hat it is administered by and upon
those who are under religious obligations, and in view of the fact
that religion has material connection with that public welfare which
it is the design and duty of the State to promote. The State must, on
the one hand, respect the conscience of its citizens, leaving them
free in religious opinions and practices; and yet, on the other hand,
it must seek to promote the interests of true religion, with whose
prosperity the public welfare is vitally connected.

It belongs to our government, my hearers, to conform its legislation
to the principles of the Bible, and to impose its penalties for
violated law, on the authority and with the sanction of the God of the
Bible: and it belongs to our government, while indulging the largest
and most liberal toleration of religious opinions and practices, still
to seek the diffusion and establishment of Christianity throughout the
length and breadth of our land. It is right that our government
enforces, to a good degree, the observance of the Christian Sabbath.
It is demanded that such observance be enforced in still larger
degree. Our government, if it be bound to afford an education to the
children of its citizens at all, is bound to give them a Christian
education. The Bible should be in all our Public Schools. Chaplains
should be provided for all State institutions, as they are for the
Army and Navy.

I know, indeed, that these views, when fully expressed, are not
generally conceded. Many seem to think that government has no proper
connection with religion. The cry of Church and State--of the invasion
of religious rights--is raised against these views.[B] But not only
has government a necessary connection with religion, but what may
seem still more objectionable, the freest government must have
reference, in its laws and institutions, to some _form_ of religion,
as that held by the great body of its citizens: and it is a mistake,
as egregious as it is frequent, which supposes that because our
Federal Constitution prescribes no religion as that of this country,
and unites the government to no Church, our country is therefore as
much Pagan or Infidel as it is Christian. The Constitution and the
legislation of our country presuppose and take for granted, if they do
not distinctly affirm, that Bible Christianity is the religion of this
country. And they must do so, in order that this be a free government,
since the great body of our people are belie