Los Angeles herald., 1909-09-06

SNIVVN1VNN0SININC Y
SHOULD the Bible Be Read in the
Public Schools?" was the subject dis
cussed and warmly affirmed by DR..
Charles Edward Locke, pastor of the
First Methodist church, at the SER
vice last evening.
DR.. Locke affirmed that church and
state should always be maintained
separately, but that the youth of the
land were not being properly qualified
for life without some knowledge of the
Bible. He took for his text "Give thy
servant an understanding heart, that
1 may discern between good and bad"
L Kings 3:9.
DR.. Locke, who spoke to large
audience, said in part:
Il speak tonight, on the eve of an
other school year, in the interest of the
16,000,000 pupils in our public schools,
with their 45O0 900 faithful teachers, and
especially in behalf of the pupils and
teachers of our own beautiful Los
Angeles. This magnificent system of
popular education is maintained at a
cost of 500 per year for each pupil. This
is three times more than England ex-
pends, three and a half times more
than France.
while sectarianism and all religious
bias are to be omitted, it is accepted by
all that the chief purpose of the public
school is the development of character
and the preparation of the youth for
upright and intelligent manhood and
womanhood. The schools should be
citadels of morals as well as training
schools in science and history
Character Is Chief Thing
ITO safeguard the nation and pre-
vent the disastrous blunders of Euro
pean history a complete separation of
church and state must be cautiously
maintained; but our youth are by no
means fitted for noble citizenship un-
less in their education it is remembered
that they have hearts well as heads.
The public school is not an ingenious
contrivance for the turning out of poll
ticians, or prodigies, or bigots; but 1t
should be a West Point or an Annap-
oils for good citizens. Hence, the for
nation of character is a paramount
intention of the school; and reverence,
and honesty, and sobriety, and cour-
tesy, and industry should be daily in
culcated.
"That character shall be a product
of our public schools, there are two
influences which are Indispensable. The
first of these Is that the teachers should
be men and women of highly cultivated
moral tone. And this we have in this
country and in this city. There is no
class of persons that surpasses the
teachers of our schools in sterling char
acter. They are people of culture and
patience and taste and exemplary man
ners, equaled by few bodies of men
and women. They are capable, consci-
entious and kind.
Advocates Bible Study
"The second influence that is indis-
pensable to make true character and
pure culture a product of our public
schools is that the Bible be reverenced
and read. The Bible should be in daily
use in the schools, first because of the
educational value of this phenomenal
book. Macaulay and Ruskin and By
ron all freely attribute their exquisite
literary style to a continuous study of
the Bible. In the two volumes of Low
ellis letters recently published there
are references from twenty-five books
of the Bible.
"At meeting of the National Educa-
tional association in Minneapolis, DR..
Butler, president of the great Colum-
bia university in New York city, ad-
dressed an audience of 5000 teachers.
He said the Bible should be restored to
its place in the public schools, and gave
his reasons, a part of which 1 quote:
My thesis is that the neglect of the
Bible, caused by sectarianism, has in
capacitated the rising generation from
knowing the beauties of the greatest
writer's in the English language from
Chaucer to Browning, and from under
standing as we'll as placing them out
| side the pale of knowledge of their own
citizenship.
Without knowledge of the Bible
one cannot read and understand clearly
the glories of Milton and Shakespeare
and Tennyson, The present condition
is shameful. The Bible is the inspira-
ton upon which the best English style
has been built. The quarreling of
churches and sects, each claiming the
treasure house of English literature as
solely their own, has made the Bible
| inaccessible to the pupil. We are on
the point of impoverishing our life AMI
literature and are facing an exceed
ingly dangerous state of morals and
affairs when we lack proper under
standing of the Christianity which is
at the very basis of all the history
since the fall of Rome and the very
foundation of our American liberty and
progress
Has Peculiar Charm
Yes, the Bible should be in the
schools because of its literary quality.
It's terse, quaint Saxon gives it a
charm which is unapproached by any
other writings.
Judge Wilbur, the eminent and hon
ored jurist of our own local courts,
who, in presiding over the Juvenile
courts, has come in contact with the
needs of the young life of our city,
said: There has been much discussion
about the use of the Bible in the pub
lie schools, and 1 venture to say that
two-thirds of those who have protested
against 1t have never read the Bible
through We have in our schools the
children of unfit parents, of immoral
parents, of criminals. Now If these
children do not get in the school all
that goes to make up true life, a
righteous life, they get it nowhere. It