On Thursday a deputation, including representatives of all sections of
opinion in the Church and of both the great political parties, waited upon the Prime Minister and Mr. McKenna in order to express their profound belief in the value of simple Bible instruction in our elementary schools. As Mr. Martin Sutton put it, the majority of the laymen in the Church of England are perfectly content with Cowper- Temple teaching. The Bishop of Hereford, who also spoke, declared that the deputation represented the common-sense of the Church of England in condemning the attack that had been made in disparagement of simple Bible teaching. We are glad to say that both the Prime Minister and Mr. McKenna received the deputation with great sympathy, and used language which can only mean that the Government are determined not to allow the Bible to be driven out of
the schools, however great the temptation, owing to some ill-starred alliance between the denominational extremists and the secularists. For ourselves, we can only say that we remain convinced upholders of the Cowper-Temple compromise. We believe that in the majority of cases it provides sound Christian teaching for the children, and guards us from the appalling danger of secularisation. But it does more than this. It prevents the secularisation of the teachers as well as of the schools. The children are better children because they receive simple Christian teaching, and the teachers are better teachers because it lies within their ordinary duties to give such teaching. It is an immense influence for good on their lives.
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