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has been read in our schools, and generally through the land. I have yet to hear the first instance in which it has been injurious to the intellect or to the heart; on the contrary, you can point to no people, of the same numbers, having equal responsibilities laid upon them, who have developed so much intelligence, so much character, so much energy, and who have done so much for humanity, as these people who have grown up in our free schools, having read the Bible every day of their school-life.

"For good or for evil, read by young and old, the Bible has hitherto had a mighty influence in shaping the destiny of this nation. Nowhere on earth has it been read more, and nowhere under its teachings have risen up better schools, freer churches, better teachers, stronger men in the professions, nobler models in the halls of legislation and the senate."

In view of these facts, the absolute and indisputable superiority of the Bible over all other books, how truly astonishing are the efforts of Papists and others to expel this blessed book from our public schools! How strange the attempt to close up to our children one of the avenues to a knowledge of the Word of life, God's revelation to man! If no one, of all these objectors to its use in our schools, can point out a single instance in which any person, old or young, in school or out of school, was ever

injured by it in any way, while on the other hand the most elevated in sentiment, benevolent in purpose, pure in thought, exemplary in life, and strong in the right, in all ages, whether old or young, have been those who have read and loved the Bible most, how strange the infatuation and madness, to say nothing of the wickedness, that seeks to expel the Bible from our schools, as though it would corrupt rather than purify!

CHAPTER XII.

Our Public Schools are not made Sec-
tarian by the use of the Bible, as
charged by Romanists.

ONE of the charges brought by Roman Catholics against our public schools, and urged by them as a reason why they should be broken up, is that they are made sectarian by the reading of the Holy Scriptures to the children. This is certainly a serious charge, and demands an investigation. As much as we believe in the necessity of the inculcation of great moral truths in our common schools, so as to impress the minds of the young, we are not willing that morality shall be taught in them according to the shiboleth of any sect or denominational creed. However valuable creeds and forms may be as bonds of union among the various denominations, they can never be admitted into our common schools, supported by the public funds of the State. This, indeed, would be just grounds for dissatisfaction and denunciation. The very nature of our government forbids it.

But is it true, as alleged by Romanists, that our public school system is justly liable to so serious an allegation? We most unhesitatingly

and unqualifiedly answer no! Never was there a charge more groundless. It is the sheerest nonsense to affirm that the Bible, read in our schools without note or comment, makes them sectarian. As well affirm that to inculcate justice and virtue, is to inculcate sectarianism. The Bible is not a sectarian book in any sense. It was given for the benefit of all without regard to sect, race, or color.

If to read the Bible without note or comment is to be sectarian, and if to read it thus in our common schools is to sectarianize them, then for the State to enforce the observance of the Sabbath, is also sectarianism; to open our halls of legislation with the solemnities of religious worship, according to this theory, is to convert them into sectarian assemblies; to admit the Bible into courts of justice according to this plea is to make them sectarian courts. "In the courts over which we preside," says Judge O'Neall, "we daily acknowledge Christianity as the most solemn part of our administration. A Christian witness having no religious scruples against placing his hand upon the book, is sworn upon the holy Evangelists, the books of the New Testament, which testify of our Saviour's birth, life, death, and resurrection. This is so common a matter, that it is little thought of as affording any evidence of the part which Christianity has in the common law." But ac

cording to the charge brought against our public schools, these courts are sectarian courts, and made so by the use of the Bible. The Bible a sectarian book! As well might it be affirmed that Christianity itself is a sectarian institution —that the Lord Jesus Christ, together with the Apostles, were the originators and inculcators of sectarianism, and that Jehovah is a sectarian God. The Bible is the common property of mankind; the great and primary fountain of wisdom, righteousness, and truth; the supreme and unerring rule for the faith and practice of all men. How can it therefore be regarded in any sense as sectarian? or how can its being read in our schools without note or comment give them a sectarian bias?

But it is sometimes charged by Romanists that our Bible is made sectarian by its translation. Now, is it true, as claimed by them, that King James's translation of the Bible, which is used in our schools, is sectarian, or that it is a Protestant Bible, and consequently unreliable? In other words, is our English Bible, which we have been taught from childhood to love and cherish as the word of God, a sectarian book? Was it translated by men whose minds were so warped by prejudice against Romanism, and in favor of Protestantism, as to unfit them for an impartial rendering of the sense of the original? Such are the charges of Romanists.

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