But of all the knowledges of earth and time, the knowledge of our eternal destiny is rationally the all-absorbing, soul-captivating, and soul-subduing craving of humanity. A human being devoid of this, is not compos mentis, nor, indeed, compos corporis. Lungs without atmosphere, would not be more useles or worthless than this insatiate craving for light and knowledge, without some communication from the Father of our spirits, on the soul-absorbing theme of our future and everlasting destiny. This is, after all the disquisitions on the certainty of a revelation from God to man, embracing his future and eternal destiny, the most palpable a priori argument in favor of the prince of school books-the Holy Bible.

one.

But we argue not this question as though it were still a doubtful We argue from it as from a fixed fact, fully, and cordially, and gratefully conceded by those whom we now address. The Bible, indeed, is the tongue of the universe, ever unfolding its mysteries, ever developing the awful and glorious character of that magnificent architect, whose sublime and awful fiat broke the solemn silence of eternity, and gave birth and being to a thousand millions of suns, and thirty thousand millions of attendant planets,

"Forever singing as they shine,

The hand that made us is Divine."

One of the most obvious and impressive arguments of the intellectual and moral dignity of man, is the fact, that nothing short of the infinite, the eternal, and the immutable, can meet and satisfy the cravings of his spiritual nature. There is more of philosophical fact than fable, in the tradition that the son of Philip and Olympias-Alexander of Macedon-having conquered the world that then was, hung his sword and trumpet in the hall, weeping that his arm was hampered and had not room enough to do its work, in a world so small as ours. Ambition reddens at this tale, and hangs its head in solemn contemplation. But the truth, the glorious truth, the soul-subduing truth, is, that nothing but the infinite and the eternal can satisfy the cravings of an enlightened human soul. This thought-fact, may I call it!— is enough to show to any one of grave reflection, that whatever may be said of the physical or the intellectual nature of man, the moral and the spiritual are his transcendent glory and felicity. And hence we argue, that any and every system of education that does not contemplate this at a proper stand-point, is perfectly at sea, in a boisterous ocean, without sail, compass, or pilot aboard; and, therefore, can never anchor in the haven of safe and happy repose.

Hence our position, our capital position is, that the Holy Bible must be in every school worthy of a Christian public patronage, and

not in the library only, but daily in the hand of teacher and pupil, professor and student. A dwelling-house without a table, a chair, or a couch, would not, in our esteem, be more unfit for guests, than a primary school, an academy, or a college, without a Bible-not in the library only, but daily in the hand of the student, in solemn reading, study, and exegetical development.

The most highly educated minds in Christendom, will, nemine contradicente, with one accord, depose, that for simplicity, and beauty, and intelligibility of style, as well as for the grandeur, the majesty, and the sublimity of its oracular developments, it has no equal, much less no superior, in all the libraries and archives of literature and science, of ancient or modern institution. It stimulates all the energies of the human soul, awakens all its powers of thought, elevates its conceptions, directs its activities, chastens its emotions, and urges it onward and upward in the career of glory, honor, and immortality.

There is an unreasonable and an unfortunate prejudice in some regions, touching the introduction of the whole subject of religion, especially of speculative creeds and catechisms, into the public seminaries of this our age and nation. Into the merits or the demerits of this economy and dispensation of religious truth, or of theoretic and speculative disquisitions, of a religious bearing, we have neither taste nor time to enter.

Suffice it to say, that there is a catholic, as well as a provincial formula of Divine truth, and that neither of them ought to be placed upon the table, to be theologically dissected or embalmed. Christianity is an abstract noun, from the adjective Christian, and that from Christ, the consecrated. But the Bible being a book of facts, and not of theories, it may in these be studied, believed, obeyed and enjoyed, without one speculative oracle, on the part of teacher or pupil.

It is universally conceded by all, whose judgment is mature and worthy of authority amongst the masses, that no man was ever healed, saved, or restored to health or life, by an assent or subscription to any abstract formula in physics, metaphysics, or theolegy. We live not, we cannot live, on alchohol, or on any distilled spirits whatever; but we can live and enjoy good health, on bread and water. And so it is in religion;—no man ever entered heaven, according to the Bible, either on physics or metaphysics. It is by faith, based on facts, and not by mere doctrines, orthodox, assented to, that any one is reformed, sanctified, or saved. So the learned, and the truly religious of all creeds and human platforms, unequivocally proclaim.

Why not, then, rather carry the Bible than the catechism to school! Why not listen to God rather than to man! Are we more safe in the teachings or in the hand of man than of God!

Who teaches like him,

who possesses not by measure, but without measure, the Spirit of all wisdom and understanding; who taught on earth, and who speaks from heaven, with the plenary inspiration of the Holy Spirit of all wisdom and understanding! No school, worthy of Christian patronage, ever was or can be founded on a catechism, or on the specula. tive dogmata of any sectarian formula of opinions. We demand, and the age we live in demands, facts, and not theories, Divine oracles, and not human dogmata.

Had it been compatible with Divine wisdom and prudence to substitute a formula of abstract doctrine, or to give what we call a synopsis of Christian doctrine and sound orthodoxy, could he not, would he not, have given us an infallible summary-a stereotyped and a Divinely patented formula of sound opinions, in mode and form to a scruple? The fact that he who foresaw the end of every institution from the beginning, and who foreknew all the involutions and evolutions of human kind, did not do it, is, to our mind, an unanswerable argument against any effort of man to do it.

In our studies of what is commonly called nature, or the material and spiritual universe, we observe that, despite of the four elements of the moderns-God in nature, in providence, in moral government, and in redemption, presents nothing to man in the abstract, or absoJute elementary form, but every thing in a concrete and relative form. So contemplated, the universe and the Bible bear the demonstrable impress of one and the same mind and will. To the educated eye of sound reason, there is one supreme intelligence every where manifest, without a single aberration; and there is, to the cultivated ear of religion, an omnipresent harmony, without one discordant note in all the spheres of God's own universe.

There is no apology for scepticism or infidelity, in heaven, earth, or hell. There is not a more demonstrable proposition in the whole area of enlightened reason and cultivated intellect, than that the same mind that projected the universe and created the body, soul and spirit of man, also projected the Oracles of Eternal Truth, which constitute the materials of that volume we so emphatically and impressively call the Holy Bible.

The works of the great sculptors, carvers, painters, architects-the Phidiases, the Praxitiles', the Raphaels, the Michael Angelos, of world-wide fame, are not more marked and characterized in the monuments left behind them, than are the shepherds, the husbandmen, the fishermen, the prophets, kings and priests that were the oracles and the amanuenses of the Holy Spirit of all Divine wisdom and knowledge, embodied and embalmed on the pages of that much neglected volume, emphatically denominated THE BOOK OF LIFE TO MAN.

SERIES IV.-VOL. VI.

54*

This is not only the family Bible, the sunday school Bible, the church Bible, but should be the common school, the academy, the college, and the Congress Bible; and daily read, studied, and practised in and by them all.

The Bible is, indeed, the tongue of creation. It inspires sun, moon, and stars. It not only echoes in the thunders of heaven, in the tempests, the whirlwinds, the earthquakes, and the volcanoes of earth, but it speaks in the still small voice of morning and evening in the `conscience, in the heart, and in the soul of man. It was the great moral engine. of ancient civilization, so far as it obtained a local habitation and a name amongst human kind.

For the best essay of modern times, on the subject of the best means of civilizing the tenantries of the British provinces in her East India possessions, a rich medal was voted to the author of an essay whose theory of civilization was-"Give to Pagandom the whole Bible in every man's vernacular, and teach every man to read it." The Bible and the schoolmaster are God's two great instrumentalities to enlighten, to civilize, and to aggrandize man.

The Assyrian empire was annihilated by the Medo-Persian; the Medo-Persian by the Grecian, and the Grecian by the Roman. But Bible civilization, even in its rudimental elements, when fettered by Grecian and Roman philosophers, falsely so called, sapped and mined the bases of Pagan governments, and gradually, but successfully, paved the way to a more rational, humane, and dignified civilization.

The whole philosophy of the highest civilization ever exhibited on earth, or, indeed, conceivable in our horizon, is summarily compre. hended in two precepts, on which the greatest philosopher that ever appeared amongst men said, depcnded the whole law and the prophets. These two precepts are but two manifestations, or applications of one principle. Love to God and love, to man, on the part of man, is the gravitating principle conservative of a rational and moral universe. The centres of all systems are attractive and radiating centres. It is so in the physical, the moral, and the spiritual universe. The analogies of the physical to the spiritual, or of the spiritual to the physical universe, so far as observation extends its dominion, aided by the light of the Bible, and what is sometimes called the light of nature, fully and most satisfactorily demonstrate and attest that they are the offspring of one and the same supreme intelligence, and, therefore, they severally, more or less, interpret and sustain one another.

We may change the terminology of whatever constitutes our beau ideal of a perfect social system; but the facts or realities of humanity, in its most extended horizon, is the fruit of a piety based upon a Divine communication. Hence the Bible, daily in the hand of every

pupil in every school, is not only the best antidote against the frailties and the follies of man, but is also the sovereign directory in allthat constitutes an amiable, honorable, and magnanimous man or

wowan.

A gentle-man and a gentle-woman, may be, and, indeed, often are confounded, in our current dialect, with a genteel man and a genteel woman. But these are the mere creatures of the tailor or mantuamaker, the barber or the milliner, possessing the fashionable diction and mannerism of a Bostonian, a Londoner, or a Parisian. These, indeed, are the creatures of perverted reason and a romantic fancy; often at war with head, and heart, and conscience, alienating our reason, our moral sensibilities, and our affections, from all that is truly amiable, estimable and praisewerthy, in the legitimate aspirations of man

or woman.

Education is a transcendently interesting theme. Its merits, its claims, its achievements, its enjoyments, its honors, and its rewards, are not to be told in a few minutes, nor inscribed on a few pages. It is more than mere science, art, literature, philosophy, theology, or Christology. It is the perfect development and decoration of man, body, soul and spirit. It develops and adorns his animal, intellectual, moral, and spiritual nature. It enthrones reason and conscience within him, and subordinates his animalism to the direction and control of an enlightened conscience and a purified heart.

To achieve these, is the great end and intention of a rational, moral, and religious education. And, as assumed in our premises, it must be adapted to our whole constitution, our position in the social compact, and our eternal destiny in the universe of God. Any of these overlooked, neglected, or disparaged, must ordinarily, in the common course of human events, terminate unfortunately and unhappily. The individual pupil is, first of all, the loser, but society must, more or less, suffer in every such failure.

We have in all communities, formally or informally, a joint stock concern. The honest, industrious, frugal, and successful operators in the busy hive of humanity, do always suffer from, and generally have to pay all the costs of all the drones, spendthrifts and marauders, within their respective localities. More than half the common and necessary expences of social life, are imposed upon us through the neglect of a rational system of universal education, in the fullorbed development of what legitimately enters into its unsophisticated definition and import.

Were we arithmetically to compute our taxes, annually paid, chargeable to the neglect of a rational system of intellectual, moral, and religious education, based upon the mature oracles of reason, of human