Acts 19:9 But when divers were hardened, and believed not, but spoke evil of that way before the multitude, he departed from them… 1. Here is Paul in a school house in which the learning of the day was taught. But Paul makes up his mind they need some religion there, and so he goes into it; and daily for two years he gave lectures on Christianity. I. IF THE WORD OF GOD WAS APPROPRIATE FOR THE PUBLIC SCHOOL OF EPHESUS, WHY NOT FOR PUBLIC SCHOOLS ELSEWHERE? Higher than university, than Legislative hall, than Presidential chair, is the common school of this country, because it provides the orators, the painters, the poets, the legislators, the judges, the presidents; dropping upon a million homes the benediction of light and refinement. So queenly a system must be affianced to the king of books, the Bible. This union has given us all we have of culture and refinement. After you put a building up, it is a poor thing to pull out the cornerstone. Suppose I should go to the architect of this building and say, "You have no right to be here today." "Why," he would reply, "I built it." And people would gather around and say, "If anybody has a right to be here, he has." Now, my friends, the Word of God is the architect, the foundation, the pillars, the capstone of the great common school system, and there shall be no political nor demoniacal power on earth or hell to expel it. II. YET A DETERMINED EFFORT IS BEING MADE TO EXPEL IT. In support of this it is said — 1. "It does not make any difference. What is the reading of half a dozen verses of a chapter in a school?" I go into an apothecary's store with a prescription. In making it up the chemist takes one liquid, then another, and then a third, and finally he takes out a small phial, and drops into the general admixture one or two drops. I say to him, "Why do you waste time by putting in those drops?" "Oh," he says, "this is the most important part of the prescription. This changes the entire nature of the thing. Without it, it would be death; with it, it will be cure and life." Now you come up to the common school admixture, and you say: "There is a quart of arithmetic, and there are two gills of geography, and a pint of grammar, and what is just one or two drops of Scriptural reading going to do?" I say it is the most important part of the prescription. It changes the whole nature of everything. Untold blessings depend on the Bible staying where it is. Untold disorder follow upon its being thrust out. 2. The common school was intended only to give secular education. I reply that it is to develop our children so that they shall be prepared for the duties of life. Suppose a man should go to a gymnasium, and say to the manager, "I wish you would make that little finger more agile, and strong, and healthy; and develop the toe of the right foot." Why, he would say, "You must be insane. If I take you in my institution, I purpose to develop your entire physical organism, and then of course your hand and foot will get the benefit of it. But I can't undertake to treat just the foot and hand." Now you come up to the common school, and you say, "Give us secular education, but don't give us religious education." In other words, touch only the tip end of this complex nature; don't get up into the region of the soul: give the children reading, writing, and arithmetic. Ah, we cannot educate our children in this infinitesimal manner. Do you think a man is prepared for the duties of life merely because because he can cipher, or is a good penman? The biggest thief in New York understands arithmetic, and can wield a very skilful pen when it is to put somebody else's name at the foot of a money draft. What this country wants is the pressure of a high moral obligation on her young people, and that you can get from no book except the Bible. The rights of our Jewish and Roman Catholic fellow citizens will be invaded. Well, look at that little urchin! Before him stands the teacher, inflicting him with these oppressive words, "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God"; "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy." Alas! for the defenceless little Jewish and Roman Catholic children, crushed under the Beatitudes. Besides this, the Bible is the most unsectarian Book in the world. Wyckliffe, and Coverdale, and Matthew translated the Bible in the Roman Catholic Church; and our translation is substantially the same thing. The Bible in the schools does not propose to proselyte. The Bible taught in a Presbyterian Church may get a Presbyterian twist, or taught in a Roman Catholic Church may get a Roman Catholic twist; but the Bible as read in our schools without note or comment, will get no such twist. And then neither Romanists nor Jews have any objection to the Bible as such. Who then want it expelled chiefly? Well, the men who are loose in religious notions, or loose in morals, or base politicians, and for good reasons. (T. De Witt Talmage, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: But when divers were hardened, and believed not, but spake evil of that way before the multitude, he departed from them, and separated the disciples, disputing daily in the school of one Tyrannus. |
    |