Uncritical Standpoint of the Text-Book.

It would take too long to follow the editor through the rest of his selections from the Old Testament, and it is unnecessary, as his attitude may readily be inferred from the initial sample. No parts of the Bible have been so modified by modern criticism as the Pentateuch, but of course no trace of it appears in a manual compiled sixty years ago. All the old impossible stories—the creation of Eve out of Adam's rib, the deluge and the ark, the tower of Babel, Jacob's wrestling with the angel, and the rest—all these appear without modification or comment; and with them are incorporated the crude, anthropomorphic ideas of God entertained by a primitive people. To the editor of the text-book these stories are as real as the facts of the Gospel history; and the Lord who is induced not to renew the curse upon the earth by the sweet savor of Noah's sacrifice is put before the children as the same object of worship with the God of the New Testament. Twelve solid pages are devoted to the plagues of Egypt, about 13 per cent, of the space given to the whole of the Gospel story—a fine example of critical and ethical perspective; and they are of course treated as unvarnished history, just as Genesis i. is unvarnished science. The story of Balaam's as also figures as an essential part of the religious equipment of every child. I asked a school teacher the other day how many teachers in New Zealand believed that Balaam's ass spoke. He said "Not one in twenty." The nineteen, then, are either to teach as sacred truth what they regard as grotesque fable or else to refuse to teach what by sanctioning this text-book we shall have declared to be a necessary part of education. They must either lie or resign; some will do one, some the other; and those who lie will fare best, so far as this world's goods are concerned, and those who don't will speedily have their places filled by those who do. It is obvious what a highly desirable class of religious teachers this process of selection will ultimately provide us with.