The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1839-12-31 00:00:00

He makes an adroit use of history, and grojes in it that
he may rake together the follies. and crimes °flings, priests,
and nobles. He thinketh no-evil of the multitude. •He says
the voice of the people is the voice of God. His memory
disdains to chronicle popular iolences and tumults. He
asks you scornfully to define " a gentleman," and says—
" When Adam delved and Eve span,
Where was then the. gentleinan ?"
He loves low language, and thinks vulgarity wit, and coarse-
ness humour. He talks largely of philanthropy, and gives
away little in charity. He has qmpathies for the blaek
slaves of the West Indies, but cares not for the interests' of
factory children at home. He prates loudly about edneation,
as a blessing of which he himself feels .the want. He •is
nosy, disputatious, and offensive in society ; and has to
keep his nose in a saponaceous state, as it is in constant
danger of being pulled. The terms " Radical" and gen-
tleman" are contradictory, and be painfully feels this to be
the fact. . Who, therefore, would wish to be a Radical?
He has no imagination. He ptefers the price-current to
a poem, and measures everything by the rule of three. Talk
to him of elevating thoughts, and he smiles'; of high associ-
ations, and he looks incredulous ; of spiritualising influences,
and he laughs outright. Ile thinks that man's happiness
depends wholly on physical comfort, and makes no other
provision for his welfare than if his soul were a nonentity.
Change with him is the element of existence. Because it
is true that society is progressive, he thinks that all innova-
tion must be improvement. He forgets that the crab some-
times walks backwards.

SCRIPTURAL EDUCATION

TO•TIIE EDITOR' OF THE 'LIVERPOOL STANDARD,

SlR.—May I again solicit a place in your, valqable .paper
for the few following observations ? • •

The school question now so-much agitated is certainly one
of the verytiirst impOrtance. The question in fat is, whe-
• there the rising gdneration. shall be taught tbe value of the
scriptures as -the only law given by God to ditect them in
their faith and conduct,. and " able to•make wise unto salva-
tion," or that they should be taught to underValuethe scrip-
tures, and look to •the teaching of men rather. than to the
word of God, The observations I shall Make have particular
reference to the principles of the Town Council, and the
schools established bythem and-their reasons for the esta-
blishment of such schools beingenitmtlied in a pamphlet some
time ago published by-Mr. Blackburn, I shall notice thoie
reasons as stated in this pamphlet. - Mr. B.'s first reason is,
" that the property committed to the management of the
Council does not. belong.- to one party or sect, but to the
whole community : the obvious duty of the Council, there-
fore is, to render them subservient to-the benefit of all." I
would here just ask Mr. B. andlliose• of the Council who
agree with him, do they believe that 'every public body, as
well as every private individual is only an agent of whatever
property comes into its .hands ? If they believe this, their
duty most clearly. isi to use all to promote God's kingdom
and glory in the world ; and how can they think that giving
a part of such property for the purpose of enabling the ene-
mies of God to propagate more extensively their principles of
rebellion against. hen, is their duty, and pleasing to hini ?
His next reason is, that -if the -scriptures were- permitted to
be. used in-the schools, the parents -of Roman Catholic chil-
dren would not permit them to attend. ' Now, Mr B. might
have most easily learnt that this is contrary to facts; he might
have known that there were at that' time about 100,000 Ro-
man Catholics in schools in Ireland, reading and committing
to memory the authorized version of the ScriptUrds ; and if
funds could be obtained to establish such schools, five times
that number would be receiving such education, and this' in
despite of all the anathemas and penalties of their clergy.
The fact.is, the laity are most anxious to possess and-read
the Scriptures, but the clergy are decidedlly opposed to their
doing so. Again, Mr. B. says, " all the Scriptures are good,
and I would like to ee any one reading the smallest portion
of them." Is not this plausible sophistry introduced 'to
cover the impropriety of keeping a part of the Scriptures
from the scholars ? Surely every one at all acqnainted w:th
the Scriptures must know, that nearly the whole of the Scrip-
tures might be put into a book, and an excellent book of
morals it would undoubtedly be, yet should this book he put
into the hands of learners,. as being part of the Scriptures
proper for them to read to teach the will of God for their
salvation, the book must lead them into gross errors, as it
would cause them to believe that by their own moral conduct
they would merit God's favour, and secure their own eternal
happiness. Again, Mr. B. says, "we do not think it right
to interfere with the dictates of conscience," -Then, of course
it would be improper to prevent those whose consciences dic- •
tate to them,,that to kill the people of God is doinga goodwork ;
as preventing them. would be interfering with their conscience.
Conscience in man is just regulated by the ,principles he has
imbibed ; therefore a wrongly directed conscience should be
interfered with, and surely the conscience which cannot bea-
to hear or read the word of God, cannot be rightly directed.
But the root of the whole error is contained in the following
paragraph in the ,pamphlet. Mr. B. writes, " There is
something absOlutely ludicrous in the way in which men
talk about the use of the authorised verson in schools, as
though it were identical with the communication of religious
instruction. It Seems to, be in the estimation of some per-
sons almost an axiom, that when this version is used, there
is, of necessity, religious teaching, and where it is not used,
Such teaching, cannot exist. There is another, a double fal-
lacy; you may use the authorised version largely and con-
stantly in a school, and yet the influence produced upon the
minds of the pupils may be such, in consequence, and as
the direct eject Ails use, as is more calculated to make
therm infidels than christigns ; and on the other hand, the
Very hest kind, and the very largest degree of really valuable
christian teaching may be carried on, of which such an insti-
tution is capable, where eeither the authorised version, nor
any other of the whole Bible is ever seen. The influence of
a school, in this respect, depends incomparably more upon
the Character of the teacher and superintendents, than upon
the-books used. In one school the Bible maybe constantly
in the hands of the children; atict yet they may be all the
while learning to despise it, antlieceiving iinpressions in rela.
Lion to it, which will he of ruinous tende,ncy in after life, and
will never be effaced. In another, selections and abstract*
alone may be used, but the pupils may acquire an extensive
knowledge of the contents and aciiuiie.itiii
t,t,--sriakiraarferert-heu—it;--and repait to it
in their subsequent coin-se, as an instructor And guide. Better
that' the Bible were never seen in many schools in this
country than used, or rather abused as it is, unless it be
treated with reverence, and eniployed solely for the purpose
of communicating religious instruction, it had far better never
be used at all." One would be led to think that this para-
graph-was extracted verbatim from some Renthut Catholic
writer, for these ate their principles, and they are stated by
theta in the'Yery same way. Is it possible that Mr. 13. be-
lieves this of the scriptures, which " are able to make
wise unto salvation, and the knowledge of which giveth light
and understanding to the simple ?" How can any one believe
that the law which God has given for the guidance of his
rational creatures should be so written that the perusal of it
is calculated to produce infidelity, and that the teaching of
men without the Bible is preferable to allowingpupils to read
and use the whOle book of God at school? Surely there could
nothing be written. mere calculated to, disparage and bring
into disrepute the word of God than the principles contained
in the Whole' of the 'paragraph. They are, in fact, the very
fundamental panciples of the Church. of Rome, and from
which all the'etrors of that church have sprung. In the.ex-
tract quoted as above, Mr. B. gives a reason why the scrip-
tures should not be used, or read in , schools, that the pupils
in such schools-May' learn to despise them. Most extraordi-
nary reasoning Indeed, that because all the readers of the
scriptures are not benefitted by them, some may be made
the worse by it, and therefore the scriptures should not be
read ! The same reason Will apply with equal force to the
preaching of the gospel ; for all who hear it are not benefitted
by it, but many made worse, for the word of God is the
" savour of life into life, or the sayour,of death unto death,"
unto all who hear it.

When these kingdoins are threatened with the estabilsh-
ment of such schools, and when in one part of them such
schools are established and in operation, it is surely the duty
of every lover of the Word of God, who wishes the principles
taught in that Word to be propagated and preserved in the
world, to lay aside all minor differences of sects or parties,
and join as one man in the strongest remonstrances to go-
vernment not to support any school where the authorised
version of the Scriptures is not put into the hands of every
scholar, and made a class-boOk for a part of the day; and
also to urge on government the necessity of changing the
system of education in Ireland, so as that the Scriptures
must be used in the schools by all the scholars.
ALEX. M'CREERY.