Part 10 (1/2)

”How do all other men out of the Protestant communion, Papists, Mohammedans, Jews, and Gentiles, reason and act in the education of their children? Do they discard their sacred books from the schools as too holy for common and fa far too well, and are too strongly attached to their respective religions to exclude it The Romanists, indeed, forbid the use of the Scriptures to the common people; but the Missal and the Breviary, which they hold to be quite as sacred, are their e portion of the children's ti the prayers; and what are the effects?

Do they becousted with the Missal and Breviary by this daily familiarity? We all know the contrary The very opposite effect is produced It is astonishi+ng to see hat tenacity children thus educated cling to the superstitions and absurdities of their fathers; and it is because their religion is wrought into the very texture of their minds, in the schools as well as in the churches Go to Turkey, to Persia, to all the lands scorched and blighted by the fiery train of the Crescent, and what school-books will you find but portions of the Koran?

Pass to Hindostan, and there you will find the Vedas and Shasters wherever any thing like popular education is atte to the best information we can obtain, their sacred books are the school-books of that vast and tee the Jeherever in their various dispersions they have established schools, and ill you find but the Law and the Prophets, the Targums and the Talroith a greater reverence for the Bible, a stronger attachan children cherish for their school-books, to the study of which they are ale of their education? It is opposing theory, then, to great and undeniable facts, to say that using the Christian Scriptures in this manner would detract from their sacredness in the eyes of our children

If this is ever the case, it must be where the teacher himself is a Gallio, and lacks those moral qualifications which are essential to his profession Another objection which is soainst the use of the Bible is, that considerable portions of it--though all true, and iious charter--are not suitable for co My answer is, we do not suppose that any instructor would take all his classes through the whole Bible, froical tables, and sos, he would oh to which the most fastidious could make no objection

”The way is now prepared to take an affir the Bible as a school-book In the first place, _it is the cheapest school-book in the world_ It furnishesfor _fifty cents_ than can be obtained in common school-books for _two dollars_ This difference of cost is, to the poor, an ie families on their hands, they often find it extremely difficult to meet the demands of teachers and coenerally introduced, they would take the place of ed to purchase at four-fold expense This would be a cogent argument on the score of economy, even if the popular school-books of this year were sure of round the next But so busy is the press in bringing forward new claimants to public favor, that they rapidly supplant each other, and thus the burden is greatly increased

”In the next place, _the Bible furnishes a far greater variety of the finest reading-lessons than any other book whatever_ This is a point to which my attention has been turned for rows upon me continually There is no book in which children a little advanced beyond the simplest monosyllabic lessons will learn to read faster, or more readily catch the proprieties of inflection, emphasis, and cadence, than the Bible I would by no means put it into the hands of a child to spell out and blunder over the chapters before he has read any thing else The word of God ought not to be so used by inners But it contains lessons adapted to all classes of learners, after the first and sie Let any teacher who has neverclass into the first chapter of John, and he will be surprised to find how easy the reading is, and hat pleasure and h the whole Gospel; and as few are too young to read with advantage in the Bible, so none are too old It is known to every body, that the very best reading lessons in our her classes are taken from the Scriptures Just open the Sacred Volule point, and turn over its thousand pages As a history, to interest, instruct, and improve the youthful mind, what other book in the world can compare with it? Where else will you find such exquisitely finished pieces of biography? such poetry? such genuine and lofty eloquence? such rich and varied speciret that I have not rooeneral terms, to the history of the creation; of Joseph and the forty years' wandering in the wilderness; to the book of Job; to the Psalms of David; to Isaiah; to the Gospels; and to the visions of John in the Isle of Patood school-book are to teach the art of reading, and to co and i that the Bible stands pre-eain to beco in any higher seminary than the common school-house, I would take the Bible in preference to any twenty 'Orators' or 'English Readers' that I have ever seen Indeed, I would scarcely want any other Milton and Shakspeare I would not reject, but I would do very ithout thehtened teachers, and members of any of the learned professions, read over aloud, in their best manner, such portions of Scripture as theybetter fitted to bring out and discipline the voice, and to express all the emotions in which the soul of true eloquence is bodied forth Why do the reat audiences with their recitations, take so many of their themes from the Bible? The reason is obvious They can find none so well suited to their purpose And why should not the common schools, in which are nurtured so many of the future orators, and rulers, and teachers of the land, have the advantage of the best of all reading-lessons? Moreover, since so much of the sense of Scripture depends upon the manner in which it is read, why should not the thousands of children be taught the art in school, ill never learn it at home? The more I study the Bible, the -books Youyourself a perfect scriptural reader, just as you ht, with all the help you can coreat truths without exhausting it Let it not be said that we have but few instructors who are capable of entering into the spirit of the Sacred Volume, so as to teach their scholars to read it with propriety Then let ht to be one of the daily exercises in our Nor up competent teachers, to qualify theain, that were the Bible hout the land, _an ae would be insensibly treasured up, which would be of inesti teacher must have been surprised to find how much the dullest scholar will learn by the ear, without see or reciting The boy that sits half the ti with his shoe-strings, will, in the course of a winter, coes and chapters to memory fro into hient instruction

Indeed, I have soht that children in our common schools learn more by the ear, without any effort, than by the study of their own class-books; and I aer scholars Let any book be read for a series of years in the same school, and half of the children will know most of it by heart

Wherever there are free schools--and the free school syste extensively adopted in every part of the United States--the great mass of the children are kept at school froh the year; and in the winter season, froe of tiht to ten years Now let the Bible be read daily as a class-book during all this time, in every school, and howin the least with other studies, be committed to memory And who can estimate the value of such an acquisition? What purethe slippery paths of youth, and onward through every stage of life; what bright exalorious rewards, even in the present world; what subli and perfections of God; what incentives to love and serve hie with fidelity all the duties which e to our fellow-hest sanctions of future accountability Let any man tell, if he can, how e, thus insensibly acquired, would be worth to theup in these United States of Aht not be at all sensible of its value at the time, but how happily and safely would it contribute to shape their future opinions and characters, both asthe Bible as a common school-book is, that _it is the firmest basis, and, indeed, the only sure basis of our free institutions, and, as such, ought to be familiar to all the children in the state fronizes the existence of civil governistrates as ards all men as free and equal, the children of one coious privileges I do not believe that any people could ever be enslaved who should be thoroughly and universally educated in the principles of the Bible

It was no less truly than eloquently said by Daniel Webster, in his Bunker Hill address, that ”the Aht with them from the Old World a full portion of all the riches of the past in science and art, and in ion, and literature The _Bible_ came with them And it is not to be doubted that to the _free_ and _universal_ use of the Bible it is to be ascribed that in that age ht views of civil liberty The Bible is a book of faith and a book of doctrine; but it is also a book which teaches nity, and equality with his fellow-reat Aolden capitals upon the monument under whose shade they were uttered! Yes, it was the free and universal use of the Bible which made our Puritan fathers what they were; and it is because, in these degenerate tiht to read it nowhere else, that I am so anxious to have it read as a school-book One other, and the only additional reason which I shall suggest, is that, as the Bible is _infinitely the best_, so it is the only decidedly _religious book_ which can be introduced into our popular systems of early education So jealous are the different sects and denominations of each other, that it would be hardly possible to write or coious school-book hich all would be satisfied But here is a book prepared to our hands, which we all receive as the inspired record of our faith, and as containing the purest ht in this loorld Episcopalians can not object to it, because they believe it teaches the doctrines and polity of their own church; and this is just what they want Neither Congregationalists, Presbyterians, Baptists, Methodists, Universalists, nor any other denomination, can object to it for the same reason Every denomination believes, so far as it differs from the rest, that the Bible is on its side, and, of course, that the more it is read by all, the better

Forthe Bible read as a common school-book on account of any doctrine which those who differ from me suppose it to teach, would be virtually to confess that I had not full confidence in my own creed, and was afraid it would not bear a scriptural test It seee, for which we are bound devoutly to thank the Author of all good, that he has given us a religious book of incomparable excellence, which we may fearlessly put into the hands of all the children in the state, with the assurance that it is able to make them ”wise unto salvation,” and will certainly make them better children, better friends, and better members of society, so far as it influences thehly approve of daily scriptural reading in co _selections_ rather than the whole Bible I should certainly prefer this, provided the selections are judiciously ether; but I think there are weighty and obvious reasons why the _whole_ Bible should be taken rather than a part The whole is cheaper than half would be in a separate volume; and when the whole is introduced, ”without note or coround for sectarian jealousy

Doctors of divinity not only, but the most eminent statesmen in the country, hold the views here presented The bold and noble stand taken by the Legislature of New York o (1838), has revived the hopes and infused fresh courage into the minds of those who believe that the safety and welfare of our country are essentially dependent on the prevalence of a ”_religious_ ion” The representatives of this great state, whose systely an object of imitation in all the rest, at one and the same session doubled the a the education given in the common schools--which, to the praise of that state, be it said, are _now free_--and in reply to the petition of sundry persons, praying that all religious exercises and the use of the Bible ht be prohibited in the public schools, decided by a vote of _one hundred and twenty-one_ to ONE! that the request of the petitioners be not granted For the purpose of corroborating the doctrines of this voluraph from the report of the Hon Daniel D Barnard on the occasion referred to, which was sustained by the noble, unequivocal, and almost unanimous testimony of the representatives of the most powerful member of the American states

”Moral instruction is quite as important to the object had in view in popular education as intellectual instruction; it is indispensable to that object But, toto the best code of e; and that code, it is universally conceded, is contained in the Bible

Hence the Bible, as containing that code, so far froht to be in co all the while in view the object of popular education, the fitting of the people by _overnment, no one can doubt that any syste of the moral faculties must be wretchedly and fatally defective Cri dissociated in history and statistics, are unhappily old acquaintances and tried friends To neglect the moral powers in education is to educate not quite half the e the mind and destroy the essential balance of the ht up a recess only the better to see how dark it is And if this is all that is done in popular education, then nothing, literally nothing, is done toward establishi+ng popular virtue and for a moral people”

This is but a specimen of an invaluable document, which does honor to the heart and head of hiislature of the commonwealth by which it was adopted by al, the euished superintendent of common schools in the same state, in a report made in 1843, inculcates sentiments which so well accord withinto the very warp and woof of popular education, that I gladly add his testiard the New Testament as in all respects a suitable book to be daily read in our coeneral introduction for this purpose As a e of the English language, it is one of the best text-books in use; but this, although of great use to the pupils, is of minor importance when the moral influences of the book are duly considered

Education consists of so and discipline of all the faculties of the mind which shall symmetrically and harmoniously develop the futurethe various relations of life It radual advancement must be strictly subordinated to those cardinal and elementary principles of morality, which are nowhere so distinctly and beautifully inculcated as in that book from whence we all derive our common faith The nursery and faioninfluence; but what is commenced in the hallowed sanctuary of the domestic circle, and periodically inculcated at the altar, nized in the common schools, that it may exert an ever-present influence, enter into and forhly incorporated with the rapidly expanding character The same incomparable standard of moral virtue and excellence, which is expounded from the pulpit and the altar, and which is daily held up to the admiration and imitation of the family circle, should also be reverently kept before the mind and the heart in the daily exercises of the school”

I will add the testiht to honor Never were sentih all generations, than those which fell from the Father of his Country in his Farewell Address to the American people ”Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotisreat pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of men and citizens

The ht to respect and cherish them A volume could not trace all their connections with private and public felicity Let it simply be asked Where is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if a sense of religious obligation desert the oaths which are the instruation in courts of justice? And let us with caution indulge the supposition that _ion_ Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national ious principles” How noble, how elevated, how just these parting words

Washi+ngton was an enlightened Christian patriot, as well as a great general and a wise statesman The oracles which he consulted in all his perils, and in the perils of his country, were the oracles of God[29]

No one of the fathers of the Revolution knew better than he did that religion rests upon the Bible as its e and belief of the Bible are essential to true religion, so they are to private and public morality I can not doubt, says the venerable President of Areat acy, it would be, ”Teach your children early to read and love the Bible Teach them to read it in your families; teach them in your schools; teach them everywhere, that the first moral lesson indelibly enstamped upon their hearts may be to 'fear God and keep his commandments' 'The fear of the Lord, that is wisdo'”

[29] John Quincy Ada and eventful life, was accustouages

Ho are aware of what the Bible has done for mankind, and still less of what it is destined to accohtest lu back 'chaos and old night' to reign over the earth, and leave ies and aspirations, to 'wander in the blackness of darkness forever' It was by constantly reading it that our Puritan fathers iious liberty which sustained theh all the 'perils of the sea and perils of the wilderness' It was from the Bible they drew those free and adoverne in which they lived It was this book by which they 'resolved to go till they could find some better rule'”