will see only his own interest, his neighbor's property will only
whet his appetite; his neighbor's life will be only a secondary
consideration; he would, according to his creed, be a fool not to shed
blood when his interest requires it; his fellow-men become imbued with
his principles--anarchy succeeds subordination--vice takes the place of
virtue--what was sacred is profaned--what was honorable becomes
disgraceful--might becomes right--treatises are waste paper--honor is an
empty name--the most sacred obligations dwindle down into mere optional
practices--youth despises age--wisdom is folly--subjection to authority
is laughed at as a foolish dream--the moral code itself soon becomes
little more than the bugbear of the weak-minded--crowns are trampled
under foot--thrones are overturned--nations steeped in blood, and
republics swept from the face of the earth.

Yes, continue a little longer to educate the greater part of the
community according to the present system of the Public Schools, and
rest assured we shall soon have a hell upon earth--society will be
stabbed to the heart by the ruffian assassin called _godless Public
School education_--it will reel, stagger, and sink a bleeding victim to
the ground, expiring, like the suicide, by the wound itself has
inflicted. I truly believe that if Satan was presented with a blank
sheet of paper, and bade to write on it the most fatal gift to man, he
would simply write one word--"godless schools." He might then turn his
attention from this planet; "godless Public Schools" would do the rest.

Now what is to be done to stop the poisoned source from which the
diabolical spirit and the crimes of our country flow? A certain class
come forward and say, "Let the Bible be read in our Public Schools. The
Bible is the grand source of religion and morality. The Bible alone,
without note or comment, is the grand source of life and civilization."

Very well, let the Bible be admitted, but with the Bible you must send
the key--the interpreter. And then, which of all the Bibles, and whom
among the numerous sects, shall be sent?

To read the Bible, without note or comment, to young children, is to
abandon them to dangerous speculation, or to leave them dry and barren
of all Christian knowledge. In mixed schools there is no other resource,
because it is impossible to make any comment upon any doctrinal teaching
of Christ and His Apostles, without trenching upon the conscientious
opinions