Los Angeles herald., 1909-09-20
ADDS VOICE TO
PLEA OF LOCKE
REV. C. C. PIERCE WOULD PUT
BIBLE INTO SCHOOLS
SAYS SEcTARIANIsM COULD BE
ELM MATED
Declares That Those Who Love the
Young Should Not Object to
Teachings from Heritage
of the Past

Rev. c. c. Pierce, pastor of the Me-
mortal Baptist church, preached a
strong sermon yesterday morning, tax
ing his stand among those for the
teaching of the Bible in the public
schools. He took for his text, The
fear of the Lord is the beginning of
wisdom" He said in part:
The most interesting spectacle al
most in the modern world is furnished
by the school room. The mighty pro-
cession of young people all over the
world, which constitutes the educa-
tional army Of the present, marks the
direction of a tremendous trend in hu-
man affairs which is surely trantorm-
irg the world.
"Ths education of tho ancient world
was confined to the classes, it is now
the heritage of the masses. 1t was
once an occult, an esoteric thing to
which only the privileged few were
admitted. The educational privileges
of today are for all men and all women
who care to possess the treasure. The
education of the past was generally
narrowing and lettering in its char
acter. The education of today is
broadening and enlarging. The watch
word of the education of the past was
Authority the watchword of this same
activity today is Progress The chief
process in the educational activity of
the past was repetition; the chief
process of today is investigation. The
paramount thing of the past was to
think as the fathers did, the highest
thing today is TO discover a way to
think better than they did. The view
of the ancient educational world was
focused upon the past, that of the
present day student upon the present
and the future.
And yet the true end of all educa-
tion was aptly stated by a Hebrew
poet thousands of years ago, when he
said The fear of the Lord is the be-
ginning of wisdom
This, after all, is the true end of
all learning. Not that we are to turn
all our schools into Sunday schools,
or all our institutions of higher learn
ing into theological schools. But we
must understand that at heart the
end of education in the past and in
the education of today is to better fit
mankind to live. This was fundamen-
tally the end of all the narrow forms
of education of the past and it is still
the end of the broader education of
today.
What we need today is a broader
conception of the possibilities of hu-
man life, and a broader conception of
God We need to see that everything
which has any place in the life OF
man to broaden and uplift is in har-
mony with God. That fear of the
Lord which is the beginning of wis
dom is only a truer knowledge of what
is best for the race of men whom God
has created. Whatever helps us to
know man better, his needs, his possi-
bilities, his destiny. is the thing that
helps US to know God better.
"The education then which the mod
ern world is gaining, and the gaining
of which is such a conspicuous element
in the life of the age, must give us
broader conception of God himself. This
broader conception of God will enable
us to hold as consistent with a true
faith all the learning which man may
properly possess. Whatever man
ought to know is in a sense religious
in character. The religion of the pres
ent and the future must be broad
enough not to be jostled by the dis
coVery of a new element or the reVls-
ion of some aged theory as to the
methods by which the worlds came
into being. And with this, too, must
come a greater care in the instruction
which leads men to ask what are the
moral standards by which they shall
make use of their accumulations of
intellectual treasure. The twenty mil
lion pupils in the schools of this coun-
try. the more than four hundred thou
the $4,000 in Los Angeles county and
the more than forty thousand in the
schools if this city, must with all mere
intellectual advancement be taught the
fundamental principles which have
given the Bible it's imperishable glory
and it's enduring influence.
entirely aside from any considera-
tions of narrow sectarianism, entirely
free from any narrowing religious big
otry for these things are dead or
ought to be, it is difficult to under
stand how any who love the young,
who are desirous to have them grow
up to fill their true places in life and
to make their highest and noblest con-
tribution to the life of the ages to
come, can object to the influence of
the teachings of that greatest collec-
ton of books which has come down to
us from the past. The influence of
that book makes for all that will
guide the increasing, expanding intel
lectual life and attainments of the
present in a way to make them con-
tribute most highly to the happiness
and progress of the race"