e free schools--and the free school system is now
becoming extensively adopted in every part of the United States--the
great mass of the children are kept at school from four or five years of
age, to nine or ten, through the year; and in the winter season, from
nine or ten to fifteen or sixteen. The average of time thus devoted to
their education is from eight to ten years. Now let the Bible be read
daily as a class-book during all this time, in every school, and how
much of it will, without effort, and without interfering in the least
with other studies, be committed to memory. And who can estimate the
value of such an acquisition? What pure morality; what maxims of supreme
wisdom for guidance along the slippery paths of youth, and onward
through every stage of life; what bright examples of early piety, and of
its glorious rewards, even in the present world; what sublime
revelations of the being and perfections of God; what incentives to love
and serve him, and to discharge with fidelity all the duties which we
owe to our fellow-men! and all these enforced by the highest sanctions
of future accountability. Let any man tell, if he can, how much all this
store of divine knowledge, thus insensibly acquired, would be worth to
the millions of children who are growing up in these United States of
America. They might not be at all sensible of its value at the time, but
how happily and safely would it contribute to shape their future
opinions and characters, both as men and as citizens.

Another cogent reason for using the Bible as a common school-book is,
that _it is the firmest basis, and, indeed, the only sure basis of our
free institutions, and, as such, ought to be familiar to all the
children in the state from their earliest years_. While it recognizes
the existence of civil governments, and enjoins obedience to magistrates
as ministers of God for the good of the people, it regards all men as
free and equal, the children of one common Father, and entitled to the
same civil and religious privileges. I do not believe that any people
could ever be enslaved who should be thoroughly and universally educated
in the principles of the Bible.

It was no less truly than eloquently said by Daniel Webster, in his
Bunker Hill address, that "the American colonists brought with them from
the Old World a full portion of all the riches of the past in science
and art, and in morals, religion, and literature. The _Bible_ came with
them. A