Welsh Journals

A NEGLECTED BOOK: A SERIOUS CALL FINALITY in human affairs is a dream impossible of realisation. Thirty years ago it was all bustle around us; the sense of national inferiority was acute; we were on the look out for the way of salvation we found it­Liberal Politics and Higher Education were to be our emancipators. Our double dream materialised. On the one hand, the Welsh Party was formed, composed of young Welshmen, of undoubted ability and culture, reared in the homes of the Werin," full of dash and push on the other hand, schools of various grades were multiplied, and staffed with men stamped with the university hall mark. But Canaan is as far off as ever it was in the days when Sir Watkin sat in Parliament, and Old Wooden Leg presided over our education. The Welsh Party is decried on every hand bankrupt in all save self-seeking, and a few plums and decorations for themselves and friends, of late, our legislators are becoming uneasy, troubled with an evil conscience. Our other dream deserves better at our hand, though it has failed to come up to expectation. Already our system of education seems destined for the melting pot, that much-belauded system described as late as 1904 by Sir John Rhys as the envy of English educa- tionalists seething discontent meets one everywhere; everyone is grumbling-the teachers complain of the pay and the rest of us complain of the education. In the midst of this incoherent Babel I crave the readers' ear on behalf of an Old Book that has done more, and is qualified to do yet more, infinitely more, for the Welsh people than Parliament and school combined. Of course, I am referring to the Bible, a book once widely read throughout the Principality, but now, alas sadly neglected so sadly indeed that four out of every five of our youth would be puzzled to turn up the Psalms in their Bible without consulting the Table of Contents. The fruit of this neglect is seen even among our better educated youth- You would be simply astounded at the appalling ignorance of the New Testament and of the Life of our Lord revealed by the examination held by the college staff on the admission of new students." In every true-hearted Welshman's ear, that ought to sound as a terrible charge but it is deliberately made by the head of a Welsh Training College in his reply to a questionnaire addressed to him by the present writer the principal of a similar institution corroborates, and confesses that the ignorance is on the increase. Evidence from quite a different quarter bears a similar construction a Nonconformist minister of 45 years' experience, years spent by him in a thoroughly Welsh industrial district thus expresses himself I fear to think of the fate awaiting preaching in Wales in the near future; the ignorance of the younger portion of our congre- gations in simple Scripture facts is heart-breaking." Have we allowed ourselves to go to sleep in a Fool's Paradise ? The present writer has felt it his duty to rouse up the leaders-a most unpleasant duty he felt it to be the early morning hooter rousing from sleep is never as welcome a sound as that of the dinner gong summoning to the delights of the table. However, since it was an effectual call," I have reason to be satisfied. I. A study of the causes of this neglect shows that it is due, largely, to good instruments (1) badly used, or (2) not used at all, or (3) sparingly used. The inefficiency of much of our Sunday School work falls under the first head. The present state of that long-famed Older University" causes deep anxiety; for proof, vide the Report on the subject recently issued by the National Federation of Free Churches. The decline in membership, especially adult membership, is patent to all; for this, various causes are assigned in the Report, moral, mental and economic want of patronage is mentioned therein as a further likely cause- university professors, teachers, lawyers, bank clerks, and, in some cases, ministers, being classified among the black sheep who fail to patronise the Sunday School with their presence. Why theological professors are not tarred with the black mark surpasses one's comprehension. But let that pass. A falling membership is not the only cause of anxiety. As a class, the teachers are a band of devoted workers deserving of all praise there are miserable unfits amongst them no doubt; but the Sunday School has no monopoly of such the Interim Report, to be mentioned in the sequel, supplies official evidence of unfits among certificated headmasters, otherwise duly qualified, engaged in Council Schools. The Sunday School suffers from a dearth of teachers, good, bad, or indifferent; the Arolygwr is con- stantly at his wits' end where to find them, and when found how to equip them a seemingly insoluble problem ever- lastingly faces the poor man. Should Sunday School teachers be remunerated? A wild suggestion simply because of its novelty not because of unreasonableness were funds available this ever present problem would be partly solved. But where are we to look for funds ? The voluntary system will not bear the strain indica- tions are all too patent that that system is already nearing the breaking point. When the War is over, a considerable sum of money, now loaned to the disestablished Welsh Church, will be released. Into what channel are these endowments to be diverted-to endow secular work in secular institutions ? Something of the kind is contemplated in certain quarters. May the day never dawn when an act of sacrilege so unjust will have been committed Funds devoted to religious purposes, and hitherto for generations so used, diverted to enrich purely secular Institutions Must we rob Christ to endow Caesar? The gold and silver of a stript Temple must nat be poured into the coffers of the College by no tricks of logic do we make sacred and secular synonomous. Rather let the released endowments, wholly or in part, be devoted to Sunday School work in Wales. The spiritual well being of a nation must not be sacrificed to the fetish of volun- taryism Much of the ineffectiveness in imparting Biblical instruc- tion too characteristic of our Sunday Schools is an inevitable result of the obsolete methods so largely introduced during the last 25 years. The C.M's probably were the first to sin the rest of us sinned in trying to emulate their