Dangerous Teaching for the Young.—In our last issue we made reference to the fact that the “Children’s Newspaper” accepted evolution as one of the assured facts of modern science, and in the same issue we had a note on the antagonistic attitude of the State of Tennessee to the teaching of evolution in the public schools and colleges of that State. In the “Children’s Newspaper” of 18th April the editor has an article headed—”Tennessee Makes Itself Ridiculous”—in which he says, among other things—”Tennessee, a State with over 40,000 square miles and over 2,000,000 inhabitants, has made itself ridiculous in the eyes of the whole educated world.” The decision of the State legislature is described as “a return on a contemptible scale to the days when inspired learning and discovery brought scholars and thinkers within sight of the rack.” Evolution is described as a “sublime thought” and as a “wonderful view of Creation that fills the mind with a sublime and solemn wonder as we think of it.”
The Great Crime of the State of Tennessee.—In reading the above article one would imagine that the State of Tennessee has committed a great crime against the spread of knowledge, and that it has taken at one leap backward its place with the unenlightened of the Dark Ages. Now, what is really Tennessee’s crime? It is this, as stated by the “Times” correspondent, “that it shall be unlawful for any teacher in any of the Universities, normal schools, and all other public schools of the State which are supported in whole or in part by the school funds of the State, to teach any theory that denies the story of the divine creation of man as taught in the Bible, and to teach instead that man is descended from a lower order of animals.” If such legislation gives the Tennessee legislature a push
back to the Dark Ages, we confess we are willing in this matter to take our stand with them rather than with those who find a sublime thought in the theory that man traces his origin through a long series of lower forms until he at last reaches that noble half-way-house, the ape, and then goes on laboriously improving until he gives evidence of his great advancement, morally and intellectually, on the bloody fields of Europe in 1914-1918. It is right that parents and teachers should be warned of the dangerous teaching on this subject given in this popular children’s paper.
Call to Action.—Such is the title of a manifesto declaring war against the Anglo-Catholics in the Church of England. The manifesto has had a good deal of attention called to it in the public press. The signatories are a somewhat mixed multitude—Low and Broad (some of them very Broad) Church rub shoulder to shoulder, but they are united in declaring war against the Anglo-Catholics, who have become specially aggressive in the Church of England, and who are seeking to impose their will on the Church. There is no getting away from the fact that the English Church is faced with a grave crisis, and the action of the Ritualistic, Romeward section has awakened an opposition which we trust will not end in the issue of manifestoes, but in making it impossible for these traitors to be receiving the money of a Protestant Church, while seeking to undermine its very foundations.
A Bad Movement.—The London Midland and Scottish Railway is making a bold bid to break down as far as it can any feeling that exists in Scotland against holiday travelling on the Lord’s Day. Special inducements are announced in the daily press and in their time-tables by way of cheap fares and special excursions by train and boat to get the public to turn the Sabbath into a holiday. There can be little doubt that if the experiment proves even a partial financial success that it will be persisted in, and extended to other parts of the country, including the Highlands, wherever, in fact, this powerful company operates. The Directors have their eye on dividends, and the bulk of the shareholders are indifferent to any claims the Lord’s Day has on themselves or others.
Dr Duncan’s Addresses and Sermons.—It is gratifying to learn that the volume of Dr Duncan’s Addresses, Lectures, and Sermons, recently reviewed in the Magazine, has had a gratifying sale. In these days when solid literature, and especially sermons, has
only a very limited circle of readers and still more limited circle of purchasers, it is matter of gratification that the first edition of 1500 copies has almost been disposed of. The book could not have been sold at its published price had not Mr Ross, Liverpool, borne the difference between a remunerative selling price and the price at which it was offered to the public. Those who have not yet gone in for copies of this excellent work may still have copies supplied to them through Miss Grant, 33 Academy Street, Inverness, price 5s (5s 6d post free).