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as too sacred for common use, that however we may differ among ourselves in other respects, we cordially unite in efforts to put the sacred treasure into the hands of all the people. It is one of our cardinal principles, as true protestants, that the more they read the scriptures the better. Are we right, or are we wrong here? Let

us bring the question to the test of experience.

Who are the most moral and well-principled class in the community; those who have been accustomed from childhood to read the bible, till it has become the most familiar of all books, or those who have read it but little ? Of two schools, of equal advantages in other respects, which is best regulated and most easily governed? which has most of the fear of God in it, the deepest reverence for his word, that where the bible is read, or from which it is excluded? It is easy for ingenious men to reason plausibly, and tell us that such and such injurious effects must follow from making sacred things too familiar to the youthful mind; but who ever heard of such effects following from the use of the bible as a school book? It will be time enough to listen to this objection when a solitary example can be adduced to sustain it.

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 familiar use? No. They understand the influence of such reading far too well, and are too strongly attached to their respective religions to exclude it. The Romanists, indeed, forbid the use of the seriptures to the common people; but the missal and the breviary, which they hold to be quite as sacred, are their

most familiar school books. A large part of the children's time is taken up with reading the lessons, and reciting the prayers; and what are the effects? Do they become disgusted with the missal and the breviary by this daily familiarity? We all know the contrary. The very opposite effect is produced. It is astonishing to see with what 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 on to Hindostan, and there you will find the vedas and shasters, wherever anything like popular education is attempted. Enter the great empire of China, and, according to the best information we can obtain, their sacred books are the school books of that vast and teeming population. Inquire among the Jews, wherever in their various dispersions they have established schools, and what will you find but the law and the prophets, the Targurns and the Talmud.

Now when and where did ever Protestant children grow up with a greater reverence for the bible, a stronger attachment to their religion, than Jewish, Mohammedan and Pagan children cherish for their sacred books, to the study of which they are almost exclusively confined, in every stage 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 responsible profession.

Another objection which is sometimes brought against the use of the Bible is, that considerable portions of it, though all true, and important as a part of our great religious charter, are not suitable for common and promiscuous reading. My answer is, we do not suppose that any instructer would take his classes through the whole Bible, from Genesis to Revelation. The genealogical tables and some other things he would omit of course; but would always find lessons enough to which the most fastidious could make no objection.

The way is now prepared to take an affirmative attitude, and offer some reasons in favor of using the bible as a school book. In the first place, it is the cheapest school book in the world. It furnishes more reading for fifty cents than can be afforded in the common class books for two dollars. This difference of cost is, to the poor, an important consideration. With large families on their hands, they often find it extremely difficult to meet the demands of teachers and committees for new books. Were the Scriptures generally introduced, they would take the place of many other reading books which parents are now obliged to purchase, at four fold expense. This would be a cogent argument on the score of even if the popular school books of this year were sure of maintaining their ground 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.

economy,

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 many years; and the conviction grows 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 anything else. The word of God ought not to be so used by mere beginners. But it contains lessons adapted to the capacities of all classes of learners, after the first and simplest stage. Let any teacher who has never made the trial, put a young class into the first chapter of John, and he will be surprised to find how easy the reading is, and with what pleasure and manifest improvement they may be carried through 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 everybody, that the very best reading lessons in our most popular school books for the higher classes, are taken from the scriptures.

Just open the sacred volume with reference to this single 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 specimens of tenderness, pathos, beauty and sublimity? I regret that I have not room for a few quotations. I can only refer, in very general 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 Patmos.

Now if the primary qualities of a good school book are, to teach the art of reading, and to communicate instruction upon the most interesting and important subjects, I have no hesitation in saying, that the Bible stands preëminent above every other. If I were again to become a primary instructer, or to teach the art of reading 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 should scarcely want any other. Milton and Shakespeare I would not reject, but I could do very well without them, for they are both surpassed by Isaiah and John. Let me request the respected members of this enlightened Institute, and all the teachers present, to read over aloud, in their best manner, such portions of Scripture as they may easily select, and tell me if they have ever found anything better 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 masters of oratory, who charm great audiences with their recitations, take so many of their themes from the bible? The reason is obvious.

They can find And why should

none so well suited to their purpose. 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,

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