ls, and that the essential
elements and truths and morals of Christianity could be provided
for and taught without a single bitter element of sectarianism. The
advocates of public schools meet the advocates of sectarian
schools, not by denying the connection between Christianity and
education, but by denying the connection between sectarianism--by
comprehending Christianity in the system, and only rejecting
sectarianism from it. The same, I think, is our safety and our
duty....

Dr. Ryerson concludes this part of his letter with these emphatic words:
Be assured that no system of popular education will flourish in a
country which does violence to the religious sentiments and feelings of
the Churches of that country. Be assured, that every such system will
droop and wither which does not take root in the Christian and patriotic
sympathies of the people--which does not command the respect and
confidence of the several religious persuasions, both ministers and
laity--for these in fact make up the aggregate of the Christianity of
the country. The cold calculations of unchristianized selfishness will
never sustain a school system. And if you will not embrace Christianity
in your school system, you will soon find that Christian persuasions
will soon commence establishing schools of their own; and I think they
ought to do so, and I should feel that I was performing an imperative
duty in urging them to do so. But if you wish to secure the co-operation
of the ministers and members of all religious persuasions, leave out of
your system the points wherein they differ, and boldly and avowedly
provide facilities for the inculcation of what they hold in common and
what they value most, and that is what the best interests of a country
require.

Speaking in a subsequent letter of another feature of this question of
the Bible in schools, Dr. Ryerson says: The principal opposition which,
in 1846 and for several years afterwards, I encountered was that I did
not make the use of the Bible compulsory in the schools, but simply
recognized the right of Protestants to use it in the school (not as an
ordinary reading book, as it was not given to teach us how to read, but
to teach us the way to Heaven), as a book of religious instruction,
without the right or the power of compelling any others to use it. The
recognition of the right has been maintained inviolate to the present
time; facilities for the exe