ance in favor of the institution of ninety-eight thousand two hundred and fifty-three dollars and ninety-four cents. If the consciences of any are troubled by the fact that the Bible is used in this institution, they may certainly find happy relief in the thought that none of their taxes go to pay towards its support!

Whether they are conscientiously opposed to the state receiving a revenue from a prison in which the Bible is read, is a point upon which they have not enlightened us!

The Rev. E. C. Wines, D. D., Corresponding Secretary of the Prison Association of New York, thus writes under date of January 9, 1870:

DEAR SIR: If I had time I could give many interesting facts showing the great value of the Bible in prisons. It was not until 1826 or 1827 that much attention was given in the United States to the religious interests of convicts. But a movement was started then, which, in the' course of eight or ten years, resulted in establishing Sunday schools in most of the state prisons of the country, and in introducing a Bible into almost every cell. It had become at that time nearly as common to see this Book of books lying on the little shelf of the solitary

cell, as to see the fastening of the door which secured the convict's person. The uniform testimony of the wardens of that day was, that the Scriptures were constantly read by multitudes of convicts, and that in cases not a few, their pungent truths penetrated the conscience as a nail in a sure place. In 1865 I visited the prisons of eighteen states, and the testimony of the wardens, with perhaps two or three exceptions, was, that a large proportion of the prisoners some said half, others more than half read the Bible with interest, attention, and profit. Convicts were reported as reading it through once, twice, and even thrice a year. There are prisoners who had never read the Bible before their conviction, yet who have become, since their incarceration, diligent students of it, and who put questions to their chaplains, which evince an intelligent as well as interested perusal of its pages.

I was once at Sing Sing, when good old Father Luckey administered baptism to six convicts. At his request I conversed with each separately in regard to his religious experience. What interested me most in their statements concerning themselves was, that three of them ascribed their conversion to the simple reading of the Bible in their cells. One of these was an Israelite, who had never seen the New Testament till after his imprisonment. On comparing the prophecies of the Old Testament with the histories of the New, he became convinced that Jesus of Nazareth was the Messiah of the proph

ets, and embraced him as his personal Saviour. He has stood firmly to that conviction since has release. Very truly yours,

E. C. WINES.

If the Bible must come out of schools on the ground that the state has nothing to do with religion, the same principle must drive it out of our prisons, and out of every institution connected with the state. This is the inevitable logic of the premise that has been admitted.Are there any Protestant ministers or laymen prepared for this? Or do any lay the flattering unction to their souls, that when the Bible is removed from all these schools and public institutions, that this is forever to settle the controversy with the Romanists? Or do they suppose that by first giving up the Bible, and thus taking the religious basis from under the schools, they will obtain a better position from which to contend with the foe? This is what some of them say in the pulpit, in the newspapers, and in private circles.

In the late rebellion in our country, would it not have been wiser for the government, at first to have recognized the right of the rebel states

to secede, and presented them with their choicest ammunition, and then gone to battle with them? I contend that such a course would have been just as wise as that proposed by these Protestants in regard to the Bible. In the providence of God, we are called to the defence of his holy word, and we begin the defence by giving it up! How, let me ask, are we to defend the Bible, unless we plant ourselves upon its principles? If, as we profess to believe, this is God's word, is there not a God to consult in this matter? Is it for me to say, that the universal Father must not speak to the millions of children and the unfortunate in our land, through the medium of these public schools and institutions, when vast multitudes of them hear his voice through no other medium?

V.

THE BIBLE THE VITAL FORCE OF THE AMERICAN REPUBLIC.

We now propose to prove the vital connection that exists between the Bible and our national life.

We propose to show that in surrendering the Bible to any class of persons, we surrender the republic with it, and that the two stand or fall together. We propose to show that the idea of saving our system of public instruction, by relinquishing the Bible, bears upon its face an absurdity, and that what is left of this system, divorced from moral or religious instruction, will be worse than nothing to us; will be an element positively antagonistic to the government, and, united with Romanism, eventually work the ruin of the republic.

To understand the connection between the Bible and our national life, we need to inquire, —