Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1910-07-29
Bible and the Public Schools

What is the Bible the world is read
ing?
Your daily life and mine.
What are the sermons the world IS
heeding7
Your daily life and mine.
What are the creeds the world is
needing7
True lives-yours and mine"
We need to halt and ask why the
Illinois supreme court has banished
the Bible from the public schools. TO
my mind, freighted with the expert
ence Of three-quarters of century,
that step is not only a bold one, but
a very risky one. The masses, be-
wildered with so much higher criticism
from the pulpit, and so much corrup-
ton in legislation and business, GER
tainly need a more familiar acquaint-
ance with the Bible, the greatest or
all books known to history, ancient or
modern.
When the Bible is elected from the
school room, and banished from the
homes Of the country, it requires no
prophetic vision to foretell the retro
grading course Of the American ma
ton.
1t is a painful thought to me, be-
cause irreverence for the Bible and ir-
reverence for parents seems to be the
normal state of the youthful mind at
tbs era iof irreligion and wold-oat SOW
ing. Young lads flout their elders, as
they go their own way-with hat on
the side Of the head and a cigarette in
the mouth. "Sparing the rod has
heap to do with this condition or
things, but it is oftentimes the bad
example in the daily life of those they
are commanded to honor by the ten
commandments in the Bible.
Sometimes these young sprouts see
nothing to honor, and they go head
rlong toward the path Of ruin. It is
the daily life, the sad example which
has made the children of irreligtous
parents so indifferent to the better
things of human existence, because the
path of righteousness is the only path
to peace and the way Of transgressors
will not only be difficult, but danger
Gus to mind, body and estate-to all
who enter therein.
1t is the lack of Bible Influence which
has made so many men and women be-
come self-murderers. They regard not
God or the issues of eternal life, and in
their dread of their fellows and those
whom they are connected with by ties
of blood or friendship, they become sui
cides. .
Suicide pacts are getting to be as
common as bank defalcations, and heav-
en- knows it is getting to be an every
day occurrence, according to newspaper
reports, when men who have been trust
ed with other peoples money, go the
pace and wind up in the penttentiary Or
a suicides grave
In my childhood a mans honor and
his word were patiently protected and
preserved. Thousands Of homes have
been wrecked in fortune by unfortunates
who stood security for other people, but
the man who defaulted and deceived his
trusting friend or neighbor, had no rep
utation left, and the finger of scorn was
pointed at him, and his ill-gotten gains
were no recommendation to either
church or society.
The Bible may be full of basic state
ments on which creeds have been built,
some thousands Of years, but the worlds
creed it simple and easily expressed In
the above quoted lines:
True lives, yours and mine"
II is a common occurrence to see men
proper by going into business and then
slim out of business through the back
door of bankruptcy.
Men who are dish onest enough to
break ND a business and pocket the pro-
ceeds by bankrupt processes may escape
the penitentiary but the property that
his family claims and the luxury that
his people enjoy will always be stand
ing reminder Of his baseness.
If he makes broad his phylacteries
and spreads himself like a green bay
tree, he only advertises his tainted char
acter and tickets his back with the sign
Dish onest
The Bible creed is strong and potent
with people who love righteousness, but
the worlds creed will surely put se
sign of the forehead of the thief OF 9TH
er peoples money after he is once dis
covered and advertised.
There are accidents and failures
through lack of judgment in business.
or panics or great losses by fire and
flood, where there no faint on character
and sympathy flows out to the suffering
and unfortunate, but the world win put
a label on the man who deliberately
swindles his associates so deep that no
soap or rubbing will ever destroy Or
erase tia memory of it