the evidence of the dreadful nature of any authorization of the traffic in ardent spirits. The expenses and the miseries, the profits and the power, of such authorization have been so clearly, and with such fire of demonstration, shown in every part of our country, that, in view of the increase of intelligence and experience among us, it is almost incomprehensible how any attempt can be made to continue in any form a permission of the manufacture and sale of the means and agencies of drunkenness, and therefore of all the crimes and distresses inevitable in consequence of such permission.

rum!

Freedom by law, for the destruction of souls by Prevention and restraint by law, from the work (as if it were a crime) of attempting the saving of men's souls by their instruction in the gospel from childhood! The freedom and privilege of religious truth to be taught in our public schools is condemned by law, as being irreligious, unconstitutional, and subversive of the freedom of conscience!

If in the history of mankind two greater crimes against God and man can be named than these, let them be specified, and a retribution worthy of them demanded by the people upon whom they have been imposed, as if they were public stocks secured by governmental bond and mortgage.

Now, the Gospel of Christ for the salvation of all mankind that would receive it, and would believe in Him according to his invitation, was the mercy intended by God in the whole Old Testament Revelation; the whole law of God, and its promises and predictions being but the divine schoolmaster, to bring men to Christ. And if defiance and disobedience of the schoolmaster and the school-laws by a whole nation before Christ came, would be visited with such terrific destruction, "of how much sorer punishment suppose ye shall they be thought worthy, who have trodden under foot the Son of God himself, crucifying him afresh, and putting him to an open shame!

If there ever could be on earth such crucifixion and shame since the history of Christ's known. death and resurrection, the climax of it must be in the defiance and contempt by the Government of a so-called Christian people, excluding the teachings of his gospel, and the very mention of his name, and all knowledge of his existence from the common school, and from the language and education of the poor and oppressed. It must be found in the banishment, by Government and people, of the whole Bible, and all its teachings concerning the Saviour of mankind, and all mention of the name. and authority of God, from the Constitution and its

legislation. And so it is perfected by the forbidding of prayer, and all religious lessons, and all Christian training from being imparted to the little children, concerning the treatment of whom the very earliest law of man's being was given by Christ in these words: "Suffer the little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me, for of such is the kingdom of heaven." If the Government and people of only one nation fulfilled this most blessed command in all its meaning, the whole world might speedily behold on earth the long-predicted universal kingdom of heaven.

The right of religious ignorance and unbelief is defended as a right of conscience, which the Government cannot interfere with, by permitting religious instruction in the schools. The Government (it is affirmed) is bound to maintain for the people in the education of their children an insurance against the introduction of the Bible. The publicschool education must exclude, by governmental authority, the knowledge of the Bible and its religion. But the same Government claims and exercises authority to exclude the Bible, and all knowledge of its teachings, as being an oppression of the conscience of the unbeliever. The duty of maintaining a discipline of unbelief and irreligion is thus assumed as essentially the obli

gation and right of the Government, and its right over and against the conscience of the Christian. The common school must take the children, and bring them up in freedom to choose for themselves what religion they please, if they ever come to the knowledge of any. Nine tenths of the children in the United States get their only education in the common schools, where by the edict of the Government forbidding the Bible and prayer and all instruction in regard to Christ as their only Saviour, they necessarily become infidels.

The citizens of Gadara were never more insanely prepossessed against the presence of Christ, than the Romanists and modern Secularists are against the light of his religion. If the Gospels were a mad dog, their educators could not be more jealous of hydrophobia, nor more anxious to shoot or muzzle. the dogs in the street, than they are to exclude the Bible and its teachings from the children in our schools.

If God's law is supreme for one human being, it is for all. If for individuals, then also and equally for communities and legislators. It is impossible that there should be one law for every soul, through a conscience acting in all thoughts and things toward God, and obedient to him, and another law, or no

law at all, for the Government, chosen by a community of souls, and governing not by the will of God, but by their own will and by the majority of votes. If God is not to govern, guide, and control the Government, then the people who appoint the Government by their votes do really control God; and thus the usurpation of God's authority becomes a despotism under the vices and voices of the multitude. To what other result can the rejection of the Bible lead?

In one of the great picture-galleries at Windsor Castle are several precious caskets, preserved with great care. The Queen entered one day with a small book in her hand, and asked the keeper of these treasures which was the most rare and valuable of them all. He showed her one made of pure rock crystal, ornamented with gold and enamel. In this casket the Queen placed a small book, General Gordon's pocket-Bible, annotated and marked by his own hand; and in this precious casket will remain this most precious relic of one of England's greatest heroes. Suppose the Queen should now supplement this with an encyclical letter from the Pope, as the law-book for her own subjects, forbidding them from ever teaching their children the Bible in their own tongue!