withheld, a noxious one will
be substituted."

THE BIBLE IN SCHOOLS.--Having taken the liberty of recommending the
devotional reading of the Scriptures in all the public schools as
eminently calculated to make them what they ought to be--nurseries of
morality and religion as well as of good learning--I am now prepared to
express the strong conviction, to adopt the language of Dr. Humphrey,
"_that the Bible ought to be used in every primary school as a
class-book_. I am not ignorant of the objections which even some good
men are wont to urge against its introduction. The Bible, it is said, is
too sacred a volume to be put on a level with common school-books, and
to be thumbed over and thrown about by dirty hands. This objection
supposes that if the Bible is made a school-book, it must needs be put
into such rude hands; and that it can not be daily read in the classes
without diminishing the reverence with which it ought to be regarded as
the book of God. But I would have it used chiefly by the older scholars,
who, if the teachers are not in the fault, will rarely deface it. A few
words now and then, reminding them of its sacred contents, will be
sufficient to protect it from rough and vulgar usage.

"The objection that making the Bible a common school-book would detract
from its sacredness in the eyes of the children, and thus blunt rather
than quicken their moral susceptibilities, is plausible; but it will
not, I am confident, bear the test of examination and experience. What
were the Scriptures given us for, if not to be read by the old and the
young, the high and the low? Is the common use of any good thing which a
kind Providence intended for all, calculated to make men underrate it?
The best of Heaven's gifts, it is true, are _liable_ to be perverted and
abused; but ought this to deter us from using them thankfully and
properly? We, the descendants of the Puritans, are so far from regarding
the Bible as too sacred for common use, that, however we may differ
among ourselves in other respects, we cordially unite in efforts to put
the sacred treasure in the hands of all the people. It is one of our
cardinal principles, as Protestants, that the more they read the
Scriptures the better. Are we right or are we wrong here? Let us bring
the question to the test of experience. Who are the most moral and
well-principled class in the community? those who have been accustomed
from childhood to read the Bible, till it has becom