d better members of society, so far as it
influences them at all. But some persons who highly approve of daily
scriptural reading in common schools are in favor of using _selections_
rather than the whole Bible. I should certainly prefer this, provided
the selections are judiciously made, to excluding the Scriptures
altogether; but I think there are weighty and obvious reasons why the
_whole_ Bible should be taken rather than a part. The whole is cheaper
than half would be in a separate volume; and when the whole is
introduced, "without note or comment," there can be no possible ground
for sectarian jealousy.

Doctors of divinity not only, but the most eminent statesmen in the
country, hold the views here presented. The bold and noble stand taken
by the Legislature of New York more than ten years ago (1838), has
revived the hopes and infused fresh courage into the minds of those who
believe that the safety and welfare of our country are essentially
dependent on the prevalence of a "_religious_ morality and a _moral_
religion." The representatives of this great state, whose system of
education is becoming increasingly an object of imitation in all the
rest, at one and the same session doubled the amount of the public money
for the purpose of improving the education given in the common
schools--which, to the praise of that state, be it said, are _now
free_--and in reply to the petition of sundry persons, praying that all
religious exercises and the use of the Bible might be prohibited in the
public schools, decided by a vote of _one hundred and twenty-one_ to
ONE! that the request of the petitioners be not granted. For the purpose
of corroborating the doctrines of this volume, I will introduce a
paragraph from the report of the Hon. Daniel D. Barnard on the occasion
referred to, which was sustained by the noble, unequivocal, and almost
unanimous testimony of the representatives of the most powerful member
of the American states.

"Moral instruction is quite as important to the object had in view in
popular education as intellectual instruction; it is indispensable to
that object. But, to make instruction effective, it should be given
according to the best code of morals known to the country and the age;
and that code, it is universally conceded, is contained in the Bible.
Hence the Bible, as containing that code, so far from being arbitrarily
excluded from our schools, ought to be in common use in them. Keeping
all the