"It is a question," said Mr. Webster, “which, in its decision, is to influence the happiness, the temporal and the eternal welfare, of one hundred millions of human beings, alive and to be born, in this land. Its decision will give a hue to the apparent character of our institutions; it will be a comment on their spirit to the whole Christian world.” “I insist that there is no charity, and can be no charity, in that system of instruction from which Christianity is excluded." We commend to the earnest consideration of the reader, the powerful argument of Mr. Webster, commencing on page 241 of this volume, The public mind is beginning to be awakened on this subject. While these sheets are passing through the press, we are glad to notice an able article in the New York Observer, commenting on the recent extraordinary decision of the State Superintendent, founded on the complaint of a Roman Catholic priest, in which the facts of the case have been shown to have been entirely misrepresented. Yet the Superintendent, on an ex parte view, has issued a judgment doing great injustice to individuals, and assuming, contrary to the custom and special and common law of our school system, that neither the Bible may be read, nor religious instructions given. To say that they must not be given, nor prayer be offered, in school hours, is to banish them entirely. The act is despotic, unauthorized, illegal. "Such a position," says the author of the argument in the Observer, "I hold to be not only unsustained by any law, but to be at war with the spirit of our statutes, with the policy of our State, and with the best interests of our country." From the history, nature, and laws of our Common School System, as developed in this volume, the reader will be able to demonstrate the perfect correctness of this statement. The decision of the State Superintendent, and some of the views elsewhere set forth under like authority, tend, according to the argument of Mr. Webster, to "undermine and oppose the whole Christian religion," and consequently the common law of the land. "In all cases," Mr. Webster says, "there is nothing that we look for with more certainty, than this general principle, THAT CHRISTIANITY IS PART OF THE Contents. PAGE Preface . Introduction The Argument against the Scriptures driven to its Absurdities The Christian's Rights of Conscience Consequences of the Reasoning for the Exclusion of the Bible, on the ground of its being an Op- The Just Principle of Settlement. Rights of the 3 9 13 33 37 53 58 Supreme Authority and Right of the Bible. Truth more rightful than Error 72 Right of Religious Education by the State. Opinion of Mr. Webster 90 The Bible the Common Inheritance of the World. 96 Fatal Policy of the Exclusion of Religion. Opinion of Washington, and of the Framers of the Constitution 104 The Essential Requisites in a Common School Education. Case of the Deaf and Dumb 110 Argument from the Nature of an Oath 118 Infidel Aspect and Tendency of the Exclusion of Religion from a Common School Education Argument from the Necessity of Religious Self-gov PAGE Illustrations from Scotland. Argument by Dr. Candlish. Opinion of Bunsen Presentation of the subject by John Foster Argument from the Nature of Moral Science swered Appropriateness and Beauty of the Word of God in our Common Schools Importance of the Bible and of Religious Instruction 139 150 157 164 174 in the Female Schools. Its interdiction odious 182 Necessity of a Christian Common School Education for a Living and Progressive Civilization Argument from the History of Common Schools and 194 the School Statutes, in New York Report of the Commissioners, and Foundation of the System by the State. 199 205 Beginning of the War against the Scriptures of the War against the Scriptures . 215 Establishment of the Free School System. Renewal 224 Argument of Daniel Webster against the plan of education without the Bible 241 Common School System of Connecticut Opinion and Practice in Pennsylvania and New Jersey Conclusion 257 269 • Introduction. WITHIN a few years, and at the instigation of the sect of Roman Catholics, a powerful effort has been made, and is still making, to divide and break up our system of free common schools. The effort is to be continued and urged with all the energy, authority, and perseverance of the papal power in our country. Connected with this effort, and fundamental to it, is the attempted exclusion of the Bible and the Christian religion from our whole system of free common school instruction. To advance this effort, arguments have been constructed against the sacred Scriptures as a sectarian book, and much plausible sophistry has been spread through the community, to the effect that justice to the Roman Catholics requires that we should, for their sake, exclude the |