dren, from which the Christian religion and
Christian teachers are excluded, as unsafe and unworthy intruders. Such
a scheme is deprived of that which enters into the very essence of human
benevolence, when that benevolence contemplates instruction, that is to
say, religious knowledge, connected with human knowledge. It is this
which causes it to be regarded as a charity; and by reason of this it is
entitled to the special favor of the courts of law. This is the vital
question which must be decided by this court. It is vital to the
understanding of what the law is, it is vital to the validity of this
devise.

If this be true, if there can be no charity in that plan of education
which opposes Christianity, then that goes far to decide this case. I
take it that this court, in looking at this subject, will see the
important bearing of this point upon it. The learned counsel said that
the State of Pennsylvania was not an infidel State. It is true that she
is not an infidel State. She has a Christian origin, a Christian code of
laws, a system of legislation founded on nothing else, in many of its
important bearings upon human society, than the belief of the people of
Pennsylvania, their firm and sincere belief, in the divine authority and
great importance of the truths of the Christian religion. And she should
the more carefully seek to preserve them pure.

Now, let us look at the condition and prospects of these tender
children, who are to be submitted to this experiment of instruction
without Christianity. In the first place, they are orphans, have no
parents to guide or instruct them in the way in which they should go, no
father, no religious mother, to lead them to the pure fount of
Christianity; _they are orphans_. If they were only poor, there might be
somebody bound by ties of human affection to look after their spiritual
welfare; to see that they imbibed no erroneous opinions on the subject
of religion; that they run into no excessive improprieties of belief as
well as conduct. The child would have its father or mother to teach it
to lisp the name of its Creator in prayer, or hymn His praise. But in
this experimental school of instruction, if the orphans have any friends
or connections able to look after their welfare, it shuts them out. It
is made the duty of the governors of the institution, on taking the
child, so to make out the indentures of apprenticeship as to keep him
from any after interference in his welfa