The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1913-02-03
NATIONS WELFARE,
DEPENDS ON BIBLE

serves to convey the thought in mind.
In any case-~the Bible--even with
the driest and most unspiritual teach
err or reader--can never be a mere
to some extent an innervation and
spiritual stimulus. And that is jusy
why we need 1t in our schools. Even
the least Christian of our modern
educators III realizing the defects in
an education that trains only the in
teliect and emotions and leaves the
conscience and viii untouched. Nor
ais, they are saying. must be taught
In the national schools. They have
even made experiments. Textbooks
In ethics have been provided--courses
Of instruction i'm elementary morals
have been prepared. but with only in
different success, Something more
and other than a textbook is needed
IL is a book where the greatest of
moral issues are laid bare In all their
consequences for good and evil, not
in an abstract proportional form. nor
yet by way Of morals tackled on to
nursery talos---''awfui examples and
the like--but as part of the history
of a great people. as part of the spirit
uai biography--the inner experience
---of the worlds greatest men who
faced the same kind OF problems were
called to the same kind OF tasks, was
exposed TO the same temptations. and
won the same sort of victories az our
selves
Religious Instructions Needed.
But will 90 further and say that
the welfare of the nation demands
that It's children receive religious and
not merely moral instruction. Any
position short of that seems TO me to
surrender the case, for IL religion Is
not supremely necessary. 1t is not
necessary at all There can be no
real moral instruction that Is not at
the same time religious. for the very
nature OF morality makes IL the hand
maiden OF religion.
Furthermore, our national stability
and weil-being depends ultimately on
the preservation OF Christian ideafs---
10 do not say Christian dogusstiG
tcaching--in our private and public
life. 1t we are to stem the tide OF
lawlessness which, whether in the dy-
namiting trades-unionist or the wash
salesman Of high finance, whether in
the pickpocket or the sax-dodger, the
vote-buyer In broadcloth or the vote
seller in fustian, Is sapping the vitais
of our democracy we must hold fast
to that conception of law-baGic in
English and American Jurisprudence
which views 1t as the will OF God
Himself progressively adopted to the
circumstances OF men and pations:
clearly taught as In the Bible.
Or, consider again. that by exclud-
ing the Bible from. the schools we
are depriving many of the children
OF eur land OF instruction in one OF
the most beautiful and inspiring lit
eratures OF all time. Merely as lit
erature the Bible IL a book by itself.
Scholars everywhere are recognizing
this and no literary discipline today
can be regarded as complete that does
not include q course in the literary
study Of the Bible. In the Bible YOU
find supreme examples of almost ev-
cry form OF literature. Here are hisS
tory. biograph and philosophy. ipic.
lyric and dramatic poetry, legic and
bial and spiritual insight.
Answers Objections.
And now. let US consider together
very briefly one or two OF the objec-
lions that are being urged against this
decision or the school board.
In the first place. it LIS urged that