than
this general principle, that Christianity is part of the law of this
land." He explained its object and motive in the following passage,
which is worthy to be repeated in every generation.

"We seek to educate the people. We seek to improve men's moral and
religious condition. In short, we seek to work upon mind as well as upon
matter; and this tends to enlarge the intellect and heart of man. We
know that when we work upon materials, immortal and imperishable, that
they will bear the impress which we place upon them, through endless
ages to come. If we work upon marble, it will perish; if we work upon
brass, time will efface it. If we rear temples, they will crumble to the
dust. But, if we work on men's immortal minds--if we imbue them with
high principles, with the just fear of God, and of their fellow men,--we
engrave on those tablets, something which no time can efface, but which
will brighten and brighten to all eternity."

The exclusion of the Bible from the public schools in New York state
had its rise in 1838 and concerning this movement, Mr. Webster said,
"This is a question 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 character of our institutions. There can be no charity in that
system of instruction from which the Bible, the basis of Christianity,
is excluded."

The public school, with daily instruction to the young in the Bible, is
an American system of education. It had its origin in the belief of its
founders, that general instruction in the Bible was essential to the
permanency of that freedom, civil and religious, and that independent
ownership of land, they came to America to enjoy. If the early Pilgrims,
more particularly those of Massachusetts and Connecticut, had not
struggled and toiled for this great object, and if they had not been
immediately succeeded by men, who imbibed a large portion of the same
spirit, the free school system of New England would never have been
extended to all parts of our land. We have inherited the public school
through the Bible, and the feeling prevails, that only by maintaining a
general knowledge of the Bible, among the young and rising generation
through it can the countless blessings, that flow from it, be conserved
for future generations.

THE FREEDMAN'S BEST BOOK

These historic facts, relating to