religion, in the presence of their classes; therefore be it RESOLVED, That as a body of Chris- tion citizens and taxpayers, subject to the law of the State, we do here take occasion to affirm anew our own steadfast faith in the Holy Scriptures as the only true and authoritative basis of the moral life of the people, and to declare our belief that the conditions everywhere arising within our borders indicate that an error has been committed in permitting the use of the Scriptures to be, discontinued in our schools, and we hope for the day when they will again be recognized as the text- book and guide in the moral instruction of our youth. RESOLVED, That we hereby respect- fully call the attention of the Board of Education of the City of Los Angeles to the facts above alleged, and in so doing petition their honorable body to investi- gate t he report alluded to, and if it should be found true that any of the teachers of our City High or. Grammar Schools are prostituting their positions by the use of inuendo, ridicule or argument to the dis- credit of the Bible and things regard'ed sacred by the religious people of our State, | that such teachers be warned to discon- tinue, these practices or that they be re- moved from the positions they occupy as instructors of our youth. " I contend that we have impoverished life and literature by the neglect of the English Bible—by striking out of our life and our reading one great monument of our literature,-the source from which much of what is best in later centuries is drawn, the inspiration upon which the best Eng- lish style has been built. I regret it as shameful that we have permitted, this tre- mendous sacrifice of literature, and life, and knowledge, because we can not agree upon questions of religious theological in- terpretation. " I know that the state' statute books are full of laws prohibiting the reading of the Bible in the school. My view is that this is wrong. How can you teach history without the -Bible? Teachers all over this land are trying to teach Chaucer and Spencer, Shakespeare, Tennyson and Browning. How are they to understand
not tell about ' P e t e r 's sheet;' twenty-four knew nothing of Jepthah's vow; eleven, could not explain about ' J a c o b 's ladder;' and eighteen were ignorant of ' t he death- less angel seated in the vacant tomb.' " Th e se 34 young men from Ohio, New York and Pennsylvania could give only 328 correct answers out of 748." The devil is back of it all. When the Book goes the Lord goes with it, and when the Lord goes Satan takes the place of authority. The resultant conditions are such as should send the church on its face in humiliation and to its knees in prayer. As a result of the conference on the sub- ject of the Religious Conditions of our Schools and Colleges, a committee of three consisting of Rev. A. B. Prichard, Prof. Howard Kellogg and Judge S. C. Huddell were appointed to d r a ft suitable resolutions embracing the sentiments of the convention. At the closing service in Immanuel Presbyterian Church on Sunday evening, July 2nd, the following were unanimously endorsed WHEREAS, The law of California for- bids the giving of any " s e c t a r i a n" in- struction in the public schools of the State, and in consequence, the reading of the Scriptures of the Old and New Testa- ments has been construed as a violation of the law, and therefore discontinued; and WHEREAS, It is obviously " s e c t a r i a n" and an equal violation of the law for any instructor or official maintained in his po- sition at the public expense to exercise the influence of his or her position to bring the Bible or the religious and moral principles which it represents into ridicule or contempt; and ' WHEREAS, It is matter of current re- port that certain members of the admin- istrative and teaching staff of our Los Angeles x J ublic Schools, including the High School, who are known to entertain views hostile to the Bible,' have taken advantage of their position, as teachers to exploit these views and to express senti- ments derogatory to the religion of Christ and to the Bible as the symbol of that
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