The Choctaw Freedmen Part 58

When Roman Catholicism was the state religion of Italy, France, Spain and Britain, it was intolerant, and by ma.s.sacres and persecutions endeavored to suppress the reading of the Bible and also its publication in the language of the people.

In 1531, when the bishops were almost universally statesmen, lawyers or diplomats. Henry, the King of England, by an act of parliament, which consisted of a convocation of the clergy, became the recognized head of the church in England, instead of the pope at Rome. The principle now begins to prevail, that "Truth possesses the power to defend itself." As a result Wiclif, Tyndale, Sir Thomas More, Thomas Cromwell, Archbishop Cranmer, Miles Coverdale and others, with the approval of the king successively, encourage the translation, publication and circulation of the Scriptures among the clergy and people. It was at this time and in this way, that the principle of toleration in matters of religion had its beginning, and the first check was put upon the cruel intolerance of the church of Rome in England. The church of England, episcopal in form then became the established, or state church; and it is so still, but the king is no longer the head of it and the parliament no longer consists of the clergy, as in the days of King James. It was in 1566 that the Puritans, followers of Calvin and other foreign reformers, withdrew from the established church of England, because they did not approve all the forms and ceremonies, then required in the public worship of the established church.

The official act of religious toleration in England was pa.s.sed during the reign of William III, 1689-1702, (and Mary), who, as the prince of Orange and founder of the Dutch republic in 1680, had previously distinguished himself as the friend of liberty.

Roger Williams, founder of the Colony of Rhode Island 1636 to 1647, established there the first government in America, upon the principle of universal toleration. William Penn, founder and proprietor of Pennsylvania, in 1684 incorporated the same principle in the government of that colony; and, as the expression of his own views and sentiments, respecting religion and civil government. These men exercised government, by instilling into the minds of the people the principles of religion, morality, forbearance and friendship. Americans do well to cherish the memory of these men, who wrought so n.o.bly a century before the American Revolution.

n.o.bLE DEFENSE BY DANIEL WEBSTER

Our American public school system represents the acc.u.mulated wisdom of many generations of Bible readers, and in promoting it we preserve for future generations the foundations so wisely laid in the earlier years of our history.

Daniel Webster, one of the advocates of the system and early defenders of the Bible in it, stated its fundamental principle when he said, "In all cases there is nothing, that we look for with more certainty, than this general principle, that Christianity is part of the law of this land." He explained its object and motive in the following pa.s.sage, which is worthy to be repeated in every generation.

"We seek to educate the people. We seek to improve men's moral and religious condition. In short, we seek to work upon mind as well as upon matter; and this tends to enlarge the intellect and heart of man. We know that when we work upon materials, immortal and imperishable, that they will bear the impress which we place upon them, through endless ages to come. If we work upon marble, it will perish; if we work upon bra.s.s, time will efface it. If we rear temples, they will crumble to the dust. But, if we work on men's immortal minds--if we imbue them with high principles, with the just fear of G.o.d, and of their fellow men,--we engrave on those tablets, something which no time can efface, but which will brighten and brighten to all eternity."

The exclusion of the Bible from the public schools in New York state had its rise in 1838 and concerning this movement, Mr. Webster said, "This is a question which in its decision is to influence the happiness, the temporal and the eternal welfare of one hundred millions of human beings, alive and to be born in this land. Its decision will give a hue to the character of our inst.i.tutions. There can be no charity in that system of instruction from which the Bible, the basis of Christianity, is excluded."

The public school, with daily instruction to the young in the Bible, is an American system of education. It had its origin in the belief of its founders, that general instruction in the Bible was essential to the permanency of that freedom, civil and religious, and that independent ownership of land, they came to America to enjoy. If the early Pilgrims, more particularly those of Ma.s.sachusetts and Connecticut, had not struggled and toiled for this great object, and if they had not been immediately succeeded by men, who imbibed a large portion of the same spirit, the free school system of New England would never have been extended to all parts of our land. We have inherited the public school through the Bible, and the feeling prevails, that only by maintaining a general knowledge of the Bible, among the young and rising generation through it can the countless blessings, that flow from it, be conserved for future generations.

THE FREEDMAN'S BEST BOOK

These historic facts, relating to the original establishment of free schools among the colonies, during the period of the early settlement of this country, and the place accorded the Bible in them by their faithful founders, are well suited to be suggestive, and to prove an inspiration to every friend of freedom, to promote the good cause of maintaining the daily reading of the Bible, in all of our public schools at the present time.

Christian parents among the Freedmen, having children that are bright and studious, are encouraged by these facts, to train one or more of them to be teachers and helpers, in promoting the educational and moral uplift of the race. All are encouraged to co-operate with your teachers, in making the public school of your neighborhood, an attractive and inviting place for your own and your neighbor's children.

Send the children regularly to school during the term, for the terms are short. Do all you can, as long as you live, to supply your public schools with bibles and christian teachers, in order that they may attain the highest degree of efficiency, and bring the greatest amount of public good, to you and your children. Remember, that the Bible is the mother of the public school and that it awakens a desire for more knowledge, drives back the darkness of ignorance and inspires the courage to do right.

Many have been led astray by reading bad books and papers, but none from reading the Bible. Its blessings of comfort and guidance to individuals, and of civil and religious liberty to nations, have come to us like the dew of Hermon, that made "the wilderness and solitary place to be glad, and the desert to rejoice and blossom as the rose."

In view of these important historic facts, it is certainly strange that any parents, who permit their children to read all sorts of trashy and worthless books, without protest, should pretend they do not want them to read the Bible, the one infallible and incomparable book, that does not become old and out-of-date like the best of other books, but is as fresh and life giving to day as twenty centuries ago. The number of those, who have opposed the reading of the Bible in the public schools have comprised but a small part of the entire population of our land, and they have always represented that part of it, that have most needed its enlightening and uplifting influence.

One million immigrants from other lands are now coming to our sh.o.r.es every year, that they may enjoy the civil and religious privileges, that have here been secured, through the influence of the Bible. One of their greatest needs, immediately on their arrival, is faithful instruction in the living and eternal truths of G.o.d's Holy Word, that they may know and understand the genius or spirit of our American, civil and religious inst.i.tutions.

There is urgent need to day for more of that holy compulsion that Jesus exercised, when, surrounded by a lot of hungry people, he required the disciples to "Make the men sit down," and then added, "Give ye them to eat."

THE CHURCH AND SUNDAY SCHOOL

When Jesus said, "The son of man came not to be ministered unto but to minister," he gave to the world one of its clearest visions of the Kingdom of G.o.d, and his own, the highest ideal of life, the one that produces the n.o.blest type of manhood.

It is the great business of the church to bring all its children and youth to this true conception of life, and it aims to do this through the christian home, the Sunday school, young peoples' meetings and church services. But these alone are not adequate, to reach all the children and youth of the land, including those of the one million immigrants, arriving annually from other lands.

Margaret Slattery in the Charm of the Impossible has very truly remarked:

"Men of all creeds and of none agree, that religious instruction ought to be given, to all the children and youth of the land, but the task of attempting it is a tremendous one, and the best manner of doing it is not clear to all. Some say religious instruction should be given in the home. This is usually done, in the intelligent christian home; but there are many homes, where it is impossible, and others indisposed. The fact that the church has seen, as if with a new vision, the method of Jesus, the Great Teacher of all men, reveals itself more clearly in the Sunday school, than in any other department of its work. There it attempts the task of religious education by instruction from the Bible, and endeavors to inspire the child, youth and man with the purest and greatest motives for action."

MAKE THE PUBLIC, A BIBLE SCHOOL

There is, however, no instrumentality in our country, so convenient and favorable for giving all the children and youth of our land a general knowledge of the Bible, as the public school. The Bible is the embodiment of all lofty ideals, and when it is daily read in all of our schools, there is in them a uniform standard of morals. Schools, that neglect or suppress the daily reading of the Bible, do not keep the vision of those attending them on the christian ideal, or develop the christian motive in them, during the most impressionable period of their lives.

The Bible is the light of the intellect, the fore runner of civilization, the charter of true liberty and secret of national greatness. The Bible is the one, all-important book for the Freedmen and their children. Its weekly use, in the church and Sunday school, is to be appreciated and promoted; but the home and the public school are the golden places, where its daily use should be required, and the opportunity be magnified.

American patriotism relies on the public school, conducted with moral and social aims, as the one pre-eminent, a.s.similating agency to bind together the older and newer elements of our population, in a common devotion to our common country. It has been "America's greatest civil glory and chief civil hope." The enthusiasm, that led to its establishment, was well nigh sacred. It needs to day the support of a public spirit, that will insist on the restoration of the daily reading of the Bible, as the basis of moral instruction in it.

Concerning its educational value President Woodrow Wilson has recently very truthfully said, "The educational value of the Bible is, that it both awakens the spirit to its finest and only true action, and acquaints the student with the n.o.blest body of literature in existence; a body of literature, having in it more mental and imaginative stimulus, than any other body of writings. A man has deprived himself of the best there is in the world, who has deprived himself of the Bible."

How true to day is Paul's description of the people that were living without the Bible in his day. He describes them as "filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, deceit, haters of G.o.d, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, without understanding, unmerciful."[4]

Our own and every heathen land furnishes abundant proofs, that whenever the gracious promises of the Bible are gratefully received, the proud become humble, the disobedient dutiful, the drunkard sober, the dishonest, honorable; the profligate, prudent; and the miserable become happy. Nothing else has ever done this, but the gospel of Christ always does it, when gratefully received.

ENCOURAGING MOVEMENTS

The legislature of Pennsylvania, in 1913, restored the use of the Bible in the public schools of that state, by a statute requiring the daily reading of at least ten verses of the Bible, in the hearing of all the pupils under every teacher, and making a neglect of this duty a proper cause, for the suspension of the teacher.

The National Reform a.s.sociation at its last meeting in Portland, Oregon, in 1913, resolved to raise $25,000, for the purpose of undertaking to place a copy of the Bible, in every public school in the land, from which it may have been excluded; and to aid in keeping it, where it is now adopted, as the standard of moral instruction.

Commissioner Claxton, in welcoming the members of the council of church Boards of Education, representing fourteen denominations, at their third meeting in Washington, D. C., in January 1914, very correctly stated the leadership of the church in the educational work of our country, and the importance of its continued relation to it, in the following language:

"The church has been the leader in educational development, at a time when the state was unable and unwilling to pay the large cost for education. Honor should be given the church for its splendid, formative work in education, during the time the state was occupied in building up its political relations. It is indeed a happy thing, that the church is so deeply interested in education, as to maintain national agencies, known as boards."

In regard to the secondary schools he prophetically added, "The day will come, when the Bible will be read in the public schools, just as any other book. There is no good reason, why the Bible should not have its rightful place, in our public school curriculum."

The Gideons, an organization among traveling salesmen, are endeavoring to place a copy of the Bible in every bedroom of all the public hotels in the United States. At the end of 1913 they had supplied bibles for 220,000 rooms, and had reached all but three states, Utah, Nevada and Washington.

These are movements in the right direction and suggest the proper att.i.tude of every christian parent, teacher and legislator. Do not hesitate to advocate the daily reading of the Bible, and the employment of christian teachers, in all the public schools, provided for the Freedman and his children.

"There's a dear and precious book, Though it's worn and faded now, Which recalls those happy days of long ago; When I stood at mother's knee With her hand upon my brow, And I heard her voice in gentle tones and low.

Blessed book, precious book On thy dear old tear-stained leaves I love to look; Thou art sweeter day by day, As I walk the narrow way, That leads at last, to that bright home above."

--M. B. Williams.

[4] Rom. 1. 27.

XLVIII

A HALF-CENTURY OF BIBLE SUPPRESSION IN A NATION, OR FRANCE, DURING THE PERIOD, 1572 TO 1795.

THEISM, DEISM, PHILOSOPHISM.--APPEAL FOR BREAD.--MORAL AND FINANCIAL BANKRUPTCY.--FIRST POPULAR a.s.sEMBLY.--REPUBLIC OF FRANCE.--REIGN OF TERROR.--PEOPLE UNPREPARED FOR FREEDOM.--INSURRECTION OF WOMEN.--RESULTS.--LAND OF JOHN CALVIN.--LAFAYETTE.--ROMANISM, BEHIND THE TIMES.--HUMAN REASON, BLIND.--LIGHT, LIFE AND LIBERTY.

"The entrance of thy word giveth light, it giveth understanding to the simple. Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law."--David.