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Show RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS P?b3te Between Bourke Cochran and President Presi-dent Sliar.xan on Question of May the State Tesch Religion. (w York Sun. D.c ID.) TWctp r.i KJuliviH-e t!u;t idled every available irili .'i' si';K-v in the house. - question. "Should e Ugiou- I?!.-1nirion ! (Jivctl in (he Public S-h'ds:" w.ts debated in ;he thvatre at New Ib-cheHc yesiordpy afternoon by Congre-snuui IVmrko i 'oekran and "President Schurman of Cr-i Cr-i d university. Mr. Cockran. who is a Roman ';-!;!'''. loi.k the affirmative. It could not be said. ili;;r ili:- out-st I 111 was any m a Tor a solution at the 1 I'd f the dbato 1 liiiu a? the beginning, and it. va- evident that iko audience was about evenly j divided in its sen! knent, if one oould judge by the !n;l iau.-p that was pi von 1o the speakers. Tlio au-Ji au-Ji -t'fo anjif :'"od to. bo eager to hoar both, and for n'i;- thr-i hours scnnrlv a person loft the hall. The cmitesfju-as under the direction of the People's Forum .if Xt w Korhcile. Congressman Cook ran hold-that civilization was ft osent ially Christian and that religion was at the f ha-is of tiip moral law. Therefore, the teaching- of Iyriision m school should be encouraged instead f penalized as it is now by compelling the parents who insist nn such instruction for their children to "pnv double f.xes for school purposes. He admit - trd that the state itself could not teach religion, tor that would necessitate tho establishment of a : stntp religion, and he himself would- be among the ; first to protest against any partnership of church i and state. He declared that all schools, public, ISl private and denominational, should be. put under the inspection of ihe state and as long as they. conformed con-formed to the standard sol up ,no.v should bp paid for the work ihcy did along ihe lines of secular education without regard to whether they gave ro-licieus ro-licieus instruction or not. In his view the public schools were anii-f'hristian and agnostic, which wrs an anomaly in a country the majority of whose people were Christians, He snid that in democracy lin crenl object was to maintain the liberty of all I the pnople. and that the question. Therefore, was I how should education ho administered so as to pro- I nv.te the best interests of the people, a "The gem of democracy said the speaker. lis I Ttot American discovery. We do not find it first in the Constitution. It was not first promulgated in the Declaration of Independence. It was proclaimed pro-claimed first on the shores of Galileo when the Savior declared all men equal in the sight of God. 'ihe rssence of democracy is the belief in human virtue. I do not undertake to assert the divine origin of the Scriptures, but whatever we may Think cf the source, no one can deny thp charactpr f thp message they convey lo mankind. Christ's o"fmpl can bp followed by all itipii. no matter t. hot her they believe in His divinity or not. The Isr-. uritv of democracy must, spring from that law en which religion is founded, the moral law that preached on the side of the Mount. "TIow. then, can instruction in the moral law y possibly militate against the safety of the state?-II'.w state?-II'.w can it rle otherwise than strengthen tho foundations foun-dations upon which it rests? Take my own church. '' instance. What sing!" branch of the doctrine b" pre aches cm be considered hostile lo tho well-hung well-hung of the state; You may laugh at the doctrine ' m penanc. but do we all know what it reallv is? "We may sav that it is unnecessary, but the fact r'rr,riins that before the words of absolution are pronounced the penitent must place himself in ab-S"h;to ab-S"h;to harmony with the moral law. He must make 1 '-:i'ution if restitution is due.- Tf he covets his cibor goods or his neighbor's wife he must y purre I'll? soul of that foul desire. How, then, can - Ttic morj.l law be harmed by the teaching of this i cee;rine How can the gospel militate against the ''' '"'f the state which rests on the moral law; It 'be body of the people do not obey the law you cm, : rtiiiUo them obey it by force. A democracy ; ' c-viarcise force against the majority because i " nuij.'irity is the government. Security can only d by developing morality among the citizens, lyhicatimi by itself is not sufficient to maintain W ',t loyfjty to the law which is ne'essary for 6r-'' 6r-'' ' v. ane and enlightened government. "Agnosticism does not deny (rod; it ignores lii;ii. dliaf ic precisely the object of the present ''ct'Tn of rrlueation in this state. There' never :- :i term more misused than non-sectarianism, i .11' noii-sectarianism means the ccjual treatment ' ' '-'body, gentile and Jew, Christian and ag-' ag-' r:!id tlia t is the treatment they should get :!! ,(, matter of schools. I "(h;r public schools arc being discredited o? all I !-:;r. p. very man with any jirelcntion to conse- 'i j' :,ee sr-nds his children to private schools. Our i' -.'lie schools are becoming what are known in .. mnd- as the poor schools." President Schurman said that be did not believe ',!r!! P'bHc schools were anti-Christian, nor fiid hr believe that they had come to be the rpscrva-T'"ri rpscrva-T'"ri nf any particular class of the people. "For my : part, said he, "I have four children in the public sc.kioIc and more to go. I would not have thein in I " private or denominational school because I -want : , 'liin to gf-t the democratic training which only T American public schools can give. I "I agree with the eloquent speaker that piety nnd virtue are the highest things in the world. reat is education, but greater still is reverence and morality. Iut ilf :tate Jn its proper ca)acity has ; noihiTig to do with them. It confines itself to secu-v secu-v jar functions entirely. Religion and virtue are our I highest concerns, but the state is not charged with ministering to these functions or interfering with the concerns of religion. The schools have a func-l func-l lion of their own. e have other educational influences and 5 ppenciej; for the teaching of religion, principally n home and the church. The state cannot estab- tnsh or recognize any but sectarian school without evading the religions sphere. "N'oC only -should religious instruction be barred f roni , the public schools, but even the reading of the Bible should be excluded." ' Mr. Schurman declared that the public schools do make notably and forcibly for fine moral character char-acter and that they are moralizing the boys and girls who come under their discipline. He said that the state goes ahead as a secular body for the secular work to -which it limits itself. If it should recognize one denomination it would have- to recognize recog-nize all, .and this would lead to .'multiplicity 'of H v conflicting agencies and stimulate denominational squabbling, while the children would be the victims of the-fray, lie believed that the catechism should be taught at home or , in the' . chureh, leaving the 'schools for the work of purely'secularcducation'. |