twelve I read Scottish Chiefs, and then I kept on reading it. I finished it and then began it right over again. I knew whole pages of it by heart. When I recall the high adventure of those wonder days, I am glad Scottish Chiefs was not a two weeks library book.

Finally, we teachers will have to bear in mind that the universally accepted modern slogan, "It pays to advertise" holds good in the matter of interesting the child in good reading. We have faith in the staying quality of our goods. All we need, even in this day of intense competition, is to bring our wares, in an attractive and appealing way, to our clientele. Then the goods will sell themselves.

Poor Little Stars

Poor little stars, the brilliant moon
Has far eclipsed your light,

So you seem 'most afraid to come
And shine out in the night.

Your twinkling eyes have dimmer grown,
With fair Selena near;

But after she has gone away,

You brighter will appear.

Then we shall see your billion eyes

All twinkling in the sky,
Until old Sol comes peeping up,
When you will say good-bye;
For you can never seem to stand
His early, ruddy glow:

When he is blushing at the dawn,

You feel 'tis time to go.

MARTHA SHEPARD LIPPINCOTT.

A Plea for the Bible in the Schools

E. E. CATES, PRINCIPAL OF HIGH SCHOOL, PARKER, ARIZONA. 20TRUE education can not be limited by hampering restrictions that permit the child to be taught about

❝T geography but not about God who made the earth;

"T

about botany but not about God who clothed the flower; about physiology but not about God who built man; about history but not about the Divine Providence in human affairs. It is perfectly possible to arrange for religious teaching in the public schools which shall not outrage any parent's convictions and shall give equal and ample protection to Protestant, Catholic, and Jew." So writes Judge Crain of the Court of General Sessions of New York City. Rev. James A. Francis of Los Angeles has recently said: "To build character we must teach religion. If the young people of today are not taught religion during their public school training America will be lost." A State that forbids by law the Bible to be read in the public schools commits a sin against its children-its future citizens.

The Bible is the greatest set of books in the world concerning the fundamental problems of life and religion. No complete system of education can ignore it. And religion is best described as man's whole bearing towards what seems to him as the best and the greatest.

School government must be democratic and religious. This means that it must be based on respect for personality. Every pupil and every teacher has personal rights and corresponding duties. Good school government makes every one connected with the school conscious of responsibilities. Consciousness of personal responsibility comes from identifying one's self with the best and all of the best that one knows. This is the attempt to be religious.

The Supreme Court of Wisconsin in handing down a decision has said: "To teach the existence of a Supreme Being of infinite power, wisdom, and goodness and that it is the highest duty of all men to adore, obey, and love him, is not sectarian, because all sects so believe and teach. No more complete code of morals exists than is contained in the New Testament which affirms and emphasizes the moral obligations laid down in the Ten Commandments." If religious instruction is not within the province of the public school but belongs to the home and the church, where is such instruction to come from for the children whose homes are neglected and who have no church affiliations?

Kant has said: "Religion is the recognition of the moral law as the commands of God."

James says: "In the broadest and most general terms possible one might say the religious life consists in the belief that there is an unseen order, and that our supreme good lies in harmoniously adjusting ourselves thereto."

Bishop Spaulding says: "Religion is necessary not because it is useful or consoling but because it is involved in the very nature of man. It is more than a doctrine, than a cult--it is life, life manifesting itself not in worship alone, but in science, art, morality, and civilization."

But of all definitions ever given perhaps that of the Hebrew prophet Micah is the best: "He hath showed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee but to do justly, and to love, kindness, and to walk humbly with thy God." This has been called the Magna Charta of spiritual religion. It may also be called the Magna Charta of good citizenship. Let us not avoid the name of God. If you are afraid to use God's name seriously to our children they will not be afraid to use it lightly. If we try to teach the Divine law without giving God as our authority our teaching is not religious but purely ethical.

Nine national associations are pledged to work to introduce the reading of the Bible in the public schools. And the suprising thing about the matter to the outside world must be that this is here in America, the child of Puritanism, that today is taunted

with her "godless school." Thousands of children are singing "Our fathers' God, to thee

Author of liberty,

To Thee we sing,"

and that country ignoring or even forbidding the word of God in her schools where those children might hear it daily.

Or is it that the "God of our fathers" is not the God of our children? Our state documents, the Declaration of Independence, the Emancipation Proclamation, the constitutions of the several states, and our coinage acknowledge the ruling hand of God. A national thanksgiving to God is set apart annually and Christmas and the Sabbath are given recognition. Our magistrates enter upon office and witnesses in our courts give testimony with hand upraised to heaven, with a solemn oath "before God." Yet there are those who have invoked our federal constitution as the chief authority for the forbidding the teaching of our future citizens and law makers those principles and the moral law upon which government must rest if it is to uphold justice and righteouness. How shall these successors to us know if we do not teach them?

The warning that Washington gave in his Farewell Adress applies today with special emphasis: "Of all the dispositions that lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensible supports. And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail to the exclusion of religious principle."

The percentage of pupils entering high school has increased in 75 years from 1 to 80% and from high school to college from 9 to 37%, and yet criminals have increased in the ratio of 5 to 1. Would this ratio have been as great if the teachers had not been forbidden to read the Bible in school and to give religious instruction?

One of the strongest arguments for religious teaching in the public schools is the modern belief that religion should not be

allowed to stand in the child's mind as a thing to be kept apart from his daily life.

Archbishop Ireland has said: "The evil day in America is the decay of religion."

Ex-senator Beveridge has said: "Of all our races God has marked the American people as His chosen nation to lead in the regeneration of the world-this is the divine mission of America."

Ex-president Eliot has said: "Nobody knows how to teach morality effectually without religion. Exclude religion from education and you leave no foundation upon which to build a moral character."

Ignorance among college students concerning scriptural allusions is a matter of notoriety. College men who have read the expeditions of Caesar and of Xenophon in the original have no acquaintance with journeyings of Abraham and of Paul. They know about Carthage, Solon, and Charlemange but are amused or aggrieved if the instructor asks them about Samaria, or Isaiah, or Nehemiah. All this because of the shortsightedness, the bigotry, and the jealousy of those who refuse the noblest book in any language a place in the school room.

A certain business man has said: "It is a political maxim that the welfare of a republic is dependent on the virtue and the intelligence of its citizens. The Bible has been pronounced the foundation of both the civil and the moral law. Conscience, law, and liberty find in it their common basis. As the flag is upon every school house so should the Bible be upon every teacher's desk."

The Interchurch Movement sends out the challenge that "Spiritual illiteracy is the forerunner of moral bankruptcy and national decay." Massachusetts and Pennsylvania require by law the reading of the Bible in the schools. New York City, the largest Catholic city and the largest Jewish city in the world, requires by eity .charter the reading of the Bible every day in the public schools, and every body likes it and would not have it otherwise. The movement is gaining impetus, and soon what Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and New York City require by law will be the law for all States of the Union.