298 INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF EDUCATION. 
primary religious beliefs, and so the question is narrowed to the best 
method of securing the needed presence and influence of these religious 
means, and this can only be determined by experience. 
The American public school assumes that the family and the church 
have given some attention to the religious instruction of children, and 
shat its pupils are not ignorant of the existence of God, of man’s account- 
ability to Him, and other primary religious beliefs. Hence, it provides 
a0 formal instruction in religious knowledge, but uses such knowledge for 
moral ends, just as the state uses religious sanctions for its ends, When, 
for example, a witness appears in court to give testimony, he is not for- 
mally instructed in religious beliefs or knowledge, but his conscience is 
quickened and its authority reinforced by an oath that appeals to the 
Omniscient Searcher of hearts. A similar but less formal use of the 
common sanctions of religion is made by the school to quicken the moral 
sense of its pupils, and the opportunities for such use of religious sanc- 
;ons in school are numerous. No conscientious teacher is shut up to 
an assigned place, time, or manner. 
These primary religious beliefs appear in the selections for reading, in 
the lessons in literature and history, in the music sung, ete., and often in 
most impressive forms. The writer once knew a principal who attempted 
0 exclude religion from his school by marking for omission all selections 
and parts of selections in the reader that contained religious ideas and 
sentiments, thus despoiling the book of its literary treasures. But he 
stayed his hand when he came to the music-book, for the exclusion of reli- 
gion from it would not only despoil it of the best classical music, but 
would also strike out all national airs, as “ America,” “Hail Columbia,” 
“Star Spangled Banner,” ete. 
It is not possible to exclude religion from the school without mutilating 
its literature and doing violence to the religious nature of the pupils. 
Just as Christian civilization goes wherever modern commerce goes, so 
religion goes wherever Christian literature goes. It pervades the Ameri- 
can school, thrives in its atmosphere, and is easily made a vital element in 
its moral life. The one essential condition to this end is a teacher whose 
mind and heart quickly respond to religious truth or motives. Experience 
has widely shown that needed religious influence may pervade a school in 
‘he absence of formal religious exercises, and it is a serious mistake to 
suppose that a school is “ godless” because it makes no provision for 
sechnical instruction in religion. The needed measure of religious influ- 
ence in a school may even be secured without the formal and stated read- 
ing of the Bible, there being other ways in which its vital influence may 
be brought to bear upon the conscience and heart of pupils, and one of 
these ways is its reverent recognition as the Word of God. 
It must, however, be freely conceded that the effectiveness of religious 
sanctions for moral ends depends much on the presence of religious feel-