mere natural _instruction_, but no education at all. It would
be worse than giving, as we say, "the play of Hamlet with the part of
the Prince of Denmark left out."

Religion, then, forms the spirit and essence of all true education. As
leaven must be diffused throughout the entire mass in order to produce
its effects, so religion must be thoroughly diffused throughout the
child's entire education, in order to be solid and effective. Not a
moment of the hours of school should be left without religious
influence. It is the constant breathing of the air that preserves our
bodily life, and it is the constant dwelling in a religious atmosphere
that preserves the life of the youthful soul. Here are laid the
primitive principles of future character and conduct. These religious
principles may be forgotten, or partially effaced, in the journey of
life, but they will nevertheless endure, because they are engraved by
the finger of God Himself. The poor wanderer, when the world has turned
its back upon him, after having trusted to its promises only to be
deceived, after having yielded to its temptations and blandishments only
to be cruelly injured and mocked, may, at last, in the bitterness of his
heart, "remember the days of his youth," and "return to his father's
house." So long as faith remains, however great the vice or the crime,
there is something to build on, and room to hope for repentance, for
reformation, and final salvation. Faith or religion once gone, all is
gone. Religion is the crystal vase in which education is contained, or
rather the spirit which infuses and vitalizes it. Religion is the very
life of society, the very soul of a Christian State.

All nations and governments know and understand that to exclude
Christian education from the schools is to exclude it from their law,
legislature, courts, and public and private manners. It should, then,
ever be borne in mind that religion, though distinguishable, is never
separable from true civil and political science and philosophy.
Enlightened statesmanship will always accept and recognize religious
education as a most valuable and powerful ally in the government of the
State, or political society. The great Washington clearly asserts this
in his farewell address to the American people: "Of the dispositions,"
he says, "which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are
indispensable supports. Where is the security for property or for life,
if the sense of