New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1874-01-25
rho B,ble In the Schools.

Professor Huxley, in his last volume,
"Critiques and Addresses" devotes chap
ter to school boards and their duties, in
which occur the following magnificent pas
sages:
Ihave always been strongly in favor of
secular education, in the sense Of education
without theology; but l must confess have
been no less seriously perplexed to know
by what practical measures the religious
feeling, which is the essential basis of con-
duct was to be kept up, in the present
utterly chaotic state Of opinion on these
matters, without the use OF the Bible. The
Pagan moralists lack life and color, and
even the noble Stole, Marcus Antoninus, is
too high and refined for an ordinary child
Take the Bible as whole; make the se-
verest deductions which fair criticism can
dictate for shortcomings and positive errors;
eliminate, as sensible lay teacher would
do, if left to himself all that it is not desira-
BILE for children to occupy themselves with;
| and there still remains in this old literature
| a vast residuum Of moral beauty and gran
deur. And then consider the great histori-
cal fact that, for three centuries. this book
has been woven into the life of all that is
| best and noblest in English history; that it
has become the national epic of Britain,
| ard is as familiar to noble and simple, from
| John O. Greats House to Lands End, as
| Dante and TassO once were to the Italians;
! that it is written in the nOblest and purest
| English, aud abounds in exquisite beauties
! of mere literary form; and, finally, that it
forbids the veriest hind who never LETT his
| village to be ignorant of the existence OF
| other countries and other civilizations, and
/ of a great past, stretching back to the fur
| thest limits of the oldest nations in the
1 world. BY the study of what other book
| could children be so much humanized and
| made to feel that each figure in that vast
| historical procession fills, like themselves.
| but mOmentarv space in the interval be-
| tween two eternities; and earns the blessings
| or the curses of all time, according to its
| effort to do good and hate evil, even as they
also are earning their payment for their
| work!
/ If Bible reading is not accompanied by
| constraint and solemnity, as If it were q
sacramental operation, l do not believe
there is anything in which children take
more pleasure. At least know that some
of the pleasantest recollections OF my child
hood are connected with the voluntary
study of an ancient Bible which belonged
to nv grandmother. There were splendid
| pictures in it, to be sure; but l recOllect
little or nothing about them save portrait
Of the high priest in his vestments. What
come wildly back on my mind are remem.
brances of my delight in the histories OF
/ Joseph anu OI NdSlu, duu VI NY HoOu aP
! probation of the chiyalrous kindness Of
Abraham in his dealings with Lot. Like a
sudden fash there returns back upon me
my utter scorn of the pettifogging mean
ness of Jacob, and my sympathetic grief
over the heartbreaking lamentation of the
cheated Esau, "Hast thou not a blessing fol
me also, y my father" And L see, as in a
cloud, pictures of the grand phantasma
goria of the Book of Revelation.
enumerate. as they issue, the childish
impressions which come crowding out OF
the pigeonholes in my brain, in which they
have lain almost undisturbed for forty
wears. prize them as an evidence that a
Child of five or six years old, left to his own
devices, may be deeply interested in the
Bible. and draw sound moral sustenanct
from it, And l rejoice that was left t.
deal with the Bible alone; for if had had
some theological 'explainer" at my side, hi
might have tried, as such do, to lessen my
indignation against Jacob, and thereby
have warped my moralsense for ever; while
the great apocalyptic spectacle of the ulti
mate triumph Of right and justice nigh
have been turned to the base purposes OF 1
pious lampooner of the Papacy.