common school system, our
great duty is to impart to the children of the commonwealth the greatest
practicable amount of useful knowledge; to cultivate in them a sacred
regard for truth, to keep them unspotted from the world; to train them
to love God and also their fellow men; to make the perfect example of
Jesus Christ lovely in their eyes; to give to all so much religious
instruction, as is compatible with the rights of others and the gains of
our government, so that, when they arrive at the years of maturity, they
may intelligently enjoy the inviolable prerogatives of private judgment
and self-direction, the acknowledged birthright of every human being."

Rufus Choate, the eminent statesman and jurist in one of his orations
very emphatically exclaimed: "Banish the Bible from our public schools?
Never! So long as a piece of Plymouth Rock remains big enough to make a
gun-flint." This is an expression of true patriotism on the part of one,
who knew well the history and cost of American freedom. "He is the
freeman, whom the truth makes free."

CONNECTICUT

In the Colony of Connecticut as early as 1656, explicit laws were added
to the general law by which the schools were first established, and
constables were required to take care, "That all their children and
apprentices, as they grow capable, may through God's blessing attain at
least so much as to be able to read the Scriptures, and other good books
in the English tongue."

"The schools of this state" says the state school Journal, "were founded
and supported chiefly for the purpose of perpetuating civil and
religious knowledge and liberty, as the early laws of the colony
explicitly declare. Those laws, published in the first number of this
Journal declare, that the chief means to be used to attain these
objects, was the reading of the Holy Scriptures."

This enlightened policy of the Puritans, in regard to the establishment
of free schools, for the general dissemination of a knowledge of the
Bible and the development of a pure morality among the young, was a
great step in advance of all the countries in the old world. The results
have wonderfully justified their wisdom and forethought. The schools
they established, having the Bible as a universal text book and basis of
moral instruction, became nurseries of piety and knowledge. The very
thought of excluding the Bible from schools, they had established with
great sacrifice for its special study, would have be