of Christian schools without any effort. Sunday-schools, at best, may
train children to be Christians _one day_ in the week, and Pagans six
days. School-days over, the usual result will be _Pagans_ all the seven
days of the week.

If it is in vain to say, "Let the Bible be read in our Public Schools,"
or "let our children receive religious instruction from their parents,
or in Sunday-schools, in order to arrest the fast-spreading crimes of
the land," it is still more in vain to say, "Let the Legislature be
called upon."

It cannot be denied that the higher culture of America has, from the
time of the introduction of the present Public School system, ceased to
be Christian. What is the natural harvest of this sowing? It is that we
have already a generation of men, thousands of whom are not fit to be
the heads and fathers of families. But this is not all; we have also
ever so many guides of public opinion, ever so many ministers of public
affairs, and ever so many lawgivers of the United States, who are
infidels and profligates; who see _only themselves_ in all they do, who
desire only to fret out their little hour on the political stage _with
a sharp eye to their own interests_, without the smallest desire to
secure the Republic against future disasters--who cannot, or _will_ not,
see the disastrous storms the ship of the Republic will soon have to
encounter. What good, then, could be expected from calling upon the
Legislature? It would only show its impotency, or, what is more, its own
corruption. The executive is unable, suspected, or often found in the
"_ring_," or, to use a common expression, "Justice stinks." The
judiciary, by its very nature, always timid, and too often time-serving,
can do nothing. Well, then, the press: what shall be said of it? Only
this: that it would be unreasonable to expect it to possess the
supernatural powers of healing such a multitude of foul lepers, or to be
able at any time to lift itself far above the level of the general
average of the age and country.

What, then, must be done to save society from the perils that menace
it--to stem the tide that bids fair to sweep away, eventually, even
civilization itself? We must proceed on a true principle. When we
proceed on a true principle, the more logically and completely we carry
it out the better; but when we start with a false principle, the more
logical we are, and the farther we push it, the worse. Our consistency
increases, instead