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T H E K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S
April 1926
We Are Debtors to the Boys and Girls of America
DR. JOHN MURDOCH MACINNIS Dean of the Bible Institute of Los Xfigeles, California
JT (Extract from a sermon preached In the Church of the Open Door, Los Angeles, California, February 21, 1926.) «He called to Him a little child. and set Mm In the midst e f them .’* Matt. I 81 X. HE '"ch ild In the midst” is not only to teach us lessons but also marks a very definite responsibil ity. Jesus reminds us of this fact In this very context. He reminds us that to receive one such little child In His name is to receive Him; on the other hand, to cause one of them to stumble Is almost an unfor- glveable offense. It Is profitable for one giving that offense that a great millstone should be hanged about his neck, that he should be sunk in the depths of the sea. The fact of our responsibility to the children could not be stated with greater force and yet It Is to be doubted If many of the peo ple of the church of God anything like appreciate what this solemn responsibility means. We should remember that these boys and girls are In the midst not by their Invitation or by their Initiative. We have brought them here and when we remember that they have In them responsibilities for eternal good or eternal woe, we should realize that we owe them the very best possible to make that life the best that it can be made. They are entitled to be well-born and being born, they are entitled to the best surroundings. They are ready to absorb any Influence that we bring to bear upon them and to be moulded after our will. If they are surrounded by Chinese, they learn Chinese; if by English, they learn English, and that Is Indicative of the readiness with which they absorb practically any Influence that is brought to bear upon them. They are entitled to the very best possible atmosphere to foster their lives. We owe them the best that we can give them in the way of education. Of course as Christians we should begin to teach them about God and our duties to Him and the life made possible through Jesus Christ Just as early as It Is possible for them to understand these things, but beyond this we owe them the very best kind of influence Jn the way of education, and here I wish to take up the question of what we owe the boys and girls of America. There is very little doubt in the minds of the rank and file of the American people that we owe them an education. The fact that we are putting millions of dollars every year into the support of schools and a school system, is sufficient proof of that, but we not only owe them an education but we owe them the right kind of an education and I con tend that the right kind of an education for boys and girls born in America must include a knowledge of the Bible and its wonderful story. An education that does not involve this is fatally defective. A growing number of Americans are beginning to appreciate this fact, and all over our nation groups of people are demanding that the Bible should be put in the public schools.
This demand is in keeping with the truest kind of Amer icanism. The Bible belongs in the American school system and nothing could be more unAmerican and illogical than the movements that are fostered to crowd it out of our system. The strange movements are not the movements that insist upon its being read in every school but the agi tation to deprive the children from hearing it read. It belongs in our school system by the very logic of our his tory. This nation owes its origin and Institutions to the ideals and influence of the Bible. The United States of America would have been impossible apart from the Influence of the Bible upon the people who laid its foundations. This is not the wild dream of religious fanatics but the sober interpretation of our history by the highest Court in the nation. It has been declared by the Supreme Court of the United States that the United States is a Christian nation. Of course we have not realized the ideal In our everyday life but that does not change the fact that that is what we are in our own interpretation of our Constitution and ideals, and it would be difficult to imagine what we would use in the place of that word “ Christian if we were to eliminate it from this decision. It is certainly clear that the overwhelming majority of the American peo ple would not be willing to write in that we are a Godless nation and I am sure we are not a Mohammedan or a Jewish nation., 't'- What, then, shall we say in interpreting our ideals before the world if we are not Christian? Being Christian, our school system is for the purpose of developing boys and girls so that they may be enabled to intelligently use their franchise in harmony with our ideals. How can they know what the Christian ideals are If they are not taught to read the Christian Book? Our contention Is that the Bible is not a sectarian Book so far as the American nation is concerned. It is a Book of religion that gives to us the fundamental ideals that we foster as a Christian nation. Nothing could be more incongruous than the thought of educating the millions of the boys and girls of America at public expense without ever introducing into the system of education the Book to which the nation owes its origin and which contains her Ideals. Then again we owe it to these boys and girls to give them the Bible in order that they may intelligently understand our history. They certainly ought to know the circumstan ces under which the nation originated, the nature of the peoples who were instrumental in laying its foundations and making possible its institutions. How could any teacher explain this without explaining the Pilgrims and Puritans, the Dutch Reformed, the Quakers, the Presbyterians and the host of others who made possible the Declaration of Independence and the struggle that finally made possible that independence under the Constitution, apart from the Bible? The lives of these people were dominated and
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