The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1898-08-28
Stat6 Hid 10 Education.
The Presbyterian Replies to The Biblical Recorder and
CeriStian Advocate,

and good friend of Christian Education.
Now, here is Christian Education given
by the Northern PRESBYTERIAN church,
and this defender of Christian Educa-
ton, this champion of the noble princi-
pie of enthroning Christ in education.
makes as bitter an attack as any atheist
could make upon these church institu-
tions, and talks about "A Sectarian
: Hand on Our Public Schools"
As we had occasion to point out once
before to the Recorder both publicly
and privately, in rebuke of slanderous
article it published, there is no cOnnec-
ton between the Northern and South
ern Presbyterian churches to the lat
ter belonging practically all the white
Presbyterians of this State. One ground
of separation between these two
churches is the more pronounced atti-
tude as to the relation of church and
State, which the Southern church has
taken. The attempt to drag the North
Carolina Presbyterian and the South
ern Presbyterian church into this con-
trOversy is wilful and malicious, and
done with full knowledge of the real
facts, that is, unless the Recorder
chooses to plead poor memory.
Our Northern brethren can speak for
themselves and doubtless they could tell
a story of persecution and slanderOus
Misrepresentation, which would carry
one back to the sixteenth century;
and all of it done by the loudest advO-
Gates of Christian Education. But we
happen to know some of the facts 0f
the case, and as these brethren have
no organ in North Carolina they arc
welcome to a few words in these col
umns, about their work.
AS to the action of the General AS
sembly, eXempting the graduates of the
Asheville Normal Institute from ex-
animation, it had to be done to keep
them from being mauled at the hands
of prejudiced and incompetent examin-
erS.
We should be glad for the Recorder to
seek little more light on that question.
AS to the case of public money the
case stands thus: In three or four dis
tricts in which the Northern schools are
planted, the boards have voluntarily
rendered the public money, "a pittance
that would barely suffice to maintain
school in poor building, for two or
three mOnths) on some such condition
as that Il cOmmOdious school building be
erected, and thoroughly qualified Chris
tian teachers placed in it. There is not
a single Presbyterian upon these boards
and they are comprised largely of
Methodist and Baptist preachers, who
are broad minded enough to see the
advantages of such an education as
they were never able to receive before,
under any other auspices. Such a con-
tract with an individual would be valid.
We frankly think that it should never
be made by a church with any civil au-
thority. We should be untrue to our
own church to say otherwise. And we
are informed that the schools can be
run and perhaps can better be run and
doubtless will be run without that aid.
But apart from its vicious attack upon
Il work of Christlike charity, that has
been carried on with the nOblest pur-
poses, The Recorder, as an organ of the
Baptist church in North Carolina should
be the last to cast stone. When Wake
Forest was in it's struggling days, the
State loaned it the sum of $4,000 from
its Literary fund. Where is the differ
ence in principle?
And we are delighted to agree with
the Recorder in its sentence, There is
no principle more firmly established in
the hearts of the plain people than that
of the separation of church and State,'
and would add that the plain people
recognize the mixture of church and
State when a religious body, like
Baptist convention, attempts to in
fluence the votes of a free people, in the
matter of State appropriations to State
institutions.