Wyandot County Republican. [volume] (Upper Sandusky, Ohio) 1869-1903, 1870-01-28
NXand0t County Republican.
From the Hearth and Home.
After the Bible What 2

WcIc dUOuG W Will ucW lduIclS Ny
excluding the Bible from our public
schools.
Every day the conviction is grow
ing that in republic the greatest
danger must come from popular ig
norance. Therefore, State funds
are lavished upon educational ap-
pliances which shall be common to
all. The ignorant man is a nuisance
that must be abated at whatever
cost,
But there is large and noisy
class of religious sectarians-who
are also tax-payers-who say: "Ed-
ucational privileges are not common,
while you persist in reading from a
book which by our creed-so far as
! public use goes--is held uder ban !;
therefore, pay US our share of edu-
cational moneys and let us teach by
our own methods"
Whereupon there is outcry: sNo
sectarian teachingt'
The Romanist demurrer replies ::
"You canaot declare against secta-
rianism while you follow it's ruling
in ordering public reading of the
Scriptures.
There are those who say here !:
'This is fair; give the Romanist
their share-the Jews theirs.' But
there are others, and these in grow
ing and earnest numbers, who say !:
Estate moneys shall 60 to the teach
ing of no creed; and if there are
those to whom the Bible-reading is
stumbling block, who will aban-
don it, rather than yield the point,
and shake the stability of the pub
lie school system"
Twenty years ago, sucn utterance
would have startled the Protestant
masses of the cauntry, as it surely
does not to day. Why is this?
There is a large class of Protes-
tants leaning toward relationism,
who are losing old veneration for
t. Bible; the scientists, they s: Y
speak sightingly of it; the miracles s
are in the way of possible explana-
ton; at least, nothing can be gain
ed by forcing it upon unwilling
ears.
There are those again, who, lack
ing nothing in veneration for, or in
acceptance Of its supernatural as
Ipects, have slight faith in daily iter-
alton of its text; and who believe
that this public reading of the Bible
leaves only confused jumble of
battles and slaughters in the mind
of a boy-who thus grows into a
distaste for it, and insensible at any
future time, to its finer harmonies.
Yet others, believing that popular
Ignorance is the first great foe to
be conquered (which, being made,
all other good conquests will fol-
low and the pupils believing that
the public school system is the only
means of making such conquest,
are unwilling to put it in peril, by
clinging to any traditional obser-
vance that may smack of creeds, or
which may rally the opposition Of
an army of voters.
The two former classes give such
support to the measure of exE ulsion
as grow out Of silence and indiffer-
Ience. The latter class is earnest
and active.
But in the very eye Of this discus
sion, and when religious liberality
seems to have grown Quixotic in
it's profession, the Romanists, in
some of their prominent journals,
avow that they can neither ac-
cept the system as it stands, and
which their Protestant friends are
so eager to mend; nor when men
ded and expurgated of all taint OF
religion, can they accept it with any
greater relish Th' y b. Ii we in asso-
ciating Christian Iaith and educa
ton; but the faith must be their
| faith.
This averment, repeated in New
| York, in St. Louis, in Cincinnati,
and notably by the Bishop Of New
ark, is perplexing; but does not
stay the liberal and anti biblical
| movement.
"There shall be one platform,
where all may stand if they choose y
say the advocates of secular edu-
cation" and where all forces Of the
State may be rallied to smite 1gno-
rance to the death. If Romanism
falls under the blows so be it!
But with the Bible ruled out, how
is the true and perfect secularity to
be established Have not those
New Testament teachings somehow
infected half the school literature OF
the country? Shall Paley and But
Ter 60 by the board? Shall Gibbon
be stripped Of his sneers, lest. he
may encourage the little unbelievers
Shall Darwin have speech Shall
hymns that are colored with Feli-
gious sentiment be sung? Shall
Froude paint Henry VIII; or shall
Lingard? ?
We simply state here those as
poets of the matter which seem to
us worthy of special consideration.
There can be no manner of doubt;
we think, that Protestants and Ro-
manists are to have, within the few
years to come, a war over this sub
Iject of public-school education,
more heated and more decisive, for
one or the other, than any war that
has been waged for century past
The Romanist will bring to the af.
fray serried columns, an admirable
organization, and complete subser
viency to their rulers.
The Protestants will show disor