I read in The Graphic recently that the Buddists expressed their appreciation for the welcome they have received to our Island and I began to ponder what has made our Island and our country so great.

In my generation we have moved from being a people that could build homes, raise a family and paddle our own canoe with no government help. Education was in a one-room school with Grades 1-10 and a teacher with a Grade 12 education with as many as 24 students. 

Now with all the handouts everybody needs a job. There isn’t enough cash to go around.

Nobody seems to know what has gone wrong so my conclusion on the matter is, put the Bible back in the schools. This country was founded on the word of God and we have become one of the greatest countries in history. Everyone would love our Canada, our freedom and our friendship. Everyone that comes to our great land owes it to themselves to check it out. 

The greatest code of ethics ever given to man is found in Exodus 20 Verse 4. “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God, a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth [generation] of them that hate me. And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain. Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day [is] the sabbath of the Lord thy God: [in it] thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that [is] within thy gates: For [in] six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them [is], and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it. Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the lord thy God giveth thee. Thou shalt not kill. Thou shalt not commit adultery. Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that [is] thy neighbour’s.” 

In St Matthew 22:37 Jesus summed up the commandments: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all they heart and with all thy soul and with all thy mind. This is the first of the great commandment. And the second is like until it, thou shalt love thy neighbours as thyself.”

Put the laws into practice and if the need for government help and health problems will disappear.

We need the Bible back in our churches. Do you know that infant Baptism, confirmation, confession of sins, a priest sacrifice of the mass, last rites, purgatory, prayers for the dead, prayers to the Virgin Mary and the saints celibacy of priests and more is not found on the pages of scripture?

St Paul writes in First Corinthians, “Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherent the Kingdom of God. Be not deceived neither fornicators nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor eliminate nor abusers of themselves with mankind, non thieves nor covetous nor drunkards, nor revellers, nor extortioners shall inherit the Kingdom of God.

God has made us a very blessed people. Read it today.

Henry MacDougall

St Peter’s Bay