can, while yet a child, be influenced by hope and by fear--by reason, by
persuasion, and by the word of God; and all this shows that religion was
intended to be a prominent part of his education. There can be no
mistake in this. It is plainly the will of God that the moral as well as
the intellectual faculties should be cultivated. Every child, whether in
the family or the school, is to be treated by those who have the care of
him as a moral and accountable being. His religious susceptibilities
invite to the most diligent culture, and virtually enjoin it upon every
teacher. The simple study of man's moral nature, before we open the
Bible, unavoidably leads to the conclusion that any system of popular
education must be extremely defective which does not make special
prevision for this branch of public instruction.

"Even if there had been no fatal lapse of our race--if our children were
not naturally depraved, nor inclined to evil in the slightest degree,
still they would need religious as well as physical and intellectual
guidance and discipline. It is true, the educator's task would be
infinitely easier and pleasanter than it now is, but they would need
instruction. They would enter the world just as ignorant of their
immortal destiny as of letters. They would have every thing to learn
about the being and perfections of God; every thing about his rightful
claims as their Creator, Preserver, and moral Governor; and every thing
touching their duties and relations to their fellow-men. Moreover, there
is every reason to believe that moral and religious training would be
necessary _to strengthen the principle of virtue_ in the rising
generation, and confirm them in habits of obedience and benevolence. As,
notwithstanding their bodies are perfect bodies, and their minds perfect
minds at their creation, no member or faculty being wanting, still they
need all the helps of education; so, if they had a perfectly upright
moral nature, they would need the same helps. There is no more reason to
think, had sin never entered into the world, every child would have
grown up to the 'fullness of the stature of a perfect man' in a
religious sense, without an appropriate education, than that he would
have become a scholar without it. But the little beings that are all the
while springing into life around us to be educated are the sinful
offspring of apostate parents. How deeply depraved, how strongly
inclined to sin from the cradle, this i