p. 9 | M. E. KERN by M. E. KERN

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Tacoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Feb 20, 1908

M. E. KERN

By M. E. KERN

The Bible in Education—No. 3

M. E. KERN

ENOUGH has been said perhaps to show the Bible to contain the foundation principles of all knowledge. Thus the truths of the Bible are the pedestal upon which all knowledge rests, and as creatures of God's handiwork we are absolutely helpless intellectually and spiritually without his revelation. Any system of education which does not contain this Book as its foundation can not educate man to fulfil the purpose of his creation, but is built on the inventions of man, and will go down when everything that is artificial and untrue shall perish.

To the mind that has gotten a firm grasp of truth there is a unity of all knowledge, and the artificial divisions for the sake of study and teaching do not appear as something entirely distinct and separate from the other lines of thought. All truth is God's truth; and if the teacher is permeated with the Bible, and it is a very part of his life, and he recognizes the fact that it contains the foundation of all knowledge, it will affect his consideration of every subject; and without any forced or mechanical process, he will teach what he has seen and heard, he will lead his students to the fountain from which he quenches his thirst. I care not whether he is teaching the life of Jesus or the principles of mathematics, this will be true. If the Bible is brought in in any other way, it is the form without the Spirit, and the students will intuitively feel that there is something insincere about it. The truly Christian teacher who understands these principles will spiritualize so-called common things, while the theoretically Christian teacher will allow the spiritual to become common. The monks were wont to withdraw themselves from the world, and adopt every device to keep themselves spiritual, even to having sacred music played during meals; but the evil was within, and such methods would not alter it.

I thoroughly believe in the use of the Bible in every branch of education, and that the first impressions of the child should be from the very words of the Holy Book. Gladstone, in his dying hours, repeated the Lord's prayer

in French. Why?—Because those words, taught in childhood by his French nurse, were most lasting. Let the mind be filled with the words of God, and as fast as character develops, let those divine principles take hold on the life till everything is done for God, and every study, whether it be an end in itself or a means to an end, will be looked upon as a part of God's plan.

Let us study the Bible as an educational book in some branches of learning.

Literature

Literature is of value as a discussion of life problems, in the best way, appealing to that essential faculty, the imagination, as well as the reason. Where are life problems solved as in the Bible? It is a library of literature, comprising many forms and discussing the great problem of life, present and future. A large part of the Old Testament is poetry, and the most competent critics are agreed that “no poetry in the world excels, or even equals, it in the grandeur and elevation of its spirit, and the boldness, beauty, and sublimity of its imagery.” Carlyle says: “I call that Book, apart from all theories about it, one of the grandest things ever written with pen—a noble book; all men's book. It is our first, oldest statement of the never-ending problem,—man's destiny, and God's way with him here on earth. And all in such fine flowing outlines; grand in its sincerity, in its simplicity, in its epic melody, and repose of reconciliation. There is the seeing eye, the mildly understanding heart. So true every way; true eyesight and vision for all things, material things no less than spiritual.”

Macaulay alludes to the Bible as “that stupendous work, the English Bible,—a Book, which, if everything else in our language should perish, would alone suffice to show the whole extent of its beauty and power.”

Richard G. Moulton says: “Even in literary form the world has produced nothing greater than Isaiah; and the very difficulty of determining its literary form is so much evidence how cramped and imperfect literary criticism has been made by the confinement of its outlook to the single type of literature which has come to monopolize the name ‘classical.’ But when we proceed to the matter and thought of Isaiah,—the literary matter, quite apart from the theology founded on it,—how can we explain the neglect of such a masterpiece in our plans of liberal education? It is the boast of England and America that their higher education is religious in the spirit. Why is it, then, that our youth are taught to associate exquisiteness of expression, force of presentation, brilliance of imaginative picturing, only with literatures in which the prevailing matter and thought are on a low moral plane? Such a paradox is part of the paganism which came in with the Renaissance, and which our higher education is still too conservative to shake off.”—“Modern Reader's Bible.”

College View, Neb.