellectual, may at some time be called into her service. For this reason the school preparation must broadly include all the moral and intellectual powers of the child. Welfare of State Demands Moral Character Ti The morals of the future citizen are to be begun in the nursery, the home. Among the first lessons in the rudiments of morals that the mother imparts to her child is that of obedience (obedience carries a moral quality.) The child nature, marked by trust and obedience, is fitted to receive and respond to such instruction. This moral quality of obedience is absolutely essential to good citi- zenship. The absence of it marks the character of the prison inmate and the lawless everywhere. But upon this elemental virtue every moral principle may be added; and in building upon the primary elements of morals, given in varying degree in the home, the school is to extend and amplify moral teaching te embrace the full system throughout the course of State Education. And thus trained after the moral ideals of the Bible, the child becomes the nation’s finest asset, measuring above ma- terial values. But neglected at this point, that child may become the nation’s most serious liability. One of the potential foes threatening America’s welfare is found in the two groups of the pre-disposed lawless, and both in the child state; (1) in the many millions of our youth growing up without moral re- straints in the home, and its environment, and with only the semblance of moral teaching in the school room; (2) and the other numerous class is the untrained, unassi- milated population of alien birth, fresh from foreign lands, bringing low standards of morals, opposed to our approved social customs, and for assimilation in the body politic require radical training in the principles of demo- cracy. These two forces, however variant in class and character, present a threatening menace to our govern- mental system; and without the reformation and the re- construction which the public school is designed to J 12 Welfare of State Demands Moral Character render, these disintegrating elements within the nat.on are given a free hand to effect the downfall of our demo- cracy. Now, the only known counter force for the cor- recting and overcoming of this nation-wide menace is Bible moral teaching in every State school. | The peace and happiness, as well as the prosperity and patriotism of any people are more securely providec for in the rooting of a nation’s youth in the Bible’s sound morals than by all the devices and instruments of war. And these millions of our own morally benighted youth, together with the hordes of the un-American foreigners, may be molded into good citizenship only by the melting pot of the public school, functioning in the full powers of training. The high duties of citizenship in a self governing republic demand for such citizens the full moral instruction which the public school is empowered to render. And it is only by this method of moral train- ing that this dangerous liability shall become converted to the nation’s best asset,—an upright, intelligent and loyal citizen. (2) Ture THREATHENED Mora Evits Are _ BEsT CoMBATTED BY MoraAL TEACHING And that points directly to the school room, as the beginning place for this instruction. Whilst a people may suffer from the operation of the forces of nature, by flood and fire, storm and drouth, even by pestilence, yet it is significant that nations do not perish by these visitations. The direct cause of a nation’s decline and final downfall is found in the immoralities and vices prev- alent. The incipiency of lawlessness and crime is to be discovered in the tendencies of youth towards the grosser immoralities. In the development of a criminal char- Welfare of State Demands Moral Character 13 acter there is the stage of the flowering, and that follow- ing, of matured fruit, (the overt act).. The two distinct forces at hand for arantline with these evils are the public schools and the police force. The first of these is corrective, and has to do with im- moral tendencies; with lawlessness in embryo. The other force is punitive in its nature, symbolized by the sheriff and the jail, as against the teacher and the school house, in the former. “The strong arm of the law” has to deal with the matured product of those first displayed 1m- moral tendencies. The ranks of this latter law-defying class may be reduced to the minimum only by the un- hampered moral discipline exercised in the school room. But the increasing juvenile lawlessness of the age points the accusing finger at the public school. Over against the jail is the school house. In the failure of the school house to function in corrective discipline the jail must do double duty in punitive measures. The evils that threaten the welfare of the nation are to be found in the germinal stage among any people. Every country is confronted by incipient evils lurking within its borders, awaiting opportunity for development. Vice being the same in its essence, finished or unfinished, only awaits the favorable conditions for its development. In that process moral defections are often unrecognized, or ignored as follies of indiscreet youth, until they parade as vice in the open, and finally stalk abroad as giant evils, menacing the peace and happiness of the whole social order. In this connection it is fitting to direct attention to the current statement, that 65 percent of the crimes of today is committed by boys and girls under 21 years of age. Surely such conditions of moral defection among our youth make appeal for the most pronounced moral teaching in the schools. 14 Welfare of State Demands Moral Character The increasing devastations of vice and crime are the direct cause of more unhappiness, and more loss to the state than all other causes. The wretchedness and misery entailed by the prevalent immoral evils upon the innocent and the guilty, the disruption of homes, the unashamed pollutions that mar family life, the political defalcations, the crushing to poverty of the weak by the strong in the commercial world; these and other national sins are steadily at work, gnawing upon the vitals of our social system, thereby imperiling the welfare, if not the life, of the nation. These evil forces must be withstood and overcome by the corrective moral forces in the school, which is the great agency of the state for dealing with immorality in the germinal stage. Moral evils growing up under the teachings of pernicious error can- not flourish where such evils are combatted by the force of moral truth. Hence, in the system of public school training the state has the most powerful agency for destroying the evils that afflict society, and disturb public welfare. There is not a moral defection menacing the welfare of our commonwealth today, but might have been over- come in its incipiency by a vigorous moral teaching in the school room, which is the first battle-ground of the op- posing forces. And it will yet be seen that among the supreme tasks of the public school, the safeguarding of the rising generation from moral corruption must have preeminence. In pursuing such a policy of education her successful achievement in this high service would justify the institution of State Education as nothing else ever done by the public school. The neglect of the state schools to render efficient moral teaching presents the cause and the explanation of that sub-agency, known as the juvenile reform school, which suggests a laundry for Welfare of State Demands Moral Character 15 the moral renovation of the state schools’ delinquents. The neglect of the moral welfare of the child in the home and in the school has made the juvenile court a necessity. (3) STATE ScHoots Must RENDER FuLtL Morar TRAINING FOR EFFICIENT PUBLIC SERVICE The State 1s served in a gencral way by her citizens engaging diligently in the various pursuits of life. An industrious, thrifty people given to honest employment, and reaping the rewards of gain, is an indirect service to the commonwealth, and contributes in no small meas- ure to public welfare. But the State is directly served in the several departments of public service, in the in- stance of police and military duties performed; in every court of justice functioning; in every public election held, and in those who have been selected to hold an office of trust and responsibility. These are the State’s trusted agents and servants, and in the performance of their duties must offer a good degree of intelligence, and an upright moral character. Much emphasis has been laid upon the education that makes for intelligence and intellectual training for these high duties. But while ignorance is characterized as a radical disqualification for efficient public service, yet it will be readily admitted that moral qualifications in all these relations are of paramount value and impor- tance to the State. In the use of the public schools for this necessary intellectual training, the state opens the way, and her attitude supports the doctrine, that moral principles must be inculcated in the school of preparation. Hence, in the conception and purpose of State Education the pub- 16 Welfare of State Demands Moral Character lic school is to be, and ought to be the drill ground of preparation for al/ the duties of all public service. A defective educational policy finally reacts upon every public interest. Of the several great and distinct tasks of the public service devolving upon every citizen, as the State may require, each service requires moral qualifications as of first importance. These public duties are (1) the exer- cise of voting at the ballot, as a citizen sharing the com- mon rights and privileges of a democracy, (2) the giving of testimony as a witness in courts of justice, (3) the services as a juror in trying the rights of property and of life, (4) the holding of office when chosen or ap- pointed. To these may be added the teacher in the state school. For the efficient discharge of these duties in- tellectual training alone will not prove adequate to the tasks. The voter must not only be able to judge the merit of questions of public interest, but the highest degree of intelligence will not avail if he sells his vote. Suppose a judge possesses a discriminating mind, and by superior intellectual training is able to sift and weigh testimony to reach a true verdict, and yet accept a bribe for an unjust finding. Or what if a witness of fine intelligence swear falsely for hire? Or the judge or the sheriff disregard his oath of office, and make gain by a barter of his official service. These defections, all too common, are the bane of modern civilization, and they forcibly remind us that democracies flourish only among a people of high moral standards. PUBLIC SCHOOLS SHOULD HAVE NO RIVALS Why should not the state educate al] her youth? The all controlling purpose of State Education, justifying the Welfare of State Demands Moral Character 17 existence of public education, fails when any: great por- tion of the school constituency are deprived of those ideals that only the state can foster. The essential quality of homogeneity of citizenship must have one parent source of development; and that is necessarily the state school. Church schools, the only rival, have reli- gion as their chief aim; and their teaching bears pre- eminently the stamp of sectarian religion. State authority and prestige are weakened where rival schools flourish in the same field. The spirit of patriotism is not exalted in the rival school as in the state school. And all those fine and distinctly American ideals, engendered in the state schools, find no emphasis in rival schools. More- over the state is well equipped with officials, trained teachers, modern buildings and apparatus, and with every resource at hand for further improvement, so that the rival school becomes a hindrance rather than an aid. Notwithstanding the late United States Supreme Court decision, in the Oregon case, denying the right of the state to forbid rival schools to the public schools, based upon the inherent primitive rights of parents in their children, the vital principle in that rejected law already holds in other departments of state administra- tion, and will ultimately pave the way for outlawing rivalry to the public schools. For instance, the Postal system, the departments of war, and of finance, hold ex- clusive rights in each of these spheres. No organized company may transport and deliver mail; nor coin’ money, even though measuring up to standard fineness of metal; nor fit out and maintain an expedition of war. Rival departments in these spheres of government would be suppressed, or they would speedily effect a revolution, but not more surely, though more slowly, than a rival system of education, A private postal system, or a pri- 18 Welfare of State Demands Moral Character vately owned mint for the coining of money, would be dealt with as a sedition. But in the essence of it the rival to the state school is not less seditious, but more so, in that it creates a character of peopie developed under ideals radically antagonistic to the democratic principles of free self government. And it only needs the occasion of some great issue arising for a display of allegiance to that alien “Supreme Pontiff,’ seated on a throne in the Roman Vatican, to effect a crisis, perchance revolution. But a people “forewarned are forearmed.” What any free people want, or do not want, they finally, in the democratic way get it and make it secure by writing their will in such laws and enactments as will be upheld by the courts. A democracy,’ such as ours, may re-write its constitutional law, as well as its statutory laws. And as it may, with proper limitations, set up any law it may want, we may expect that sooner or later the rival to the state school, called “Parochial school,’ or by any other name will be outlawed as obstructionary to state policies. The American public school cannot be aided by an organized system of education under the control of a foreign religious hierarchy, whose government and whose spirit are those of autocracy, not democracy. The parochial school that essays rivalry to the finest educational system known to man, has nothing of glory to its credit, either in Europe or America. Rome’s un- opposed educational sway in every Catholic country of Europe, has nothing to show, after centuries, but a back- ward immoral people, afflicted with ignorance, squalor, serfdom, political bondage and strife without end, and such abject poverty as prosperous America has no con- ception. Such degrading conditions are in the main even worse throughout South and Central America and Mexico, where Rome’s religion and education have from Welfare of State Demands Moral Character 10 the beginning had no rival. In setting up to educate in every Catholic country, Rome can point with pride to no country on the globe. ‘The illiteracy of Mexico and all South America ranges from 50 to 75 percent of the population; whilst the United States and Canada, Protestant countries, show eight percent and eleven per- cent of the people to be illiterate. The illiteracy of the Catholic countries of Southern Europe, in contrast with those Protestant peoples of Northern Europe, makes no better showing for Rome’s schools. Liberty and demo- cracy are not the achievements of Romanism anywhere on earth. The fruit of her teachings, through her parochial schools, has cursed all Southern Europe, and half the New World with illiteracy, political bondage, immorality and poverty. In the face of this unbroken record of centuries this political hierarchy, wearing the mask of religion, opposes State Education, and sets up in opposition by maintaining schools in rivalry to the state schools. Hence, this great fee of public education must be banished. America’s public schools must have the unopposed right of way to mold our youth into the needful high type of homogeneous, patriotic citizenship for the safeguarding of our Republic. But the rival schools, though an_ obstructionary menace, could not care for more than ten percent of the school population. Hence the burden of training our future citizenry still lies upon the state schools. Civic pride, the spirit of liberty and those high moral qualities for good citizenship, must be the product of State Edu- cation; and that class of citizenry, so trained, is destined to hold supremacy in the nation’s life. The state is under necessity to keep abreast her own fine ethical laws by the moral power she may exert through a nation-wide system of moral teaching. That 20 Welfare of State Demands Moral Character system must embrace the Divine Moral Commandments and their application to our social and civic laws. And since every court of justice in its orderly functioning, teaches moral truth by its expositions of the law, and by the enforcement of the penalties for transgressing law, the state in another department of service, the public schools, must also expound and enjoin morals. Each of these departments of the state is fitted in a distinctive way to give moral instruction. Adults are the learners in the one, and children in the other. In the complete functioning of the school the youth acquires those ethical and moral principles that the delinquent adult should have learned in the school room, but is now learning at the court house, and in a “school of adversity,” with bitter experience added. Had the law offender back in his school days learned to respect and obey law as a moral principle, he would not in adult life have to learn the lessons in that more rigorous school (penal servitude) of - the force of those inflexible laws when visited in retribu- tion upon the offender. THE EDUCATIVE POWER OF MORAL LAW Moral law teaches more impressively than truth existing in other realms, for the reason that moral truth engages both the moral and intellectual powers. It teaches youth through its rewards for obedience, and when the duty has been performed confirms the teaching through an approving conscience. But the offender is taught through penalties inflicted for the offense. In either case it teaches. As learners, the former class have the advantage of an impressible moral nature; while the latter, the offender, is under the disadvantage of a per- verted conscience (made so by moral transgression), and Welfare of State Demands Moral Character 21 a discordant moral nature; out of harmony with God’s moral law. One is taught and learns by the force of moral truth, and through reward for obedience. The other is also taught, but is a slow learner; punishment as a penalty is his teacher. However, in either state moral truth seeks to educate, but gives emphasis to the Divine teaching, that in the days of youth the Creaior must be remembered; and that “it is good that a man bear the yoke in his youth;’—the yoke of moral discipline. In this connection it is fitting to observe that the moral law is most powerfully exemplified in the great personalities of the Bible. Unquestionably the moral heroes of the Bible offer the most attractive and most convincing method of presenting moral truth. The force and beauty of morals as set forth in the varied characters of the Scriptures are illustrative, convincing and appeal- ing to a degree not found in didactic moral teaching. Moral conduct in conformity with moral law, is a trans- cript of the law, an interpretation of its meaning. Only the God-man, Jesus Christ, gave the perfect and com- plete exemplification of the exactions of the law by a conformity in letter and spirit that was flawless. He who came and fulfilled the law by obedience to the law, has honored it and exalted it for every life. His exposi- tions of the law, together with his perfect conformity, have revealed God’s moral standard in concrete, to give it a new and profound meaning. Hence, the educative power of God’s moral law is set forth in the highest ex- pression of it as displayed in the ineffable moral life of Jesus,—the most beautiful of all the ages. Legislation based on the Ten Commandments, as are all our ethical laws, logically necessitates the authorita- tive teaching of those Commandments. It remains yet 22 Welfare of State Demands Moral Character to be demonstrated that a system of sound and compre- hensive moral teaching can be developed apart from 2 direct use of God’s moral law. The first fruits of school training in those states which have dispensed with the sible in their schools, are confessedly disappointing. In those states failing to sow the wheat of moral truth in the child’s nature, the enemy has sowed tares. The moral counsels of the Bible are as needful in the school room as in the court room and the legislative hall. Even more so, since it is in that field where moral teaching deals with character in the making, and where moral founda- tions for efficient public service are to be laid in the future lawmaker, the judge, the witness and the juror, as in no other sphere. Child life affords the drill period, and the school room the drill ground for that moral furnishing so necessary to the service of our country, in war or in peace, in public or in private life, from the humble toiler to the nation’s chief executive. (4) Tue ScHOOLS ARE THE CureF Mepium For PER- PETUATING THE MORALS OF THE NATION. The nation grapples with no problem of more con- sequence than that of perpetuating her spirit and char- acter, as embodied in her laws and customs, and as ex- pressed in her splendid institutions. Her laws, her literary and benovolent institutions, her statues in parks and in halls of fame, standing like sentries on duty (as they are), her memorial monuments, with immortal prin- ciples graven thereon; her wealth of state papers from Washington to Wilson and Harding, that exalt righteous- ness, and breathe the noblest spirit of every civic virtue— all these things serve to teach and to perpetuate the spirit and the moral character of the nation. It is through Welfare of State Demands Moral Character 23 these channels of influences that we seek to preserve and perpetuate those noble sentiments that give distinction and glory to our national life. But we must go further than that of creating insti- tutions, framing and building a mighty government and erecting monuments and memorials expressive of a nation’s sentiments. We ought, and we must, in the more effectual and more enduring way transmit these ideals and principles through the rising generation to our posterity. Every principle inhering in our national life is to be preserved and perpetuated by inculcating it in the schools. Our democracy has withstood the severest tests of adversity and prosperity, of war and peace. It has even been able to absorb and assimilate the millions of aliens coming to our lands—and doubtless this has proven the severest test—and by the contagious spirit pervading our national life, the foreigner finally becomes a partaker with us, and a partner in our self government. He becomes liberated from the degrading ideals of mon- archies, with their lords and kings, their fixed higher and lower classes, their government ownership of the individual, that makes for thralldom and semi-slavery ; and finally he becomes naturalized to his new relation of civil and religious liberty, as he had never dreamed or hoped: And in the melting pot of the public school the foreigner’s child acquires the teaching and the spirit that prepare him to become a full American citizen. In view of this severest test, if it be asked, what is the greatest instrumentality for inculcating and perpetuating Ameri- ca’s lofty principles? The one and only answer is, THE - AUN SA WA OSS Od ve COTO) Be But the finest attainment of the American nation is that of her moral character. By the principle enunciated above, for the perpetuation of that cherished acquisition, 24 Welfare of State Demands Moral Character we are of necessity bound to train the coming generation to adopt and practice those lofty virtues which have oper- ated more effectually for our upbuilding than all other influences. The outstanding features of the moral character of our nation embrace the fundamental principles of moral law as embodied in the Ten Commandments, such as obedience to law, human and Divine, regard for the family institution, the sacredness of oaths, the sanctity of the Lord’s day, the sacredness of life, the right of property, moral purity, temperance, honesty in action and speech. All these virtues have found expression in our laws; they are commanded of every one, and they are enforced by our courts. Our pure laws distinguish us among all the nations of earth. The moral virtue of the people is a bed rock foundation of all our welfare; and it is the indisputable necessity upon the nation to train her future citizens in these great moral principles which have wrought so powerfully for her own moral character, and have given her a moral prestige among the nations of the earth. And finally, since the most important elements com- posing the character of our nation are moral, the state must perpetuate those distinct traits by a full and faith- ful moral teaching in her public schools. And since our nation has been built upon the Bible, and adheres to the morals of that Book, it 1s her unquestionable right to teach, and an unavoidable obligation to transmit to her posterity, the cherished fruit of its teaching. Surely no one can gainsay the right of every people to pass on to successive generations those principles in their own moral character which have wrought so powerfully for happiness and prosperity, and for the commanding posi- tion of influence and power in the world, Negligence Welfare of State Demands Moral Character 2 of this duty would prove recreancy to a trust most vital and most sacred. Our nation has at command no agency so perfectly adapted to the perpetuating of these underlying moral principles as the public schools. “Since moral character is the chief element in good citizenship, and since this element may not be obtained by any other method than by training through educational processes, we are led to the unavoidable conclusion that the public schools must, in the purpose of the institution, render the needful moral training for good citizenship. And in so doing the state is perpetuating her own ideals and principles in the living characters of a morally trained people far more effec- tively than through institutions and laws. Chon through thy commandments Gast made nie wtser than mine enemies, Hor they are curr with me. { have more understanding than all my teachers Sor thy testimonies are my meditation. { understand more than the Ancients HBecrause tf keep thy precepts. Psalms 119:98-100 — + Cll a es — Nor yet tf spirtinal things Ge lost through apathy, or scorn or fear Shalt thou thy hunthle franchises support, MHoweurr hardly won or justly dear: What came from heaven to heaven justly cling, And tf Nisseurrend thence, tts course ts short. Wordsworth _ © Co! 12> os — Enucate men without religion and you ake them but clever Deutls. Wellington — Gabi» — for their learning be liberal. Spare no cost; for by such parstmtony all ts lost that ts sauen; but let tt be useful knowledge, such as is consistent with truth and godliness. Win. Penn CHAPTER II Pie Seer IO Nana TI oe OnE VELOE THE MORAL NATURE “SECULAR” EDUCATION DEFINED The “secular” theory proposes a system of educa- tion without having God in it. It would not boldly deny the existence of the Supreme Being, but assumes that the Divine existence is not a necessary factor in educa- tional training. In this attitude it would ignore the in- culcation of the elemental religious truths, such as obe- dience, moral purity, self control, right and justice, and human accountability to the Creator, all of which are rooted in the Bible. It proposes to teach morality only as an expediency which is supported by public opinion rather than upon Divine authority; just a “crazy quilt” presentation of human conventions, expressed in maxims, and having no higher moral constraint than that of ad- vice or persuasion. From this “secular” viewpoint, sin is not to be condemned in the school room, however heinous be the overt act, or because of the Divine Moral Law, “thou shalt not,” but because of the injury that sin works retroactively upon the doer in its corrupting power. The heathen philosopher Plato, a blind teacher leading the blind, first advanced that doctrine. But his moral reflections being devoid of an authority sufficient to influence the moral nature, the Athenians were left helpless in vice. History furnishes no account of a successful edu- cational policy anywhere which ignores God’s moral 28 Bible-less Education Fails teachings in the school room. But it does record the downfall of some of the great nations of modern times, as chargeable to a false system of moral education. In the overthrow of the dynasties of the last three great monarchical empires of Europe, their destruction 1s clearly traceable to imperfect and perverted moral teach- ing in their public schools. Within fifty years the fruit of Nietsche’s horrible teaching was brought forth in the radical transformation of the peace loving Germans in- to warriors, maddened for world conquest. Bolshevic Russia is today training her rising generation by a God- less and moral-less education for her own undoing, and possibly for world chaos. (1) THE “SrecuLar”’ THEorY IGNorEsS MAn’s DIVINELY IMPLANTED MorAL NATURE Man’s sense of right and wrong identifies him with a moral nature, and such as is possessed in perfection only by the God of Revelation. He is endowed with a moral conscience that renders him capable of respond- ing to the urge of duty. His moral faculties are related to God’s moral law somewhat as the eye is to light, or the ear to sound. But his moral, as well as his intellec- tual faculties must be developed; and they may be, but only by processes of educational training, whether in the home or in the school room. The one source of all moral truth is in God; and that is given in His Revela- tion. Anonymous moral teaching is less than moral teaching. It is like the coin with its superscription effaced; it is without value and without moral power. In the last analysis the stamp of Divine authority is necessary to the inculcation of moral truth. Apart from the Divine imprimature the coin of moral truth sinks to Bible-less Education Fails 29 the level of a moral apothegm. In moral law the Who- said-it must appear; and when found to bear God’s stamp of authority, the moral sense responds. But under a less authority only the intellectual faculties respond. Confronted by conditions of the high moral devel- opment of America’s citizenship, with laws, customs, ethical ideals and institutions rooted in God’s Revelation, it is now proposed that the Divine Teacher and His Text Book be ignored in the school room; the child be edu- cated as an intellectual animal. It is even contended that the child’s moral nature concerns only the Church, because morals are vital to the Church and religion. They forget that morals are just as vital to the State, and that a high standard of moral character in the people is indispensable to a republican government. A nation in thus ignoring the Divine order in education, would pave the way for its moral declension, and would there- by invite its own disaster. Yet it is proposed that this Bible made nation undertake to transmit her ideals, her spirit and her principles of government to posterity with- out transmitting the chief instrumentality that developed her own character. The undertaking would prove a vain experiment. (2) “SECULAR” EDUCATION TAKES NO ACCOUNT OF THE Mora CHARACTER OF THE STATE The State is a moral body, not organically, but in- stitutionally. The evidence of this fact is revealed in its power to do right or wrong. God holds nations to a moral accountability. This is affirmed, and demonstrated by His favor upon righteous governments, and His judg- ments upon nations that disregard His laws. “The judg- d ments of God are in all the earth,’ and “the nation that 30 Bible-less Education Fails will not serve thee shall perish,’ have no other meaning than God’s retributive justice visited upon nations given over to a disregard of His laws. Since our government defines crime, enacts laws to punish crime, decides moral questions, provides for the moral welfare of the people, especially of the young, a suitable preparatory training of the rising generation thereby becomes a necessity.” The moral standards of any people are found in their laws and customs, their memorials and institutions. Their perpetuation is chiefly through the inculcation given the pupils in the school room. It is here that the State’s future citizenry begin under an educational training for civic duties; and civic duties require the highest degree of moral character; and there is no other way of attaining moral character, except through moral instruction from authoritative sources. The oft quoted saying of Hum- boldt strengthens the contention, that “whatever you would have appear in the future of a nation you must put into its schools.” The chief right of the State to maintain public edu- cation is that it may render to the youth of the whole country the necessary educational training for good citizenship. Apart from this all-controlling purpose it is doubtful if the State is justified in maintaining the institution of public education. Although the only known method of the moral training of the entire child popula- tion is by the means of our system of state education, yet it is proposed that the State abandon a system of more than a century’s test of merit, and in substitution adopt a program of education that virtually ignores the moral nature, and directs the school training to those studies which engage only the intellectual faculties. In such an issue the alternative is forced upon us, that we must have either the public school with the Bible for Bible-less Education Fails at moral instruction and guidance, or a program of educa- tion that is destitute of moral truth as a system. One policy or the other must ultimately prevail; for there is no other, and the one stands in radical opposition to the other. The rejection of the moral counsels direct from the Bible, is tantamount to the final abandonment of any system of moral teaching in the school room. This statement is supported by the curricula of those schools that formally reject the Bible. Where is the public school anywhere having a defined and extended course of moral teaching that rejects the Bible in its program? On the other hand, where is the Bible-less school that em- phasizes moral teaching? However, it is consistent that if the fountain of moral truth be rejected, then that which may flow from the fountain will also be rejected. There is no substance for the Bible in any sphere of its ministry; certainly none for its moral counsels. Any formulated system of moral teaching must find its force and value in the authority behind it. Anonymous moral teaching lacks the “thus said-the-Lord;” and hence it 1s powerless and well nigh valueless. (3) Morat-Less FEpucaTIon TRIED OUT AND. FouND WANTING It is to be forever insisted that the supreme quality for citizenship under a republican government is sound moral character. Every exercise of the varied duties of citizenship, from public service to that of personal con- duct in obeying the law, calls for a moral action. The moral nature of the citizen is unequal to these tasks and duties without a development through processes of train- ing. The virtue of conformity to moral law is not an aD Bible-less Education Fails endowment through birth, nor a product of good en- vironment, helpful as that may prove; nur may it be developed under any system of God-less and moral-less education that may be devised. The moral nature grows only by the nurture of the Divine moral counsels, and the exercise of conforming to those counsels. That nature becomes anemic when fed on the stale bread of conventional morals and the anonymous moral maxims of the times. And yet these are the best that is offered for the moral training of our future citizenry by any system that the “secular” education offers. The policy of this “secular” or Bible-less education has been tried out for more than a score of years in many of the larger cities of the country, and in some of the States having a preponderance of Catholic and for- eign population. Its baneful fruit is seen in the lowered moral standards everywhere and in every class. Where such educational training prevails, there the moral dwarfs abound. This sickening situation is revealed in the frightful increase of vice and crime among youth. The God-less home and the Bible-less school account for the vicious tendencies of untrained and unrestrained youth. “The strong arm of the law” has not hitherto been a necessary force for the care and restraint of youth; and it is but a just indictment to charge this defection of youthful lawlessness to the neglect of their moral training, both in the home and in the school room. This “secular” education in many of the public schools stands before the world a failure. It is without a demon- stration of success anywhere. And judged by its evil fruit, and by its barrenness of good fruit, it is time to “confess judgment,” abandon the policy, and reform the public schools by a return to the former true and tried Bible-less Education Fails 33 system of employing the Holy Bible for the inculcation of moral truth. That policy has stood all the tests. (4) SupeERFICIAL MoraL TEACHING HAS ALSO FAILED TO MEET THE ENDS oF PuBLIC EDUCATION The “secular” policy of education rejects the direct use of the Bible for inculcating moral truth, yet under- takes to enforce Bible morals by rules and regulations, by the use of current moral proverbs, and by moralizing upon the evils and crimes of today. The teacher may solemnly declare to the pupil that it never pays to lie, or cheat or steal; that such evil doing is disgraceful and hurtful of one’s good standing, but such admonitions and counsels are devoid of the property of a moral obli- gation. They are not given as Bible authority, and hence have a less urge than a moral commandment from the Bible. A thousand years of such vapid, authorless moral- izing would not substantially influence the moral nature, as would one utterance of God’s “thou-shalt-nots”’ solemnly directed to the moral conscience of the child in training. It is true that such moralizing and such good advice may temporarily influence conduct, but it can never reach the sources of moral life for affecting character. The God-less and moral-less policy of education has | certainly had a fair trial for demonstrating its merit over the former course in the use of the Bible in the schools. The morals of this generation of youth have reached a stage in the downgrade that has no parallel in the history of public education. Authentic statistics from the bureau of Government Sanitation on the immoral vices and the consequent venereal diseases found in many of the city public schools, simply stagger credulity. And this shocking degradation is further re-enforced by well ac- 34 Rible-less Education Fails credited data showing that 65 percent of the crimes of this day are committed by boys and girls between the ages of 14 and 21. The school boy bandit, unheard of in former times, is the indirect product of this modern education which dispenses with the Book that restrains immoral tendencies, and constrains to right living as no other instrumentality under heaven. The policy of this “secular” education, tried and found wanting, ought to be rejected forever; and it would be abandoned, but for want of a comprehensive grasp of all true moral train- ing in its relation to the source and authority of moral truth. This nation has been built upon the moral prin- ciples of the Bible. It will be preserved only by a faith- ful adherence to those principles. And the direct means . of the preservation of the nation’s ideals and principles is the continuance of the Bible in America’s public schools. (5) THe “SrecuLtar’ ProGRAM Faits to MEET THE PURPOSE OF STATE EDUCATION One of the baffling problems now engaging the thought of educators, statesmen and religious leaders, is the steady decline of the moral support of law among the masses, and how to arrest it. There is confessedly a need for a law abiding spirit among the masses; not merely a perfunctory acquiescense to avoid the penalties for transgressing, but an obedience for conscience sake; an obedience because disobedience is tmmoral. Con- formity to law in the high sense requires that the law be understood, and the reasons underlying it be morally approved. This statement brings us to face the fact that the chief reason for very many of our laws is a reli- gious reason, for instance, those laws regarding per- jury and blasphemy, Sabbath desecration, the undis- Bible-less Education Fails 35 turbed right of public worship, parental authority in family government. All these offenses are violations of laws whose principles are rooted in the moral teachings of the Bible, and from whence they are derived. They compose a large body of our laws; and they demand for their support an understanding of their source in the Divine counsels; and a moral training there in the education of our youth. Again, the moral character of any people must de- termine the scope of their school training. America must necessarily train her youth after her own ideals and institutions. But this she is not doing except in the most superficial way. The broad elemental and unsectarian principles of religion are to be found in the whole fabric of our government. They appear in the charters of government in our first colonies, in the original consti- tution of the United States, in the Declaration of Inde- pendence, and in the Articles of Confederation. Such acknowledgments are also found in many of the State Constitutions. These precedents have opened the way for many of the established usages, such as prayers in our legislative bodies, the National Thanksgiving Day, and the calling of the nation to prayer in times of war and pestilence. These religious principles, priceless though they be, will ultimately be lost to us if they shall not be further developed and perpetuated through our system of school training. | (60) Tue Reticious QUALITY oF THE OatH Must BE INCULCATED IN THE SCHOOLS Was there ever an emphasis given this teaching in the modern school room? Indeed it is doubtful if many have given it the first serious consideration. An essen- tial property in the corner stone of our democratic gov- 30 Rible-less Education Fails ernment is TRUTH,—truth as a virtue, and as a moral quality in the individual. This essentially moral act is demanded of every one who may be summoned to a public service of trust to his country. Its expression 1s in the solemnly pronounced oath before an officer of the government. The very stability of our institutions rests upon the integrity of those who make oath. Every in- terest of our social and civil structure, even the sacred- ness and safety of human life, hang upon truth solemnly affirmed in the form of an oath. And what is an oath but a religious act, an appeal to God as witness to the solemn vow or affirmation, an imprecation to God as Judge to visit in judgment him who speaks a lie for the truih? It is God’s Book that invests this action with moral dignity and sacred value both to the State and to the individual. Hence, by the adoption and use of the oath the State links itself with the Divine Throne. The lad in the school room should be so instructed, and made to understand its significance. In the school room the embryo citizen who is taught the elements of civil government, should learn from the Divine Word, the original source, that truth is moral and sacred, as a lie is immoral and accursed; that God re- quires truth in word, in vow, in promise and in action; and that the official oath is a recognition of the God of truth and judgment, with a solemn imprecation to Him as the Judge. And the whole body of society, seniors and juniors, should learn also that the oath has value only as expressed by those who are morally intel- ligent; that it rises to its highest value only when founded on conviction formed by God’s Word, and is meaningless and worthless coming from the atheist, or from one who rejects the Divine Counsels. Bible-less Education Fails 37 We may therefore understand that the value of the civil oath is in its religious source and intent; and that its value is in its religious quality and nothing else. Yet it is proposed that the State train up a citizenship with- out knowledge of the source and authority for the sacred vow. The inevitable harvest to follow such neglect would make sure a generation of what the Buble frankly calls, liars. This investigation, however, leads us to apprehend that truth is more than sentimentality. It is invested with a high degree of moral quality. Truth is a positive virtue, finding expression in moral action; and when rooted in the principles of God’s moral teach- ings this element of man’s moral nature becomes devel- oped to a degree that is impossible under other influences. SUMMARY To recapitulate: The curricula of the State school proposed by the secularist fails to comprehend the moral nature of the child; it ignores completely the moral nature of the State; it lays upon the teacher no necessity to square his instruction with that moral nature; it has failed in the task of préducing moral character and the increasing lawlessness of youth is justly chargeable to its defective education. It assumes that this is not a Christian nation, but only one with a predominating Christian element and that all other faiths must stand in exactly the same relation to the government; that the nation is not amenable to God in the sense of accountability, and therefore, not subject to Divine judgments; that the purpose of State education is primarily to free the nation of illiteracy, and to provide a popular intelligence for moral and religious training to follow, through the agency of the organized religious bodies. 38 Bible-less Education Fails Thus it 1s seen that this minority element proposes an educational program that would forbid an expression of loyalty and fidelity to our national ideals and prin- ciples. It would establish a policy of education so devoid of these moral and religious principles, and so completely severed from God’s Treasury of counsel and wisdom, that our splendid government would within one school generation pass into the hands of a people who, in ignorance of history, would ignore the claims of the Builder of our civilization. But as surely as “coming events cast their shadow before,” this proposed system of God-less and Bible-less education would pave a broad road to a yet further moral downgrade of the nation. There are not two or more moral standards of Bible promulgation, one for the individual and one for the State. God’s one standard of right holds every moral action to accountability, whether the act be that of the individual or that of organized society in the form of a government. ‘The powers that be are ordained of (sod;” and such powers are answerable to God for a disregard of His laws. The State can no more with impunity lie, steal, oppress the innocent, shield wrong doers, pervert justice and such like sins, than the in- dividual may thus defy God. In the sight of God an immoral act is an offense, and the doer is held account- able whether a body of people or an individual. “Though hand join in hand the wicked shall not be unpunished.” Under Divine judgments those nations that ignored His law were blotted out. Yet in the face of every Divine admonition, and every warning of history, it is proposed that we leave God out of America’s school rooms. For, if we leave the Bible out, it is in effect to shut God out. Such blind folly would open the way to our nation’s ultimate and hopeless undoing. Our Christian civiliza- tion cries out in protest, eer oe aa e 4 bs . t's ' ey. Ceara "Ohh DRE MAL Ee fr} » ie ; OT oe sy ? 1 avhh’ / Train up a child in the way he should go, And when he ts old, he will not Depart from itt. Proverbs 22:6 Anat thon shalt teach them Ddtligently unto thy children, and thou shalt talk of them when thou stttest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way and when thou liest Omun ann when thou risest up. Deuteronomy G:7 ee o SIND ©» — Slaues to the sect, who deem the heavenly light, Chrough one small taper cheers the moral night, Which should tt fatl to throw tts radttant spark Would leaue the hapless nations in the dark. | —Saxe — Qu» — Most of the objections to the use of the Bible by the public school teachers, are based upon the false assumption that the church has a monopoly on this book, and they fail to take into account the interest of the State in un- churrhed people. Wm. Parsons CHAPTER III OB) ROVIONG TOOTHE BIBLEIIN: THE STATE SCHOOLS CONSIDERED In the progress of every moral movement we find that its triumphs have been achieved by the force of truth in the aggressive, not in the defensive. Opposi- tion more often finds expression as a negative force, as the mountain does in its inertia. In the persistent struggle moral principles must often do battle with both positive and negative forces. There has been no distinct moral progress without the conflict of these opposing forces. They are symbolized as light and darkness. The moral quality that reveals itself in any great issue, in- variably sets these forces in opposition; and the out- come is life or death. In the conflict of the true and the false, the truth must become the aggressor. “Things wrong will never set themselves right.” The policy of error, once estab- lished, is that of opposition in the defensive. The “let- us-alone”’ wail found expression from “the pit,’ when the poor demon-possessed human wreck voiced that cry, as the evil spirit was being routed of his habitation by command of the Lord of all spirits. That statu-quo policy has been echoed and re-echoed through the ages, ever serving the cause of darkness, but never that of truth and light. It yet finds expression in the modified phrases, “let well enough alone,” “I am opposed to it,” “its too radical,” “I am afraid of it,” and other similar expressions. But back of all such is not some unex- 42 Objections to Bible Considered pressed controlling principle, but a prejudice bankrupt of any other expression than the old time worn and never failing talisman,—/ am against it. And in the mind of such an one, that settles it. The simple dictum of many of our ecclesiastical and political leaders is received as an oracle by multitudes of the unthinking. But those who think for themselves, however crudely, finally form opinions of their own; and if they think further and deeper the matured conviction is the out- come. Those who oppose the Bible in the public schools are not in agreement on any line of opposition. Some oppose on religious grounds; others on the unfitness of many of the teachers for reading a Bible lesson to pupils; others that the place and the moral atmosphere of a public school forbid a becoming sanctity for Bible in- fluence upon the moral nature of the child. But none of these may be classed among the weighty objections that deal with the real issue, which is, the fitness or the unfitness of the Bible, in its own words, for imparting its moral counsels. Of all the objections brought to the attention of the author, not one appears to meet the real issue, in the underlying purpose of state education, or in the natural rights of the child in the matter of its normal training, or of the vast scope of the Bible as a guide and counsellor to man in every sphere of this life. Objections in the main are based upon a false pre- mise, or are specious, in dealing with a minor phase of the question rather than the issue as a whole. With a contracted vision such persons seem unable to con- template enlarging life as the product of combined moral and intellectual training; neither the finer civilization that emphasized moral education begets, nor the new Objections to Bible Considered 43 display of the most powerful and most serviceable Book in the world. OBJECTIONS ANSWERED (1) Tue Averace Pusric ScHoor TEACHER Lacks FITNESS TO USE THE BIBLE The idea with the objector is that some teachers may have every needful qualification for a proper use of the Bible in the class room, but as others may lack fitness, therefore, the Bible must be barred, and kept barred until all the teachers measure up to an approved standard for such service. Of course, this specious ob- jection involves no principle. In opposing a branch of a tree the objector must not uproot the tree. This class of objections belongs to the details, and may be cor- rected without destroying the system. No fundamental principle is involved. The same specious reasoning ap- plied to Christianity would close every house of worship in the Divine Kingdom. Because there are some preach- ers who are unfit, we do not insist that preaching cease. The teacher is not required to give expositions of the Scriptures to the classes, neither lecture upon the lesson, explain or expound it, but simply to read the words as God has given them, thus letting the Bible speak its own message to the understanding, as it will. Moreover, the State in exercising the power to select the teachers, may determine who may and who may not -teach, with an eye to fitness for the highest duty in the school room,—the intelligent and sympathetic reading of. the Bible to the assembled school. As hitherto every stand- ard of qualification required of teachers has been met, it will be found that the unfit teacher will become fit, or will be eliminated. 44 Objections to Bible Considered (2) VIEWED BY SOME AS DESTROYING PoPULAR RE- SPECT AND VENERATION FOR THE BIBLE A much proclaimed objection, coming from a con- servative element of Church people, is their fear that such every day popular use of the Bible in school as- emblies would mar its sacredness, divest the Book of its inherent majesty, and thereby weaken its influence over the rising generation. And others of this class in- sist that a perfunctory use of the Bible by a teacher not in sympathy with the service, would provoke the contempt and derision of the pupils to the extent of a permanent evil effect upon their minds. But these fears are imaginary, and are groundless. The Bible courts publicity; challenges all thinking, all conduct. Its mis- sion is to mankind, bearing a message to every indi- vidual of every class, even to thieves and bandits in their conclaves, to the courtesans of the brothel, to gamblers in their rendezvous, to prisoners and to all the habitues of darkness among men. In such a varied ministry the Bible becomes neither disparaged in the public mind, nor contaminated by shedding its light in dens of vice; no more than the sun in the heavens is affected by shining upon garbage in a pig stye. In its effort to reach all classes the Bible refuses not the bill board, the screen, the daily paper, the street car, the wayside rock. And since the Book bears a_ fruitful ministry in all these ways, and to all classes, losing none of its majesty and power in the service, why should we single out the assemblies of our youth in the schools, to object to its ministry there? What further test should be required, after having merited the tribute, now uni- versally conceded, of being everybody's Book? If there has ever been an experimental stage of its fitness to Objections to Bible Considered 4s guide and counsel mankind, it has long since under every conceivable demonstration triumphantly endured the test. In the light of its teachings we may understand that only the pit of darkness in the world of woe, is denied its marvelous ministry. But if there be any other place than God’s eternal prison from which the Bible has been barred, it is certainly not the school room. The bogey of the mocking teacher, a mere appari- tion, is more a scare crow in the mind of those who .take counsel of their fears. An awakened public senti- ment for Bible reading in the public schools would make contemptuous mockery impossible in any teacher. More- over, the Word of God has always been able to take care of itself, even to withstand and overcome mockery. The explanation of its majestic power is that God gave it, and God is in it. Let the mocker test it. The Book challenges him. Such light minded teachers may be found in exceptional instances whose conscience and religion are in the keeping of a saceredotal priest, who would make mockery of reading the Bible before her pupils; but their numbers are few and rapidly diminish- ing. The Bible wins all its victories in the face of op- position, and has earned the enconium, “the Book of the people.” (3) VIEWED BY SOME AS AN INVASION OF THE SUNDAY ScHOoOL FIELD Among objectors there are those who contend that the well organized Sunday School Institution affords all the field for the Bible that is necessary to the moral training of young people. This view finds expression in the inquiry, “Why the Bible in the public schools, since we have the Sunday School? Why both these agencies levying tribute upon the Book to function to the same 46 Objections to Bible Considered end in the sphere of ycuth?”’ But in truth the end is not the same; nor the methods, nor the message, although the sphere of youth is the field. In these two institutions, among the greatest of modern times, each provides instruction and training in its exclusive field, and for distinctly different purposes. The State school is a creation of the State, and wholly under State supervision. The other, the Sunday School, is a religious organization, under the control of a reli- gious body. These two institutions differ in their pur- pose, in methods and in administration. The Sunday School operates one day in the week, under teachers and directors who render a voluntary service as a labor of love; the other, the public school, five days in the week, under exclusive state control, having paid teachers and chosen under standards for good character and for | efficiency as teachers of a prescribed curriculum. The one has the purpose of evangelizing the pupil to a spirit- ual life by the means of the spiritual message of the Book, and for the development of that new life after the Bible ideals and counsels; the other a prescribed course of moral instruction that has the purpose of training and developing the moral character for an in- telligent and loyal citizenship. The one provides for the Bible to function in both the moral and the spiritual spheres; the other such moral and intellectual training as an intelligent high class citizenship demands. In these two great institutions and agencies thus function- ing in separate fields, each finds the Bible indispensable, yet neither one can fulfill the mission of the other. Hence in the light of these distinctive ends this specious objec- tion of the public schools invading the Sunday field, because of the simple reading of the Bible daily to the pupils, is without merit. . Objections to Bible Considered 47 The State having taken over the business of primary education, and having the distinct end of good citizen- ship, is justified in maintaining compulsory public school education. The State not only should not suffer rivalry in the specific school training for citizenship, but she must not and cannot shift any part of the burden upon other institutions over which she has no control. In a defective moral education in the public schools the State is confronted with the complaint of committing an irreparable injury to the child, in giving the child an abnormal training. The whole course of public school education lays the emphasis tipon intellectual training rather than upon moral training. And yet every duty and every relationship as future citizens will require a moral character that may be developed only by specific moral training throughout the education of youth. After the educational period has passed this defect becomes irreparable. The clay has passed its plastic stage, and may not be made over after its setting. And in adher- ing to a superficial moral training in her schools, the State invites any calamity that may arise from an im- paired citizenship. The normal education of youth embraces both the moral+and the intellectual natures, as a umit and as inseparable; the one is as necessary to the other as the cement is to the brick in the building of a house. In the education of youth the State must train the whole child in its inseparable moral and intellectual organism. ‘The child takes all of his nature to school; and in pre- empting the right to train him the State must educate the whole boy, as she will, by and by have need of him in a citizenship that demands the highest character of moral intelligence. Arya N98 Objections to Bible Considered Moreover, the question of the State “sidestepping” the moral education of her youth to the Sunday Schools presents an impracticable proposition in the fact that more than half the public school enrollment does not attend the Sunday Schools at all. In this situation of the dearth of moral teaching in the State schools, and the moral destitution that prevails among half the school population, there is presented one of the menacing prob- lems of the nation. Attention is here directed to.a statement of facts given out by a Sunday School Convention, lately held in Kansas City :—‘‘Ninteen out of every twenty-five Jewish children, three out of every four Catholic children, two out of every three Protestant children under twenty- five years of age receive no formal religious instruction. Or taking the country as a whole, seven out every ten children and youth of the United States are not being touched in any way by the educational program of any church. This calls up a vital questionn—how long may a nation endure, seven out of ten of whose children and youth receive no systematic instruction in the religious and moral sanctions upon which its democratic institu- tions rest?” The moral instruction of these, (seven of the ten), must come solely from the public schools, or they must grow up to enter upon life handicapped for high attainment, and a depreciated asset to the State. In view of this prevailing situation the State must accept the care of the moral training of this vast army of youth the same as if there were no such institution as the Sunday School. The moral status of any people is in jeopardy when more than fifty percent of the rising generation are deprived of the essential elements for good citizenship in their school training. The question arises, how long may a nation endure with fifty percent Obzections to Bible Considered 49 of its citizenry destitute of the moral fitness for public service? The threatened evils and calamities confront- ing us may be averted only by such training of our youth as will fortify the people to meet and overcome such dangers. | But the real difficulty of public school instruction without the Bible, lies deeper than the surface compari- sons made of the Sunday School with the public school. The judgments formed from such comparisons, that moral instruction belongs exclusively to Sunday Schools and other religious organizations are unsound, and must yield to facts as found in existing conditions. The law fixed in the human constitution cannot be annulled by conditions and governmental constitutions. The natural law has established it that moral and intellectual culture cannot be permanently divorced without doing violence to the child and youth. The State must educate the whole child, or should not undertake its education. The sound principle lies in the bed rock truth that the normal education of youth embraces simultaneously the moral and the intellectual faculties. The public school is there- fore under necessity to render that full and symmetrical training of both the moral and the intellectual faculties, which in the broad sense constitutes education. And since their inter-relation so as to compose a unit in organism, it is a distortion to educate the intellectual faculties and neglect those faculties that express the moral nature. Let us again be reminded that the lad in the school room has not left his moral nature at home. The whole boy is there, and with no part of his being more sensitive to influences, good or evil, than his moral faculties. 50 Objections to Bible Considered (4) OBJECTION AS BASED ON THE CONSTITUTION The objections to the Bible in State education that rise above those of a specious character, and that furnish the weight of opposition, are based upon the apparent legal barriers. Many objectors conscientiously believe that it is a violation of our covenant law to read the Bible, or quote passages from it in a public school. The more intelligent and more conservative element of oppo- sition takes the position that if it be not a violation of law, it is an approach towards the union of Church and State. About every phase of that many sided question has had consideration in another HRS Sie Bible in the hands of the State,’ and to those page’ the reader is directed. But at this juncture it is sufficient to state that no United States Supreme Court decision adverse to the Bible in the public schools has ever been rendered. The nearest approach to a vital decision is the memorable deliverance from that body, rendered by Justice Brewer, in which the learned jurist confirms the contention that ours is a Christian nation, whose common law is the moral code of the Bible; that all our ethical laws are based upon the Mosaic statutes and the Divine moral law. ; Congress did provide by a constitutional amendment that no religious establishment shall be set up by a law; and also that no legislation shall prohibit the free exer- cise of religion. The notion that this law forbids the State to recognize and reverence the Almighty God in the school room, or in any other department of the gov- ernment, is not supported by any just interpretation of this Amendment. This constitutional barrier is against the setting up of a state religion. )It distinctly forbids a law-supported religion or church; but the Constitution Objections to Bible Considered 51 does not forbid the Bible to the State, nor the use of the Bible by the State. In no sense are the Church and the Bible synonymous. The Church is an establishment, an institution, as the State is. The Bible is God’s Revela- tion to mankind, embracing the individual man and the several institutions of God’s ordaining, such as_ the family,.the State and the Church. Upon this ground the State has a clear right to the Bible, within the State’s sphere, as the Church and the family have in their spheres. She is exercising that right when she sets up the authority, and makes use of the Bible, whether in the court room or in the school room. Applying this right and principle to the individual it is conceded that every one has the unassailable right to read the Bible for himself; and yet the State virtually deprives the in- dividual of that right and privilege when she takes charge of his primary education, and in defining his course of instruction, has assumed to deny to him a God- given right to the instructions of the Divine Counsellor. But this indefensible wrong is done to a whole generation of youth when the State shuts the Bible out of her school rooms. Ah, what a travesty upon America’s twentieth century statesmanship, that we spend a thousand millions of doliars a year to educate boys and girls, young men and young women, and deny them a Bible in their educa- tional program; yet if one is sent to prison for violating a law which he had never been taught was a crime, the State then gives him a Bible to read. But this priceless treasure is not to be placed in his hands unless he he- comes the State’s prisoner. If this were not true it would be unthinkable. The State being a moral institution, she is capable of a moral action; and is so held by the Book. And 52 Objections te Bible Considered since she is accountable to God for a righteous govern- ment, she must prepare her school children for a right- eous support of her laws and government. This she neglects when moral training for citizenship is neglected. The perpetuation of our nation and government demands that we inculcate the moral teachings of the Bible in the public schools; and there is no other agency that can so efficiently perform this duty to the whole generation of our youth as that of the nation’s public schools. 4 ai . a Ae be ha hs ‘ve Oh Wet ao | sa; 5 ee By, wos at eri 4 Panera di ye ae te ae 4 i Nees te Rhine itt Ae Pig 12 ff) BinS) a ral ary v faa a ven eet Me ee at y 7 f 4 iii . eae el ay Bec arih WOR oy : t ray ee ; ri pitien ve Pg nats os jie ante OY ARR RRR ott teen AF Shae SHR eM VEER AY Set ade? SY ie cs Yd y f " Ma, ' : ‘ a ae ‘> } ; ; Oe a a) i * ad ‘art oe | ; oon i a PY se ee uy en : oo So yast, ft ee PANS 5 4 ioe Ree he, Nah ie oe “at pun PSA ee a + ide TaN ANGLAIS Aa le al hens At oot Ahi i m } eit wa) ie , i af aly be at er a ped ¥ P f .. ae. Sie e's ey weber Le hace Rt Bo Swe sey! ; 8 aad eee Cee Meet eee Be wees Glee Fp eA Y eee eS, Yee Br! ay ee OD he oo | TY vat: Py he | ‘ . * ‘ y * : ' 4 hts J ’ mh,’ Py J} iv é 4 ce * : J 4 ) » > , Pe hy i r * as atch ae ae 1 an -* rp ~ tes ’ 2 hy : a f 4ee¢. ‘ ene ay La ta ; “it ‘ ’ ie 4 : mt. i mM ¥ , 3 re a v4 > Cp ether © od . > r ue 5 ‘ Eaeicts HEKS 42 a Ce SPS hep en Sy opp a hray va ce) bP Ae ta ‘ied ,. » A aa .> hae th, ea ? al el be aa " . : f i. " he Albee. Eee tet ae LAC eR ta Ce Sis Bi havi BP Feria A ote * fade il ee hi atte a eh Aye a a \ ye fo regen ie wd alae Me Wns tet: it ‘ apr Py Fan on. ea ths el i , i “2 re? ver. Py det Date as ye 7 . ‘ \g ie eins eb ; ah 2 + rye - Sane h y ce ee "ae oy on " Lge et, OY Piaget jhe ae ae ‘ ; os pas f Ay oe rv) ae} ; a or as gos ‘ he ? ef se ‘ at vie ps vee We ' ar +4 Aa Needs eh ese os asst Saie Also tn the third year of his retan Irhosaphat sent to his princes to teach in the ctttes of | Judah, and with them he sent GDeuttes. And they taught tn Judah and han the book of the lau of the Gord with them ann went about throughout all the ctties of Judah and taught the people. Second Chronicles 17:7-9 — +9 Bali +> — As their gods were so their laws were Chor the strony could raue and steal, So through many a peaceful inlet Core the Norseman’s eager keel. But anew law came when Christ came, Ana not blameless as before, Can we pay to him our lip tithes, And gtue our lives and faith to Chor. —Luwell — + CAND «» — Co know the laws of God in nature and revelation and then to fashton the affections / and the will into harmony with these laws,— this ts enuratton. —Syluester FH. Scovel CHAPTER IV tiie BIBLE..LIN) RHE AHANDS)OR) THEASTATE (1) THE BIBLE AND THE STATE CONTRASTED WITH THE CHURCH AND STATE Thus stated, attention is at once directed to the real issue. The question of “the Church and State” is not re- motely involved in the State’s use of the Bible in the cur- ricula of the public schools. The State would use the Bible in the public schools for its educational value, for its authentic history of creation, for the primitive history of mankind, for the revelation of the hand of God in the government of nations, as the Supreme Ruler; and above all, for the moral counsels of the Book direct from God the Author, and suited to every life. The educa- tional value of the Bible along these lines makes it indis- pensable. The Church uses the Bible for the high pur- poses of spiritual worship, for the preaching of the good news of Jesus Christ’s salvation to the ends of the earth, for the making of disciples to the Saviour, and for the _ training of such disciples after the manner of life ap- pointed by Him. The Church has her commission from her risen Lord, and that mission confines her to evan- gelize, make disciples and teach them obedience to all things He has commanded them. The State is concerned chiefly about the ethical message of the Bible, and not at all about the making of spiritual converts. Each of these two Divinely appointed institutions has a distinct mission; the Church has a new creation and the appointed new life; the State for man as he is, 56 The Bible in the Hands of the State and for this life in the duties of citizenship. And the Bible bears its counsels to both institutions, to all men, good and bad. So long as the State does not invade the realm of spiritual duties by usurping the churchly func- tion of preaching the Gospel message of Jesus Christ, it is a false cry to raise the objection of “State religion” over the simple reading of the Bible in the public schools. Since the State may and must teach morals, she has the unchallenged right to fix the course of study, and select the text books; and there is no ground for opposing this right so long as the State, free of Church domination or Church alliance, renders the teaching. The right of the State to decide what may not be taught is beyond question. Acting on the same principle she may determine what shall be taught; and there is no lawful authority under heaven to deny the State the use of the Bible in any department of her government in- cluding the educational. \ | THE ORIGIN OF STATE/ EDUCATION YET OuR GUIDE The historian Motley, informs us “that the common school system was derived from Geneva, the work of John Calvin; was carried by John Knox into Scotland, and also became the property of the English speaking nations.” He might have added that it was taken from Geneva also, and carried into Holland and Sweden, and in all countries where it was planted the common or pub- lic school has flourished. The State of Connecticut, under the lead of Hooker, has the honor of first secur- ing free schools supported by the government. The glory of our colonial system was that of the free public school. Since the seventeenth century public education has had a gradual development; and from the beginning special emphasis was given to moral instruction direct The Bible in the Hands of the State 57 from the Bible, with no deviation until the latter half of the nineteenth century, when public education, under the increasing influence of Romanism, has felt the policy of excluding the Bible from the schools in many of the larger cities of their strongholds. And in several States having a Catholic foreign population in preponderance, the Bible has been outlawed from their public schools. It is to be noted that the power of the Roman Papacy has in the main been the dominating influence in those cities and States where the Bible has no place in the public schools. On the other hand, it is just as note- worthy that where Rome does not dominate, the Bible very generally has a place in the schools. But the organized opposition which the Roman hier- archy presents is powerfully abetted by an element among the evangelical Christian bodies which is also contending for the exclusion of the Bible from the State schools. This respectable class, without intending it, are serving the cause of that politico-religious hierarchy, and although their motives widely differ, the success of their common aim will be adjudged as Rome’s notable and most significant achievement since the Reformation, and the printed Bible among the masses. It is noteworthy that not one of the great Protestant denominations has gone on record as opposing the Bible in the State schools. In the light of a better understand- ing of the place of moral teaching in child education and the relation of the Bible to all moral truth, there is not the remotest probability that any of these religious bodies will ever make common cause with the Roman Catholic Church against the Bible in the public schools of Protes- tant America. 58 The Bible in the Hands of the State THE DELUDED OPPOSITION But there are misguided opposers to be found in every great religious body. Men of culture and piety who jealously love the Bible, unwittingly assume a watchcare and custody of the Book, as if they had a Divine com- mission to safeguard it from the hands of the profane. Their attitude of opposition to the Bible for everybody and everywhere, unintentionally reveals the fetish delu- sion of the dark ages, that the Bible must be cloistered within the Church. They seem indifferent if the effect of their attitude tends to withhold from many millions of our youth the only Bible counsel available to all those who are deprived of moral and religious influences in the homes and in the churches. Apparently indifferent to this increasing class of benighted childhood, and seem- ingly unaware that “the ship of State” is floundering on tempestuous seas, they so magnify the “Church and State” spectre that the problem of education involving America’s destiny seem to them of no concern. In shun- ning the rock “Scylla”’ they see no “Charybdis.” Amzdst the Diana cry of “Church and State,” they heed not the mute appeal of the millions of our youth growing up in an environment devoid of every wholesome moral influ- ence. They seem not to consider that this morally sub- merged class will soon through the privilege of the elec- tive franchise, have a determining voice in the affairs of government; that the character of any free people is reflected in their government and laws. OPpposITION NON-CONSTRUCTIVE So far we have had only opposition of a negative nature to the Bible in the State schools; opposition that proposes nothing in substitution. It should be remem- The Bible in the Hands of the State 59 bered that any established policy holds until some op- posing policy wins the approval and support of the people. In this conflict the opposition is without a con- structive policy; just opposed to the Bible in the public schools, but offering nothing in the place of the Buble for effective moral counsel. When a worth while substi- tute for that Book has been found and proposed, that will be the time for considering the elimination of the Bible in the moral education of our youth. The attitude of this anti-Bible class may be reduced to the stereotyped expression, “We object; we are opposed to it; it’s dan- gerous, and opens the way to State religion.” It is in- deed painful to have to make the declaration that this obstructionary course of negative opposition to the Bible in the State schools is more responsible for the defec- tive moral status of many of the schools than any other force. A Bible-less school is ultimately destined to be- come an un-moral school. Those setting up this manner of opposition seem to regard the Bible as the special and sacred property of the Church; that the Bible and the Church are inseparable. They seem unable to grasp the fact that in the moral message of the Bible God speaks to mankind. This being true, it is conclusive that to shut the Bible out of any sphere of human life is to shut God out of that sphere. OPPOSITION INCONSISTENT The inconsistency of opposing Bible reading in the schools is seen when opponents consent for the State to use the Book in other departments of administration while they object to the State using it in the schools. The Bible without objection is allowed a place in the council chambers, in courts, in eleemosynary institu- tions, in prisons, and in every other department of pub- 60 The Bible in the Hands of the State lic service. It is folly then, and for reasons purely specious to deny the Book a place in the finest of all the fields for its functioning, that of the moral training of the rising generation in the school room. If the legis- lator may sit at the feet of Moses, why may not the potential legislator in the school room sit there? Almost invariably the objections set up are of the nature of a specious plea, based upon the details and difficulties in- cident to the inauguration of a new and constructive policy, or to the raising of the false issue of the State’s teaching religion, more generally to this latter objection. The contender for State education without the use of the Bible chooses an indefensible position. He virtually approves The Bible Everywhere, and for Everybody but the Child in the School Room. But the masses are com- ing to understand that the right of the State to give the Bible a place in one department of her administra- tion, carries the right to give the Book a place in every other department. And they are writing their judgment in statutory laws, making mandatory the daily reading of selections of the Scriptures in every State school. THE HicH AUTHORITY OF THE STATE It is to be remembered that the State is a Divinely ordained institution, held responsible to God for a right- eous rule. Under such a relation the State has the right to the Divine counsels for functioning after the will of God. Hence objection to the State’s using the Bible must come alone from God through His Word; and it does not gainsay, but sanctions the ruler’s and the law maker’s right to sit at the feet of Moses and Moses’ Law Giver. Suppose the Church as an institution should forbid this (it does not), the State being in no wise subject to the authority of the Church, and therefore, The Bible in the Hands of the State 61 not responsible to that power, may justly ignore such a demand. The moral instruction of the nation’s youth is an absolute necessity for preserving and transmitting her ideals and institutions. To that end alone the State — under God, is justified in the use of the Bible in every department of administration, most especially in that of education, when foundations of moral character must be laid in the hearts and minds of youth as a basis for the duties and responsibilities of citizenship. The youth of the nation in the school room, under the moral tutel- age of the Author of moral truth, gives assurance of that nation’s stability and prosperity beyond any other provision that can be made. Thus, from this view of the State’s using the Bible free from alliance with any religious body, there appears no indication of “Church and State.’ Instead we see only the Bible and the State. And hence in this understanding of the scope of the Divine counsels, and the relation of the State to the Supreme Ruler, we may clearly apprehend that the State has a full right to employ the Bible for the moral 1n- struction of her future citizenship as the Church has the right and duty to bear its spiritual message of eternal salvation to a world in spiritual darkness. Among “the things. that belong to Caesar,’ beyond dispute, is the moral character of her future citizenship. She cannot commit that trust to another, even if she would. THE PURPOSE OF STATE EDUCATION It is well understood that the State school has been developed under the sole idea of training the rising gen- eration for the duties and responsibilities of citizenship ; this, and nothing else. The State makes no effort to save souls; nor in any sense to usurp the office of preach- 62 The Bible in the Hands of the State ing and teaching the things that pertain to the doctrines and ceremonial forms of the Christian religion. While the State is a beneficiary in the fullest measure of Gospel evangelism and other Church activities, she is not directly concerned about the destiny of the pupils for another world. Neither is the State in the educa- tion of the child, conferring a charity or paying a debt. She is undertaking to improve and stabilize social order, and to safeguard the future of the commonwealth. The whole scheme of public education is based upon the idea of rendering the necessary moral and intellectual train- ing to her citizens while minors, so that they may enter later upon their full duties as citizens. Hence the con- cern of the State is a suitable and efficient training for intelligence and moral character, the school being her sole means to that end. Upon these bed rock founda- tions—the moral and the intellectual,—democratic gov- ernments are secure, and may flourish. Deprived of either, they can not endure. These schools are the character making institutions for our youth; and in the scale of values, they rank in the class with judicial courts, legislative councils and armies of defense. Courts and legislatures may be made over, if they fail, but the man, once a boy, cannot be made over by any process of school training. THE STATE’S Ricut to EpucaTte INcLupEs HER RiGuHTs IN THE CHILD In full appreciation of the training period for the tasks and duties of citizenship awaiting the rising gen- eration, the State lays a conscripting hand upon her youth for that preparation in the school room that will best fit them for these varied duties. In view of the tasks and responsibilities imposed upon a free people The Bible in the Hands of the State 63 under a democratic government, the conclusion is un- avoidable that the program of State education must embrace a continuous discipline of both moral and in- tellectual faculties, because morality and intelligence are supremely essential to the performance of every duty of citizenship. When one’s intellect only is trained, the liability is that he will become a cultured criminal; and when one’s moral nature only is trained there is a ten- dency for him to approach blind fanaticism. In either case there is a distorted character,—an educated villain or a moral fanatic. .Education is incomplete and per- verted without the training of both the moral and the intellectual faculties, as is tniversally conceded. In view of the vast interests of the present and the future, the purpose and program of education are amply justi- hed? “America’s system. of public education is one of the noblest achievements of our civilization; and the public schools are the most efficient agency for preserv- ing that civilization. THE MEANS SUITED TO THE END The State, in having the definite purpose of her own welfare in the education of her youth, is justified in pursuing the course of instruction that will yield the necessary quality of citizenship. Hence, whatever goes into the curricula must serve that purpose; and that which is indispensable in producing it must not be onut- ted. The highest quality of citizenship, of course, 1s moral character, made conformable to the moral law. But character, moral or intellectual, is not an endow- ment implanted in the human constitution, but the prod- uct of training, (education). Therefore, the State must. of necessity provide moral and intellectual training in her schools. 64 The Bible in the Hands of the State And since the State has the unchallenged right to provide moral instruction for those in her schools, it necessarily follows that she may in her own judgment adopt the system, the course of study and the text book authorities for such instruction. In this situation the State has the incontestable right to adhere to the Divine system of morals as the authoritative standard for every school. In such a position the State may give moral teaching direct from the original source, or she may choose such text books as are based upon God’s moral commandments. In other words, she may teach morals from the Bible, or from works on moral science based upon the Bible. And so long as the State uses the Bible for its moral instruction, and does not delegate such service to a religious body, opposition is without grounds. In such opposition argument is either specious, or fails of the point at issue, by raising the religious question, which is not involved. Hence, in view of the purpose of State education, the logical conclusion is inevitable that, for the maintenance of her ideals and the safe- guarding of her noble attainments in moral civics, the use of the Bible in her schools is absolutely justifiable. II. Tue BIBLE PRESENTS A DiIsTINcT MORAL MESSAGE And that moral message concerns all men, because it is spoken to all men. When this view is lifted above the prevailing prejudices it becomes clear enough that the Bible used in the schools for inculcating sound morals, does not involve the State in teaching religion. The whole moral system, including the statutes and pre- cepts, is the common property of mankind. And as there is but one universally recognized moral code, there is but one Bible, and upon that Mighty Book, America has built the finest civilization known to man. That Book The Bible in the Hands of the State 65 was given a place in the corner stone of our government. It furnished the wisdom and the inspiration for our con- stitution. Its ethical principles permeate our laws as salt in the food we eat. Its moral sentiments pervade society and all literature. It has given cast and direc- tion to our thinking. For two hundred years it has dominated our schools, and given character to our na- tional life. THERE 18 BuT ONE BIBLE; No PLACE For ANOTHER In these degenerate days, when every good thing is counterfeited, this priceless heritage is challenged by miserable caricatures of the Bible in those grossest reli- gious frauds of the ages: The Book of Mormon, and the silly nothings of Mary Eddy. The recog- nition given these cheap imitations of Divine Revela- tion, even though limited, is a reflection upon the in- telligence of the times. And yet they are covertly cham- pioned as worthy of a place among men and along with God’s Bible, the time tested Book of forty centuries. Some go so far as to contend that the old true and tried Bible, bearing its credentials from God the Author, is not any more to be given its place in the school room, because the rights of some supposed Mormons, or some group of Christian Science sisters would be violated. Of course, if the Bible were used for the propagation of spiritual religion in tax supported schools, opposition should and would prevail. The Divine moral code is written into our laws and statutes, thus making God’s moral law the law of the land. If Joseph Smith’s so called revelation, or Mary Eddy’s mental hallucinations contain the remotest suggestion of any additional moral law, or even a worthy contribution to moral truth given from Sinai, the whole world is ignorant of it. When 66 The Bible in the Hands of the State that is shown the people will then consider their educa- tional value, in comparison with Heaven’s Book of Moral Truth. THE BIBLE FUNCTIONS IN Two SPHERES—THE MORAL AND THE SPIRITUAL There are many among enlightened Christian people who balk at this declaration. But all Bible history sup- ports the statement. Mr. Bryan so understood the Scrip- tures, and said, “The morals and literature of the Bible have a value entirely distinct from the religious inter- pretation placed upon the Bible.” In the better under- standing of its manifold ministry, we are bound to con- cede that the Bible functions in one sphere without at the same time functioning in every other. In one utter- ance we have a statement of history, with its outstand- ing moral lessons; in another wisdom expressed in a proverb; in others moral truth in commands; and trans- cending all these, it brings the message of light and life to the soul in darkness and ruin. It reveals the deep things of Christ, the Son of God, of His Kingdom and Kingdom law, of His matchless life, the most beautiful in all the world, of His final triumph over evil and all evil forces, with the principles governing the destiny of all men in the world to come. These and their kindred teachings are lodged in His Kingdom, and have been committed specially to His Church for the making of disciples to Him and His Kingdom. Since it is most important to understand the varied ministry of the Bible to man, let us make other citations: for instance, in one utterance the Book deals with the “natural man” (man in his natural state), and in an- other, with the “spiritual man” (the new creation) ; and neither of these commands is inclusive. They are not The Bible in the Hands of the State 67 interchangeable. Again, “Thou shalt not steal’ may re- strain the thief from the overt act, yet leaving him estopped from that transgression he has not thereby been led to a spiritual action of seeking the Divine favor of the Saviour Jesus Christ, in compliance with another and a distinct utterance from the same Book. God’s moral utterances carry primarily the moral essence, and are given to all men, believers or unbelievers, and their perpetual observance is an obligation upon all moral creatures. The moral nature of man, no matter how sunken in moral depravity, is in some degree responsive to the claims of God’s moral law. This significant fact supports the contention that the moral law is God’s mes- sage to all men. In further exemplification of this quality and characteristic of God’s Word, the injunction given by the inspired writer, “Let every soul be subject to the higher powers” (human government), is a command of universal obligation, upon “saint and sinner.’ Yet this is not remotely related to another command, “Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature.” The first mentioned command is of universal obligation, and reveals a principle in the Divine pur- pose of human government, as “ordained of God,’ how- ever imperfect be its form and administration. The extent and purpose of the other command are not uni- versal, but specific and restricted to a distinct class—the disciples of Christ in His spiritual kingdom. Now, the teacher in the school room, using the Bible to enjoin obedience to rulers and to law, by reading that Scrip- ture and the context, would forcibly exemplify a proper functioning of the Bible in a State school. But if that teacher should present the Bible teaching upon confess- 68 The Bible in the Hands of the State ing the Lord Jesus as a personal Saviour, and urge the ceremonial badge of baptism, following the confession, then there would be a clear case of teaching religion in the public school. Hence, we may undertsand that a Bible moral command as such carries no mandate for the performance of duties in another sphere wholly different. This distinction is very clear of things in the moral and spiritual realms. The Bible verily speaks to them “that are under the law,’ as well as to them that “are under grace.” The moral precepts of that Book fit every life, and they are needful to everyone for the shaping of conduct, for forming character and the building of a life. But teaching moral truth in the schools or anywhere, apart from the Bible and its authority, is only a vain effort to teach without the teacher. Eliminate the Divine authority for moral teaching, and such teaching sinks to the level of conventionalism and advice. The impelling “ought” and “ought not” come from God’s speaking tt. III. Brste Morats May BE TAUGHT IN STATE SCHOOLS WitHouT TEACHING RELIGION And since this is true, there is not the shadow of excuse for opposition to the Bible in the public schools. Those among evangelical Christians who oppose, set up the objection that any use of the Bible whatsoever would in effect be a teaching of religion. They are confused over the erroneous notion that the Bible functions only in the sphere of religion. They appear unable to dis- tinguish morals from religion. Whilst it is true that the religion of the Bible embraces the morals of the Bible, yet the converse statement is not true, that morals comprise religion; for there is often found a well ordered moral life in one who makes no pretension to a Godly The Bible in the Hands of the State 69 religious life. If these things be not true, then the point of opposition is gained, and the Bible has no place in a secular school, or in any other department of the State. And more, the Catholic position of withholding the Book from the people is to be conceded. But the Bible re- fuses to be confined to pulpits, and restricted to the spiritual domain, even though it functions in that sphere to the highest conceivable ends. THE GHURCH TLAS NO EXCLUSIVE RIGHT TO THE BIBLE No nation, no people, no religious body, no cult nor class, and not even the Church may lay exclusive claims to the Divine Book. Jt is God’s Book to send it where He may please, and “it shall prosper in the thing where- to I sent it.” It will function in the hands of any, even in the mouth of the unbeliever and the scoffer to convict and convert such a one, because ‘“‘the Word of God is not bound.” The Book is to be read by the wayfarer as well as by the disciple, by the child as well as the parents ‘of the child, and by rulers and all in authority, for its wise counsels and its faithful warnings. The Masonic Order, and many other fraternal bodies appropriate the Book, and use it freely in their rituals without com- plaint of their having usurped Church functions, and of teaching religion. “No one has yet shown that the reading of the moral lessons of the Bible as given by Moses, his own master- ful deliverances in commandments and statutes, together with the impressive lessons from Samuel, from David, Elijah and Daniel and other great Bible heroes,—no one has yet shown that the historical narratives of these noble worthies when read to children in the school room can be improved upon for impressing moral truth. The strength and the weakness of conduct of those sturdy. 70 The Bible in the Hands of the State characters present to the child concrete moral] truths of the highest order for its emulation. Added to the rich treasury of Old Testament history are the matchless parables of our Lord, and the many expositions of ethics as He applied them to right living. A day by day read- ing of these Bible selections in the schools would con- vince the open minded, and even the honest doubter, that such use of the Bible is powerfully efficacious for the inculcation of moral truth; and instead of the service being a hindrance it becomes a forerunner to Christianity. THE IRREPRESSIBLE CONFLICT After all that may be presented in affirmative plea, there is an implacable opposition to the Bible in the public schools. The effort to win over that class of unyielding opposers is as vain as the effort to make a saint of Satan. The Romanist and the Jew oppose the Bible in the schools with a stubborn tenaciousness that forbids their unprejudiced consideration of the question at issue. It is indeed marvelous that the Catholic and the Jew, age-long enemies, have united for once, in this strenuous opposition to the educational policy of the country. It is an unexplained phenomenon of psych- ology that a point of agreement between radically differ- ing parties can unite them in some other cause. Such diverse elements may not contend for the same ultimate aims, yet agreement on some vital point brings them together. But great moral issues have ever caused the Pilates and the Herods to make friends. The Bible in the Hands of the State aI THE CATHOLIC AND THE JEW YOKE-FELLOWS IN THE CONFLICT The Roman Catholic and the Jew stand for nothing in common that could unite them on a policy of educa- tion. Yet in this attitude of opposing the open Bible for child training they are one. These strange bed- fellows join hands at the school house; the Bible is their purposed attack, and the object of their common enmity ; but the helpless child becomes their victim. But in the absence of a cementing bond this unnatural alliance will sooner or later break down. In no other great issue during the past thousand years have these two diverse religious forces been united. It is well known that the Jew has suffered such relent- less persecution at the hands of the Roman hierarchy as he has not from all other sources combined. His plight is yet pitiable where Rome’s sway is unopposed. During the two thousand years of exile, as wanderers over the globe seeking a haven, the Jews have found no country and no government that has bestowed upon them such freedom and protection as that which they have in Anglo Saxon America. The downfall of this free government and its splendid civilization would expose the’ Jew to the thraldom of his age-long enemy, the Roman hierarchy. In his joining in the move against the open Bible in the nation’s school room, he moves to destroy his own house, and break down the wall of pro- tection that our Bible-formed civilization affords hin. But “Ephraim is joined to his idols.” And if the Jew persists in thus aiding his arch enemy, and refuses sup- port to the institutions protecting him, then we must, and we will do the thing despite his opposition. 72 The Bible in the Hands of the State In view of the bloody record of the Roman Catholic Church through the centuries, and of their unbroken record of withholding God’s Book from the people, even from their own following, (burning Bibles instead of distributing them among the nations), we are led to con- sider their attitude as entirely consistent, and must appraise them as the same implacable foe to an open Bible for the people. And since it is a cardinal doctrine of the papacy that the first allegiance of the Catholic is to Rome’s authority, and not to the civil powers; the elective franchise determines no issue so far as his vote goes. So long as Rome’s authority is first, discussion with that class is vain, and a free, independent expres- sion by his ballot is impossible. He takes orders from the Roman Vatican in the spirit of the bond servant to his master. Counter orders or appeals from Wash- ington would be disregarded. As a world political sys- tem, masquerading in the robe of Christianity, it pre- sents the menace of a class en masse, and represent; political sentiments foreign to the spirit and genius of free Americanism. The Catholic is a subject of two governments, hating one and cleaving to the other. Tuts IRREPRESSIBLE ISSUE A CHALLENGE In this irrepressible conflict between America and Rome, in which America’s “crown jewel” is endangered, that foreign politico-religious hierarchy may understand, once for all, that the advocates of “the Book for all men” do not intend to allow the issue of an open and free Bible for the moral education of the thirty millions of our youth to be determined by a religious body that chains the Bible to her altars, and suffers it to speak only as she interprets it. In placing the Church above the authority of the Bible, it follows that the Church The Bible in the Hands of the State 73 must control the Book; and this is Rome’s monstrous contention. This claim of holding supreme authority in religion carries the claim of holding the exclusive right to interpret to the people the plain words spoken by the mouth of God; and that is tantamount to an implication that God failed to speak intelligently to the common understanding and requires an interpreter. Hence we have a vicegerent of the Almighty, mitered and robed in the garments of Royalty, in the Roman Vatican, “exalting himself above all that is called God,” “showing himself that he is God,’ assuming censorship of the Word of God. What more can be added to this display of Satan’s blasphemies? But°on this Gibraltar we stand: The moral message of the Bible comes to mankind already interpreted. God Himself gave it in the simplest terms of expression. In the full confidence that God spake His Word, and does continually speak it to all men, we are bound to maintain that the Bible is the world’s Moral Teacher, and by Divine purpose must con- tinue to function as such. RoME’S OPPOSITION RE-ENFORCED It is lamentable that Rome’s opposition to the Bible in the public schools is strengthened by a respectable number from the ranks in the Protestant Churches. In the incompatible alignment of this element with this inveterate enemy of the open Bible, they find themselves opposing the Bible for its direct power and influence over the entire school population. While they hold noth- ing in common with this politico-religious hierarchy in civic ideals and aims, yet if Rome should finally succeed in banishing the Bible from the schools, her success will have been made possible by this class of intelligent citizens; and yet this “Church and State” group are in 74 The Bible in the Hands of the State no wise in sympathy with Rome’s aims and methods. They are unwittingly marching under a banner that stands for the overthow of our ideals and our system of self government. The liberal explanation of this attitude is that they confuse the moral properties of the Bible with the things that are distinctly spiritual. Since moral truth paves the way to spiritual truth they seem unable to apprehend that moral truth is fundamental, and presents a distinct and complete system. Of course, they are not in sympathy with Rome, though they are unwittingly acting as her coadjutors in the object pursued. The final banishment of the Bible from the public schools of America would be regarded as Rome’s victory, and would be acclaimed her greatest triumph on this continent. Without the aid of this allied force, Rome’s achievement is impossible. This intelligent but mis- guided group have departed from their own ideals and standards, and are working hand in hand with the enemy of self government and the old time democratic religion of the Bible. In this unholy alliance they are losing sight of the basic truth that God’s Word speaks to “the natural man” as well as to those “who are spiritual ;” and that the burden of His message to “the natural man” is His Moral Law. Gop’s Morat LAw oF UNIVERSAL OBLIGATION In the confusion incident to this much controverted issue it becomes easy to lose sight of the fundamental fact that every moral creature under heaven is made subject to the moral law of God; that this obligation is as eternal as it is universal. The moral law is embodied in the Commandments; it is amplified in statutes and precepts; it is illustrated in the lives of the holy men The Bible in the Hands of the State 75 of the Bible, and is finally interpreted and exemplified by Jesus Christ, thus presenting the one complete and perfect system of morals known to man. The child in the home and in the school room is, first of all, entitled to know this law. The confusion is increased by a needless confound- ing of morals with religion. Preachers, theological teachers and school men, here and there, are found using these terms interchangeably. They seem to hold that morals embrace religion, and is religion because religion includes morals. This notion if true would forbid the inculcation of Bible morals by State schools. But it is false. on its face, and false in fact. It is a Bible revelation that all men are held under the law of God, subject to the law’s demands. This subjection to the Divine law makes it necessary that all shall be given the moral law, and taught the obligation of obedience, which it imposes. The great statesman, Daniel Webster, gave expres- sion to a vital principle of government when he said, “The right to punish crime involves the duty of teach- ing morals.” The Bible sets forth this principle in all its great utterances, for no threat of punishment can be found in it without a corresponding moral lesson which, if learned, would safeguard the individual from punishment as an offender. In order that the State which punishes may teach morals that will prevent the necessity for punishment, it must have a text book on morals that will meet every need of the citizen. The Bible alone is such a Book. It includes the whole world, “for what things the law saith, it saith to them that are under the law; that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.” 76 The Bible in the Hands of the State Since the State has the right to enact laws that carry punishment; and since she has a right to teach her youth. those laws, surely she has a right to teach those moral lessons that will enable her citizens to keep her laws, and thus avoid punishment. There are certain definite and universal moral laws, recognized by mankind. These laws have been incorporated in the Bible. America has drawn her ideals from this Book and has builded her great institutions upon its precepts. She has recognized the universal obligation imposed upon man by the moral laws of God, and has meted out her punishments to wrong doers largely according to the teachings of the Bible. Therefore, since knowl- edge of the law is a necessary agent for the enforcement of the law; and since obedience to civil law is a moral action demanded by the moral law, it follows that a training of the youth of the land in the Divine basis of all moral law is not only justifiable, but absolutely necessary. MaAn’s Morac CONSTITUTION In further consideration of morals and religion, let us view the question of Bible morals from the stand- point of man’s nature. In his creation man was con- stituted with a moral nature, having moral faculties en- tirely distinct from those that are intellectual. The moral nature of man has been marred by moral trans- gression, yet his moral nature is not extinct. It is to be observed that in his natural state man is not only amenable to every moral precept of God’s teachings, but despite his moral blemish, he is yet responsive to God’s moral laws; that is, he has a moral sensibility of right, justice, honesty, truth, and ofthe obligation to The Bible in the Hands of the State a7 obey God as set forth in the moral counsels of the Bible. It is understood that it was in man’s moral nature he was “created in the image of God.” In his creation man was given a spiritual nature, as well as a moral and intellectual nature. It was in the spiritual quality of his being that he died under the threatened curse, “in the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” He did not in that act of disobedience die, physically, morally or intellectually. Hence, in no other sense could the progenitor of the race have died than in his spiritual fature, But this spiritually dead race 1s yet alive’in the moral nature, and responsive to God’s moral re- quirements. In that fallen state, having only a moral and intellectual nature, God held man accountable under His moral government, and gave him the moral law to bind him to His government. Man’s first response was on the occasion of the giving of the law, at Sinai. That response revealed a moral, but not a spiritual nature. “All that the Lord hath spoken we will do,” was the answer of the multitudes numbering many hun- dred thousands of every character, good and bad. Moreover, the Bible declares that all men are held accountable under God’s law, whether the law be spoken to them or written in their hearts. The Divine moral law is understood to be in a sense an expression of God’s holy moral nature. It is the moral law of the universe, and has been set forth in a code for the tute- lage of mankind. Man though dead in his original spiritual nature, is yet constituted to receive the Divine moral counsels; and though spiritually dead, he is still a moral creature. In this state of man’s impaired con- stitution the conviction is irresistible that education. is 78 The Bible in the Hands of the State radically defective without the instruction of man’s moral faculties in God’s moral teachings. The State is and ought to be concerned about the moral char- acter of her citizenry. The destiny of every people, first of all, rests in the morals of the masses. Thus confronting a situation always potentially perilous, the State addresses herself to the task of character train- ing of her youth in the school room. In so doing, and admonished by multiplied failures to arrest the increas- ing immoral tendencies of youth, she employs the supreme character builder as moral instructor. And in such use of the Bible in the school room the State is but adhering to the nation’s fixed educational program . for nearly two hundred years. THE Morar EpucaATION OF THE JEWS UNDER THE Mosaic DISPENSATION In demonstration of the effectual working of His moral law as an educational force, God set up His framed law over a nation of His own direct creating, and He tutored them, using the law as “a school master”’ during nearly fifteen hundred years. Under that con- tinuous moral training God developed Jacob’s posterity from an Egyptian bondage into such high qualities of ethical and social virtues that the Jewish nation far excelled all other people of their times. That demon- stration of Divine moral instruction has been an out- standing object lesson to all people of God’s estimate of moral education, and the way of accomplishing it. The course of instruction gave prominence to moral truth in its comprehensive scope, and was so applied as to exalt the Divine way of right living as the chief purpose of education. It gave moral foundations for a life time of building therein. And no master educator The Bible in the Hands of the State 70 of any age has taught to the contrary. Even the pagan philosopher, Plato, approached this fundamental prin- ciple in education, when he exalted the moral above the intellectual, as a first essential for citizenship in a republic. But God’s Book puts it more forcibly than Plato. Moses gave the details of the day by day instruction of the Jewish child; hear him: “Thou shalt teach them diligently to thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes.” Instead of modern educators accepting this way, it is proposed that America’s children be educated without the counsels of that Book; without its moral foundations. It would prove a vain experiment to im- prove upon God’s way. Education without the Bible is practically unmoral, and wherever such a policy ob- tains it has furnished no proof of its merit. THE Morat EDUCATION FOR AMERICA America’s splendid civilization has admittedly been built up on the moral foundations furnished by the Bible. It is as truly a Bible formed nation as was the Jewish nation. Every principle of ethical law in our government is rooted in the teaching of the Book. The moral stamina of the people has been the chief factor in our elevation to a foremost place among the great nations. Our continued supremacy in the world depends more upon the maintenance of high Bible moral stand- ards than upon all other forces and influences combined. The place held by the Bible in education determines today the place of any people in the ranks of nations. 80 The Bible in the Hands of the State It is unthinkable that countries like China, India and Turkey could dominate those nations whose civilization has been built upon the moral ideals furnished by the Bible. The essential quality of moral stamina in the sense of refined justice, is too feeble in those peoples for them to cope successfully with nations of superior moral development. They have groped in moral dark- ness, without moral standards from the beginning of their national life; and without the light and guidance of the Book which has been the builder of nations from the beginning, they are destined to remain in their back- wardness as object lessons of a Bible-less civilization. France has been a hundred years striving to recover the once commanding position she held among the powers of earth, before shutting the Bible out of her govern- ment and her schools. Germany will, for many years to come, reap the bitter fruits of the false moral teaching of her youth. Neitsche supplanted Moses in Germany’s schools; and within fifty years of his God-less, brutal teaching, that people, which had shared most freely in the fruits of Protestant Reformation, turned from peace- ful pursuits to the bloodiest war of all the ages. America will adhere to the Bible, and will give the Book the place of authority. In view of these and other object lessons of history, revealing nations either helpless, or adrift on an un- charted sea without this Divine Counsellor, the question is both timely and pertinent. Shall America’s fine civi- lization, made by the Bible, now dispense with the Bible? The question answers itself. The spirit dominating Anglo-Saxon civilization is a creation of the Divine Book. The perpetuation of that civilization demands the transmission of those bedrock moral foundations that The Bible in the Hands of the State 81 underlie and undergird our laws and our institutions. And above all, the security and stability of democracies rest only on sound moral principles pervading the plain people. Monarchies may endure longer with little moral support from the masses; but for a self-governing people to endure, they must have the full moral furnishing found in the Divine Book. BIBLE MorALs COMMON PROPERTY In no spirit of flippancy would the writer deal with any phase of these weighty matters; but the ludicrous attitude assumed by some of the opposers is provoking to the limit. After a beating of the “tom-toms” in a ceaseless cry of the “bug-a-boo” of “Church and State,” they catch a fresh breath to declare to these profaners of sacred things that the Bible is out of place in a pub- lic school; that it is the exclusive property of the Church; that the Church has the safe keeping of that Book from all ungodly hands; that viclence is done in this con- scription by the State,—a kind of profaning of the vessels of the Lord’s house before a Belshazzar crgy is com- mitted. Yes, yes, friend objector; when this illimitable treasury of God’s truth is shown to be in your care and keeping, or in the exclusive keeping of the Church, then your cry of alarm will be heard; but until that is shown you will be laughed at as one who takes himself too seriously. That class of objectors may yet have to be reminded that they are more agitated over shutting the Bible out of certain spheres than they show concern about sending it abroad in a world of darkness to shed its Divine light. There may be, and is, found here and there one who would make a foolish display of his jealous but self appointed guardianship of the Bible, but no religious 82 The Bible in the Hands of the State body known to the writer, save the Roman hierarchy, pretends to hold “a corner” on the Bible, especially on its moral teachings. In the realm of Bible morals there are no exclusive rights. The Jew, the Catholic, the evangelical of every name share, and share alike, in this legacy. Even the great heathen religions are adopting the morals of the Bible. Religious bodies among us may differ widely upon doctrines, methods and forms of gov- ernment; but they do not divide, upon the moral teach- ings of the Bible. In Bible morals the Christian world is one. The explanation of this agreement is found in the fact that there is not a moral truth revealed, the just statement of which is open to a contradictory interpre- tation. In its marvelous simplicity it can be and is brought even to the apprehension of the child, and for the sake of the child. BIBLE MorRALS THE COMMON FAITH OF MANKIND And since the Divine system of morals is of com- mon interest to all the religious bodies, there is no just ground for objections to teaching Bible morals in the school room. There are not, never were, and never can be two or more systems of morals any more than two or more multiplication tables. In the matter of morals we are all of one faith; and therefore, it may be main- tained that the use of the Bible in the public schools, teaching what everybody believes—Bible morals,—is in no proper sense a teaching of spiritual religion. The State in her own interest must teach morals. Even the daily administration requires moral truth and its enforce- ment. And since moral truth emanates only from this Divine Luminary, the State in the use of the Book is but having the Author speak His own message. In addition to these facts and first principles, we must ac- The Bible in the Hands of the State 83 cept the evident truth, namely, the child is endowed with moral faculties eminently fitted to learn moral truth from the beginning of its training, and that the moral and intellectual faculties must be trained during the school period of the child. IV. THe RIGHT OF THE STATE TO ENAcT MoraAt Laws CARRIES THE RIGHT TO TEACH THE AUTHORITY FoR MoraL LAw There is no denial of the authority of the State to enact laws of a moral and ethical nature. But the right to give moral instruction co-extensively with such legis- lation is called in question. Reducing the objector’s position to a definite statement we have something like this expression of it: The State may enact an ethical law, but she may not give instructions for the observance of such a law. But if this objection be found too sweep- ing then shall it be qualified to embrace only such laws as are traceable directly to the Divine laws? Strange it is that this class of objectors fail to observe that this right as a logical sequence is established and pursued by the State in every instance of publishing new laws. The intent of publication is instruction, even though it be called information. And it is but a step further in the same direction to take the text of her ethical laws into the school room, to enlighten the understanding of her youthful citizens in the nature and origin of such laws. Keeping in mind that the chief purpose of State education is to provide for herself a citizenship with high moral character, the State will yet face the neces- sity, for her own preservation, of commencing at the beginning of citizenship to build into the foundations of character the moral principles of right and justice, from 84 The Bible in the Hands of the State the original source and authority of such principles. Hence, in the right to publish the laws, the State may teach her laws, including those ethical laws that are based directly upon the Divine moral law. This right is asserted by every judge in every court of the land; also in the prisons, in the alms houses, in the juvenile reform schools, and even in the State’s legislative coun- cils, and that without opposition. Notwithstanding the right as a principle, and all these precedents of other departments of the State in using the Bible without restriction, the exception of the department of education is insisted upon by these classes who oppose the use of the Bible in public schools. These inconsistent objectors are thus found consenting to the State using the Bible in all other departments of admin- istration but the schools. There they draw the line and bar the door, “thus far, but no further.” But it must be steadfastly insisted that the right to enact moral and ethical laws carries the full right to teach moral law in its fundamentals, yea, teach any law of the Divine code, or the whole Divine code. And since that code is the parent law, the State may not only teach her own laws, but may trace them to their source and authority. In so doing the State does not need to make requisition upon the Church. She simply makes way for the Bible to speak its own moral message direct to the child. Constitutional Barriers are Against the Church, Not the Bible. The Supreme Court of the United States has never delivered a decision that denies the right of any com- monwealth public school to read the Bible in its schools. Every decision having a bearing on the question rather justifies such use of the Bible in the State schools. In The Bible in the Hands of the State 85 Justice Brewer’s memorable decision, rendered in 1893, he at great length declared this to be a Christian nation, founded on the Bible, and that Christianity is the un- written law of the land. Ours being a Christian nation, in a national sense, as against a pagan or a Moham- medan nation, the Bible is no more sectarian in America than is the Koran in Turkey. Several state supreme courts have rendered deci- sions to the effect that the Bible is not a sectarian Book. The decision of the Kentucky Court of Appeals in affirming a decision of a lower court, declares that the Bible is not a sectarian Book; that reading the Bible in the public schools, without note or comment by the teacher, is not sectarian; and such use of the Bible does not make the school house a house of worship; and furthermore any particular edition of the Bible cannot be said to be sectarian because any such edition may be used by any church. As the courts view it, the Bible is not more sectarian in America than the Koran is sectarian in Turkey. Congress did provide by a constitutional amendment that no religious establishment shall be set up by a law; and also that no legislation shall prohibit the free exer- cise of religion, (Christian or pagan). By the greatest strain upon the meaning and purpose of the amendment, the reading of the Bible in the school room is viewed by some as a violation of this fundamental law. Such use of the Bible certainly does not.come under the first clause of that amendment, regarding “the establishment of religion;” and furthermore it does not involve the second clause, “prohibit the free exercise thereof.” Those who hold to the constitutional objection begin with the wrong premise. They assume that the Church and 86 The Bible in the Hands of the State religion are one and the same. Religion is the system or thing proclaimed. The Church is the Divine agency for preaching or proclaiming religion. That which is proclaimed (religion) and the proclaimer (the Church), can never be the same. The State therefore in divorcing herself from the Church did not divorce herself from religion, nor from the Bible the source and authority of morals and religion. Education being a necessary State function—training for efficient citizenship—she must use the Master Text Book to that end in the school room, in the same right that the Church finds its distinct mes- sage in the same Divine Treasury of Truth. Democracy Not CHALLENGED BY THE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT Every article in America’s Constitution either directly or by implication recognizes the sovereign will of the people as the court of last appeal and decision. And the will of the majority when properly expressed becomes the will and law of the government. This amendment so far as concerns the use of the Bible in the public schools, is not to be interpreted in a way that would commit the educational program of our country into the hands of a minority, because the issue does not involve a constitutional question, but a policy of govern- ment; and that is to be determined alone by the expressed will of the majority. The constitution provides for the protection of a minority in their constitutional rights, but does not allow for the rule of a minority over a majority in the administration of government. Without this principle obtaining there could be no stability in a democratic government. Hence we may view the fun- damental nature of our government as fixed; but the methods and policies are not. These things are within The Bible in the Hands of the State 87 the reserved rights of the people; are flexible, and may be changed as new conditions may arise. Now in all matters of educational policies and school administra- tion, majorities and not minorities must govern. Understanding that the use of the Bible in the schools by the State, and not by the Church does not violate the constitutional inhibitions of “Church and State,” it must of necessity be a question of State policy, to be determined by the will of the people, which may find expression either direct by votes or through their representatives in the legislative body. Yet this matter of ruling the Bible out of the schools is often deter- mined by a minority, under the subterfuge that their rights are not to be violated by a majority. In such case these rights are assumed to be constitutional guar- antees, when they are not. Hence, since the issue is clearly one of policy, and open to legislative enactment, the rule of democracy by the majority must prevail, else, what becomes of the rights of the majority? Shall the majority yield to the minority, or the minority yield to the majority? If a minority shall not submit to the will of the majority, then how small a minority shall we recognize before reaching the vanishing point, when the false premise, with its false position shall be aban- doned? If forty-nine percent of the people may set aside the wishes of 51 percent, then may not one percent success- fully oppose a measure, and thereby dominate the 99 percent? Yes, if the people may be hoodwinked into the notion that a constitutional question is involved, as in this case, and the people be led to believe that it is © a matter of “Church and State” instead of the Bible and the State. It is very evident that the Bible issue 88 The Bible in the Hands of the State does not involve a constitutional question, but a policy of administration, to be determined by the will of the majority, which in this case, is known to be over- whelmingly in favor of the moral education of the nation’s youth under the counsels of the Bible. This is American democracy, the rule of the majority, and there is no other. But turning again to the Book, and in its clear light, it may be learned afresh that the Bible is the charta of the Church, and the counsellor to the State. It furnishes the Christian ministry with the only message that car- ries light to the soul in darkness. Every moral virtue is rooted in its teachings; and there is no just ethical law, current in society or expressed in statutes that is | not to be traced to its source in that Treasury of wisdom. Thus, we are led to understand that “the Word of God is not bound,’ but under the Divine purpose, functions in every sphere open to its ministry. It can no more be anchored to the pulpit, as in days of yore. It has more tongues and more messages than all the preachers of all time have ever voiced. The preacher has his office by Divine appointment; but let him not think that he is indispensable to the Bible. It does not cease to function after furnishing his message. “It shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the things whereto I sent it.” THE RELATION OF THE CHILD TO THE STATE It is a hopeful indication that the matter of public morals is now claiming the serious attention of leaders in the educational, political and religious circles. The very grave situation of child life exposed to immoral influences abounding in society, and never before so The Bible in the Hands of the State 89 menacing, compels the most serious consideration. The moral welfare of the child is felt to be one of the nation’s problems. This is emphasized’ by the many organized societies of men and women for child welfare. An addi- tional evidence is found in new statutory legislation that is intended to provide a better school environment and better moral safeguards for our youth. They are ap- praised as the nation’s most valued asset, in the pre- -paratory stage of childhood, under State training for future citizenship. The inculcation of public morals necessarily begins at the nation’s school house. Here the child is brought into new relations with the State, and is taught to share in some of the duties and privileges of citizenship. In that beginning the State assumes a new and special care of her young citizen. In the education of the child the State begins with nature’s unspoiled plastic material, to form and develop it after her own ideals and purposes. Mindful of the one objective of good citizenship, the State must faithfully use the brief training period to that end, remembering the trite but pertinent maxim, “the child of today is the citizen of tomorrow.” The State has been slow to learn that the character of the rising generation is in her hands, and to be determined by the character of its education. The State does not yet appreciate the soundness of the claim that every quality of high class citizenship, attainable through edu- cational processes, is the child’s right. Since the man of today is the product of the State’s yesterday train- ing in the school room, the responsibility incurred in this child conscription ought to be felt as the most grave among civic duties. And in the undertaking, the destiny 90 The Bible in the Hands of the State of the child is not more problematical than that of the State. MoraAL DOWNGRADE TENDENCIES Must BE ARRESTED We are apprehending from a grave situation that society is suffering an alarming deterioration under the influence of lowered moral standards. The perceptible downgrade of the masses is traceable to an enfeebled, undeveloped moral stamina. This stunted development is chargeable chiefly to a neglect of moral training during the training period, or to a training under false ideals. The unprecedented increase of juvenile crime, and the flaunting display of “jungle morals” are to be accounted for, either by the neglect of sound moral teaching, or by a false moral teaching in the school room. The: arrest of this downgrade tendency is not to be found in juvenile. reform schools, patching old garments with new cloth; not in societies having for their purpose the improvement of environment and additional activities for child life; nur in the modern school methods of moral training by the conventional moral maxims, em- phasized in numberless “don’ts,” —don’t do this, and don’t do that. All these experiments fail to reach the moral nature; and hence they fail to generate a moral impulse. But the old neglected Book of God’s moral counsels points the parent and the teacher to the way, and the only way: “Train up a cihld in the way he should go: and when he is old he will not depart from rhe ee The sweeping from the school room of the pagan- istic teachings of Evolution and the many other perni- cious doctrines that sanction or wink at moral laxity, is but the first step in the needful house cleaning. But The Bible in the Hands of the State gI to sweep the house of things corrupting, and bring not in those active and positive influences that made for the moral welfare of the child, is to exemplify afresh the parable of the unclean spirit going out of a man, and afterwards finding his place unoccupied, swept and garnished, it re-enters, to make the last state worse than the first. In casting out false teaching from the school room, it must not be left empty, to invite some other form of false teaching, but let us see to it that the Master Educator, the Bible, shall enter in to occupy. The State in determining what shall not be taught is but adhering to her right under the same principle, when she directs what shall be taught. In the words of the late William Jennings Bryan, God’s World man,—‘The right of the taxpayers to decide what shall be taught can hardly be disputed. Some one must decide. The hand that writes the pay check rules the school; if not, to whom shall the right to decide such important matters be entrusted?” The widely prevalent moral stupor explains the un- responsiveness of the people to a quickening stimulus. The long period of the steady decline of moral training in the schools is at last reflected in a generation at ease under lowered moral standards. Of logical necessity the ratio has been preserved between the school world and the world of adults. But under the shock of increasing crime eruptions, threatening a collapse of orthodox moral standards, the necessity is gradually gripping the public mind that God’s moral counsels cannot be rele- gated to a corner, or banished from the nation’s school rooms, without incurring the consequences in the inevit- able Divine judgments to follow upon a State and people that ignore His laws of right living. At last, in emerging from the cloud land of confusion, incident to the pur- g2 The Bible in the Hands of the State suing of an ignis fatuus in educational experiments, re- sulting only in sickening disappointment, we have learned one priceless, fundamental truth,—that education is in- complete without moral instruction; and moral instruc- tion is incomplete without the Bible. Conforming to this vital principle in education, of the contemporaneous development of the moral and the intellectual faculties, we should return to the former custom of having the Bible speak a message daily in every public school in the land. This would be no doubt- ful experiment, but a return to a tried and approved policy of the former better days. In the final word, suffer a reminder that the moral spirit of our sovereign free people is generated by the Bible, and the Bible only. Apart from that source every’ moral excellence of the people must continue in decline. A nation’s final extinction is preceded by a decadence of the moral virtues. Moral virtues are the product of moral training. And the school room of the nation affords the one field for laying those enduring moral foundations in the young that will ensure moral stability, and will both shape and safeguard the destiny of our beloved country, the most signally favored by Heaven of all the earth. \ ssibidid: ‘i Ni auen wo Las bis Tee! een? > 44 Poy? Bice. Guae Meese t ‘of is a2 ay etry ‘A igh - aT x trig Na, fan, eae tren ted ary ggwal! 27 oo r £ Ps 4 ’ a> . aia} bard ty iy Wirety nid ria] H r ee ¥ hire ce ab bi % 4 a a mh 7 , Ss 7 Serre hi Hes & oF Yigyi bite ela) yh ya me ‘Watts Hy it :? 5 a) iE et “ d ; : P . wii 1/4,” . p : i ‘ ic . J iy o* tis A r in 4 olen Ae a ' ‘ ° . he i ; ry) i . c ie 4 b vi : eo | ‘oe wh Py, he: 2 ' of a") 4 \'yhe rt wy t)7 ; ; 4 q ' ee : y | » ‘ 7 -' » Ys ’ . ] J Pt fal) RD. pal tapers jad Liae OER Pipis.d See ee * os.% eras Sanit 4? PEP het? PONE es wey Atv ee ee Oe , ary ereeass, 8; gee Goes me al v rc eg db ea | ~ : ahh ale y ‘ () ! aig ‘ Y ny , % re ; oad ee 8 Car. oll ofa fb aS 1% A, 4, fs i Ea, ., att \ 7 wl) 1) ia . , ’ i tr (% Pa +s ey , ti 744 ‘ PPh ’ ’ oo ald ie y ? * a ‘7 ie ; ey kee h4 ; sr wip a ee erst! bay ah yeliny hers eye be rtpai- + at : : At ; ee . a) st Lys Jobs Fs Ti viPase wae lead xy K , PETS +} ve hi a Tu 7, ey z " ita ait edit i. Abeta Safik AN; bit ie a t nity ty i A ake A . Baws Oe Le ul a ¥ : ¥ : te & . - oe ta fe *) uf ; ¥ 7 x Thy ag i ahs b ' 33 Fi a + Bite '/ ae . ; ee BY . ale ; ce , > iv , + i. be) ite? cu z iv, ° 7 ; 7 . ty io u — ‘ ‘oc | i . tha a ’ Syne ia va ae a, DN BA ON bettie ie < ie : wh roa PENS, Poke Ny decal bce tA, Har as the rain cometh Oown and the snow from heaven and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth and maketh tt bring forth ann bud, that tt may gtue seen to the sower ann brean to the eater; so shall my word be that goeth forth out of my month, tt shall not return unto me unin, but tt shall arcompltsh that which fi please ann tt shall prosper tn the thing whereunto I have sent tt. Isaiah 55-10-11 — + CHIN #* — Che Sptrit breathes upon the word, Arn brings the truth to sight; Jirecepts and promises atforn A sanrtifying light. Che Gand that gave it still supplies Che gracious light and heat: Gis truths upon the nations rise; Chey rise, but never set. — + BIND» — | Education begins with life. Before we are aware the foundations of character are laid, ann subsequent instruction avails but little to reitoue or alter it. —Franklin CHAPTER V THE SUFFICIENCY OF THE BIBLE FOR MORAL INSTRUCTION The Bible is preeminently a book of morals. The way of right living claims more than half of all its utterances. Right living lies at the foundation of all substantial race progress. Right living is brought to light originally in God’s Word. Its bedrock ethical principles have never been superseded. Amidst all the inventions and discoveries of men, there has not been a single discovery of a distinct moral truth. Man’s contributions have at best been but a generation of the principles found in this moral code, and an application of them through rules and laws for moral conduct. In a fundamental sense, the Bible reveals all there is of moral truth. In contrast with modern civilization under Bible counsels and ideals, those nations of antiquity, deprived of this Treasury of Divine Knowledge, and groping in moral darkness, have made no advancement in those things that characterize modern civilization. In the main, as we find them today, so they were a thousand years ago. In the fields of discovery, science, literature, moral and social life, the pagan peoples of the world are yét walking in the paths of their remote ancestors. Their only light is that which is reflected by govern- mental and financial relations with the enlightened Bible-formed nations. Their backwardness is displayed in their family relations, in crude dwelling houses, in methods of travel and transportation, in the absence of (6 The Sufficiency of the Bible for Moral Instruction public utilities, schools, hospitals, orphanages, and asy- lums for the aged and afflicted. And added to this wretched state is the absence of incentive to improve conditions. That inspiration, working as a mighty moral lever, finds original source in the Divine Coun- sels, without which people will remain in squalor and ignorance, acquiring only a veneer of that civilization which bears upon every phase of it the Bible stamp. With debased womanhood, and brutalized child life, universal characteristics of pagan civilization, they pre- sent a contrast with peoples of Bible lands as great as if they were an inferior race, and inhabitants of another planet. The Bible is set to accomplish the elevation of every race, because it begins with God’s counsels for right living, the first step in the upward climb. THIS SUFFICIENTLY DEMONSTRATED IN THE SCHOOL Room Since it is conceded that the Bible is sufficient in its broad scope for inculcating moral truth generally, it is in order that the Book be considered in that light in the school room. ‘The Bible is within itself a text- book for training. But the inquiry arises: Is the Bible, in its own words, without note or comment, suited to the school room? Will it of itself impress its ethical teachings upon the moral nature of youth? Are its les- sons suited to the grades of child understanding? Does this Master Book speak to the child through mandates and precepts, through its character narratives, its his- torical records, its warnings and judgments, and from the mouth of Him who is the Word? Yes, in all these ways the Bible speaks. The child, as a child, is provided for in the Com- mandments. Moses commanded the teaching of the The Sufficiency of the Bible for Moral Instruction 97 . The Grandchildren of Native Alaskan Indians Educated at Sheldon Jackson Institute , ‘‘The Bible is set to accomplish the Elevation of Every Race’ * 98 The Sufficiency of the Bible for Moral Instruction law and the statutes to the children in the home and beyond the home continually. It was only the youth, trained in those counsels, that could enter into the — promised land. The same teaching was not so effective upon their obdurate sires. These statutes and com- mandments were sufficient for the child Samuel, Israel’s greatest statesman and prophet between Moses and David. They were sufficient, for the child Josiah, brought up under Temple teaching, to become one of the most highly commended kings of Judah. Daniel, the prophet and statesman, never wandered away from God’s moral counsels, which he received during the first twelve years of his life. From a child, Timothy was instructed in the writings of Moses and of the prophets. In serving these outstanding characters so efficiently there is presented a direct display of the suffi- . ciency of the Bible within itself for imparting moral counsel to the child in the school room. No human brain will ever by any known method of thought-com- munication, improve upon the story of Joseph, or of Moses before Pharaoah, of Ruth and Naomi, of Esther, of Elijah and Ahab on Mt. Carmel, of the Sermon on the Mount, and many other outstanding deliverances. Fence the Bible is at home in any circle of youth. (1) Anonymous Morat TEACHING IS NOT BIBLE Mora TEACHING Moral teaching, however true to standards and to form, has not always the same force and value. The “who-said-it” determines in its last analysis the signifi- cance of a moral lesson. This is true generally of all utterances. The discovery of a bona fide unpublished manuscript from the pen of Shakespeare would be announced around the world. The same writing would The Sufficiency of the Bible for Moral Instruction 99 go begging if its publication should be sought by an unknown writer. The most ordinary statement from President Coolidge commands a nation’s attention, when the same utterance, if it had been made by the man Cal- vin Coolidge when a private citizen, would never have gotten into the daily press. Many a rejected manuscript carries every point of merit but that of a name already established in the literary world. The fact prevails on every hand, and finds its best illustration in the superior force of Bible utterances over all others. To that phase of our discussion attention is now directed. We mean by anonymous moral teaching a presen- tation of Bible morals without giving the Bible as authority for such. The giving of a moral truth in the phraseology of a current proverb or some snappy maxim, is the accentuated display of this evasion. When moral teaching rises no higher than this form of anonymous teaching then the homely philosophies of “Poor Richard’s Almanac,” from the pen of Ben Frank- lin will serve the purpose quite as well. The paraphras- ing of a Bible moral utterance may reach the mind as an abstract truth, but no more exerts a positive influence upon the moral nature than such mottoes as “honesty eine DESt policy, —— murder will out,” “a lie is never justifiable,’ and many other terse statements of truth. They lack that moral quality of authority, centered in a personality which carries in himself supreme excel- lence, and the right to command. In all of God’s moral commandments and precepts He makes His authority and His Personality to appear conspicuously in the utterance. The truth is in all of God’s moral counsels, but the projectile force that drives truth home to the moral nature 1s in God who speaks the words. God’s 39 66 i100 The Sufficiency of the Bible for Moral Instruction words carry every quality of His attributes, not except- ing His omnipotence. Without the Divine property inhering in His words, the Ten Commandments would rise in value little above the current maxims which the mind apprehends as truth in the abstract. The Divine imperative is the force behind the command, without which the moral utterances of the Bible would be con- sidered on the plane of advice. This manner of giving God’s moral counsels anonymously in the school room, common in these times, is essentially moral cowardice. It leaves God out of it. In support of this contention for God’s personal identification ‘as author of His moral ‘utterances, attention is directed to the august occasion of the giving of the Moral Law. The majesty of God’s person was attended by fire and the quaking of the Mount, and the voice of the Trumpet sounding louder and louder. In this awe-inspiring manifestation of the Divine presence “God spake all these words.” Not Moses, not Aaron, but God Himself. And as “the Word of the Lord endureth forever, the quality of endurance was stamped upon the Law, in the fact that God spake the words, and also that the words “were written with the finger of God.” Moses, who fashioned the plates, might have been commissioned to do the writing, but the giving of the Law to mankind, once for all, must bear every stamp of its Divine Author in His excellence, majesty, holiness and authority; hence God Himself spake, wrote and gave His law to the people, and thereby set forth His authority by accompanying that law with His voice and presence... No other distinct revelation is found from Genesis to Revelation that so emphasizes the majesty of Divine authority, and so displays the The Sufficiency of the Bible for Moral Instruction 101 presence and the power of the Almighty God as does the august occasion of the giving of the Law, excepting only the appearing of the glorified Lord Jesus to the Patmos exile. From Sinai God spake to mankind. From Patmos, Christ the Lord and King, spake to His church- es. In each instance the message was both written and spoken. But it is clear that the august drama, staged at Sinai, was to establish in the most solemnly impres- sive manner the source of the Law, God’s personal iden- tification with its deliverance, and its binding obligation upon all. Hence we may understand that the giving of moral teaching apart from the Bible, its parent source, reduces such teaching to the level of man’s moral counsel. In its anonymous character there is lacking the element of authority, and it is appraised~as a mere consensus of public opinion. But to give the same teaching as the expressed command of the Almighty, it is at once ele- vated to the degree of supreme authority. It exerts an influence upon the moral nature and the human will that can never be affected by moral truth given in gen- eralities. We need not marvel that God so often affixed the Divine stamp upon his deliverances in the words, “T, the Lord hath spoken it.” For these reasons we are led to appreciate the fact that the force and value of moral law is to be found not only in the quality of that law, but in the source of it.» If such law be but the dictum of man, then it rises no higher in the scale of values than the author, man. But on the other hand, if the moral command comes in the words of the Almighty God, then His supreme authority is brought to bear for the answer of obedience. In view of these things, and in view of the 102 The Sufficiency of the Bible for Moral Instruction Divine personality in the Word, it is urgent that the source of moral truth should have universal recognition. And most certainly it is time to stop this “pussy-footing”’ with the Bible in the schools, taking its pure gold and paying it out after having defaced the superscription | upon the coin. Let the child which has been given the moral coin, see whose “image and superscription’’ it bears. Do this for the sake of full value in the unde- faced coin. Do this for the sake of common honesty. The educational authorities everywhere should abandon the “speak-easy” delusion and deceit, the practice of which does violence to the constitution of the child, through the disappointing effort of educating the intellect to the neglect of its moral nature. THE CONTRAST OF THE FORMER PuBLIC SCHOOL WITH THE MopERN SCHOOL The fine product of Bible influence in the public schools belongs to an earlier period. The modern methods of homeopathic moral teaching, and given anonymously, suffer in a contrast with the times in which the Word of God was read daily in every school. Those were the days before the European hordes came over, and put the alien stamp upon our cities; before these benighted and priest ridden aliens interpreted (?) for us our constitution, and before they were marshalled by those minions of their pontifical master in the Roman vatican to banish the Bible from the schools, thus leav- ing us to teach moral truth anonymously or not at all. In those better days of our schools and of our re- public, when the Bible functioned openly in every school, when moral teaching prevailed, and character was the first consideration in the child’s education, in those days The Sufficiency of the Bible for Moral Instruction 103 there were no unmentionable immoral vices and diseases in the school world, such as now are prevalent in many of the centers of population. In those days there were no highway robbers, no burglars and bandits and gross licentiates among school boys and girls, such as are to be found among youngsters of the high school age of today. Explain this moral defection of modern youth as we may, it is not satisfactorily explained without having to admit that the banishing of the Bible from many of the public schools paves the way for the giving up of a pronounced moral teaching in such schools. In other words, there is no sound and efficient moral instruction in those schools where the Bible has no place. In support of this declaration we quote.from a writ- ing by the Rev. G. J. Rosseau, of Pensacola, Fla., in which he is discussing “Crime Among American Youth.” Under a subdivision in his article he charges that the distinct cause of increasing crime among youth” is the brand of education to which the youth of America has been exposed during the past twenty yeats or more.” Hear him further: “A teacher investigated recently about 1,300 school readers and spellers in the Congres- sional Library at Washington. He found that those pub- lished around 1776 showed 50 percent of the material on religious topics, 22 percent on moral, and 28 percent on other lines; while those published around 1920 showed zero percent on religious matters, three percent on moral topics and 97 percent on other subjects.” Says Mr. Rosseau, further, “Is it any wonder that present day youth with only three percent of moral equipment and 97 percent of paganism and materialism, should kick over the traces, disdain social convention, defy law and 104 The Sufficiency of the Bible for Moral Instruction set out to achieve by the aid of the gun, burglars’ tools, dynamite and automobiles, that which their education has taught them to be the chief end of life—material acquisition ?” To the above arraignment of present day laxity of sound moral teaching, the author would direct attention to the disappearance from many of the schools of any distinct department of moral instruction. Moral science once had a place, but where is it now to be found in a public school? Let the investigator, if he will, inquire and learn what has become of the text books on morals and moral science, that once had a place in every school curriculum. He will find no text books on ethics, and no department of moral instruction in those schools which have discarded the Bible. It may be stated, no Bible, no systematic moral teaching. It is a logical sequence if the fountain be shut up, the outflowing stream will dry up. When the Bible is taken from the schools the great Moral Teacher, the chief safeguard of youth, has been taken away. In the going of the Great Light the lesser lights foilow, leaving the school without its moral guide. “UEELLITTLECRED, SCHOOLS MOUSE. Notwithstanding the new methods, and the boasted improvement in modern education under expert teach- ers, with every facility and convenience as found in the great highly organized city schools of the present day, “the little red school house” in the village, and the un- janitored cross roads school did a business in their day that makes the modern school suffer by the contrast. They produced the giants and stalwarts in their day that led the nation in every great crisis. Every moral The Sufficiency of the Bible for Moral Instruction 105 achievement during the past one hundred years is trace- able to those little school houses. They made their day illustrious and immortal. Those teachers, with their Bibles and their old-time “blue-back’’ spellers, and McGuffey’s readers, and Murray’s grammars, were the “Mark Hopkins” of their day. They area cloud of witnesses for Bible morals in the nation’s schools, not to go unheeded in these degenerate days. They point to the illustrious history which their disciples have made, saying in effect, These are our pupils; show us yours. The sufficiency of the dear old Book has been well de- monstrated in the school room. The contrast of the modern school with that of former days is sufficient to establish the point. - (2) THe ADAPATATION OF THE BIBLE FOR MoRAL INSTRUCTION ; A distinguishing feature of the Bible for imparting moral instruction is, that it presents the Author and His Spirit in all its didactic teachings. There is no mistak- ing of the Person doing the talking. Throughout the Scriptures this distinctive mark abounds in such expres- sions as ‘walk before me,” “walk with me,” “learn of me,” “hearken unto me,” “come unto me;” “my son, for- get not my law; but let thine heart keep my command- ments; write them upon the tablets of thine heart; so shalt thou find favor and good understanding in the sight of God and man.” The Bible so displays this element and quality of effective moral teaching that the Divine personality of the Author becomes a part of the message. The Bible also meets the condition of a universal moral need in its one universal message. The writings of men are naturally directed to some nationality, often 1066 The Sufficiency of the Bible for Moral Instruction to a special class as to intelligence, to age, sex or social relations; to moral» social or political problems. But never yet has a human being risen up equal to the task of directing a comprehensive message at once and for- ever to the whole human family, as appropriate to the purpose in one age as in another. There is no such message possible to the human brain. There never was the intelligence and capacity for the stupendous under- taking of instructing mankind in the fundamentals of right living. But heré is a Book from God, for all man- kind, for all time, and suited to every creature of under- standing, young or old, high or low, intelligent or ignorant, moral or immoral. That Divine Book in speak- ing to the multitudes at the same time speaks to the in- dividual, as if he were standing alone in the presence of the Author. And why should not the Book meet this purpose, since it is the Creator speaking to His own creature? Even the “wayfarer and the fool” are embraced within the Divine counsels; much more is the child. THE BIBLE SUITED TO THE COMMON UNDERSTANDING The first demonstration of the efficiency of God’s moral counsels, on the occasion of giving the Moral Law to the mixed multitude at Sinai’s base, forever settled the question of adaptation of God’s utterances for all classes. Himself the teacher, using His own Word, He spoke to the assembled host. That gathering represented every degree of understanding, and every stage of moral im- perfection; and their ready response to this first lesson in God’s morals ought to silence every caviler, objecting to the fitness of the Bible for the direct moral instruc- tion. Ever since that epochal day it has been demon- strating its fitness for the moral instruction of the race. The Sufficiency of the Bible for Moral Instruction 107 Since the Bible comes to us in a vocabulary of less than six thousand words, more than half of which are words of one syllable, we marvel over its clearness, its simplicity and its force. We look in vain for similar qualities of excellence in other works. Its counsels re- quire no exposition; but just as God spake, His words reach the understanding of every state of intelligence. No other utterance grips the mind of a Milton, an Edwards or a Newton, and at the same time, and in the same words, reaches the mind of the child. Onlv God can do that. Man’s effort would be directed to the sage or to the child, not to both, in the same utterance. If to the child it would go in the vocabulary of the nursery. But the Bible reaches the child’s understand- ing without “baby-talk.” And whilst the Bible is not a nursery book, yet it is pre-eminently the Book for child life, for the foundation of character and its con- tinuous development. “Thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children.” THE VERSATILITY OF THE BIBLE IN MORAL INSTRUCTION This versatility is displayed in the many spheres of knowledge it covers, and in the variety of its sub- ject matter. It explores the whole realm of moral truth, leaving Divine light to shine forever upon its explora- tions. The perfectness of the law of the Lord consists as much in the variety of knowledge it reveals, as in its chosen and purified words. “The Law of the Lord is perfect” from every viewpoint,—perfect in substance, perfect in expression of God’s mind, and perfect in its scope. The moral quality is distinct in every style of the literature of the Bible; and whether it be that of history, biography or narrative, poetry or proverb, 108 The Sufficiency of the Bible for Moral Instruction didactics or exposition, the moral lesson is in it, and is impossible of evasion. In variety of subject matter, though precept be upon precept, it is never a “twice told tale.” If it repeats a lesson, it is to give it a new setting, for additional in- struction. When it rehearses Isrel’s deliverance from Egyptian bondage and their wilderness pilgrimage, it 1s to set forth in some new light God’s marvelous pro- vidence, His patience, His justice and love. When it recites a Divine judgment it impresses anew God’s uni- versal reign, and man’s accountability to Him. It reiter- ates truth in “line upon line,’ yet without weariness or the suggestion of monotonous repetition: It does tell it again and again, but to meet new conditions. Again and again it surveys anew in the field of knowledge, but it is never to follow a surveyed line, or to set it aside for one more correct. Every expression found in the 23rd Psalm is to be found in other Scriptures, but it is not counted as repetition by the countless numbers of souls that have been sustained by its ministry. Hence the Bible will always be “the light of the world.” It bears the wisdom of God in all its utterances, and to the end it is destined to be man’s moral and spiritual guide. Again, the Bible makes clear the great funda- amentals that relate man to God. Every Divine perfec- tion, embracing His power, holiness and infinite wisdom, is brought to the comprehension of the child mind. | The book of Genesis furnishes the authentic and credible story of creation, even the creation of man, and his re- lation to his Creator. And these things are given as verities, not suppositions and guesses; and they are given because impossible of discovery by man without the The Sufficiency of the Bible for Moral Instruction 100 guidance of Divine revelation, the Evolutionist to the contrary notwithstanding. In the child’s education, when he is taught history, let him begin at the beginning of history, as God gave it to Moses. In learning history from that source he will get in addition to the accounts of historic events, the philosophy of history. If in the study of geology he is searching for the footprints of creation, the Bible will lead him to God’s history of creation, where mystery is cleared up, and every hypothesis, every conjecture, 1s tried by a “thus saith the Lord.” If he is a student of civil government, the Bible will inform him that human government is ordained of God, that every principle of righteous government is given in the Book. Let the lad sit at the feet of Moses, the founder and builder of the most influential nation of antiquity, enduring a thousand years; or let him study the life of Joseph, Egypt’s Prime Minister; or Daniel, the model hero and prince among statesmen. And if the pupil becomes a student of moral philosophy, let him sit at the feet of the Teacher of all teachers, of whose teachings Thomas Jefferson has well said: “Of all the systems of morality, ancient and mod- ern, which have come under my observation, none ap- pear to me to be so pure as that set forth by Jesus.” Whoever aspires to leadership in statecraft, is reminded by Coleridge that “the Bible is the best statesman’s manual ever written.’”” Statesmen of the largest mould and broadest vision, such as Burke and Gladstone, Lincoln and Wilson, studied the Bible, made it “the man of their counsel,” and by its guidance preserved cherished institutions, popularized natural rights, and even opened up new fields of human liberty for the ad- vancement of civilization. In these citations there ap- 110 The Sufficiency of the Bible for Moral Instruction pears the wondrous versatility of the Bible in the broad field of education, and in addition, its sufficiency for every stage of life. Moreover, the versatility of the Bible is conspicuous in the varied styles of its literature. History, biography, narrative, parable, proverb, poetry, prophecy and didactic exposition—all appear in variety, and all bear the stamp of Divine majesty and supreme authority. Taken in all its parts, the Bible is universally acknowledged to be the noblest and the profoundest of all literature; and in the English translation it is conceded to be the unrivaled classic. In the charm of narrative, the story of Joseph will always hold prestige. In the career of Daniel, the exile, the record of his rise to eminence and power in two of the great world empires, told in the most beautiful sim- plicity, will preach forever the foundation principles of right living and its sure reward. The book of Esther presents a beautiful story beyond criticism, unrivaled by O’Henry or Kipling, and is unsurpassed in all litera- ture. The book of Romans is appraised by many great jurists as “the most profound writing in existence.” And withal, the Bible is accorded the distinction of contain- ing a book that surpasses in sublimity and majesty every other writing in the world,—the book of Job, written so long before Moses and the beginning of written Re- velation, that the modernists name the time as “the stone age,’ when trees and caves were man’s habitation, and animal skins his clothing. But when the evolutionist and the higher critic can point to some latter day literary production that can stand in the class with this lofty composition, then will it be in order to listen to their sinister disparagements of the Bible. The Sufficiency of the Bible for Moral Instruction 111 So, open the Book where we may, a distinct charm attends its utterances, whether spoken by Moses or David, by Isaiah or Daniel, by Luke the historian, John the seer, or Paul the master interpreter of Christ and His teachings. Confronted by this profusion of knowl- edge, with its wonderful versatility in literary expres- sion, we are told by a class of opposers, the majority of whom are Bible ignoramuses, that this Treasury of Knowledge and Wisdom has no educational value to give it a place in the public schools of America. This Master Book which has been functioning as God’s Teacher of moral truth from the hour of its going © forth out of His mouth, doing business in the training of the child since Sinai’s eventful day, is now called upon to retire from the school rooms of the nation. This demand comes from an element of opposition in hopeless minority. In this proposed dethronement of the Bible in the education of our youth no substitute for that Book is offered. But when the fact arrests public attention that there is no substitute for the Bible in any Sphere of its ministry, then this demand will cease; and the Bible will continue unopposed in the school room as _ the child’s moral instructor. THE BIBLE SAFEGUARDS AS WELL AS RESCUES In the common estimate of the power of the Bible, we limit its field to the arresting of evil rather than extend it to the nurturing and safeguarding of the un- corrupted. The Bible has functioned so long, and almost exclusively in the sphere of the reclamation and reform- ation of broken lives, that we must be reminded of the finer work of its ministry in its moulding the character of the guileless child. We have so magnified the Bible as an agency for rescuing the wayward, for reclaiming 112. The Sufficiency of the Bible for Moral Instruction outcasts, above its power to safeguard the undefiled, that the common man is not appreciated as a fit subject for its effective ministry until he has become a moral reprobate. But despite this perverted notion, the Bible is not more potent for rescue work than for safeguard- ing the undebauched. We readily acknowledge its ex- cellency for the rescue and the remaking of moral de- linquents, and even moral wrecks, yet we have given it slight appreciation as God’s mighty instrumentality for the preservation and nurture of child life. In figure, we have been indifferent about the safe-keeping of the ‘horse in the stable, but after its escape we become con- cerned for its recovery. We have laid the emphasis upon restoration rather than preservation. But why re- storation instead of preservation? “Prevention is better I than cure;” and formation than reformation. MopEerRN EpUCATION INCLUDES A KNOWLEDGE OF THE BIBLE The Bible permeates both secular and sacred litera- ture. It is more quoted than all other books. The edu- cated man who is ignorant of the Bible is simply not liberally educated. A knowledge of Biblical history is an indispensable acquisition for modern education. In its account of the primitive history of the race the Bible has no contemporaries. Without its faithful records we would grope in darkness to this day over the origin of man, somewhat as the purblind evolutionist, who seeks light from the sources of darkness, who places his fallible interpretation of a fossil above the infallible “thus saith the Lord.” In this oldest of all histories (the only history that begins at the beginning), the ac- count of the patriarchs, the growth of families into The Sufficiency of the Bible for Moral Instruction 113 tribes, tribes into nations, the scattering abroad of the races over the earth, the rise and fall of the great empires, —all these make the Bible a necessity in the ground werk of civil government. It is learned nowhere else. It 1s here that the essential elements of right living are learned, learned at the source And the learning of these things in childhood gives a new and safe direction to the whole life. Most certainly then, the public schools every- where should give the Bible first place in the curricula, as the world’s best text book and teacher. THe BIBLE IN ITSELF IS THE WoRLD’S BEST TEACHER Very few text books may be classed as self-instruct- ing. ‘This fact makes it necessary for the teacher to supplement them. But in the records of Biblical his- tory, of biography and of the direct moral command- ments of the Bible we find no need of supplementary helps. The Book is a self instructor. And since the Bible is its best interpreter, its teachings must be clear and simple, and without ambiguity. ‘The wayfarer and the fool need not err therein.”’ Certainly the Creator knows how to teach and guide His creatures. No other communication of moral truth carries such inherent power in the expression of it as does the Bible. It speaks always with an impelling authority, and always reaches the understanding and the moral nature as no other utterance can. Furthermore, in the history of Judah and Isrel, from the reign of David to Zedekiah, the Book carries more clear information about the moral fact of reaping that which was sown, than is to be found in all the ponderous volumes of Gibbon, of Hume and Ridpath. A distinguishing feature of Bible history is in its facility for carrying the moral quality along in the record, with- 114. The Sufficiency of the Bible for Moral Instruction out the impairment of the historic value. Bible narra- tives of life and events have been so given as to impress the moral teaching first of all; and they so blend the historical and the moral as to make obedience to God’s moral laws, on the one hand, and the bitter fruit of disobedience on the other, the outstanding and the em- phasized lessons. The moral lessons of Divine history carry every quality needed for teaching and influencing the child mind. BrBLE TEACHING MAKES A BIBLE NATION Those elements and influences which operate to make a nation nominally Christian, all find their source in the Bible. Those fundamental truths composing a kind of natural religion, distinguish the Bible taught nations from those of paganism, pantheism and Moham- medism. Among those elemental truths are (1), the ex- istence of the one Almighty and Everlasting God, who is the Omnipotent Ruler of the Universe; (2) man is His creature, made in His own image, and subject to Him in all things; (3) God’s righteous reign is over every human being, including the kingdoms and gov- ernments of this world, as “Lord over all; (4) God’s hand of providence and of judgment is upon the nations, to display His special favor upon those who govern righteously and in the fear of God, and to execute judg- ment upon the people who despise His law. The Bible puts its stamp upon nations, as it does upon individuals. Borrowing the thought (not the words) of Wendell Phillips, it may be somewhat concisely given in anti- thesis: The answer to the Shastra is India; the answer to Confucianism is China; the answer to the Koran is Turkey; the answer to the Bible is. Protestant Chris- tianity in Europe and America. The Sufficiency of the Bible for Moral Instruction 118 Modern text books seem to take great pains to ignore God in human affairs. In former times the school readers abounded with moral lessons, but the latter day text books barely acknowledge the Supreme Creator and Ruler, and still less do they refer to His Personality. The very neglect of this teaching all the more urges the use of the Bible to give this indispensable teaching. The Book faithfully repeats it that the God of the Bible is the Governor over the nations. And it points to His judgments upon those nations that have perished. A correct understanding of history, therefore, must em- ‘brace not only information about world events, but must include the ability to use the Bible perspective whereby we see God’s overlordship in them all. And this is not to be supplemental to public school training, but a part of that fundamental education which is essential to everyone, and which is necessary to a correct and in- telligent understanding of God’s purpose and program in human affairs. ; In summing up, the author submits that the suffi- ciency of the Bible in itself for moral instruction is made and sustained. We are bound to conclude that the best text book of moral instruction in all the world is the Bible; that in many departments of instruction its edu- cational value cannot be justly appraised. Into whatever department of knowledge we find ourselves delving, we may be absolutely sure that we shall find no such clear and faithful, pure and lofty, engaging and compelling instruction as that which is set forth in the Bible. And yet with this priceless treasure of moral counsel in our hands for the guidance and welfare of the nation, we are confronted with the grave situation of having approximately ten millions of America’s youth without 116 The Sufficiency of the Bible for Moral Instruction moral training in the home, in the schools or anywhere else. They are beyond the pale of any class organized to arrest a downward career. They are destined, without compass or rudder, to moral shipwreck on the sea of life. Our system of education must be made effective for their safety and their development into useful citizens; other- wise they may easily become a formidably potential force for the nation’s undoing. The high purpose of State Education is confessedly to develop moral character in the rising generation for the duties of citizenship. The God-given lessons and counsels for the formation of character are treasured in the Bible and so given that moral truth becomes well nigh irresistible. In view of these things this appeal is for our country’s stability, and ascendency among world powers, and for this vast horde of hapless youth that are to become the citizens of tomorrow, with a state’s destiny thrust upon them to meet the responsi- bility. The question naturally arises, shall they become qualified by every method of training needfui for good citizenship, or shall we bind the rising generation by a God-less, moral-less education, to work the ultimate undoing of our self-governing nation? The threatened debasement of any considerable element of a _ na- tion involves the welfare of the whole social order, even the very fabric of government; for the destiny of any large element of citizenship, necessarily involves the destiny of the government itself. Now, in the last analy- sis, we are endeavoring to render that character of train- ing in the school room that will avert the possibility of such a calamity. The place of the Bible in our State schools as the pre-eminent moral teacher, will safeguard our stability, and will assure our supremacy in everything The Sufficiency of the Bible for Moral Instruction 117 that is worth while. But to reject that Book is in effect the rejection of moral teaching in the schools; and that would invite the fore-announced sentence of Divine judgment: “The nation and Kingdom that will not serve. thee shall perish.” From the beginning of nations it has been true that God’s Book makes nations; and it also preserves nations. “When thou art rome unto the land which the Gord thy God giveth thee and shall possess it, and shall dwell there- in, and shall say, J will set a king over me, like as the nations round about me, mben he sitteth upon the throne of his kingiom, he shall write him a copy of thia lam in a hook, ont of that which is before the priests and the Devites- And it shall be mith him and he shall read therein all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the Lord his Goo, to keep all the words of this lam and these statutes to do them, to the end that he may prolong his days in his king- dom, he and his children in the midst of Israel.” Deut. 17, 14-20 — Clie — Who speaks the truth stabs falsehood to the heart, And his mere word makes despots tremble more Chan curr Brutus mith his dagger could. Cowell — +o CHIID 2» — Chelmall thought it very unfair to influence a child's mind by inrulcating any opinions before it had rome to years of discretion to choose for itself.—J showed him my garden, and J told him it mas my botanical garden. “fiom so?” said he; “it ig covered mith weeds.”—‘Oh’, DI replied, “that ia only because it has wot yet come to its age of dis- rretion and choice. Che weeds, vou see have taken the liberty to grow, and J thought it unfair in me to prejudice the suil toward roges and stramberries.” Caleridge CHAPTER VI Bote POOLPRUN Toe OP SATAN REVEALED IN MOVEMENTS TO OVERTHROW EU BIBLE: (1) SATAN’S OBJECTIVE From the viewpoint of the Bible there is brought to light the overlordship of the one arch enemy to Divine truth, who inspires, organizes and directs every move- ment among men to break the force of God’s Word in every sphere of its activity and influence. This pre- sentation is not that of many enemies and their many conflicts, but as one age-long battle in which the citadel of truth has been everlastingly assailed by the forces of darkness, under the leadership of “the Prince of Dark- ness.” These forces appear in many divisions, yet one army, under one general, but with one all-controlling purpose. And wherever the conflict rages, whether the warfare be offensive or defensive, the one goal is the overthrow of the Bible, everywhere, in the Church, in the school room, in the home, in the hands of the in- dividual. And since the throne of the Almighty is estab- lished upon Truth, this arch enemy, Satan, has from the beginning assailed the truth of Revelation. In brief, Satan wants no Bible anywhere among men. His supreme objective is the overthrow of the Divine Throne by de- stroying the foundation upon which that throne is estab- lished. Hence, his chief opposition is directed against the Word of Truth. He opposes no organization, civil, educational or religious, if the Bible have no place in 120 Footprints of Satan—To Overthrow Bible it. Satan does not oppose “secular” education. Initel- ligence often better serves his cause than ignorance, though he uses either in its sphere. Satan makes no war upon the school that ignores the Bible. It is the school with the Bible in it that arouses in deadly opposition the forces of all hell. (2) SATAN’S CHIEF INSTRUMENTALITY Eis chiefeweapon 1s the, LCI Rs coe cise theeraaes of lies.’ No weapon employed by devil or man has ever proved so efficacious of evil as the lie, spoken or written. Though physical forces and the power of evil through the influences of wicked spirits have often been employed to hinder and to obstruct God’s way, yet the contradiction of truth, and the setting up against truth, marks the trail of the Serpent all the way from Eden. He 1s the deceiver, in making a lie appear as the truth. He is also the imitator, in transforming himself when he will into “an angel of light.” He seeks to be “like the most High jis Ele is the snaster.counterserter mane shall be as gods.” His followers may have “the form of Godliness,” but they deny the power thereof. Over against Christ’s Church there is the “synagog of Satan,” with its organized assembly preaching down regeneration and the sacrificial blood, setting up instead reformation and character culture. When the good seed of the Divine Kingdom, has been sown he “sows the tares among the wheat.” He matches the spiritual and supernatural of the Gospel of Christ with the natural and the material, maintaining “doctrines of devils,” as they are called, by vast organizations (counterfeit churches), whose blinded followers in believing “another gospel” go to everlasting destruction. Satan’s gospel is called “another gospel,” because it is a counterfeit message composed of what Footprints of Satan—To Overthrow B'ble 123 has been termed Part-truth-ism in opposition to whole- truth-ism, the purpose of which is to present the false for the true, and in the likeness of the true. (3) Satan Has No ATTRIBUTE OF THE SUPREME BEING He is a creature of God’s creation; “was perfect in thy ways from the day thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee.” He was created “full of wisdom,” SPeri ecu epeduiy, se aindas the dnomted “cherub that covereth.” Since he had a beginning he is not self ex- istent, and never can become independent of his Creator. “Lucifer, Son of the Morning,” was his heavenly title, placing him first in the angelic host. “How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, Son of the Morning!’ The chief among the fallen angels, “who kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation;” ‘ sinned: therefore I will cast thee as profane out of the mountain of God.” Christ characterized him as a liar, who abode not in the truth; and also as murderer from the beginning. ; Satan knows the Scriptures to quote them, but not to understand the mysteries of God as revealed in the Word. He knows not the end and the outcome of his rebellion. He is not ubiquitous, but goes about seeking whom he may destroy. His final doom to the pit of torment, in chains, strips him of claims to omnipresence. (Omnipresence cannot be confined.) Neither does Satan assume to measure his power by withstanding the Infinite power of the Almighty. Christ came, as:Tle said, ‘to destroy the works of the devil; and in every conflict with “the Prince of Darkness” there was the dis- play of the superior power of God over a less power in him; and there is no record of Satan ever daring to set up his own against the Omnipotent power of Christ. thou hast 122 Footprints of Satan—To Overthrow Bible He never resisted His word of command, but submitted to the Omnipotent power of Christ, not in the spirit of ob- edience, but as an antagonist realizing his inferiority of strength. Satan is no rival of God, although he attempts It; (4) Satan ADHERES TO AGE-LonG METHODS The devil has never ceased to attack the Divine Word. It is Truth he seeks to overthrow, and there- by destroy the throne of God of an infinite perfection. During the forty days of that supreme test in the wilder- ness between Christ and Satan, the battle raged around the Word of God. He pitched the gage of the battle, and Christ accepted the challenge. In his assaults upon the battlements of truth, his complete vanquishment was effected by Christ’s reaffirmation of the Scriptures that He had uttered through lawgiver, seer and prophet, pre- facing the Word with “It is written.’ In that supreme contest between “the powers of darkness” and Him who is “the light of the world,’ the battle was fought out to a finish, with Truth triumphant, secure and steadfast as the throne of God. There, in that conflict between Christ and his ad- versary, was the final and conclusive demonstration of the superior and conquering power of truth over the false teachings of Satan. And likewise that battle deter- mined and forecasted the final doom, under the power of truth, of every false teaching. With this triumph of truth over error in view, and already accomplished, our Lord spoke for everlasting record: “Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” “The prince of this world hath nothing in me.” Despite the many and varied on- slaughts upon truth, to follow that decisive battle in the wilderness, all other assaults will appear as but the occa- Footprints of Satan—To Overthrow Bible 123 x“ sional gunfire that marks the retreat of a defeated army. It was demonstrated in that triumphant hour, for all time to come, that “the Word of the Lord endureth for- ever.’ Satan learned as we also may learn, that “the words of the Lord are. pure words; as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times.” And that signi- fies that every word of Scripture is the fit word. But Satan continues his attacks upon God’s Word; and the question arises, why these continued assaults by a vanquished foe, who failed even to modify it by adding to or taking from the revealed Word. Why do the many “pop guns” from apostates in the Christian ranks, make a target of the Bible, never ceasing to shoot their little paper wads at God’s impregnable Rock? ‘The sufficient answer is, that no victory is complete until the last effort of a defeated enemy has broken down. The decisive battle of the late Civil War was Gettysburg, yet the con- flict continued two years to its termination at Appomat- tox. The Gettysburg victory was followed up and finally ratified by a surrender at Appomattox. The central powers in the late World War, under Hindenburg, lost their cause on the day of their retreat after Chateau Thierry. Even so may we view Satan as defeated in the wilderness contest, and confirmed on Calvary by the Lord’s own declaration: “It is finished.”’ But Satan would defer the day of surrender by the policy of “fire and Peiieaiy, But after his challenge and his vain assault upon the Word Incarnate, the question still arises, Why these further sinister attacks through his henchmen, among college professors in religious schools, among editors of religious journals, and among preachers of great attainments and commanding position, inflated 124 Footprints of Satan—To Overthrow Bible SS ees ® with “new thought,” and known as “higher critics?” Why is it that so many geologists, ethnologists, biolo- gists and evolutionists are aligned with Satan, to con- tinue this back-fire upon the Bible. For one thing, because this master strategist is great in defeat, and is alert to turn defeat into victory. Moreover, the van- quished foe seeks to save out of his defeat the remnant of his resources. Again, if he may not overthrow the truth he will seek to cripple it, to break the force and power of the Word; that he may continue binding his benighted captives; that he may discredit the integrity and the trustworthiness of God’s Word, and thereby destroy it as a ground of faith and acceptance. The very acme of Satan’s minor triumphs, follow- ing his defeat in the conflict over the Word, would issue first, in his breaking down the credibility of Reve- lation throughout the world, and next, of breaking’ the credibility of witnesses to the truth, in their lives con- tradicting the truth, thereby winning an invaluable sup- port to his cause. In his appreciation of values Satan conscripts into his service those in the high places of Christianity, who discredit the Bible, who set reason above Revelation, and the natural above the super- natural. He could have used the Apostle Peter, if the Lord had consented to the loan. His priceless instru- mentality 1s the preacher who has been seduced to the preaching of another Gospel. One aggressive Matthews sitting in the seat of teacher in a school of the prophets can do more towards obstructing the progress of Christ’s Gospel than a thousand blatant blasphemers among anar- chists. Just one Fosdick, high in pulpit rank and power, serving Satan in the livery of heaven, can con- firm more people in rejecting the truth and embracing rationalism than all the Paines, the Huxleys, the Inger- it . Footprints of Satan—To Overthrow B'ble 12 solls and the Darrows of this generation. Satan’s chosen vessels hold high positions in the Christian world. (5) Satan Now Emprtoys New Tactics When Divine Truth broke away from cloisters and monasteries of an effete religion, brought about by the printing press, it claimed the world for its field, and began a new day in its triumphs. That period marked the end of Satan’s use of the fagot and the dun- geon. That character of persecution would no longer avail to the suppression of the truth. The once caged bird is now in the open and on the wing. New tactics must be set up, to meet.a new situation. For a thousand years and more his slogan was Suppression. But henceforth his keynote is to be Perversion. By either method the end sought is the same,—the shutting cut from the people the Divine light of the Gospel of the Son of God. Henceforth we may expect a new gospel, which in attractive features will rival Paul’s Gospel. in support of a gospel of “culture” and “reformation” Satan will seek to repudiate the Book as mythical, out- worn and untrustworthy. With a cunning that has never been approached, and with a master hand, he has, during the late centuries, been laying the gage of bat- tle; first, over the integrity of the Book, and, second, over the doctrines that are fundamental and vital to the cause of Jesus Christ in the triumph of His Kingdom. With these objectives gained, Satan’s purposes would be more effectually accomplished than by his former savagery of burning Bibles and Bible believers. In this new day of popular intelligence, with the Bible as common property in the churches, religious societies and fraternal orders, permeating modern lit- erature, and in the mouth of the plain people from the 126 Footprints of Satan—To Overthrow Bible man in the street to those holding the uppermost seats of place and power, this arch enemy readjusts his tac- tics to invade the new fields, pitching the battle anew, and all along the lines. Persecution by the sword, the fagot, the rack and the dungeon has become unsuited to these modern times, when liberty is in the air, and a Bible truth in every one’s mouth. Satan, therefore, becomes a patron saint of every ethical virtue of Bible teaching, and he seeks to formulate an ethical and social gospel that bears likeness to Bible religion, except that of grace and the sacrificial blood of the Lamb of God for the redemption of the believer. Satan now insinuates himself in professors’ chairs, from the public school to the university, to pervert the truth, to sit in judgment upon the Bible under the guise advanced thought,” “modern research,” and such like pretensions. Beginning his evil insinua- tions and subtle sophistries always with a “speak-easy” question of doubt, and persistently employing the ques- tion mark of doubt in his first assaults upon truth, he makes headway first upon a class of learned “high- brows” in convincing such, they are not sure of that which they claim to know; and the inevitable results of such destructive criticism is an open rejection of truth, expressed in the stereotyped words, “we don’t know.” And the next and the fatal step easily follows: “We do know” that the old interpretation of Bible truth is not accepted by the scholars. It is easy enough in this down grade process of bewilderment for the cun- ning fnind of Satan to supply, under his inspiration an interpretation, which appears to the natural and the unspiritual man as plausible, pleasing and popular. With this class of leaders won over to his disguised 39 66 of “learning, Footprints of Satan—To Overthrow Bible i297 cause, their followers will logically go with them. Thus Satan wins by the stealthy processes of a lie. Likewise has there been built up in these schools and centers of influence a group of rationalists, that impudently sit in. judgment upon the Word of God, claiming the right to accept revealed truth only as reason and judgment approve, and to reject that which does not admit of conclusions reached through the process of reasoning—in other words, reason exalted above Revelation. The logical outcome of such rationalism is the rejection of the supernatural in the religion of the Bible. And with the supernatural eliminated the heart of the Book is destroyed. Along every line of procedure for destroying foun- dations of truth this vast scheme is in operation. The current press lends aid, ever paying tribute to liberal- ism, modernism and an up-to-date Gospel message, with no accountability and no hell for the unsaved. ‘The “picture shows” take pleasure in casting slurs upon every phase of the old-time religion. The modern cults either discredit or distort the fundamental teachings of the Bible, approving only its moral standards, yet deny- ing it in practice. Our entire educational system is threatened by the domination of a class of educators who reject the credibility and the authority of the Bible. It is frequently charged that the devil has about taken over the educational institutions of America. We may be assured that he will appropriate whatever is within his grasp that he can use. The baleful effects of this corrupting work in these circles already appear in the increase in scepticism, liberalism and rank infidelity flow- ing out from many of the schools, to awaken the most serious apprehensions. And since these “modernists” present the Bible as a compound of truth, myth and tra- 128 Footprints of Satan—To Overthrow Bible dition, it becomes easy for such modern sceptics to go about rejecting its every vital and fundamental teaching. They adhere to the wild and unsupported theories of evolution rather than accept the Genesis account of creation. They reject Moses and the Prophets, and finally they openly reject the virgin birth of the Christ, His Deity as the Son of God, His sacrificial death, His body resurrection from the grave. These vital truths go into the corner stone of Revealed Truth. Why should Satan burn Bibles in this day when he can by false inter- pretation, corrupt its teaching, and set it at naught in the esteem of man? (6) Satan’s HAND IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS In the division of the forces of darkness seeking to dethrone the Bible, Satan’s vast scheme of domination embraces even the public schools. The more than thirty millions of our juvenile population were not to be ignored in his program to defeat God’s mighty instru- mentality on earth. Adjusting his movements to meet an entirely new situation, suiting the means to his ends, he promotes a policy in primary education that would eliminate the Bible for the moral education of youth. In the whole field of the public school Satan does not set out to break the force of God’s Word by methods he employs in the higher schools of learning. In those insti- tutions he sets up “agnosticism,” “scepticism,” higher criticism, and the wild speculations of would-be scien- tists, to break the power of truth. But here, in the public school, with a changed policy, he seeks to banish the Bible, and forever bar its re-entrance. In this field, since the Bible cannot be explained away to the child mind, it must be driven away. Footprints of Satan—To Overthrow Bible 12¢ He must indeed be obtuse who does not discern the hand of Satan in the movement for the elimination of the Bible from the whole system of state education. In many of the colleges, universities and theological schools there is the open denial of the fundamental doc- trines of grace, such as the new birth, the indwelling spirit, the Deity of Jesus Christ, His virgin birth, His miracles, His atoning blood, an inerrant and infallible - Bible; these precious things embodied in the dear old Book, and confirmed by universal Christian experience must go to the junk heap of the world’s outworn reli- gions. And in substitution these “blind guides” and “false prophets” offer a stone for bread, darkness for light, reason for Revelation, ethical culture and ‘“‘behav- iorism” in the place of sacrificial blood; in everything it is the policy of substitution, in order to break the force of truth by a perversion of the truth. In brief, Satan’s effort is to banish the Bible from the state schools, dis- credit it and reinterpret its teachings in the higher insti- tutions of learning and in theological schools, and radi- cally pervert its doctrines in the churches. Meanwhile the conservative element, obsessed with a sense of security, solace themselves with the lullaby—God is on the throne, and all is well. II—OrGANIZED ROMANISM THE DeEvit’s RIGHT ARM The mightiest of all the agencies and forces, under Satan, for banishing the Bible from the public schools is the Roman Catholic Church. The Papal hierarchy vehemently opposes the public school, with or without the Bible. If such schools are strictly secular, and do not use the Bible at all, then the Catholics denounce them as Godless, infidel schools; but if the Bible have place in them, then they cry unto heaven against such 130 Footprints of Satan—To Overthrow Bible profane use of the dear old Book, out side “the Church.” Notwithstanding their united opposition and their rival church schools, making it impossible for any Papal subject to teach in good faith in any public school, yet these schools never become so Godless or so Bible tainted that they do not work by scheme and political intrigue for positions in them as teachers and officers. Xeliable data gives it that more than 60 per cent of the teachers of the public schools in twelve of our largest cities are sworn subjects of the Pope of Rome. They withhold their patronage; they fight the state schools with an unrelenting vehemence, yet they seek to con- trol them by supplying them with teachers. A “hands off” attitude towards the public schools would at least command the respect of the public for consistency. The Romanist, as is well known, contends that the Bible is the exclusive property of the Catholic Church, Divinely committed to “the Holy Church,” and is to be interpreted alone by that body. They deny the right of private use and interpretation to all those outside of | their fold; and yet they fail to give the ministry of the Book to their own followers. In other words, they neither use the Bible, nor consent that others use it. The withering censure, spoken by our Lord to the Jewish ecclesiastics eminently fits the whole Papal hierarchy: “Ye shut up the Kingdom of Heaven against men,” “ye neither go in, neither suffer them that are entering to go in.” And true to their record of a thousand years, they have never promoted Bible distribution among the people. This attitude towards the Bible, and its distri- bution unmistakably identifies the Roman hierarchy as Satan’s mightiest instrumentality to suppress Truth in all the world. That is what Satan and all the powers of darkness stand for; and that is what Rome has been Footprints of Sataun—To Overthrow Bible 131 doing, and contending for, through all the years of her dark and bloody history. She has burned more Bibles than she has ever distributed among her own benighted followers. She has burned more Bibles than are to be found in the city of the triple-crowned Pontiff. Only a few years since, there was not a Bible to be bought or begged anywhere in Rome. Many of Rome’s minister- ing priests display an ignorance of Christ’s words that is amazing. The commission that our Lord gave His Church was to preach, preach His Gospel, preach it to all peo- ple. It remains yet for that hierarchy to fulfill, or even undertake the task, and thereby support their preten- tious claims to the vice-gerency of Jesus Christ under His appointment. Preaching is simply no feature of Romanism. Their system of religion cannot be preached. Satan’s gospel must be propagated not by the heralding of a message by an evangel, but by state- craft, political treaties and a subsidized sword in the hands of the state. Individualism is unknown to the Catholic religion. A Roman priest would not know what to tell a penitent “Philippian jailer,” at his feet, crying “What must I do to be saved?” But Satan has devised a way of dealing with every class of mankind, and has committed to the Roman Papacy his system of church propagation, so framed as to meet every per- verted state of human life; and that without a word of Gospel truth except a perverted truth that denies the truth as it is in the Gospel of Christ. The Bible is simply not the basis of their faith and practice. They preach and teach salvation not supported by any utter- ance of the Bible, but, in every detail of the system, is contradicted by the Word of God. In the words of 132 Footprints of Satan—To Overthrow Buble Jesus, “an enemy hath done this;” and he is Satan, the arch enemy of Christ, “the deceiver of the whole world.” Satan did not undertake to deprive the Roman Catholic Church of the Bible. But the system that he had devised was not founded on a single unperverted Bible truth; so that vast organization is not a New Testament Church, or a Christian Church at all, and cannot be, with a sealed Bible shut out from all people. Satan reverses God’s way of Bible supremacy, and gives that hierarchy supremacy over the Bible. With that daring and monstrous blasphemy accomplished, the way was paved for that church to execute every scheme and every policy that he might devise. With Bible authority out of the way, Satan assumed authority that has never been relinquished, but has evidently increased through the centuries. So, with a master’s cunning this “De- ceiver” organizes a religious hierarchy, perpetuating pagan Rome, giving it a religious veneer, with a system not founded on the New Testament, but on the authority of the church as Christ’s vice-gerency. In logical se- quence this Satanic hierarchy was led to ignore the Book, and finally shut out its ministry in their temples. In the place of the Bible they have a cunningly devised system of forms and ceremonialisms that either per- verts or denies every soul saving truth of the Scriptures. Evidently the diabolical counterfeit of an organ- ized world religion has the purpose, first, to blind the minds of its subjects through a false gospel, to cause them to believe not the truth, but a lie, and thereby seal their destiny to eternal darkness; and next, to mar- shal this vast host of blinded and deceived followers, as a world power, to lure people everywhere into the pit- fall of a counterfeit church, to their eternal undoing. This vast hierarchy, the most powerful and most com- Footprints of Satan—To Overthrow Bible 133 plete organization yet conceived for opposing the King- dom of Light and Truth, is Satan’s masterpiece. As Divine light is by the entrance of God’s Word, his sys- tem is devised to shut out the Divine light, to fight and flourish under the cover of darkness. The very dark- ness enveloping the whole Roman system is its defense against Truth and its light. There has been no head- way for Romanism wherever the blazing light of Divine truth has gone before it. Only in fields of the dark- ness of ignorance and sin do their emissaries gain a foothold; and no trail of light lingers in their pathway. Like certain species of plants that flourish only in the dark, cavernous recesses of earth, so has it ever been that this deadly Upas flourishes best where Satan’s darkness abounds. This explains the consistent atti- tude of Satan’s religious hierarchy in avoiding and even suppressing open discussion. Rome cannot stand before an enlightened discussion of her. claims. Her only weapon of force, force to the limit, is no weapon against the Light. Attention is called to the significant fact that no people, no nation under Catholic domination in all the world, has attained to the advanced culture and enlight- ened civilization that characterizes every people and gov- ernment under the sway of Bible Protestantism. In the comparison of the two most enlightened Catholic coun- tries of Europe with two of the most advanced Protes- tant peoples, the contrast supports the indictment that Rome flourishes only amidst darkness. Catholic Italy shows 37 per cent of population as illiterates; Hungary, another Catholic country, shows less than 35 per cent, as against England, a Protestant people, less than 2 per cent, in the Scandinavian countries less than 5 per cent: The parallel of the United States and: Canada 134 Footprints of Satan—To Overthrow Bible with Mexico and South America, reflects in greater degree upon the pall of ignorance everywhere over- shadowing Romanism. Our own Protestant North America, not including Catholic Mexico, shows an illiteracy of 7 per cent, and that includes the Negro and Indian population and the hordes of Roman Catholic aliens in our cities. In Canada the showing of illiteracy is It per cent. The contrast of Protestant North Amer- ica with Catholic South America. and Mexico, after more than 300 years of Rome’s domination, shows 70 per cent illiteracy in Mexico, and in the countries of South America, illiteracy ranging from 54 per cent in Argentina, to 85 per cent in Brazil. These conditions are not accidental, nor are they to be explained away by unfavoring climatic or racial conditions. The light of Divine truth, having the un- hindered right of way in England and in our own coun- try, has proven the inspiration for their advancement and elevation in all things that indicate human progress. On the other hand, the best of Rome’s dominions as above shown, remain enshrouded in appalling illiteracy, and under the curse of a religious thraldom that shuts out the light, enslaves the mind and dethrones liberty of conscience, man’s lordliest endowment. Among the many lessons of this painful contrast, it confirms the principle applying to religious systems as well as to individuals, that “by their fruits shall ye know them.” In the above survey of Catholic conditions every- where, Satan is unmasked as the author and director of a counterfeit religion, whose scheme is world domina- tion, whose instrumentality is not the God-given Bible, with its message of life, but a tissue of lies, supported by tradition and maintained by intrigue and the sword; whose subjects are enthralled, benighted, oppressed, _ Footprints of Satan—To Overthrow Bible 135 pauperized, and cursed with the curse of a soul destroy- ing religion. Behind it all, and hidden from all, is the master hand of Satan, yet discovered and identified by the unmistakable marks of the great Deceiver, the Ad- versary of God and man. . In this connection the serious attention of the reader is directed to some timely utterances of the dis- tinguished author and minister, Doctor Edwin D. Bailey, in his very able work, Protestants and Catholics: “There is a Roman peril, and it is a very great peril. It involves New Testament Christianity, American Democracy, our public school system, our histories, our morals, our economics, our independence, and every other important feature of what we call our Christian Civilization.” | “This may seem like a sweeping and exaggerated statement, but it can all be substantiated by a review of the issues involved between Rome and the United States. And, worst of all, the issues not only affect our own country, but the Roman system touches every country in the world. ‘The issues are world issues.” “The reformation of sixteenth century unearthed and exposed the Roman system and called a halt in its progress, but it did not destroy it. It drew the indict- ment, haled it to the court, gave the case a hearing, but adjourned without a final settlement. It won the case before the bar of public opinion, but let the criminal out on bail,” “This is the question: Shall. Roman autocracy, Roman paganism, Roman ambition, Roman. taxation, Roman tradition, Roman statecraft, Roman intrigue, Roman immorality, Roman laws, Roman _ customs, Roman education, and Roman usurpations, rule America, 136 Footprints of Satan—To Overthrow Bible rule the world, dictate terms to the world, and prescribe the conditions of life?” “Or shall New Testament Christianity, New Testa- ment Democracy, American equality, American schools, American civilization, American altruism, American liberty, and American justice prevail?” “The conflict between these two systems is irrepres- sible. It has come to us unsought. It is aggressive, persistent, determined, bold, shameless, confident, flushed with many victories, rendered confident by its great power, its colossal wealth, its centralized government, and above all it is greedy because of the stake involved.” “The political struggle in the United States is going on under a disguise, but we are not deceived by the dis- guise. Rome has made an attack on a certain growing organization, which has championed the Protestant cause, and she has made a bold dash for complete con- trol in New York and in the United States Govern- ment. Politicians are afraid to name the culprit in the case, the force which is back of the government, the cunning hand of Rome, but it is well known that the drums are beating to herald a protracted struggle for supremacy in this country.” “Given an absolutely centralized government, unlim- ited financial resources, a complete organization reach- ing the remotest parts of the world, a constituency and following whose interests are perfectly linked up with the success of the organization; add to this a system of cunning and intrigue of espionage and deception, of secret design and disguised maneuver—what more 1s needed to master an unsuspecting world? This is Rome. This is the Vatican. (This is Satan.) This is what the world must face. It is the most astute and cunning foe, with unlimited resources.” Footprints of Sataun—To Overthrow Bible 137 “T do not believe there is any other power in the world which is hindering human progress, keeping up turmoil, disturbing the peace, demoralizing society and defeating Christianity, equal to Rome. Her ideas and her ambition are peculiar to herself and are absolutely contrary to Christianity and democracy. Yet skillfully handled by an unscrupulous hierarchy they are an open menace to all good government and demoralizing to good morals. Their educational system is intended to train the rising generation to the Roman ideas and in doing this they are unscrupulous in falsifying history, misrep- resenting Protestants, suppressing the Bible, intriguing in government, and working along perfectly selfish lines to gain all the advantage possible in an open and free country.” III.—SaTANn’s ALLIES IN OTHER CIRCLES OF RELIGION In every moral issue Satan has found allies from Christian Churches and religious schools. When he would employ a critic of the Word he lays hand upon a Biblical scholar. When he would inveigh against such fundamental truths as the Deity, the virgin birth, the body resurrection of Christ, he looks over the field of church people, spots the man of his choice, seduces such an one to the advocating of “advanced thought,” of new light and the criticism of modern scholarship. The new recruit becomes enraptured amidst the flood of Satanic light; and taking himself too seriously important in the distinction of his new attitude, and unsuspecting his new master, he fares forth with “new views” of the old truths. In the finished product he is henceforth a “liberalist” or “modernist,” to direct his guns upon the dear old Book, as a destructive critic of its authenticity, its inerrancy, its infallibility, and finally he turns his fire 138 Footprints of Satan—To Overthrow Buble upon the vital doctrines of grace, through the blood; and then to complete his apostasy and treason, he rails against the Divine institution of the Church, and pro- poses that it be converted into a religious club, with a message of “behaviorism” suited to modern times. This false prophet is now on the stage of publicity, in the limelight, a lieutenant in Satan’s army. Once he pro- claimed loyalty to Jesus, and preached His Gospel with zeal; but step by step Satan allured him from “the old paths” into the labyrinths of speculation and “new thought” exalting reason above Revelation; once he was a sound orthodox preacher of the Gospel of Christ, but now he has-become another Fosdick, or a disciple of Dean Matthews, serving the devil “in the livery of heaven.” This seduction of a disciple, and converting him into a traitor is Satan’s master stroke. In seeking to shut the Bible out of the school room, it is Satan’s first move to destroy the integrity of the Book, as a weapon of the Gospel of Christ. His forces are powerfully augmented when he seduces a minister. from a high place in Christ’s Kingdom to become an assailant of things “written in the Book.” For this rea- son Satan more than once wanted the services of the Apostle Peter. In all his movement to corrupt churches, pervert preachers, and capture colleges, universities and theological seminaries, the one purpose is the overthrow of the Bible, the success of which would blast man’s only hope, and would challenge the glory and the power of the Divine Throne. Satan’s cause is greatly advanced when he has seduced professing Christians to support the measures that he promotes. And since results alone concern him, he makes no war on those having only the best of motives Footprints of Satan—To Overthrow Buble 139 in their support of an evil cause. Satan wants the Bible banished from the schools for the one purpose of break- ing it down; but if an ally in the same united effort with him thinks he is thereby building up the Book, he appro- priates his service without concern for the motive. It is not sufficient that motive be justified in the Chris- ‘tian’s attitude and service. The effects and the influence of one’s position in any moral issue, must be taken into the reckoning along with the righteous motive. For these reasons no professing Christian should be found lined up with Satan’s forces on any measure. His rule well might be, if Satan advocates a measure he must not; Satan seeks to discredit the Bible everywhere, and banish it from the schools; he must not. And since all of Satan’s doings are works of darkness, he must “have no fellowship with the works of darkness.” Satan’s cause against the Bible in the schools is powerfully augmented by a respectable aggregation of deluded souls in the churches, who appear as self- appointed custodians or guardians of the Bible, and who in fear of a profaning of the Book by the “unmitered” spokesman, would confine it to their pulpits and_the- ological chairs, and restrict its activities to their own limited denominational zones. This attitude, in a small way, features the bigotry of Rome, from whence it came. In the zeal of such jealous souls for scattering abroad the “knowledge of the Lord,” they will contribute to the circulation of the Bible among the benighted, to the unevangelized and to the heathen; they will even aid in placing the Book in the hotels, on ships, in the hospitals, in prisons and in the daily press; they will go still further, and will provide that the child on the way to the school room shall have the Divine Words before his eyes as he rides the cars, and looks upon the rocks 140 Footprints of Satan—To Overthrow Buble and the billboards. But not one line of it, spoken or written, will they consent to be given the same child within the school room. If there be any other place or sphere among men where there is opposition to the Bible speaking its message by the simple open reading of its Words, the writer does not at the moment recall it. | Along with the host of the Bible enlightened he has learned from the utterances of the Master Teacher that there is no Bible in Hades, and never will be. But he finds no teaching that remotely hints of another place and sphere denied to the Bible. It ought to be unthink- able that the schools for our youth, the nation’s educa- tional nurseries, are by the will of heaven denied God’s Book. What chapter and verse of Scripture is cited in support of such teaching? Nothing less than a positive Divine mandate will suffice. No inferences, and no de- ductions, but a plain unambiguous “‘thus saith the Lord.” But it 1s very thinkable, from both Scripture and obser- vation, that Satan consistently opposes the Bible in the public schools; since he is known to oppose God’s truth from the beginning. . In every forward moral movement the organized opposition under Satan has had the support of an ele- ment from the Christian ranks. Bright and shining lights they were in the Kingdom, but deluded souls, led to see evil as good, wrong as right, and a cunning lie as truth. And without the aid of this character of allies Satan would never have triumphed over moral truth, or hindered truth. Every moral victory achieved confirms the truth of the above observation. In the efforts to suppress the first printing of the Bible and its circulation among the masses, Satan enlisted many of prominence in the Chris- Footprints of Satan—To Overthrow Bible 141 tian world, to say nothing of his conscripting Rome entire. In Satan’s long contention for “Church and State,’ the mighty Luther, Rome’s powerful adversary, was led to stand for that pernicious doctrine, and by his powerful influence fastened upon Protestant Germany the curse of a State Church. Satan effectually hindered the modern missionary movement by the aid of opposi- tion from leaders in the churches. The most stubborn and unyielding opposition to the abolishment of human slavery came from preachers and theologians high in religious circles. The great temperance wave that finally wiped out the liquor traffic in America, found apologists and defenders in some of the most influential pulpits of the country. And true to form and the records, Satan today decoys a respectable following from the high places in the Kingdom of Light, to a co-operation with all the enemies of Christ in a Titanic struggle to banish the Bible from the field of child culture. And what difference is it with Satan, if Rome fights for it to strengthen her position and advance her own cause, whilst the deluded ally from the ranks of Protestant Christendom fights in the same cause for the radically different purpose to oppose the union of “Church and State?” One contends for no Bible, that Church and State may be restored. The others fight for no Bible, that Church and State may not be restored. And what does Satan care for these opposing religious elements lining up under one banner, so long as they support his movement to banish the Bible from the public schools? History may faithfully record the deplorable fact that Opposition to the Bible in the schools was powerfully aided by a class of self-acclaiming friends to an open Bible’ for mankind, who stood side by side with the 142 Footprints of Satan—To Overthrow Buble Romanist and the Jew, advocating that which Satan has advocated from the beginning. And if the unholy cause be won, history would also record the conflict as Satan’s triumph, and their lasting shame. After centuries of the enlightening power of the printing press, beginning with the Bible for the masses, popular intelligence has outgrown the fanatical prejudice of Bible seclusion, as a closed book, and unused even in the sanctuaries of worship. It has been loosed for- ever from pulpit and cloister, from monk and priest, to go forth everywhere among men speaking its message direct to the individual. The scope of its ministry has become too enlarged and too varied to be chained to pulpits, even to orthodox pulpits. It will no more be worn at the girdle of Roman prelates and sacerdotalists, ignorant of its life giving words. Henceforth the Book must be unhampered and unconfined, as God the Author is; at home in every sphere, as God Himself is. Its custody is not, and never was, in self-appointed guard- ians, but in the powers of heaven; and Satan knows it. — But Satan unchained is Satan still at war. When de- feated in this issue to banish the Bible from the school room he may then be expected to enlist his following in a movement to rid the world of the Book by some newly devised methods. His tactics may change, but the aim, never; and that aim is to destroy the credibility of Divine Truth, and thus break down the Bible in the Church in the world. When the people come into the full understanding of the object of State education, that it is to prepare the youth of the land for the duties and responsibilities of self government under the principles of liberty and democracy, there will follow a reaction to the Bible for Footprints of Satan—To Overthrow Bible 1.43 its educative power in the formation of moral character, such as finds no precedence since the days of Moses, Joshua and Samuel. In that better day coming the pub- lic school will be cherished as a department of govern- ment for the training of youth in those moral qualities that are indispensable to the service of the State. Then it will be more fully realized that the high mission of State education is to develop in youth those moral quali- ties that are requisite to good citizenship; and this train- ing is absolutely impossible without the Bible. Churchmen and school men have been slow to visualize a government built upon the principles of the Divine moral law. It seems that many would shrink from a State constitution having God in it, and thereby acknowledging a State’s accountability to God. Their expressed views seem to deny the moral accountability of the State. Every State that enacts a moral law thereby acknowledges its moral character, and thereby becomes responsible for civic righteousness. Monarchies and oligarchies may for a long period perpetuate a vicious and immoral reign, but the God of nations, sooner or later inflicts His judgments upon governments according to their evil deeds; and His punishment is often conspicuous in some form of calamity, such as earthquakes, famine, pestilence and war, using the sword to blot out a nation when given over to vice and cor- ruption. The downfall of nations, as all history shows, is to be traced to an unrighteous and wicked rule. So, the morals of the State must appear in just and right- eous laws, impartially administered under the principles of God’s revealing. A free and self governing people, such as ours, cannot endure on any other foundation than the Divine principles of equality, right and justice, 144 Footprints of Satan—To Overthrow Bible as given in God’s Word for nations as well as indivi- duals. Hence we may understand that nations must have to do with the Book, because that Book has to do with nations. Neither can a free people perpetuate their spirit and manner of government by any other means than by instilling the principles of civic righteousness, as found in Divine Revelation, through the training of her youth.. Without such training a government is not trans- mitted. The destiny of the State not having been pro- vided for, is left to chance, and with it a people coming into citizenship without the necessary qualities for self- government and its perpetuation. Ours being esteemed a priceless heritage must be preserved and perpetuated; but it cannot be transmitted with the heart of it cut out. Along with our noble institutions and lofty ideals as expressed in our laws and our policies of statecraft, there must be included above all other precious things, our Magna Charta, the foundation of everything of value in our civilization. The nation’s schools afford the channel for its transmission as no other agency. The spirit of freedom and its principles got their first clear enunciation from the Author of all human liberty, giving in His matchless teachings the leavening truths which unlock prison doors, break fetter-bound captives, over- throw tyrannous governments, make men free, as free- dom had never been known; and _ withal, inspiring in lovers of liberty a government whose foundation principles are given in His teachings. Their transmis- sion to posterity is not less an obligation than our loyal maintenance of them for our own welfare and happiness. In view of these observations, the State must not in a perfunctory manner teach morals. The State must Footprints of Satan—To Overthrow Bible 145 not ignore the Divine Book of morals; if so, it will in the end fail of its destiny and high purpose. The fruit of such defective teaching will reveal itself in a generation of spineless trucklings and moral weaklings, unfitted for liberty and unworthy of the legacy of self- government. Let us keep in mind that the end of State education is not for the self-centered interests of the pupil. The State is giving nothing beyond that equip- ment which is necessary to good citizenship. She is training for citizenship, as the military school of train- ing is for the soldier. The benefits to the student are, of course, many and varied, but incidental to the State’s purpose. Good citizenship, and that alone, is the Iigh aim of the State in the maintining of a system of public education. And if the aim be less than this high purpose, or if the means for this training be deficient, then the outcome in the finished product will be dis- appointing. The teaching in the school room cannot be expected to rise higher than its source. That which 1s wanted in the finished product must go into the process for the making. He is dull of perception who is not impressed that the arch enemy is steadily weaving his web about the whole American educational system, holding the schools with a strangle grip. In view of the many threatened perils, and if Satan’s purpose is not checked, the ques- tion may well be considered: What of this nation’s future but a reaction to European civilization of former times, with the leavening principles of freedom destroyed? What for education but a God-less, moral-less training of man’s intellectual nature, producing the giant and the pigmy in the one person? What for the Bible (the real issue), but its reimprisonment within the cloister and the 146 Footprints of Satan—To Overthrow Bible convent, muzzled of its voice, shut out from mankind, and chained to an altar that has never suffered it to func- tion in the hands of her ministers? The purpose is clear that Satan works in the sphere of higher education to pervert truth, to change the Word of truth into a lie; and im primary schools to banish the Book wn toto. It is obvious that the effect would be the same; it is but suiting the means to the one end, and that is, to get rid of the Bible, first, mm the schools, and next in the churches. If the Bible be denied these spheres, what is left for it, after it has been repudiated in the realm of Christianity, banished from the field of education, and forbidden to speak for itself anywhere? Shall it then be relegated to a museum of antique relics, to point to an ancient and outgrown civilization, there to serve only the claims of the evolutionist, of man’s upward (?) climb from the cave? But “He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh.” As surely as that “the Lord hath spoken,” that Word is eternal, as God is eternal. Every quality in the Deity is reflected in His Word. © Every excellence ascribed to Jehovah is also attributed to the Word of the Lord. God Himself commends it as living, as pure, as having infinite power, supreme wis- dom, and as eternal as Himself. These Divine perfec- tions invest the Word of the Lord with those qualities found only in Jehovah, the Lord of Heaven and earth. - Hence Satan, in fighting against God, is doomed to an irrecoverable and everlasting defeat. But error is to be overcome by the power of truth. No false teaching withstands the truth; no more than darkness withstands light. Though the Bible be ignored by the schools, and for shame, false teaching is pro- pagated in the schools that openly contradict the Bible, Footprints of Satan—To Overthrow Bible 147 as do all the teachings of evolution; yet the throne of God stands fast, and all that is encompassed in the ad- ministration of that throne, in heaven and on earth, is just as secure. So, let every false teaching be marshaled for the conflict and its final testing. It is just and be- fitting that they be tested; and if rejected, to be forever rejected. Their coming and going mark a panoramic age-long procession of false and lifeless automatons, once arrogantly parading as truth, but now consigned to the world’s junk heap of “cunningly devised fables” and lies, each rejected false teaching bearing the stamp, “weighed and found wanting.” The “pulling down of the strongholds of Satan” is the mighty work of God, through the power of His truth. The battle is. today raging around the child, and for the child. The deter- mination of the issue is to be forecasted in the part that the Divine Book shall have in its training. The devil and all his minions among demons and men, and all the organized forces of every false religion, have set about to deprive the child of God’s moral counsels; but over against hell’s defiance is the Divine program’ that com- prehends the destruction of Satan and all his works of darkness. The Lord hath spoken it: “The Word of God is not bound.” No, no more than the sun in the heavens is bound. It “shall prosper in the thing where- unto I sent it.” | a Beware lest any man spotl you through philosophy and vatn Deceit, after the tranttions of men, after the rudiments of the whole world and not after Christ. Paul—Colossians 2:8 — +o Cn +. — Jrogress of Euil We are not worst at once; the course of evil Begins so slmuly, and from such slight sourre, An infant’s hand might stem the breach with clay; But let the stream grow wider, and philosophy, Age ann religton too, may strive in vain Co stem the head-strong current. 1192 «+ Re» — Che worst education in the world, that tearhes self-dental, is better than the best that teaches euerything else and not that. | —J. Sterling DIGk le hens WS Controlling Moral and Religious Education in the Public Schools As in most pieces of progressive social work there are some who take a too pessimistic view of the con- ditions to be remedied, and others who are inclined to belittle the wrong conditions because of over estimation of what has already been accomplished. It has been the purpose in compiling this .digest of the laws which control moral and religious education, to help both of these classes of workers to an exact understanding of conditions as they exist in the United States. We have divided these laws into three classes. 1. Those states which require the reading of the Bible in the public schools. 2. Those which simply permit it. 3. Those which forbid it. Some of the states are seeking to go further than the bare reading of the Bible without comment. Sev- eral plans are being developed in different states with more or less success. Some of these are included in this digest. That this is a complete survey of these plans the author does not claim. Neither time nor facilities are at our command to collect, examine or tabulate the thousands of local endeavors and experi- ments that are being carried on tactfully by wise teach- ers who are anxious to do their full share of the work of producing a generation whose moral fiber will stand 150 Digest of Laws the strain of the wealth, complexity and luxury of our growing civilization. Enough of these will be included to give a hint of the possibilities of this work where school boards and the public are intelligently sympa- thetic toward the aims of Christian educators. Laws of the states which require the reading of the Bible in the public schools. ALABAMA School Laws Section 626. Reading from Bible in all public schools re- quired.— All schools in this State that are supported in whole or in part by public funds shall have once every school day, read- ings from the Holy Bible. Section 627. Report of teachers and certificate of superin- tendents.— Teachers in making monthly reports shall show on the same that they have complied with the preceding section, and superintendents of city schools in drawing public funds shall certify that each teacher under his supervision has complied with this and the preceding section. Section 628. Public funds, not paid unless Bible read.— Schools in the State subject to the provisions of this and the two preceding sections, shall not be allowed to draw public funds unless the provisions of this and the two preceding sec- - tions are complied with, and the State Superintendent of Educa- tion is charged with the enforcement of the provisions hereof. DELAWARE School Laws Sec. 1 No religious service or exercise except the reading of the Bible and the repeating of the Lord’s Prayer shall be held in any school receiving any portion of the moneys appropriated for the support of public schools. Sec. 2 In each public school class room in the state and in the presence of its scholars therein assembled, at least 5 verses from the Holy Bible shall be read at the opening of such school, upon. each and every school day, by the teacher in charge there- of; provided that whenever there is a general assemblage of school classes at the opening of such school day, then instead of such class room reading the principal or teacher in charge of such assemblage shall read at least 5 verses from said Holy Bible in the presence of the assembled schools as herein directed. Digest o f Laws ISI FLORIDA School Laws “All schools in this State that are supported in whole or in part by public funds are hereby required to have once every school day readings in the presence of each pupil from the Holy Bible without sectarian comment. Teachers in making month- ly reports shall show on the same that they have complied with this section and county superintendents before drawing war- rants on public funds, shall ascertain that the payee thereof has complied with this section.” GEORGIA Constitution Bible Reading in the Schools The following amendment was passed in 1921: “Provided, however, that the Bible, including the Old and the New Testa- ment, shall be read in all the schools of this State receiving State funds, and that not less than one Chapter shall be read at some appropriate time during each school day. Upon the parent or guardian of any pupils filing with the teacher in charge of said pupil in the public schools of this State a writ- ten statement requesting that said pupil be excused from hearing the said Bible read as required under this Act, such teacher shall permit such pupil to withdraw while the reading of the Bible as required under this Act is in progress. Such a request in writ- ing shall be sufficient to cover the entire school year in which said request is filed.” IDAHO School Laws Sec. 1. That selections from the Standard American version of the Bible, to be selected from a list of passages furnished from time to time by the State Board of Education shall be read daily in all the Public Schools maintained and conducted by all the School districts of the State. SOCi2. That teachers employed in all such schools shall at the opening of each morning session of such schools, read, without comment or interpretation, from 12 to 20 verses from the Standard American version of the Bible, to be selected from a list of passages designated from time to time by the State Board of Education. The selection may be prepared in ad- vance, but the textual reading shall be rendered from the Bible. Sec. 3. The teacher shal! not comment upon, interpret or construe any’-of the passages or verses read. In response to questions from any pupil or pupils calling for, commenting upon, or ex- ~ 152 Digest of Laws planation, construction or interpretation of any of the verses or passages read, the teacher.shall without comment refer the in- quirer to his parents or guardian for reply. KENTUCKY School Laws The teacher in charge shall read or cause to be read a por- tion of the Bible daily in every class room, or session room of the common schools of the State of Kentucky in the presence of pupils there assembled and no child shall be required to read the Bible against the wish of his parent or guardian. The failure of any teacher to conform to this act, shall be cause for the revocation of his certificate in the manner provided by law. MASSACHUSETTS School Laws Sec. 31. A portion of the Bible shall be read daily in the public schools, without written note or oral comment; but a pupil whose parent or guardian informs the teacher in writing that he has conscientious scruples against it shall not be re- quired to read from any particular version, or to take any per- sonal part in the reading. The school committee shall not pur- chase or use in the public schools school-books favoring the tenets of any particular religious sect. MAINE School Laws To insure greater security in the faith of our fathers, to inculcate into the lives of the rising generation the spiritual values necessary to the well-being of our future civilizations, to develop those high moral and religious principles necessary to human happiness, to make available to the youth of our land, the Book which has been the inspiration of the greatest mas- terpieces of literature, art and music and which have been the strength of the great men and women of the Christian era, there shall be in all the public schools of the state, daily or at suitable intervals, readings from the Scriptures with special emphasis upon the Ten Commandments, the Psalms of David, Proverbs of Solomon, the Sermon on the Mount and the Lord’s Prayer Dettiis provided further that there shall be no denomi- national or sectarian comment or teaching and each student shall give respectful attention, but shall be free in his own forms of worship. . NEW JERSEY Section 173,, Article” VITI pare *ti oor ine sos. compilation of the school law provides as follows: “No religious service or exercise, except the reading of the Bible and the repeating of the Lord’s Prayer, shall be held in any school receiving any portion of the moneys appropriated for the support of public schools. Digest of Laws 153 In each public school classroom in the State. and in the presence of the scholars therein assembled, at least five verses from’ that portion of the Holy Bible known as the Old Testa- ment, shall be read, or cause to be read, without comment, at the opening of such school, upon each and everv school day, by the teacher in charge thereof; provided that whenever there is a general assemblage of school classes at the opening of such school day, then instead of such classroom reading, the prin- cipal or teacher in charge of such assemblage shall read at least five verses from said portion of the Holy Bible, or cause same to be read, in the presence of the assembled scholars as herein directed.” It will be noted that the New Testament is excluded by this law, and it is generally interpreted as forbidding rather than permitting this reading at the option of teachers and school boards. PENNSYLVANIA School Laws That at least 10 verses from the Holy Bible shall be read or caused to be read without comment at the opening of each and every public school upon each and every school day by the teacher in charge. Provided that where any teacher has other teachers under and subject to direction, then the teacher exercising this au- thority shall read the Holy Bible or cause it to be read as here- in directed. That if any school ieachee whose duty it shall be to read the Holy Bible or cause it to be read as directed in this act shall fail or omit so to do, said school teacher shall upon charges preferred for such failure or omission and proof of the same before the governing board of the school district be discharged. TENNESSEE School Laws Sec. 1. That at least 10 verses from the Holy Bible shall be read or caused to be read, without comment, at the opening of each and every public school upon each and every school day, by the teacher in charge; provided, the teacher does not read the same chapter more than twice during the same session; provided, that where any teacher has other teachers under and subject to direction, then the teacher exercising this authority shall read the Holy Bible or cause’it to be read as herein directed. Sec. 2. That if any school teacher, whose duty it shall be to read the Holy Bible, or cause it to be read, as directed in this act, shall fail or omit to do so, said school teacher shall, upon charges preferred for such failure and omission and proof 154 Digest of Laws of the same before the governing board of the school, be dis- charged. Sec. 3. That pupils may be excused from the Bible reading upon the written request of the parents. Public School Laws, 1920, p. 152. Three questions were asked of the Superintendent of Public Instruction in each of these states, as to the working of the law. | Most of them replied that it was working satis- factorily, that there was little or no friction between the parents and school authorities, and only slight trou- ble has been caused by outside agitators. Only Dela- ware reported that the law was not working satisfac- torily, but gave no explanation. SECTION IT : Permissive Laws In the following states either by constitutional provision, or specific law or by executive order or common consent the Bible is read in the schools where there is no determined op- position to it. MISSISSIPPI The constitution of the state of Mississippi reads as follows: Article 1 Section 18 “No test as a religious qualification for office shall be re- quired, and no preference shall be given by law to any religious sect or mode of worship; but the free enjoyment of all religious sentiments and the different modes of worship shall be held sacred. The right hereby secured shall not be construed to justify acts of licentiousness, injurious to morals or dangerous to the peace and safety of the state or to exclude the Holy Bible from use in any public school in this state.” The following states have permissive legislative enactments : INDIANA Acts of 1865 Sec. 167, reads— “The Bible shall not be excluded from the public schools of this State.” Digest of Laws 155 IOWA Section 4258 of the Code, 1924: sentene Bible shall not be excluded from any public school or institution in the state, nor shall any child be required to read it contrary to the wishes of his parent or guardian.” Usage has left the decision largely to the teachers in this State. KANSAS Section 163 School Laws reads— No sectarian or religious doctrine shall be taught or incul- cated in any of the public schools, but nothing in this section shall be construed to prohibit the reading of the Holy Scriptures. Sec. 214. “No sectarian doctrine shall be taught or inculcated in any of the public schools, but the Holy Scriptures without note or comment may be used therein.” NORTH DAKOTA Sec. 1388. The Bible shall not be deemed a sectarian book. It shall not be excluded from any public school. It may, at the option of the teacher be read in school without sectarian com- ment, not to exceed Io minutes daily. No pupil shall be required to read it or be present in the schoolroom during the reading theseof contrary to the wishes of his parents or guardian or other person having him in charge. General School Laws, 1910, p. I12. SOUTH DAKOTA Sec. 7659. No sectarian doctrine may be taught or incul- cated in any of the public schools of the State, but the Bible without sectarian comment, may be read therein. School Laws, 1921, p.. 94. OKLAHOMA Sec. 329. No sectarian or religious doctrine shall be taught or inculcated in any of the public schools of this State; but nothing in this section shall be construed to prohibit the read- ing of the Holy Scriptures. School Laws, 1921, p. 60. The following states allow the reading of the Bible by executive order in the absence of law. MARYLAND The city of Baltimore requires Bible reading. In the rest of the State there is no rule established by law, but the practice is quite general. 156 Digest of Laws NORTH CAROLINA A former State Superintendent of Public Instruction ruled “That it would be proper to read the Bible in the opening exer- cises without comment.” The schools are generally doing so under this ruling. RHODE ISLAND A decision made by the Commissioner of Public Schools 70 years ago holds “that the reading of the Bible may not be required and is not forbidden. The teacher may read the Bible in school or may not as the teacher sees fit, respecting his own conscience and reasonably the consciences of his pupils.” The following states have settled the matter in favor of reading the Bible in the public schools by -judi- cial decision, which places the final authority in the -hands of the local school boards. NEBRASKA Nebraska Constitution, Art. viii Sec. 11. No sectarian in- struction shall be allowed in any school or institution supported in whole or part by the public funds set apart for educational purposes; nor shall the State accept any grant, conveyance, or bequest of money, lands, or other property to be used for sec- tarian purposes. The Supreme Court has ruled.— The law does not forbid the use of the Bible in the public schools. The point where the courts may rightfully interfere to pre- vent the use of the Bible in a public school is where legitimate use has. degenerated into abuse, where a teacher employed to give secular instruction has violated the constitution by becoming a sectarion propagandist. Whether it is prudent or politic to permit Bible reading in the public schools is a question for school authorities, but whether the practice of Bible reading has taken the form of sec- tarian instruction is a question for the courts to determine up- on evidence. Every alleged violation must be established by competent proof. OHIO The court can not by injunction prevent the board of edu- cation from adopting and enforcing a rule requiring the reading of the Bible as a part of the opening evercises of the school. It rests with boards of education to determine what instruc- tion shall be wsed in the public schools. ‘Nessle v. Hum, 1 Ohio N. P. 120. Digest of Laws 157 TEXAS Texas constitution, Art. I, Sec. 7. “No money shall be appropriated or drawn from the treasury for the benefit of any sect, or religious society, theological or religious seminary; nor shall property belonging to the State be appropriated for any such purposes. Art. vii. Sec. 5. And no law shall ever be enacted appro- priating any part of the permanent or available school fund to any other purpose whatever; nor shall the same, or any part thereof, ever be appropriated to or used for the support of any sectarian school; and the available school fund herein provided shall be distributed to the several counties according to their scholastic population and applied in such manner as may be provided by law.” The Supreme Court has held, “The holding of morning exercises in the public schools, consisting of the reading by the teacher without comment of non-sectarian extracts from the Bible, King James version, and repeating the Lord’s Prayer and the singing of appropriate songs, in which the pupils are invited, but not required to join, does not violate Constitution Art. I, Sec. 7 or Art. vii, Sec. 5.” Note. The valuable points of this court decision are that the court holds that such exercises need not be sectarian, do not convert the school into a place of worship or make it sec- tarian, or a religious society within the meaning of the con- stitution. ; This decision also holds that the school board is competent to decide the character of such exercises In following this rule the school board recently forbade the teaching of Evolution in the schools and ordered all mention of it deleted from the text books and the term “development” substituted for it. In the following states it is a more or less general practice by sufferance and custom without special law: Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Maryland, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Oregon, South Carolina, Vermont, Virginia and West Virginia. In Montana the same rule is in operation, but the Bible is seldom read. The custom is that where any objection is made the local school boards exclude it. 158 Digest of Laws VERMONT _ In a Vermont case, which has been widely cited in cases involving religious rights, it was held that a pupil may be ex- cluded from school for absence without leave, though such ab- sence was for a religious purpose and in compliance with the parent’s wishes. NEW MEXICO Constitution Art. If Sec. IT Every man shall be free to worship God according to the dictates of his own conscience and no person shall ever be molested or denied any civil or political right or privilege on account of his religious opinion or mode of religious worship. No person shall be required to attend any place of worship or support any religious sect or denomination, nor shall any pre- ference be given by law to any religious denomination or mode of worship. Art. 12 Sec. 9 No religious test shall ever be required as a condition of admission into the public schools or any educational institution of the State, either as teacher or student, and no teacher or stu- dent of such school or institution shall ever be required to at- tend or participate in any religious services whatsoever. School Laws—4983 The Normal University . Said institution shall be forever strictly non-sectarian in its character and management, and no creed or system of religion shall be taught, practiced or exercised in it. This is the most positive set of specifications in any con- stitution, yet they have not so far been held to exclude the Bible reading from the public schools according to Bulletin 15 of 1923, Department of the Interior. NEW YORK While the constitution of this state forbids religious teach- ing in the public schools, the reading of the Bible is permitted at the opening exercises providing they are held before the de- signated hour of opening and are voluntary as far as the pupils are concerned. The reading is thus left to the discretion of the teacher. The following information is furnished by the state De- partment of Education. In a decision rendered June 5th, 1872, Abram Weaver, State superintendent of public instruction, said: “There is no authority in the law to use, as a matter of right, any portion of the regular school hours in conducting any religious exer- cise, at which the attendance of the scholars is made compul- sory. On the other hand, there is nothing to prevent the read- Digest of Laws 159 ing of the Scriptures or the performance of other religious exercises by the teacher in the presence of such of the scholars as may attend voluntarily, or by the direction of their parents or guardians, if it be done before the hour fixed for the opening of the school or after the dismissal of the school.” On May 27th, 1884, State Superintendent, W. B. Ruggles, rendered a decision of like nature. _ Section 1151 of the charter of New York City, permits Bible reading in the schools of that city. Section IIT In the following States the practice is forbidden by the Constitution or its interpretation by the courts. ARIZONA The State constitution (Art. XI, Sec. 7) prohibits sectarian instruction in the public schools, and the school laws make it unlawful for any public school teacher to “use any sectarian or denominational books, or teach any sectarian doctrine, or conduct any religious exercises in his school.” The State board of education has ruled that children should not be given any religious instruction at school during regular school hours. The question of holding such exercises outside of school time as in New York has not been raised. CALIFORNIA _ Two sections of the Constitution of California bear upon this subject. Article I, Section 4 The free exercise and enjoyment of religious profession and worship without discrimination or preference shall forever be guaranteed in this State. Sec. 8, Article 9. “Nor shall any sectarian or denominational doctrine be taught or instruction thereon be permitted directly or indirectly in any of the common schools of this State. A case pending in the Courts of that State since 1922, Evans vs. Selma Union High School District, which was decided in favor of Evans in the lower court, which excluded the Bible from all school libraries. The Supreme sitting court in Bank January 24, 1924, reversed this lower court and in substance said: The King James version of the Bible is not a sectarian, partisan or denominational publication, and that the mere plac- ing of copies thereof in a public school library is not contrary to the constitution and statute of California relating to re- ligious toleration and requiring school authorities to exclude from the public schools and school libraries all books and pub- lications or papers of a sectarian, partisan, or denominational character. 160 Digest of Laws Note: The court avoids decision as to whether reading from the Bible to the pupils or using it as a basis for instruc- tion is permissible, and the present policy of the Superintendent of public instruction seems to be to allow the local Boards and teachers to go no further in this work than he is compelled to. As this book goes to press a campaign is on to amend the constitution. ILLINOIS Constitution Art. 11 Sec. 3. The free exercise and enjoyment of re- ligious profession and worship without discrimination shall for- ever be guaranteed; and no person shall be denied any civil or political right, privilege, or capacity on account of his re- ligious opinions; but the liberty of conscience hereby secured shall not be construed to dispense with oaths or affirmations, excuse acts of licentiousness, or justify practices inconsistent with the peace or safety of the State. No person shall be re- quired to attend or support any ministry or place of worship against his consent, nor shall any preference be given by law to any religious denomination or mode of worship. Article viii, Sec. 3. Neither the general Assembly nor any county, city, town, township, school district, or other public corporation shall ever make any appropriation, or pay from any public fund whatever, anything in aid of any church or sec- tarian purpose, or to help support or sustain any school, aca- demy, seminary, college, university, or other literary or scientific ‘ institution controlled by any church or sectarian denomination whatever; nor shall any grant or donation of land, money, or other personal property ever be made by the State or any such public corporation to any church or for any sectarian purpose. The interpretation of the law then is (1) Free enjoyment of religious worship includes freedom not to worship. Section 3 of article 2 of the constitution, guar- anteeing “the free exercise and enjoyment of religious profes- sion and worship, without discrimination’ includes freedom from being compelled to join in any religious worship. (2) Children attending public school can not be compelled to join in religious worship. The reading of the Bible in the public schools, the singing of hymns and the repeating of the Lord’s prayer in concert, during which time the pupils are re- quired to rise, bow their heads and fold their hands, constitutes worship within the meaning of the constitution, and pupils can- not be compelled to join therein against their own or their parent’s wishes. (3) The constitution forbids giving sectarian instruction in public schools. The provision of section 3 of article 8 of the constitution forbidding the use of public school funds in aid of any sectarian purpose, is a prohibition of the giving of sectarian instruction in the public schools. Digest of Laws 161 (4) Reading of the Bible in the public schools constitutes sectarian instruction. The reading of the Bible in public schools constitutes the giving of sectarian instruction within the mean- ing of section 3 of article 8 of the constitution.” LOUISIANA Article IV “Every person has the natural right to worship God accord- ing to the dictates of his conscience, and no law shall be passed respecting an establishment of religion.” By Court action in the Ross case, the school board was enjoined against enforcing a rule opening the schools by a reading from the Bible on the ground that a teacher could not read from the New Testament without giving instruction in Christianity and discriminating against the Jews. To the posi- tion “that such pupils might be excused” the Court replied “that such exclusion puts him in a class by himself, it subjects him to a religious stigma.” This was reaffirmed in Herrold vs. Parish Board. MISSOURI Constitution Article I, Section 5. That all men have a natural and indefeasible right to wor- ship Almighty God according to the dictates of their own con- science, that no person can on account of his. religious opinions be rendered ineligible to any office of trust or profit under the State. ... but the liberty of conscience hereby secured shall not be construed to excuse acts of licentiousness nor to justify practices inconsistent with the good order, peace or safety, of this State or with the rights of others.” Sec. 6. No person can be compelled to erect, support or attend any place or system of worship, or maintain or support any priest, minister, preacher or teacher of any sect, church, creed or denomination, but if any person shall voluntarily make a contract for any such object; he shall be held to the perform- ance of the same. Sec. 7. No money shall ever be taken from the public treasury directly or indirectly, in aid of any church, sect, or denomination of religion, or in any aid of any priest, minister, preacher or teacher, thereof, and no preference shall be given to, nor any discrimination made against, any church, sect, or creed of religion, or any form of religious faith or worship. This has been construed to exclude the reading of the Bible in the schools, but not to forbid giving school credits for Bible work done outside school hours or 162 Digest of Laws the furnishing of sufficient helps to accredited teachers who are doing such work. NEVADA Article I, Section 4 The free exercise and enjoyment of religious profession and worship without discrimination or preference shall forever be allowed in this state, and no person shall be rendered incom- petent to be a witness on account of his opinions on matters of religious belief, but the liberty of conscience hereby secured shall not be so construed as to excuse acts of licentiousness or justify practices inconsistent with the peace or safety of this state. The State superintendent of public instruction reports that no Bible reading, except study of references in literature, is allowed in the public schools. The Nevada constitution provides that any district which allows “instruction of a sectarian char- acter’ in its school may be deprived of its proportion of the interest of the public school fund, and this has been construed as excluding Bible reading. This is an inference from the words of the constitution which has not yet been passed upon by the courts. UTAH Article I, Section 4 No public money or property shall be appropriated for, or applied to any religious worship, exercise or instruction, or for the support of any ecclesiastical establishment. Article 10 Sec. The legislature shall provide for the establishment and maintenance of a uniform system of public schools, which shall be open to all children of the state and be free from sectarian control. Sec. 12. Neither religious or partisan tests or qualifications shall be required of any person as a condition of admission as a teacher or student into any public educational institution of the state. The State Superintendent gives the following interpretation of these provisions: The state constitution and statutes forbid religious or de- nominational instruction in the public schools. To avoid the practice of comments which could very well be more or less personal views, and to avoid interpretation which in many cases might easily be made by the manner of reading scriptural pas- sages, it has become customary to have no Bible reading in the schools of the state. Digest of Laws 163 WASHINGTON Section IT Absolute freedom of conscience in all matters of religious belief, sentiment and worship, shall be guaranteed to every in- dividual and no one shall be molested or disturbed in person or property on account of religion, but the liberty of conscience hereby secured shall not be so construed as to excuse acts. of licentiousness or justify practices inconsistent with the peace and safety of the state. No public money or property shall be appropriated for or applied to any religious worship, exercise or instruction or the support of any religious establishment. Amendment provided that this article shall not be so construed as to forbid the employment by the state of a chaplain for the state penitentiary and for such of the state reformatories as in the discretion of the legislature may seem justified. Extracts from the Code of Public Instruction, 1923: Article I, Section 11: * * * * No public money or property shall be appropriated for or applied to any religious worship, exercise or instruction, or the support of any religious establish- ment. * * * * Article IX, Section 4: All schools maintained or supported wholly or in part by the public funds shall be forever free from sectarian contro] or influence. 1. “The giving of credits for Bible study done outside of school, furnishing an outline of study, conducting examinations, and the rating of papers, covering the “historical, biographical, narrative and literary features of the Bible,” violates Const., Art. 1, Sec. 11, providing that no public money shall be applied to any religious worship, exercise or instruction.” State ex rel. Dearle v. Frazier, 102 Wash. 360. A campaign has been on for several years to amend the constitution. WISCONSIN Wisconsin Constitution, Art. I, sec. 18. The right of every man to worship Almighty God, according to the dictates of his own conscience, shall never be infringed; nor shall any man be compelled to attend, erect, or support any place of worship, or to maintain any ministry against his consent; nor shall any control of, or interference with, the rights of conscience be permitted, or any preference be given by law to any religious establishments, or modes of worship, nor shall any money be drawn from the treasury for the benefit of religious societies, or religious or theological seminaries. The use of any version of the Bible as a textbook in the public schools, and the stated reading thereof in such schools by the teachers, without restriction, though unaccompanied by any comment, has “a tendency to inoculate sectarian ideas,’ with- in the meaning of sec. 8 chapter 251, Laws of 1883, and is “sec- 164 Digest of Laws fi] Permitter Ga Forbidden WHERE THE BIBLE IS READ OR EXCLUDED tarian instruction” within the meaning of sec. 3 Art. X Consti- tution. But textbooks founded upon the fundamental teachings of the Bible, or which contain extracts therefrom, and such por- tions of the Bible as are not sectarian may be used in the se- cular instruction of the pupils and to inculcate good morals. The fact that the petitioners are at liberty to withdraw from the school room during the reading of the Bible, does not remove the ground of complaint. The stated reading of the Bible as a textbook in the public schools may be worship, and the schoolhouse thereby become, for the time being, a “place of worship,” within the meaning Ofisecs 16; P Art, f= Cotse Such reading being religious instruction, the money drawn from the State treasury for the support of a school in which the Bible is so read is for the benefit of a “religious seminary,” within the meaning of said section. WYOMING Constitution—Article I Sec. 18. The free exercise and enjoyment of religious pro- fession and worship without discrimination or preference shall be forever guaranteed in this state, and no person shall be ren- dred incompetent to hold any office of trust or profit or to serve aS a witness or juror because of his opinion on any matter of belief whatever, but the liberty of conscience hereby secured shall not be so construed as to excuse acts of licentiousness or to justify practices inconsistent with the peace or safety of the state. Digest of Laws 105 Sec. 19. No money of the state shall ever be given or appropriated to any sectarian or religious society or institution. Article VII No sectarian instruction, qualifications or tests shall be im- parted, exacted, applied or in any manner tolerated in the schools, of any grade or character, controlled by the state, nor shall attendance be required at any religious service therein, nor shall any sectarian tenets or doctrines be taught or favored in any public school or institution that may be established under this constitution. . The State Superintendent rules that this forbids the reading of the Bible in the public schools. GUBYOLAW In addition to these state laws forty-two of the large cities including New York and Baltimore have special charter provisions or legislation either permit- ting or requiring the reading of the Bible in the schools. 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RALITIOL 6 CS MAEM Ale steece ORI een ett wicca Cine Ghee 6 cowie 1.00 Digest of the Sabbath Laws, by Richard Cameron Wylie Apis: ADPIG Sed BVGiilOnemeetens Ceo sain an Pere Gece cistiee e LS A Manual of Civil Government, by David McAllister, DD eit caters sates ete Cloth $1. 25; Wrapped Manilla .60 y The Bible Indispensible in Ih ducation, by S. M. Ellis, DDL) Sarees tel ie etahatar oot Cloth $1.00; Wrapped Manilla .40 PAMPHLETS The Relation of the Civil Government To the BIDLG Eee, tocar tthe sc orci cRyode etka eyelets. Gir suse SOS ee S150 IPHismUS mam C OTIStlaAnio Ns LlON Gemisis co ctse cities .05 3.50 OhvistianwGiZenship ests cts ster. eee cl orelaaie cise. .05 150 » Shall the Bible Reading Be Required ......... -06 eb O hie HatihnmOLehrGedOMin. 5 hiebaatads seer tein. che iene .05 1.50 > The Protestant Right to Maintain Protestant ae USM comics Cc coc eto coe tare Chavedene coo) ser etenesete .05 1.50 iWinye sl Weft, thes Mormon, Ghurchiaces stele pie 'sisieas ss .05 3.00 The Treason of the Mormon Kingdom ........ 50D 1.50 Ten Reasons Why Mormons Cannot Be Counted OUTUStIANISMES beware ee tere sachet cree se ch eb eeehet Seong it ates .05 3.50 Mormonism Revealed In Government Investiga- CLOG arte reren anetolcs cite nave lecatenc ves ccrtane iene ve ah cre fo brs, sie .05 1.50 _.. Polygamy and the Mormon Empire .......... .05 1.50 EDISML SR OLLI Stl Are Na tLOMe cntan stetemener oie cecieme spate. .05 1.50 LOmoI UT KN OWE GO Martti. 6 sre ttake tis icin sce sues .05 1.50 ATCm DIV OLCOmOLIM Csr ar Werth sedi eth etaetuscuseey sent 2 :05 E50 OCIA UTIL Mey deete els ence otls ier edey cneyel s/s) srereuaicre s .05 1.50 SU NE SA DE oan by” Vas clk ances concent che erICn OME Gree nr eeLe eines .05 1.50 PeOure tOrelonmi OPULALION UW eieace eo ctteu mers te sie, ces) oes 705 1.50 THE NEW CHRISTIAN CIVIL GOVERNMENT SERIES TITLES By William Parsons, D.D. I. Wanted—A Christian Political Science. II. The Bible—Whose Book Is It? III. The Decisive National Act. IV. Religious and Moral Illiteracy. V. Our Civil Rest Day. VI. Federal Control of Family Relations. Reprints of Former Issues By J. S. Martin, D.D. VII. The National Reform Association. VIII. Christian Citizenship. IX. Mormonism Revealed by Government Investigation. We are offering this series of leaflets, 60 Pages, for 20c. In lots of 50 or more, $1.00 per hundred. For any of the above, address THE NATIONAL REFORM ASSOCIATION 209 Ninth Street Pittsburgh, Pa. The National Reform Association Is an Organization Founded in 1867 Chartered under the Laws of the State of Pennsylvania in 1907 The Work of the Association is to teach that neg- cole phase of Christianity which presents the relation O JESUS CHRIST TOseTHE NATIONS OF Cae EARTH It is carried on by two departments. FIRST—The Publication Department, which uses re- gularly the Christian Statesman and such books and pamphlets as are used in presenting the GOS- PEL of the KINGDOM. SECOND—By a speakers’ department which maintains a force of lecturers who present this work in whatever locality it seems timely. The Practical Phases of Moral Reform Urged Especially are 1. Law Enforcement, especially as regard Prohibi- tion. 2. Uniform Marriage and Divorce Laws, under Federal Control. 3. Better Sabbath Rest Day Laws. 4. The BIBLE in the public schools. 5. Clean Amusement for all the people. The Officers of the Association are President?) eee ee James S. Martin, D.D. Vice-President pie ie eee James A. Cossy, D.D. SECLKELATY iss. oak bee ee R. W. REDPATH DrVedgsurer ik. whee eee Knox M. Youne Assistants Tréasurer ict on tee HENRY PEEL The General Office of the Association is located at 209 NINTH STREET, PITTSBURGH, PA. Any locality attempting to improve conditions in any of these lines of SOCIAL WELFARE will do well to correspond with the Association and secure their co-operation. Date Due ° a. . 2 is suas es aes ee i vee? ey ee 7 Tt al : 4 * "ba —', 3X T Wi 4 oe A "i. wm £ WET A ea b é eo ar’ 7 is J @ eoree i ~ ba | fol yaohd Aye , sy sme 7 " — a i A i \ * ears | oo ae 8 : Oo: 5 ‘ y ‘ a + me 2 A j iy i = | 2 " re a} <= A 4 Deo A me i: . , 7 : = Les Sen ee — ‘ e ‘ f , . =e ’ . me ‘ at erate. a ‘ s ee Phy ye : w bd * > ade LES as ae Z Ae C F s ” fog ve en ei if, @ os i = i Ps te 4 ay ui Co f rir i Yor N Bey : OF ) Wk - 2 bg ws j | 7 ee = ae ti >) © aa 8 3 a oh : ns 5 “= ti} . “>. © ke Se viv 5 a AY ‘ \ WON A A NY LC111 .E47 The Bible indispensable in education, rinceton Theological Seminary—Speer Library iii 1 1012 00005 58 (UUW WY ROY \