The Fremont weekly journal. [volume] (Fremont, Sandusky County, Ohio) 1867-1877, 1870-02-18
/ he Bible in the Public Schools.
DeseI.Ion of the superior Court
THE INJUNCTION SUSTAINED.

As before announced would be
the case, the Superior Court Of Gin
cinnati, rendered its descision, on
Tuesday last, upon the Injunction to
restrain the Board of Education
from carrying into effect the resolu-
tions passed by the Board, prohibit
ing the reading of the Bible in the
Schools. All three judges read their
opinions those of Judges Hagan
and Storer, sustaining the injunction
and that Of Judge Taft dissenting.
We give below a synopsis o,
Judge Storer's opinion as covering
the entire ground. 1t is possible
the case may be carried to the Sup
rene Court where, we have no
doubt, the decision of the Superior
Court will be re-aflr1ned.
JUDGE sToRFR's OPINION.
Judge Storer began by q brief
statement of the case, making pro-
minent the fact that the practice of
reading the Bible in the schools
was begun in this city fifty year ago
and had continued ever since: but
provisions had been made in that
time to excuse from that exercise
any pupil whose parent or guardian
/, | desired it. To this rule noSexcep-
ton was taken until, in 1859, the
School Board passed these resolu-
tions. The defendants justify this
action of the School Board on the
ground that many taxpayers are not
believers in the bible; that men ers
of the Catholic Church do not believe
King James version is correct and
complete, and that others are by dis
belief precluded by conscience from
attending the schools. We will dis
miss all reference to past history
and all the discussion of authentici-
ty and authority of the Scriptures.
Nothing is gained by the assertion
that the Bible is not the recorded
will Of God. This is the same weap-
on that is always used by the dis
ciples of uhbelief. We believe in the
plenary inspiration Of the Holy Strip
lures. We dismiss also the refer
ences to persecution of Christians.
There never can be any just denial
of the truth by showing the incon-
sistency of those who profess to
know and teach it. Separated from
all irrelevant matter the PROPOSE
tions are, had the defendants, in the
exercises of their discretion, the right
to declare that the Bible should not
be read in the schools? If no such
power existed, may this court re-
strain the board? The provision of
the constitution recognized the ex-
istence Of a Supreme being, but gives
no preference to sects. The pro-
lection it gives to religious worship
We may well conclude is not intend
ed to apply to those who, like the
Atlsqjans, worship an unknown
God. II Is the GhristjaH religion
that is recognized by the consfitu-
ton. The Legislature has sustain
ed this TieF by exempting the fami-
" Bible from execution, by proyid,
ing that each apprentice shallibe pro-
vided with one, that . Bible shall be
in the hands of every inmate of q
jail, of the penitentiary and of refor-
matory institutions. And all this is
at the public expense, and it is now
claimed that the bible cannot be
read in common schools. Nay more
our halls of legislation and our
courts Of justice are supplied with
copies of the Bible, and It is only
from common schools that it is
sought 70 be expelled, thus making
them only an exception to the gen |
eral recognition of the Bible as the |
exponent Of morality and religion.
The lowest view we can take of re-
ligion, contemplated and recognized
by the constitution, is that which
acknowledges a supreme being not a
creature of imagination, but as re-
vealed il our consciousness of wor-
ship of that being. We conclude
that the revealed. religion of the
Bible is that which is meant by the
Constitution and has been recogniz-
ed by the Legislation of the Gener
al Assembly. On no other ground
can blasphemy be made criminal.
The defendants claim that the con-
struction referred to in the bill of
rights, means the cultivation of the
sense of right and wrong, and that
the only religion meant by the in
strument is that written on human
nature. This was a bold proposition
hard to question on any other ground
than that which iustities the Jugger-
naut, the sacrifice of the Hindoo
widow, or cannibalism of the South
Sea Islands. Without the teaching
of Bible Re have no unvarying
code of morals or of human duty,
But the defendants say the natural
is to be developed. What
is the process? What high and ho-
ly motive is presented to the pupil
who is deprived of the teachings of
the Bible? BY this rule, there would
be no standard, and every man would
be "a law unto himself" The strife
of opinion would be uncontrolled,
and the moral power of the country
would he dependent on individual
caprice,
We do not amt the assertion that {
the Bible leads to sectarianism
This is the work ofman; not of God
The scriptures teach we are all of
one origin, but the human lesson is
different. We learn from the Bible
to forgive injuries; not so in the pro-
foundest systems of human philoso-
ply, 4 volume that teaches inmor- !
Lality cannot teach eXclusiyeness.
The Bible has suffered from It's
friends. Ifit had been left free from :
The CLOSES of men, it would now be
profitable for doctrine in its purity -,
note or comment. The
of men lead to sectarian- :
sm, not the Bible itself. :
The claim that the conscience of ,
-he Catholic and the Jew is violated
S not to be considered, because there ,
S no eompulsion Ia either case. The !