Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1896-07-04
The Bible in the Schools.

one OF little latin, DOtn IN the future
of his country and the destiny of
humanity. He seems to have for
gotten for the time being that eventu
ally "ecery knee shall bow" and to
have lost the touching faith of Tenny-
son when he wrote
yet we trust that somehow good
Will be the final goal of i'll.
Mr.. Haverstick is temporarily pessi-
mistic, quality of view that has no
place, nor room for place in the chris
tan prospect of "the perseverance of
the saints"
This, probably, has given color to
the remainder of his letter.
He would have the Bible in the
schools in somewhat the same sense we
would have continuous fire-alarm-a
provision which would we'll nigh
abrogate all the secular functions and
turn the schools into a stampede from
"dollars and cents to the acquisition
OF the spiritual coin which passes cur
rent only on high.
This is really good, but it is prema-
ture.
Moreover, there is a suggestion of
force apparent in difficulties encounter
ed in "a1inning souls" ca the proper
agencies. He would utilize the pupils
captivity to secular exigencies to in
culcate-not by lesson, but by mere
readings of good things in tongue
not only foreign to our idiom, but
one which has puzzled the oracles of
all ages. He would catch the already
caught, whether Jew or Greek, and
take from them time, already cut by
Mandy -pamby notions from 60 to "27bb
hours,' to read Scriptures that should
be "searehed" for the sublime testi-
monies. The curriculum, enlarged by
about the same ratio that time for
study has been curtailed, he would
add hints of the most bewildering of
all the mysteries which have agitated
human study.
The JOURNAL does not and cannot
believe this is necessary certainly not
until the proper agencies of chris
tianity-a force admittedly divine, are
confessedly false to their high COM
mission. The Gospel must not wait to
catch a boy in school any more than
wait to capture him when thief in
prison. He must be taken con sight"
when his liberty is his own-not when
it is restrained either by obedience or
disobedience of secular law. Ho is to
be sought only in "the highways" and
there "compelled to come to the feast"
Such compulsion utilized the time of
those only who were then idle, but it
took no physician from the bedside of
pain, no judge from the bench of JUS
tice, nor schoolboy from the masonry
by which he was laying the founda-
tons of solid learning in mind plas-
tic only during its early years.
1t had been said by Solomon-"there
is a time for all things''-an utterance
of the Old Dispensation which was not
abrogated in the transition to the New.
1t still holds. And so it has come to
pass that the "5a hours" monopolized
by the imperious demands of secular
study should not be invaded by the
church, or churches, ecclesiastic, or
ecclesiastics, to do work allotted to
them and for which they have at least
81 hours.
There are few other points which
the JOURNAL will only briefly touch.
For instance, Mr.. Haverstick has
"never heard of anyone wishing to
introduce dogma No; but get it
started once, and dogma" will follow.
Then "the old boy will be to play"
Prayers will follow, too, for there is no
limit to the "5a hours when ecclesi-
asticism gets good hold on the days
schedule. Then there will be trouble
over the kind of prayers-extempo-
raneous or stereotyped. Some pupils
will want something new, smart and
spicy every morning; others will pre-
fer them machine made, with an organ
to aid in grinding them out.
"By keeping the Bible in the
schools" says Mr.. Haverstick, 1--WE
impress upon children a reverence for
God, eternity and christian morality
The JOURNAL is not sure of that.
children are various" said Ar
temus Ward. To one so affected a
hundred might be bored and eventual
ly driven wholly from scriptural study,
and "the last state is worse than the
first" If we wanted to awken and
stimulate veneration for dead lam
guage, we would hardly read the
victims a chapter in the original tongue
every morning.
AS matter of fact, we should not
compel our children to take their
education too seriously. Candidates
for the ministry may do so-taking it
even sadly, as Englishmen do their
pleasures.
Mr.. Haverstick closes his letter with
vigorous stroke at the fanaticism of
those who believe that the establish
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