e the most familiar
of all books, or those who read it but little? Of two schools, of equal
advantages in other respects, which is best regulated and most easily
governed? which has most of the fear of God in it, the deepest reverence
for his word, that where the Bible is read or from which it is excluded?
It is easy for ingenious men to reason plausibly, and tell us that such
and such injurious effects _must_ follow from making sacred things too
familiar to the youthful mind; but who ever heard of such effects
following from the use of the Bible as a school-book? It will be time
enough to listen to this objection when a solitary example can be
adduced to sustain it.

"How do all other men out of the Protestant communion, Papists,
Mohammedans, Jews, and Gentiles, reason and act in the education of
their children? Do they discard their sacred books from the schools as
too holy for common and familiar use? No. They understand the influence
of such reading far too well, and are too strongly attached to their
respective religions to exclude it. The Romanists, indeed, forbid the
use of the Scriptures to the common people; but the Missal and the
Breviary, which they hold to be quite as sacred, are their most familiar
school-books. A large portion of the children's time is taken up with
reading the lessons and reciting the prayers; and what are the effects?
Do they become disgusted with the Missal and Breviary by this daily
familiarity? We all know the contrary. The very opposite effect is
produced. It is astonishing to see with what tenacity children thus
educated cling to the superstitions and absurdities of their fathers;
and it is because their religion is wrought into the very texture of
their minds, in the schools as well as in the churches. Go to Turkey, to
Persia, to all the lands scorched and blighted by the fiery train of the
Crescent, and what school-books will you find but portions of the Koran?
Pass to Hindostan, and there you will find the Vedas and Shasters
wherever any thing like popular education is attempted. Enter the great
empire of China, and, according to the best information we can obtain,
their sacred books are the school-books of that vast and teeming
population. Inquire among the Jews, wherever in their various
dispersions they have established schools, and what will you find but
the Law and the Prophets, the Targums and the Talmud.

"Now when and where did ever Protestant children grow up with a gre