64678: Rev Mackenzie lectures to the young in Valtos

Excerpt from Stornoway Gazette and West Coast Advertiser

LOCAL AND DISTRICT NEWS: UIG

Friday March 22, 1918

LECTURE TO THE YOUNG: On Thursday evening, 14th inst., the Rev. Allan Mackenzie, delivered a special lecture to the young, in the Valtos Hall, on "How we got the New Testament". There was a crowded attendance both of young people and adults. The lecturer after giving a brief sketch of the writers of the Gospels and Acts, explained the nature of the papyrus which made up the manuscripts; how these manuscripts were distribute in the early Church; how copies were multiplied; how translations came in; and how the art of printing became such a wonderful means for spreading the Gospel throughout all the nations of the world. He also contrasted the attitude of the Roman Catholic Church which kept the Bible a sealed book, with the Protestant, which gave access to it to every man, woman and child on the earth.

Mr. Mackenzie also explained how the three best of the oldest manuscripts has come to be in the British Museum, in the Vatican, and in Petrograd. Mrs. Mackenzie, the Manse, who has been doing war work in taking the place of the Headmaster of Crowlista School, delivered a strong address, which was highly appreciated, on the paramount importance of Bible teaching in the school, laying special stress on the duty of the teacher to make up for the indifference of the Education Department in this all-important branch of the education of the child and urging the parents to see to it that their children should have a daily Bible lesson in the school, in addition to the training at home, which was not on any account to be neglected on the plea that the children were taught elsewhere. It was criminal to deprive the child of his birthright, either in school or in the home.