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EAR#^ 
 
 FED 
 
 . AMERICAN '^ 
 ( UNITARIAN 
 ASSOCIATION 
 
 RELIGI0US\BJDnCAD£.€i5N 
 
 m9.i^ 
 
 CONSIDERED AS 
 
 THE DIVINELY APPOINTED WAY 
 
 REGENERATE LIFE. 
 
 WILLIAM G. ELIO'I, 
 
 PABTOB OF THE OHURCH OF THB sbsSIAH, ST. LOUIS. 
 
 "Feed mj Itkt^^^^^^R-^^^ 
 
 "^ OP* THE 
 
 VEESITY 
 
 ^^po'ii^^ 
 
 BOSTON: 
 AMEKICAN UNITARIAN ASSOCIATION. 
 
 1881. 
 
EG 
 
 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1855, by 
 
 Crosby, Nichols, and Company, 
 
 JQ the Clerk's Office of the DiBtrict Court of the District of Maasachusetti 
 
TO 
 
 MY MOTHER, 
 
 THE ONLY SURVIVING PARENT 
 
 OF CHILDREN WHOSE DEBT OF GRATITUDE, 
 
 FOR HER UNWEARIED CARE IN LEADING THEM 
 
 BY CHRISTIAN PRECEPT AND EXAMPLE 
 
 TO THE CHRISTIAN FAITH, 
 
 CAN NEVER BE ADEQUATELY EXPRESSED, 
 
 THIS ESSAY 
 
 O AFFEOTIONATM.T IKSCBIBSB. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 PAQB 
 
 THE REGENERATE LIFE 1 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION. 21 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 THE parent's duty 53 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 SCHOOL EDUCATION 77 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 THE DIVINE METHOD 95 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 PARENTAL RESPONSIBILITY Ill 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE REGENERATE LIFE. 
 
 In the following Essay, I propose to speak 
 of the Religious Education of the Young, 
 considered as the divinely appointed means of 
 Christian Regeneration. My object is to call 
 the attention of parents to duties and respon- 
 sibilities which are too apt to be neglected, 
 and by neglect of which the spiritual welfare 
 of their children is sometimes sacrificed. 
 
 But, to avoid misapprehension, a few words 
 may first be said concerning the spiritual or 
 regenerate life of which we speak. What is 
 Christian Regeneration? Is it a reality, or 
 only a figure of speech to which no definite 
 meaning needs to be given ? Is it something 
 that every one must, sooner or later, experi- 
 ence, in the formation of the Christian char- 
 1 
 
Z THE REGENERATE LIFE. 
 
 acter, or is it only a matter of historical inter- 
 est, — the change from one religion to another, 
 as from Judaism or Heathenism to Christian- 
 ity ? Can it properly be called a change of 
 heart, or is it anything more than that general 
 improvement in manners and morals, the de- 
 sirableness of which every one admits, but to 
 which no such radical expression can, without 
 exaggeration, be applied? According to the 
 answer given to these questions, the whole 
 subject of early religious education assumes 
 greater or less practical importance. 
 
 " K any man is in Christ," says the Apostle 
 Paul, " he is a new creature. Old things are 
 passed away ; behold, all things have become 
 new." (2 Cor. v. 17.) We ask attention to 
 the plainness and strength of this language, — 
 " a new creature." But, strong as the words 
 are, they do not convey the full meaning of 
 the original, which is, '' a new creation." 
 That is to say, he who is in Christ is creat- 
 ed again ; and, lest the words may fail to be 
 apprehended, the idea is further expressed, 
 
THE REGENERATE LIFE. O 
 
 " old things have passed away and all things 
 have become new." 
 
 Nor is this the only instance in which the 
 Christian regeneration is thus described. It 
 is the common Scriptural mode of expression. 
 The state of the regenerate is declared to be 
 the absolute renunciation of one life and the 
 assumption of another. As St. Paul again 
 said, "I am crucified w4th Christ," — put to 
 death with him ; " nevertheless I live, yet 
 not I, but Christ liveth in me." The word 
 " regeneration " indicates the same thing, for 
 it is, literally, a new or renewed birth. And 
 thus the Saviour himself spoke, when he said, 
 "Except a man be born again," — or born 
 from above, by a higher, creative, spiritual 
 birth, — " he cannot see the kingdom of God." 
 
 Whatever we may make of such words, 
 there can be no doubt of their containing a 
 leading Scriptural doctrine. They are so often 
 repeated, and in such variety of form but uni- 
 ty of substance, that we cannot keep them 
 out of sight if we would. After all our in- 
 genuity in explaining them away, as having 
 
ft THE REGENERATE LIFE. 
 
 only a t^rnporary application, or whatever 
 other method may be taken to avoid their 
 force, they return upon us and refuse to be 
 explained away or disregarded. They con- 
 tain the vital strength and efficacy of our re- 
 ligion. That we are capable of the regenerate 
 life is our divine birthright, and its necessity 
 to us as the means of reconciliation with God 
 is the divine law under which, as spiritual be- 
 ings, we live. K there is any doctrine of the 
 Bible which is abstractly and absolutely stated 
 as a universal truth, that which we now con- 
 sider is so expressed ; namely, that the Chris- 
 tian or spiritual life is essentially different 
 from the worldly or natural life, and that, by 
 becoming Christians, we undergo a real and 
 radical change. Not, of course, that we are 
 literally created over again, for this would be 
 the same literal perversion of words into which 
 Nicodemus fell. But it is evidently a real and 
 radical change of the heart and life of which 
 tHe Scripture speaks, — a change which affects 
 us to such a degree that the words " new birth " 
 and "new creation,'*' altnough figurative, are 
 
THE REGENERATE LIFE. 
 
 strictly appropriate, and the most intelligible 
 that can be used in its description. There is, 
 undoubtedly, a Christian doctrine of regen- 
 eration which is intended to be received as a 
 plain, practical truth, of universal application. 
 
 Yet there is in the minds of some persons 
 a prejudice against it, and it is sometimes 
 broadly denied. We have heard a Christian 
 minister speak of " those who still believe in 
 the doctrine of regeneration." As a spiritual 
 experience it is called imaginary, and as a 
 statement of truth it is ridiculed as being un- 
 philosophical and absurd. Particularly do 
 men of highly educated minds turn from it 
 with distrust or contempt, as if it were the 
 preaching of ignorance and superstition. But, 
 by so treating the subject, we think that they 
 go as far towards one extreme as the most 
 ignorant and superstitious go towards the 
 other. To deny the doctrine of regeneration 
 and to remain a Christian, indicates either the 
 misuse of words or an imperfect knowledge 
 of the Scripture. 
 
 The prejudice to which we refer is not, 
 1* 
 
THE REGENERATE LIFE. 
 
 however, without foundation. Although not 
 properly directed against the Scriptural doc- 
 trine, it has been very naturally excited by the 
 unscriptural mode in which the doctrine is 
 often preached. Sudden, miraculous conver- 
 sion, wrought by divine power, independently 
 of the human will, is the form in which it is 
 sometimes presented; — a conversion, namely, 
 by which the sinner of yesterday is the saint 
 of to-day ; a conversion by which the laws of 
 the mind are annulled, the principles of hu- 
 man nature subverted, and as great a miracle 
 wrought in the soul as by raising the dead to 
 life. We do not wonder that well-educated 
 and practical men resist such a doctrine as 
 this. It is false in theory^ for it would be the 
 destruction of responsibleness and freedom. 
 It would make us the blind and helpless in- 
 struments, or rather subjects, of divine power, 
 instead of being the willing servants of God 
 both in seeking after and in accomplishing 
 the Christian life. It is equally false in prac- 
 tice, for those who are most sure of having 
 been themselves thus miraculously converted, 
 
THE REGENERATE LIFE. 7 
 
 and who are recognized under the usual tests 
 as genuine converts, do yet manifestly retain 
 the same individuality, and are practically the 
 same men they were before. No miracle 
 seems to have been wrought in them, no de- 
 gree of goodness suddenly attained, or which 
 we may not account for by ordinary causes 
 and the use of prdinary " Gospel means" of 
 improvement. Sometimes, together with the 
 reformation of outward life, a corresponding 
 degree of spiritual pride creeps in, from the 
 persuasion that they are the special recipients 
 of divine favor ; by which their simplicity of 
 character is lost, and almost as much harm 
 done in one way as good in the other. When- 
 ever a man begins to " thank God that he is 
 not as other men are, or even as this publi- 
 can," he is in great danger. 
 
 In expressing belief, therefore, in regenera- 
 tion, we do not speak of a sudden work. 
 There is but one sense in which sudden con- 
 version is possible, which is, that a beginning 
 may be, and often is, abruptly or suddenly 
 made. The thoughtless man may be unex- 
 
O THE REGENERATE LIFE. 
 
 pectedly brought to reflect, and tjie sinner to 
 repent. There may be, and not unfrequently 
 is, a turning-point of character, — an epoch 
 which is the beginning of a new era in the 
 life. In this sense, no one will dispute the 
 fact; but we must remember that, after the 
 direction of life is changed, the whole prog- 
 ress of life is to be accomplished. Nor do 
 we teach miraculous conversion, except in that 
 sense which belongs to God's providential 
 dealing with us, and to the unseen, unob- 
 served influences of God's spirit, which work 
 together with our spirits, and in accordance 
 with the laws of our own minds. Upon this 
 divine help, which is at once natural and su- 
 pernatural, we are always dependent. But 
 we cannot separate it, as a miraculous inter- 
 ference, from our own thoughts and affections, 
 our own aspirations and prayers. For, "as 
 the wind bio wet h where it listeth, and we 
 hear the sound thereof, but cannot tell whence 
 it cometh nor whither it goeth, so is every one 
 who is born of the spirit." It is at once arro- 
 gant and dangerous to claim direct and extra- 
 
THE REGENERATE LIFE. 
 
 ordinary guidance. It is virtually to claim 
 inspiration, and that which begins in humility 
 ends in pride. 
 
 But we still hold to the plain and practical 
 meaning of the Scriptural words, " Whosoever 
 is in Christ is a new creature." There is not 
 only a seeming difference, but an essential, 
 radical, and thorough difference, between the 
 religious and the worldly life. By becoming 
 Christians we undergo a change, not only of 
 habit, nor chiefly of habit, but chiefly a change 
 of heart ; or, in other words, of affection and 
 of inward character. For nothing else than 
 this can be reasonably intended when a change 
 of heart is spoken of; — the same experience 
 which is variously expressed, in the fifty-first 
 Psalm, by the words, " Create within me a 
 clean heart," and then by the equivalent 
 words, " Renew a right spirit within me." 
 
 Every one must feel that his real or inward 
 character is not always indicated by his ordi- 
 nary outward conduct. " We know men by 
 their fruits," but we judge of the fruit, not by 
 its looks, b7it its taste and wholesome quali- 
 
10 THE REGENERATE LIFE. 
 
 ties. A man's real character can be told only 
 by knowing his leading motives, his ruling 
 passion or affection, the prevailing purpose 
 of his life. Of course, therefore, it can be 
 known but imperfectly to any one but him- 
 self and his Maker ; and wisdom should keep 
 us from too positive judgments concerning 
 each other. But it is none the less evident 
 that, if the ruling principle be changed, the 
 whole man is changed. Not suddenly, in- 
 deed, and perhaps not quickly, for the new 
 element may take a good while to work itself 
 into the affections, so as to modify the whole 
 character. But a complete change is then be- 
 gun, which requires only time for its working. 
 For example, let the spendthrift be taught 
 that the possession of money, and not its fool- 
 ish expenditure, commands the respect of the 
 world, and let the love of money begin to take 
 precedence of the love of pleasure. How 
 quickly and how thoroughly is he changed ! 
 How different are his enjoyments, and what a 
 complete revolution is wrought in his whole 
 character! He is a new man, so that his 
 
THE REGENERATE LIFE. 11 
 
 friends scarcely know him. And yet this is, 
 comparatively speaking, a superficial change. 
 His inward character may be just the same 
 that it was before. It is only a change from 
 one kind of selfishness to another; and his 
 lavish generosity in the first stage, and his 
 avaricious meanness in the second, are but 
 different modes of the same self-seeking. 
 The change, therefore, however great seem- 
 ingly, is not like that which is wrought by 
 substituting kind and generous affections for 
 those which are narrow and selfish. 
 
 As an illustration of this greater change, 
 take one who is at the head of a family, the 
 husband and father, who, from motives of re- 
 spectability, provides for his household, but 
 who consults chiefly his own comfort, to 
 which everything must bend, and who, by 
 the indulgence of a tyrannical will, makes 
 himself feared more than loved. What a 
 thorough reformation would be wrought in 
 him, and how would the warm rays of sun- 
 light stream through his house, if you could 
 cure him of that selfishness and petty tyranny, 
 
12 THE EEGENERATE LIPB. 
 
 by leading him to think of others instead of 
 himself! Teach him to love his wife and 
 children for their own sake, and not merely 
 because they belong to him. Teach him to 
 find his happiness in their happiness, instead 
 of making their enjoyment depend upon his 
 selfish whims. We acknowledge that this is 
 a very difficult change to effect, but, if once 
 wrought, its greatness will not be denied. A 
 lew feeling pervades the household, and ev- 
 erything said and done has a new and better 
 expression. Yet even here you may not have 
 reached the inmost character of all. The 
 Scriptural change of heart in such a man may 
 not yet have been accomplished. His affec- 
 tions have become genial, instead of contract- 
 <id, he is kind and considerate, instead of self- 
 ish and exacting, which is a great change ; 
 but the spiritual life may yet be unknown to 
 him; his relation to those around him may 
 bt <3tn earthly, present relation only ; and the 
 law of righteousness, the Christian law of 
 self-consecration, by submission to which we 
 seek to present our bodies a living sacrifice 
 
THE BEGENERATE LIFE. 13 
 
 to God, may be yet entirely unknown or dis- 
 regarded. 
 
 We may partly see, therefore, how radical 
 is the change which the Christian religion pro- 
 poses, and how thoroughly it must pervade 
 the whole life in the process of its accomplish- 
 ment. It substitutes the principle of right for 
 that of expediency. It makes the will of God 
 our law, instead of our own changing desires, 
 or the customs of the world. Instead of self- 
 ishness and self-seeking, whatever form they 
 may take, it teaches self-denial, and, it may 
 be, self-sacrifice. It requires us to live for 
 others, not only by separate acts of kindness, 
 but by going about to do good, and by making 
 the ordinary occupations of life the means of 
 usefulness. It teaches us to regard everything 
 in this world chiefly with a view to its uses 
 in the formation of that higher, spiritual life, 
 which begins here, to be perfected in heaven. 
 It goes, therefore, to the depths of the soul, 
 and changes the purpose of its existence. It 
 changes the meaning of life and the end to be 
 accomplished. It requires the change of our 
 
14 THE REGENERATE LIFE. 
 
 ruling affections, and by infusing a new spirit 
 into everything done, it effectually changes 
 the whole conduct and conversation. Even 
 that which seems to be the same, such as the 
 common routine of life, is really changed, be- 
 cause its purpose and meaning are changed. 
 If it be but the working for one's daily bread, 
 the religious spirit supervenes to make it the 
 working for the bread of eternal life. Without 
 being what is commonly called a miraculous 
 change, therefore, it is a complete, and, I be- 
 lieve, a divinely-wrought change from that 
 which the Scriptures term the natural and 
 worldly state of mind. For whatever views 
 we may take of the metaphysical disputes 
 about the origin and explanation of sin, w^e 
 must certainly admit that the human heart 
 does not fashion itself, in its natural develop- 
 ment and under the ordinary influences of the 
 world, according to the heavenly image. To 
 become a Christian is, therefore, as the Scrip- 
 tures teach, to undergo a change, and being 
 such a change as we have indicated, it is, phil- 
 osophically and fairly speaking, not less than 
 
THE REGENERATE LIFE. 15 
 
 Scripturally speaking, a change of everything, 
 " He who is in Christ is a new creation. Old 
 things have passed away, and all things are 
 become new." 
 
 But how absurd it is, let me again say, to 
 speak of it as a renovation suddenly and com- 
 pletely wrought ! We might rather say, and 
 I here express it as my own deliberate and 
 earnest conviction, that the work of regenera- 
 tion is seldom effectually accomplished, unless 
 when it begins by the Christian education of 
 childhood, and goes on under the exercise of 
 Christian influences through the whole life. 
 Nor is the whole life too long for the result to 
 be attained. 
 
 We do not deny the reality of that change 
 which may come in mature years, to those 
 who have led worldly and irreligious lives. 
 But we do say, and it is of the utmost impor- 
 tance to say, that the Christian regeneration 
 is better and more perfectly wi'ought in those 
 who learn " to remember their Creator in the 
 days of their youth." When the religious 
 education is made to keep pace with the in- 
 
16 THE REGENERATE LIFE. 
 
 tellectual ; when the mind grows by its un- 
 conscious and early development into Chris- 
 tian habits of thought ; when the lesson of 
 self-control is so early learned that it becomes 
 like the alphabet of life, with which all the 
 subsequent history of life may be written ; — 
 then does the Christian regeneration become 
 most perfect. The innocence of childhood, its 
 simplicity, its gentleness, its confiding humil- 
 ity, are thus retained, whUe the active princi- 
 ple of Christian virtue is gradually introduced, 
 to work like leaven in the character, and bring 
 it, by a progress so natural that we almost 
 hesitate to call it a change, up to the Chris- 
 tian standard. "We may not be able to mark 
 the time of conscious self-consecration to God, 
 nor to observe the steps by which the will is 
 brought towards it ; but the result is none the 
 less sure, the change effected none the less 
 real. We may dispute about words, but such 
 development and growth, like the springing 
 up of seed from the ground, are in themselves 
 a new creation. 
 
 As the complete ignorance of infancy is to 
 
THE REGENERATE LIFE. 17 
 
 the advanced attainments of science, and as 
 the infant's mind to the mature mind of the 
 philosopher, so is the child's innocence, at the 
 best, to the mature excellence of Christian 
 goodness. No change can be greater, al- 
 though, if it comes by the process of early- 
 education, it is less marked than a smaller 
 change would be in later life, when the tran- 
 sition from ignorance to knowledge, or from 
 selfish to Christian principles, is more easily 
 observed. But commonly speaking, if you 
 wish to make a learned or wise man, you 
 must begin by educating the child. And 
 equally, if you would do the work of Chris- 
 tian regeneration well, you must bring children 
 to the familiar presence of Jesus, that he may 
 lay his hands upon them and bless them. We 
 shall thus save them from the wrongs done 
 to the soul, by which its beauty is so often 
 spoiled, and from the stains which the tears of 
 repentance can scarcely wash out. We shall 
 bring them ic that mature strength of Chris- 
 tian principle which is the renewal of the Di- 
 
 • 2* 
 
18 THE REGENERATE LIFE. 
 
 vine image, the only real humanity of the im- 
 mortal soul. 
 
 These truths therefore seem to me sure and 
 undeniable : — 
 
 First, there is an essential, radical difference 
 between the worldly and selfish life and that 
 which the Christian religion demands. 
 
 Secondly, the Christian life does not come 
 of itself, by the natural development of the 
 mind and character, any more than science 
 and learning come of their own accord. 
 
 Thirdly, the Christian life is the result and 
 working of Christian principles, under the Di- 
 vine impulse and guidance, which modify the 
 whole character and conduct, so that the 
 meaning and tendency of life are entirely 
 changed. 
 
 Lastly, and as the result and consequence 
 of the foregoing, the sooner these Christian 
 principles are introduced, so as to become 
 the nutriment by which the soul receives its 
 growth, the better and the more effectually 
 will the work be done. Our households must 
 be filled with Christian children, or our church- 
 
THE RE GEN] 
 
 es will never be filled with Christian men and 
 women. 
 
 Would it not be a new creation ? Is not 
 the Christian child, to whose lips the words 
 of prayer are familiar, whose impulses are 
 already restrained by the fear of God, whose 
 standard of demeanor is the character of 
 Christ, and who has already chosen the path 
 of Christian virtue and truth, — is not such a 
 one essentially a different creature from what 
 he would have been under worldly influences ? 
 The Christian graces are never so beautiful as 
 when they are thus formed in the unstained 
 childhood of the soul. 
 
 Such are the views of the Scripture doc- 
 trine of regeneration which are our starting- 
 point in this Essay. As seekers of the regen- 
 erate life, we need to be patient with our- 
 selves, and with continued, earnest striving, 
 having adopted the Christian principles of life, 
 to endeavor, little by little, but with a radical 
 working, to make them pervade the whole 
 character and conduct, until they become the 
 spirit in which we live. But in our care of 
 
20 THE REGENERATE LIFE. 
 
 the young, the children whom God commits 
 to our keeping, we have a different duty. It 
 is to educate them to be Christians. It is our 
 duty to bring them up at the feet of Jesus, 
 and thus to educate them, perhaps not for 
 earth, but certainly for heaven. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION. 
 
 If my views concerning Christian regen- 
 aration are correct, it is a work which should 
 oegin in early childhood, instead of being de- 
 layed, as it generally is, until the character is 
 already formed. Its difficulty becomes greater 
 with every advancing year, and confirmed 
 habits of worldliness and self-indulgence re- 
 quire so great exertion for their change, that 
 it is seldom attempted, still more seldom ac- 
 complished. "We should therefore educate 
 our children to be Christians. Their earliest 
 training should be Christian training, and 
 their submission to the law of Christ, both in 
 faith and conduct, should be so gently instilled 
 as to become like an unconscious or instinc- 
 tive direction of the whole character. This 
 
462 RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION. 
 
 would be Christian nurture, the true religious 
 education ; — a work of great difficulty, I ad- 
 mit, and implying on the part of parents and 
 teachers higher attainments than are usually 
 possessed. But the duty does not the less 
 exist, and to recognize it as a duty is at least 
 one step towards its accomplishment. I fear 
 that, generally speaking, it is neither recog- 
 nized nor acknowledged. 
 
 The proper and rational ideas of religious 
 education are not generally admitted, and are 
 very often distinctly denied. School educa- 
 tion is everywhere insisted upon, and all need- 
 ful provision for the development of the intel- 
 lect and for the accumulation of knowledge is 
 made. The manners are formed with care, 
 and the common moralities of life duly en- 
 forced. But Christian education, which is the 
 inculcation of faith in Jesus Christ, — the Gos- 
 pel education, by which not only a moral, but 
 a religious character is formed, — is a work 
 which many refuse to undertake. 
 
 Perhaps it is not too much to say, that the 
 majority of young persons, even in Christian 
 
RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION. 23 
 
 families, are permitted to grow up without 
 any decided religious education at all. They 
 come to what are called the years of dis- 
 cretion, and enter upon all the serious duties 
 of life, almost without knowing whether they 
 believe in Christ or not. They have not 
 learned to think of religion as a personal in- 
 terest, and their only natural and easy prog- 
 ress is one which leads them further from the 
 religious life every day. For if we do not 
 educate our children to be Christians, they 
 will be educated by worldly influences away 
 from Christianity. And this is the actual re- 
 sult. In Christian congregations, how small 
 a part of the young, of those, I mean, from 
 fifteen to twenty years of age, have either 
 assumed the Christian name, or distinctly ad- 
 mitted to themselves their obligation to do so ! 
 In religious belief and personal religious char- 
 acter, how many of them occupy a negative 
 position ! They do not know their own 
 thoughts, and have not yet formed a definite 
 religious purpose. They have not yet chosen 
 their principles of conduct, at a time when 
 
24 RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION. 
 
 they would be ashamed not to have chosen 
 their worldly pursuit, and are already am- 
 bitious of worldly influence. 
 
 Such is the actual state of things in the 
 Christian Church. False theories of religion 
 have prevailed to such an extent, that it has 
 relied upon revivals and conversions, instead of 
 Christian education, as the means of growth. 
 It has not expected the young to be Chris- 
 tians, and is yet astonished that when older 
 they do not become so. Therefore it goes on 
 struggling in unequal contest with the powers 
 of evil, and, instead of converting the world to 
 Christ, cannot guard its own ranks from fre- 
 quent desertion. Children of Christian par- 
 ents fail to become Christians, and the major- 
 ity of those who worship before the Christian 
 altar never come to conclusions sufficiently 
 definite to justify them in the distinct assump- 
 tion of the Christian name. They are still 
 waiting, and perhaps need to wait, for the 
 Christian change. The work which ought to 
 have been done in childhood and youth is still 
 delayed, and they have not yet quite made up 
 
RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION. 25 
 
 their minds whether God or Mammon should 
 be served. 
 
 Against such a state of things we protest, 
 as being equally unchristian and wrong. The 
 root of the evil lies far back, in the early edu- 
 cation of childhood and the training of youth. 
 Children need to be directed and formed in 
 their religious character, as carefully as in the 
 intellectual. They need to be taught ^religion 
 as much as to be taught science. In one 
 word, we must educate them to be Christians, 
 or there is great danger of their never becom- 
 ing Christians at all. 
 
 But in the statement of this proposition we 
 are met by objections from two opposite 
 sources. First, there are objections of indif- 
 ference and mistaken liberality ; and secondly, 
 of superstition and mistaken doctrine. Both 
 of these need to be considered. 
 
 We hear a great deal said about leaving 
 the minds of children unbiassed ; — that upon 
 all religious subjects they should be left free, 
 so that, upon arriving at years of discretion, 
 
 3 
 
26 RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION. 
 
 they may choose for themselves, and decide 
 upon all disputed questions without prejudice. 
 But what does this really mean? Is it the 
 language of those who are themselves deeply 
 interested, and whose religious convictions 
 are deep and earnest? Is it not rather the 
 language of men who care very little about 
 the subjects of which they speak, — who have 
 scarcely any positive convictions of their 
 own, and are therefore indifferent about the 
 opinions of others ? This is commonly the 
 case. It sounds like liberality ; it is indiffer- 
 ence, i 
 
 Religion, if regarded at all as a personal in- 
 terest, becomes the chief interest in life, and 
 we cannot help loving that which we not only 
 believe, but to which we look for our daily 
 comfort and strength. We may begin by 
 conceding that every form of Christianity has 
 enough truth for the salvation of the soul, and 
 yet that which we have ourselves embraced 
 as our own must be to us the dearest, and we 
 cannot help desiring that those whom we 
 most dearly love should think and feel with 
 
RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION. 27 
 
 US. Even if it were a matter of absolute in- 
 difference what a man believes, it would be so 
 only as an abstract proposition. Our social en- 
 joyments spring from community of thought, 
 of feeling, and of interest. With our thoughts 
 turned in different directions upon religious 
 subjects, and with different religious sympa- 
 thies, it is difficult — I do not say impossible, 
 but difficult — to retain the cordial and inti- 
 mate communion one with another upon 
 which domestic happiness depends. This one 
 divided interest affects all other interests, and 
 there is constant danger that feelings of alien- 
 ation and of almost angry impatience may be 
 aroused. 
 
 Such is the common practical working, as 
 everybody knows. However closely a family 
 may be united, difference of religious opinion 
 and religious sympathies may easily become 
 a disturbing element, the introduction of which 
 is therefore to be accounted a danger and a 
 misfortune. ^ To guard against it, is no proof 
 of bigotry or of illiberal feeling. It is but the 
 natural desire to sympathize most closely with 
 
28 RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION. 
 
 those whom we love most dearly.i The fact 
 being as it is, and human sympathies working 
 as they do, the husband ought to desire to 
 hold the same religion with his wife, and the 
 wife with her husband. It is a misfortune 
 when they cannot worship at the same altar, 
 and a severer trial of affection than they are 
 at first willing to believe. Between parents 
 and children the same principle holds true, 
 and therefore the natural desire and duty of 
 the parent unitedly lead him to use all proper 
 means to train his children in the same relig- 
 ious sympathies with himself. In fact, he 
 must do so, or neglect their religious educa- 
 tion altogether. If he directs them at all, it 
 must be according to his own convictions of 
 truth, and he cannot help feeling regret when 
 they come to conclusions essentially different 
 from his own. His duty towards them re- 
 quires that he should place them under what 
 he believes to be the best influences, and 
 educate them in what he believes to be the 
 truth. If he cares anything about religion, 
 he cannot be indifferent as to their train- 
 
RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION. 29 
 
 ing, but will seek to direct them in the right 
 way. Or if he cares nothing about the truth 
 for its own sake, and thinks that one relig- 
 ion is, in itself considered, as good as anoth- 
 er, practical good-sense will teach him that 
 one religion is commonly enough for one 
 household, and that to agree in religious opin- 
 ion is one of the strongest bonds of domestic 
 love. 
 
 7^ It is said, that, by thus directing the young 
 in their religious education, we should train 
 them to be narrow-minded and bigoted. Even 
 that would be better than the blank and nega- 
 tive indifference in which they are so often 
 permitted to grow up, which is almost sure to 
 end in scepticism or unbelief, and by which 
 the young are left without the restraints of 
 religious principle through the whole forming 
 period of life.^ But the assertion is founded in 
 mistake. The most prejudiced persons are 
 often those who have had no specific instruc- 
 tion, and who are ignorant as to what they 
 believe and what they reject. The most big- 
 oted are often the least instructed, and mo^t 
 
30 RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION. 
 
 unable to tell the grounds on which their 
 opinions rest. 
 
 We may teach children to be fair-minded 
 and open to conviction, while we instruct them 
 in what we believe true. We need not claim 
 absolute authority over them, nor insist upon 
 our own opinions as if there were no possibil- 
 ity of mistake. We may seek to develop their 
 minds and help them to think for themselves, 
 while giving them the benefit of our own 
 more mature thoughts. We may guard them 
 against unjust prejudices, and teach them to 
 look with respect upon those from whom we 
 differ. In a word, our object should be, not to 
 make bigoted sectarians, but practical Chris- 
 tians ; not to fill their minds with dogmatic 
 theology which they cannot understand, but 
 to lead them, as their minds are developed, to 
 a familiar acquaintance with the life and 
 teaching of Jesus Christ, by obedience to 
 whom they may become Christians. By such 
 instruction there is no danger of their becom- 
 ing bigoted. They gradually learn to form 
 their own opinions, and always with a su- 
 
RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION. 81 
 
 preme regard to truth. Above all, they will 
 have a positive religious training, both of 
 mind and heart, which will almost certainly 
 result in a practical Christian character, — the 
 great end to be attained. 
 
 Unhappily, those who recognize the duty of 
 giving a religious education to their children 
 are apt to begin in the wrong way, and work 
 with a wrong spirit. They begin with dog- 
 matic theology, and before the child can un- 
 derstand the Lord's Prayer, he is made to 
 learn by rote creeds and formulas of doctrine, . 
 about which the most learned men have al- 
 ways disputed, and will always continue to 
 dispute. They are taught to answer the most 
 difficult questions about predestination and 
 election, about the nature of God and of 
 Christ, in words no more intelligible to them 
 than Greek or Hebrew, and are at the same time 
 told that any deviation from those answers 
 or any departure from the doctrines taught 
 would be attended with the utmost peril to 
 their souls. This is indeed a training to make 
 them bigoted and narrow-minded. They learn 
 
82 RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION. 
 
 to feel that it is dangerous to think for them- 
 selves, and that in religion it is not necessary 
 to think at all. They look with horror upon 
 those who differ from them, and, being abso- 
 lutely assured that they are themselves right, 
 do not hesitate even without examination to 
 condemn all others as wrong. Their minds 
 are not open to conviction, for it has always 
 been impressed upon them that a change of 
 opinion would be rebellion against God. 
 
 For those who grow up under such influ- 
 ences, there is commonly but one alternative. 
 Either they will retain their religious educa- 
 tion at the expense of fairness of mind, liber- 
 ality of feeling, and freedom of thought, — 
 thus becoming defenders of their own sect 
 rather than lovers of truth, and seeking to do 
 God service by the heartiness of religious 
 hatred, — that is to say, becoming sectarians 
 and bigots, instead of Christians ; or, on the 
 other hand, by being disgusted with the con- 
 tracted ideas which have been forced upon 
 them as religion, they are gradually weaned 
 from religion itself, sceptical of all religious 
 
RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION. 33 
 
 truth, rebellious against all religious authority, 
 and disposed to treat with contempt all re- 
 ligious institutions. 
 
 Such is the explanation of a great deal of 
 the scepticism and infidelity prevalent in the 
 Christian world. It is the reaction of the mind 
 against the arbitrary instruction of early years, 
 and is sometimes a generous protest against 
 intellectual bondage. It is not always the 
 proof of a depraved heart, nor is it in its com- 
 mencement generally so. At first, it is gener- 
 ally no more than the honest refusal to believe 
 that which does not seem to be true, a refusal 
 to submit to an authority which is evidently 
 not divine. If it stopped there, it would be 
 well, and the Christian faith might yet be re- 
 tained. But the mind, once released from its 
 moorings, drifts away, it knows not where. 
 The scepticism of an unbelieving heart fol- 
 lows. The early restraints of religion are for- 
 gotten, and the habitual practice of sin makes 
 a return to faith difficult, if not impossible. 
 Such is the natural and frequent result of 
 wrong religious education. Thousands of 
 
84 RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION. 
 
 those who are now the enemies of Christ, oi 
 at least who refuse to be his friends, can dis- 
 tinctly trace the misfortune and the sin to the 
 irrational treatment of their childhood, to the 
 stern and arbitrary instructions to which, in 
 childhood, they were required to submit. \ 
 
 We do not wonder, therefore, that, in view 
 of such severe and unwise training, objections 
 are sometimes made to all religious education. 
 But the opposite extreme is equally unwise 
 and unphilosophical. There are some who 
 will not allow their children to enter a Sunday 
 school, nor encourage them to attend at church, 
 and who refuse to converse with them upon 
 religious subjects, or to give them books from 
 which religious instruction can be gained, 
 through this exaggerated fear that some un- 
 due bias may be given to their minds, or some 
 undue restraint placed upon the^ subsequent 
 freedom of their thoughts. Such persons are 
 committing, I fear, as great and serious a mis- 
 take as that which they avoid. The vacancy 
 of mind and almost complete ignorance upon 
 
RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTIOIS. 85 
 
 religious subjects in which their children grow 
 up is extremely unfavorable to their subse- 
 quent exercise of sound judgment. The child 
 craves religious instruction, and will find it of 
 some sort or other. As the thoughts and af- 
 fections are developed, the soul instinctively 
 looks upwards, and yearnings after God and 
 immortality are felt, which may be discour- 
 aged, but cannot be suppressed. Some re- 
 ligious education or other children will have, 
 and their questionings will somewhere find an 
 answer. The only point for us to determine 
 is, whether we shall leave it to chance, or pro- 
 vide the best means of instruction and the best 
 religious influence within our reach. We may 
 keep them uninformed, but we cannot keep 
 their minds inactive ; and by leaving them 
 without instruction, they contract prejudices, 
 instead of forming opinions. They yield to 
 the first strong influence to which they happen 
 to be exposed, and, instead of becoming im- 
 partial seekers after truth, they become Prot- 
 estant or Catholic, superstitious or sceptical, 
 believers or unbelievers. Christian or infidel, 
 
36 BELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION. 
 
 just as it may happen. And so families are 
 divided, domestic comfort disturbed, bigotry 
 and indifference sit at the same board, and 
 regard each other with mutual pity or con- 
 tempt, through the irrational and absurd ex- 
 periment of neglecting, in our systems of edu- 
 cation, the most important part of the child's 
 nature. Parents may sometimes bring them- 
 selves to a state of philosophical indifference 
 about religion, as if it were no matter what 
 one believes concerning God and eternity ; but 
 intelligent children cannot be kept from in- 
 quiring, and if a right direction is not given 
 to them, they will find a wrong direction for 
 themselves. Their minds may be kept torpid 
 upon any other subject more easily than upon 
 this. Their moral nature demands opportu- 
 nity of development ; the conscience seeks for 
 a guide ; and no more dangerous experiment 
 can be tried, than to tell them that they must 
 wait until mature years before thinking of 
 those subjects which involuntarily crowd upon 
 their thoughts almost as soon as they begin to 
 think at all. 
 
RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION. 37 
 
 I would rather go to the other extreme, and 
 say that religious education, rightly considered 
 and rightly conducted, is the whole education. 
 It is certainly the most important part, and is 
 the only right foundation on which a practical 
 and useful education can be based. For mor- 
 al and religious education cannot be separated 
 from each other. It is religion which fixes the 
 standard of morality, and enacts the law by 
 which our conduct is to be regulated. The 
 morality which we would teach is not the sys- 
 tem of Zeno or Epicurus, but Christian mo- 
 rality, with the sanctions and penalties which 
 Christ has established. No moral instruction 
 can be of much value unless enforced by high- 
 er authority than the parents' command. The 
 child must be taught to feel that he is living 
 in a spiritual world, and that the highest rela- 
 tions of life are not with a world of sense, but 
 with things unseen and eternal. He must be 
 taught that the life of the soul is the real life, 
 and the law of God the supreme law, and if 
 we would make him a Christian, he must also 
 be taught that Jesus Christ is the divinely 
 
 4 
 
88 RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION. 
 
 authorized messenger of God, whom we are 
 bound to believe and obey. 
 
 This is, properly speaking, the child's re- 
 ligious education. It is the instruction by 
 which he learns that his moral nature is his 
 highest nature, that goodness is better than 
 knowledge, that self-denial must be the rule of 
 life, and that obedience to Christ, the teacher 
 come from God, is the highest freedom. It is 
 therefore not so much the inculcation of doc- 
 trines, concerning which there may be dispute, 
 as of principles of conduct and faith, concern- 
 ing which all Christians agree. 
 
 It is this practical Christian education upon 
 which we so strongly insist; — that life should 
 thus be made to rest upon the Christian basis ; 
 — that the whole education should thus be 
 pervaded by a Christian spirit. The instruc- 
 tion may be directly and indirectly given, by 
 direct precept and silent example, by the insti- 
 tutions of religion and the Sunday school, and 
 especially by the timely aid which none but 
 parents can give to meet the growing wants 
 of the mind. They who have thus given at- 
 
RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION. 39 
 
 tention to the subject find no practical diffi- 
 culty, and soon learn that no necessity exists 
 for undue influence, or for arbitrary dogmati- 
 cal instruction. Nearly all the disputed points 
 of religion may be silently deferred until the 
 young are able to understand the points of 
 difference; and while they are instructed, they 
 are thus left free. 
 
 The fundamental, undisputed doctrines of 
 religion are more in number, and of greater im- 
 portance, than commonly supposed, A child 
 may be intelligently educated as a Christian, 
 without ever having heard of a great part of 
 the doctrines about which theologians dis- 
 pute. When his mind is turned towards them, 
 his inquiries should be aided so far as practi- 
 cable ; but in general the subjects which are 
 interesting to the young are such as belong to 
 practical, not speculative religion. The au- 
 thority of Christ, his precepts and promises, 
 his history on earth and his ascension to 
 heaven, the attributes of God, the hope of im- 
 mortality, human duty and responsibleness, 
 and other topics such as these, are the ones to 
 
40 RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION. 
 
 which youthful minds turn, and by instruction 
 in which they are made Christians. Disputed 
 points of belief are often a hinderance to re- 
 ligious education, instead of a help. The 
 young must learn the alphabet before they 
 can read, and the elementary principles of 
 science before they can study to advantage its 
 higher truths. In religion the same judgment 
 should be exercised. A great part of their re- 
 ligious education can be accomplished before 
 the metaphysical difficulties of religion are 
 introduced, and when the proper time for their 
 consideration comes, there would then be such 
 a groundwork laid of practical religion and 
 personal religious feeling, that the difficulties 
 of disputed doctrine would offer no hinderance 
 to religious growth. 
 
 I do not deny that children, growing up 
 under positive religious influences such as 
 these, would, in all probability, be brought to 
 the same opinions with their parents or teach- 
 ers. Their first conclusions will not be so 
 much their own deliberate convictions as a 
 reflection of the minds of others, to whom they 
 
RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION. 41 
 
 are accustomed to look for guidance. They 
 take for granted that what their parents be- 
 lieve is true, and accordingly become Quakers 
 or Episcopalians, Protestant or Catholic, be- 
 lievers in the Unity or the Trinity, according 
 to the circumstances under which they are 
 placed. Nor is this to be regretted, but, on 
 the contrary, it is as it ought to be. Families 
 should be thus held together by common re- 
 ligious sympathies and belief. If differences 
 and divisions must come, they come soon 
 enough when compelled by the mature re- 
 examination of early opinions. Until the time 
 of that mature and strictly personal study ar- 
 rives, it is far better that decided religious 
 preferences should exist, or, if you please to 
 call it so, religious prejudices, by which we are 
 attached to the religion of our fathers. The 
 family is not well taught in which such pref- 
 erences do not exist. They are the conserva- 
 tive influence by which the religious world is 
 kept from being like the waves of the sea, 
 driven about and tossed. It is time enough 
 to change our belief when it becomes an ur- 
 
 4* 
 
42 RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION. 
 
 gent duty, which we cannot, without wrong 
 done to our consciences, avoid. Until then, 
 let families continue to worship at the same 
 altar and the same church, and thank God 
 that they are permitted to do so. 
 
 Instead, therefore, of denying that such would 
 be the result of the religious training which 1 
 now recommend, I would urge it as one of 
 the advantages to be gained. The child of 
 Trinitarian parents ought to grow up a Trini- 
 tarian in belief, and remain so, until his own 
 thoughts and study show the necessity of 
 change. And so of other forms of doctrine. 
 To have fairness of mind and readiness to re- 
 ceive new light, is one thing ; but to have no 
 opinions, no preferences, no prepossessions, is 
 quite another. 
 
 But although the most judicious religious 
 education will thus lead the young, by an un- 
 perceived and almost irresistible force, to the 
 first adoption of the parent's belief, I again 
 deny that it will make them bigoted or nar- 
 row-minded, or, in a bad sense of the word, 
 prejudiced against what others believe. On 
 
RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION. 43 
 
 the contrary, it will have made practical and 
 spiritual religion so much more important than 
 dogmatical and controversial religion, that all 
 unchristian asperities of feeling will be easily 
 avoided. The charity which abides will be 
 placed so much higher than the knowledge 
 which passes away, that differences of belief 
 will not be able to destroy the unity of Chris- 
 tian faith. Children may be taught to be 
 bigots, if the lesson of hatred and spiritual 
 pride is carefully instilled, but they do not 
 become so under the proper influence of prac- 
 tical Christian education. Nor do they be- 
 come narrow-minded, or unwilling to look for 
 further truth. For, together with all their in- 
 struction, they will have learned not to think 
 of themselves more highly than they ought to 
 think. They will have learned their individ- 
 ual responsibilities to God and the duty of 
 seeking diligently and always after truth. 
 They will have been taught to condemn no 
 opinion without examining it, and to remem- 
 ber, that, however decided in their own con- 
 victions, they are not infallible, and that there- 
 
44 RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION. 
 
 fore those from whom they differ may be right, 
 and themselves wrong ; that neither has a right 
 to judge the other, and that to his own master 
 each one must stand or fall. Let such princi- 
 ples be taught, so that they may become the 
 pervading spirit and character of the mind, 
 and there is no danger of narrowness either of 
 thought or feeling. 
 
 The child may have a distinctive religious 
 education without being bigoted, just as the 
 scholar may be educated in one school of 
 learning without being pedantic. Largeness 
 of mind, freedom from unjust prejudice, will- 
 ingness to learn, and sincere love of truth for 
 the truth's sake, are themselves a part of re- 
 ligious education which should modify all the 
 rest. If these were rightly taught, our differ- 
 ent churches might continue to teach conflict- 
 ing views of doctrine, and yet dwell together 
 in the unity of spirit, in the bond of peace, 
 and in righteousness of life. The bigotry with 
 which the Christian world is so full, and by 
 which it is so cursed, does not come from care- 
 ful religious instruction, but from the perti- 
 
RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION. 45 
 
 nacity of ignorance and the deliberate refusal 
 to examine. Both young and old are taught 
 that the desire to examine is a temptation of 
 the Evil One, and that the highest safety con- 
 sists in the completest want of individual 
 thought. To go to no other church, to hear 
 no other doctrine, to investigate no other 
 creed, to walk in no other company, is the in- 
 struction given. It is not instruction, so 
 much as a command not to think. It is not 
 religious education, so much as sectarian drill- 
 ing. We need say nothing more in its con- 
 demnation than to speak of it as it is. It is 
 an error into which few or none of those whom 
 I address are likely to fall. Our tendency, as 
 claiming to be Liberal Christians, is towards 
 the other extreme. We are more likely to 
 advocate too little doctrinal instruction, than 
 too much. We are more likely, through the 
 desire of leaving the youthful mind free, to 
 withhold the assistance which is really need- 
 ed, than to impose our own thoughts by arbi- 
 trary command. But what we should seek 
 for is a wise and just medium, which consists 
 
46 RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION. 
 
 in the fair and rational treatment of those 
 whose education is intrusted to our care. We 
 ask for the application of common sense to 
 religious things. We desire the same fairness, 
 but also the same faithfulness, in religious 
 education, that are needed in other depart- 
 ments of education. There should be the 
 same respect for the child's understanding, the 
 same recognition of his own right to think 
 ultimately for himself, but also the same dili- 
 gence in choosing subjects for thought, and in 
 helping him to form right opinions. The in- 
 struction given should be carefully adapted to 
 the capacity of those who learn, and therefore 
 the more abstruse and difficult subjects of re- 
 ligion should not be the first taught ; but the 
 great principles of religion should be early and 
 carefully inculcated, the principles of Christian 
 conduct and of Christian faith, so that they 
 may become the pervading principles of 
 thought, the governing principles of the life. 
 Christian morality and Christian hopes are as 
 intelligible to the child as to the adult. He 
 can understand a great part of Christ's in- 
 
RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION. 47 
 
 structions, he can read intelligently the his- 
 tory of Christ's life, he can discern the divine 
 beauty of his character, and be taught to re- 
 ceive him as the Son of the Living God. The 
 historical evidences of Christianity may be 
 unknown to him, and as yet he may not see 
 those difficulties either of doctrine or fact 
 vs^hich will afterwards, with his growing years, 
 bring perplexity and sometimes doubt. But 
 the great evidence on which Christian truth 
 and all truth rests is already perceived, — nay, 
 wrought into his soul, — the evidence which 
 consists in the inward perception of truth by 
 reason of its adaptation to supply the wants 
 and satisfy the aspirations of the soul. 
 
 The excellence and glory of Christian truth 
 in its teaching concerning God and eternity 
 fill the youthful mind with reverence and awe. 
 The Sermon on the Mount may be a part of 
 the child's first reading, and his childish fears 
 are quieted when he is taught that without 
 his Heavenly Father not even a sparrow fall- 
 eth to the ground. He may learn to think of 
 heaven as wisely as the most learned, for even 
 
48 RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION. 
 
 when our faith is strongest, our knowledge, 
 notwithstanding all our ingenious specula- 
 tions, continues small. Almost every practi- 
 cal truth and precept, almost everything which 
 constitutes a practical religion, resting upon 
 divine authority and given by divine com- 
 mand, is plain enough to be apprehended by 
 the youthful mind. Children may be brought 
 to Jesus Christ so as to become properly 
 speaking his disciples. They may be Chris- 
 tians in faith and conduct long before their 
 intellects can understand the subtilties of scep- 
 ticism or the denials of unbelief. It is an in- 
 wrought faith by which the spiritual nature is 
 developed and the spiritual world made real. 
 It is a childlike, may I not say Christ-like 
 obedience, which brings them under the bene- 
 diction which Jesus spoke, " Of such is the 
 kingdom of heaven." We do not say that 
 such religious training is an easy task, or 
 carelessly to be accomplished. In its perfec- 
 tion, it is the highest education of the soul. 
 It is, I believe, the great work which the 
 Christian parent has to do. It cannot be be- 
 
RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION. 49 
 
 gun too early, or prosecuted with too great 
 care. The one great purpose continually pres- 
 ent in the parent's heart should be to bring 
 his children nearer to Jesus, and to make the 
 Christian principles, under Christian author- 
 ity, the commanding influence of their lives. 
 
 But we may be asked, Would not this make 
 them Christian believers by an authority which 
 they can hardly resist, and from which they 
 can afterwards hardly escape ? Does it not 
 settle the question for them, before they arp in 
 a position to choose for themselves, that Jesus 
 is a divine teacher, and his doctrines a divine 
 command ? Unquestionably it does, and un- 
 questionably it is what we are bound to do. 
 If there are any who care so little about re- 
 ligion as to wish their children to be left so 
 free that they are as likely to be infidels as 
 believers, heathens as Christians, their liberal- 
 ity goes so far beyond my own, that there can 
 be no sympathy between us. If they do not 
 concede that religion of some sort or other is 
 a necessity, and that the purest and best re- 
 ligion of which we know anything is the 
 
 5 
 
50 RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION. 
 
 Christian, and the purest morality that which 
 Christ taught, there is no common ground for 
 us to stand upon. But if this is admitted, if 
 we must have some religion, some object of 
 worship, some divinely sanctioned law, and if 
 the Christian religion and the Christian law 
 are the best of which we know, it follows 
 surely that we are bound, by the love which 
 we bear to our children and by our responsi- 
 bility for them to God, to spare no pains in 
 bringing them to that which is conceded to be 
 the noblest and the best. Unquestionably 
 they would be brought by such a course to be 
 Christians, and that is precisely the result 
 which we would secure. What sect in Chris- 
 tendom they may join, in maturer years, would 
 be comparatively uncertain, and, if they are 
 left without undue restraint, would depend 
 upon the natural bent of their minds and the 
 later instruction they may receive. But al- 
 most uniformly they would remain Christians ; 
 Christians, I mean, in personal faith and in 
 personal allegiance to Jesus Christ. Let the 
 divine principles of his Gospel be once thor- 
 
RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION. 61 
 
 oughly instilled into the youthful character, 
 let the divine beauty of the life of Jesus be 
 once revealed to the youthful heart, let the 
 divine truths which Jesus taught once take 
 possession of the youthful mind, and scepti- 
 cism, although it may in after years disturb 
 the thoughts, so that the unimportant out- 
 works may be threatened, will never be able 
 to enter the citadel of the soul, or to disturb 
 its unchanging faith. Once having lived upon 
 the heavenly food, we must be indeed prodi- 
 gals to desire the husks that the swine do eat. 
 And if, through the waywardness of sin, we 
 become prodigals, the memory of our early 
 home remains, until we say in our hearts. We 
 will arise and go to our father. The early 
 Christian instruction of which I speak can 
 scarcely by any means be eradicated. It is 
 not so much the inculcation of opinions as 
 the formation of character. It is the surest 
 process, under the grace of God, by which 
 " the life of Christ " can be formed in the soul. 
 It is therefore the way to Christian regenera- 
 tion, the new and spiritual birth. Early Chris- 
 
52 RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION. 
 
 tian education thus becomes, by the grace of 
 God, the most effectual means of salvation, 
 and although we may call it a human instru- 
 mentality, it is that with which the Divine 
 Spirit most effectually works. 
 
 Lay aside, then, all sectarian views, if you 
 please, and let the youthful mind be treated 
 with fairness and respect. But being Chris- 
 tians ourselves, holding to the Christian law 
 as the perfection of reason, to the Christian 
 faith as the source of all consolation, to the 
 Christian standard of life as the highest prac- 
 tical development of humanity, we must de- 
 sire that our children should grow into the 
 Christian faith and life, and it is our bounden 
 duty to secure its accomplishment, if we can. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 How IS it to be secured, and by what agen- 
 cy? Who shall be the teachers, and where 
 shall the lesson be taught? These are the 
 practical and vital questions, upon the right 
 answer to which our success depends. Rut 
 there is no part of education upon which such 
 foolish and false theories prevail as upon this. 
 Whenever religious subjects are approached, 
 many persons seem to think that common 
 sense is to be laid aside, and the laws of the 
 human mind disregarded. Let us, therefore, 
 look at the analogies of common education. 
 
 In lorming the manners of children, to make 
 them ladylike and gentlemanly in conduct, 
 every one knows that it is chiefly a household 
 work, to be done by parents themselves. If 
 
54 THE pabent's duty. 
 
 the father is rude and coarse, and the mother 
 unladylike, it is a matter of almost absolute 
 destiny that the children must become so too. 
 Awkwardness and vulgarity are contagious, 
 and no external means of polish will give true 
 refinement to those who do not live in an at- 
 mosphere of refinement at home. The mother 
 must be a lady, or the daughters will be but 
 imitation ladies at the best. The father must 
 be a gentleman, and have gentlemen for his 
 associates, or the sons will probably grow up 
 without knowing how a gentleman should 
 behave. They may wear gentlemen's and 
 ladies' clothing, and by the magic power of 
 money be welcomed into what is called the 
 best society, but it will require not only a long 
 training, but also an unusual aptness to learn, 
 to work out the leaven of eariy life, and to re- 
 move the original taint of vulgarity. It may 
 be done, unquestionably ; but only by a hard 
 and slow process. 
 
 In all the nicer shades of education, such as 
 the correct use of language and the cultiva- 
 tion of taste, similai remarks hold true. Bad 
 
THE parent's duty. S5 
 
 grammar habitually heard at home outmasters 
 the teacher's skill, and sets the rules of Murray 
 at defiance. Teaching a thousand times over 
 does not avail, and words continue to be mis- 
 placed and misused, with insuperable, because 
 it is an unconscious, pertinacity. It rarely 
 happens that those whose early education 
 has been thus deficient, and whose "mother 
 tongue " is ungrammatical and inelegant, 
 ever learn to use language with purity and 
 correctness. They may know how, and in 
 writing or set speech may avoid great mis- 
 takes ; but the moment that they are off their 
 guard, their former way of speaking returns. 
 The highest finish of scholar-like education is 
 not always enough to train the ear to that 
 delicate perception of grammatical and rhe- 
 torical elegance, which should have been 
 taught and learned in the nursery and at the 
 fireside. 
 
 This is still more true of that unobserved 
 cultivation of taste, which begins so early that 
 it seems like a natural tendency of the mind. 
 An ideal of beauty and excellence, implanted 
 
56 THE parent's duty. 
 
 in the mind of the child, is apt to remain 
 there always. The pleasures and enjoyments 
 which he is then accustomed to prize, will 
 probably give direction to his pursuit of hap- 
 piness through his whole life. Early associa- 
 tions impart a charm and a relish either to 
 frivolous amusements, novel-reading, games 
 of chance, and other idle occupations, or to 
 the more intellectual and quiet pleasures of 
 conversation and useful reading, of music and 
 of art. 
 
 A close observer will therefore almost al- 
 ways be able to determine what were the 
 early influences under which a man grew up, 
 by a few hours' conversation and familiar in- 
 tercourse with him. Colleges and universities 
 may have done wonders, and he may have 
 travelled the world over, in pursuit of knowl- 
 edge and for the cultivation of taste ; but, 
 with rare exceptions, the groundwork of early 
 home-education will appear through all the 
 coloring and polish afterwards laid on. 
 
 What I have now said with regard to gei • 
 eral education will be admitted, proper allo^ 
 
THE parent's duty. 57 
 
 ance being made for exceptions, by almost all. 
 Therefore the first demand of all popular 
 educators and of all writers upon the subject 
 of education is this, — educate mothers. Not 
 that they are expected to do the work of the 
 school-teacher, but that they may not do a 
 work of perversion from the first ; that they 
 may establish right tendencies of thought and 
 speech, of manners and taste, before the work 
 of school-teaching begins ; that home educa- 
 tion may not be all the time undoing what 
 teachers and school-education are vainly try- 
 ing to do ; that the instructions of the school- 
 room may be only the theoretical explanation 
 of what is daily illustrated at home. It is 
 universally conceded, that the best appliances 
 of school-education can but imperfectly over- 
 come the pernicious influences of uneducated 
 homes. 
 
 It would therefore require the continued 
 improvement of two or three generations, to 
 work a social reform in education. But what 
 are they to do who are already on the stage of 
 action, whose own education has been neg- 
 
58 THE parent's duty. 
 
 lected, but to whom, as parents, the care and 
 responsibility of children are intrusted ? We 
 answer, that they should be only the more 
 diligent to do the best they can ; for, at the 
 best, their children's education will be con- 
 ducted at great disadvantage. But above all, 
 let them endeavor to remove their own unfit- 
 ness, and to qualify themselves, though late, 
 for the duties which, as parents, they ought to 
 perform. Let them supply the deficiencies of 
 their own early education by reading and 
 study. Let them observe and learn, and dili- 
 gently seek for the instruction which they 
 need. Let them learn with their children, 
 and from them, if need be, and thus become 
 learners and teachers at once. K they have 
 good sense enough to do this, they will re- 
 move a great part of the diiBculty, by increas- 
 ing their children's respect for learning, and 
 making them appreciate the better advantages 
 which they enjoy. The household in which 
 such principles prevail is altogether an im- 
 proving household, and if such principles gen- 
 erally prevailed, one generation would accom- 
 
THE parent's duty. 59 
 
 plish as much as, under other circumstances, 
 would be done by three. For this reason it 
 is, that adult schools and popular lectures, 
 libraries and reading-rooms, and other means 
 of general improvement, are so important. 
 The educators of children need to be edu- 
 cated, so as to become more competent to fill 
 the position which they hold. 
 
 But my subject is not intellectual educa- 
 tion, nor education in a general sense. It is 
 religious education ; and upon this all I have , 
 been saying is intended directly to bear. For 
 the same principles apply, the same course of 
 thought may be followed, and strictly analo- 
 gous conclusions may be deduced. Nay, the 
 principles apply more closely, the argument is 
 still stronger, the conclusions are still more 
 absolute. Religious education must chiefly 
 be home education. The parents must be 
 religious persons, and the sentiment of re- 
 ligion must pervade all they do, or the relig- 
 ious education of the child will be, at the 
 best, very imperfect. Sunday schools may do 
 
60 THE parent's duty. 
 
 something, and are an important aid to the 
 parent's exertions ; but they cannot do every- 
 thing, nor can they supply the deficiency at 
 home. Pastoral influence and the institutions 
 of public worship may do something, but very 
 little when they work alone. Well-selected 
 books, and well-chosen associates, are perhaps 
 a more powerful agency, and come nearer to 
 the home influence which is chiefly desired. 
 But put them all together, and make them as 
 strong as you well can, yet, if the parental 
 influence is wanting, the best religious ed- 
 ucation cannot be supplied. An irreligious 
 education is, in fact, going on all the time 
 at home, which vitiates or annuls the good 
 learned elsewhere. The more delicate per- 
 ceptions of right and wrong, the feeling of 
 habitual reverence for God and Christ, the 
 unconscious reference of all we do to the 
 Christian law, and whatever else constitutes 
 the inward and spiritual life of the child, can 
 seldom be thoroughly learned, except at home. 
 The nursery and the fireside are the schools 
 of religion. A Christian mother is worth 
 
THE parent's duty. 61 
 
 more to her children in their religious and 
 moral, that is to say their Christian training, 
 than all Sunday schools and churches, preach- 
 ers and libraries, put together. She alone 
 upon one side, and all the world upon the 
 other, and she is most likely to prevail. Let 
 her be heartily a Christian woman, and her 
 children are almost sure to be Christians. 
 Add to her influence that of the father; let 
 her gentle persuasions be enforced by his 
 authority, and let both parents thus co-oper- 
 ate with each other, as they ought always to 
 do, and their children would assuredly grow 
 up in the nurture and admonition of the 
 Lord. 
 
 We must make allowance, 1 know, for 
 errors of judgment, where there has been no 
 fault of intention, — too much indulgence at 
 one time, and too great severity at another, — 
 so that the apparent exceptions to the rule 
 may be many ; and irreligious persons always 
 make the most of them, as an argument 
 against religion itself. But the exceptions 
 are generally such only in appearance. They 
 
62 THE parent's duty. 
 
 are attributable either to unwise methods of 
 education, or to peculiar and exceptional 
 waywardness in the child. But whatever 
 force may be allowed to the exceptions which 
 really or apparently occur, the rule still re- 
 mains, with regard to religious education, as 
 to all other education, that what we learn at 
 home is the most thoroughly learned. The 
 surest way to secure the good education of 
 the young, is previously to have secured the 
 good education of their parents. The surest, 
 and commonly the only, way to secure the 
 Christian training of our children, is to be 
 Christians ourselves. It is the hardest way, 
 but no one will deny that it is the surest and 
 the best way. For then we shall be teaching 
 them always. A silent, unperceived, but al- 
 most irresistible force, leads them in the path 
 in which they should go. The name of Jesus 
 becomes dear to their hearts. The thought 
 of heaven mingles in their dreams. The 
 natural selfishness of their hearts is restrained 
 and prevented from becoming sinful. A re- 
 ligious feeling mixes with their enjoyments, 
 
THE parent's duty. 63 
 
 to purify, but not to lessen, their delight. 
 Duty loses its stern aspect, and appears as 
 beautiful as it really is. Self-denial, prompted 
 by love, ceases to be a hardship, and is exer- 
 cised with cheerful good-will. The graces 
 and excellences of Christian character are 
 almost unconsciously formed, and the divine 
 spirit, working through parental agency, si- 
 lently effects the regeneration of the soul. 
 The spiritual life is thus born within the heart 
 of the child, he himself scarce knows how; 
 and as he comes to maturer years, his part is 
 only to adopt, by deliberate and conscious 
 choice, that which he has already learned to 
 love and revere. Having thus been educated 
 to be a Christian, under the parental influence 
 of united precept and example, he becomes a 
 Christian almost, as certainly as he becomes a 
 man. It may seem to be a natural progress, 
 and, to those who continually "ask for a 
 sign," it may not have mystery enough, or 
 enough outward demonstration, to satisfy 
 their demands. But it is, in fact, the di- 
 vinely appointed growth, through divinely ap- 
 
04 THE parent's DUTY. 
 
 pointed agencies, under the Divine blessing 
 and guidance, to a divine and blessed result. 
 The parent is the best religious teacher, 
 and our homes are the school-rooms and the 
 churches where religion may be most perfectly 
 taught. 
 
 These considerations have established a 
 usage in some parts of the world and in some 
 churches, under which a profession of Chris- 
 tian faith, by partaking of the communion, is 
 made a prerequisite to marriage, and both 
 parties come under express obligation to bring 
 the children who may be committed to their 
 care under the influences of Christian educa- 
 tion. It is a usage founded in just views of 
 the parental relation, and, if it could accom- 
 plish its purpose, might be strongly recom- 
 mended. But it has almost always degen- 
 erated into a mere form, and been attended to 
 as a matter of course and of necessity, so that 
 its moral and religious eflicacy has been great- 
 ly impaired. Wherever it has prevailed, how- 
 ever, its general conservative influence has 
 been felt, and the distinct recognition of re- 
 
THE parent's duty. 65 
 
 igious duty on the part of parents to their 
 children must have a good effect. It would 
 certainly be better than the total disregard of 
 all such considerations so common in modern 
 times, and especially in this country. If it be 
 true, as it certainly is, that moral and religious 
 culture is the most important part of educa- 
 tion, and the part on which our happiness and 
 usefulness in this world chiefly depend, what- 
 ever may be its bearing upon the world to 
 come, and if this moral and religious cul- 
 ture is chiefly the result of parental influence 
 and home education, then it follows, plainly 
 enough, that those who are not competent to 
 exert a healthful influence upon the moral and 
 religious training of their children ought not 
 to have them committed to their charge. 
 When the incompetency is extreme,, the law 
 itself takes cognizance of it, and rescues chil- 
 dren from the care of intempe^te or noto- 
 riously depraved parents. But this is seldom 
 done except when, besides the intemperance 
 and depravity, the additional crime of poverty 
 is found to exist. Then inability to maintain 
 
66 THE parent's duty. 
 
 the child is the principal alleged cause of in- 
 terfering in his behalf. 
 
 Nor would we have it otherwise, considered 
 as the regulation of civil law. Public inter- 
 ference with private rights is always a danger- 
 ous experiment, and it is better for children to 
 suffer a great deal of neglect or mismanage- 
 ment at home, than to destroy the providen- 
 tial arrangement by which they are brought 
 into families. The legislation by which pa- 
 rental rights are annulled, should be charily 
 and tenderly administered. 
 
 Still we cannot help feeling that a wrong is 
 done, and a hardship endured, when children 
 full of natural promise, and who have a natu- 
 ral right to be educated in truth and virtue, 
 are placed under a control which they cannot 
 resist, by which a bad direction is given to 
 their whole lives from the first. By the irre- 
 ligious, worldly, and sinful character of their 
 parents, they are born to an inheritance of 
 evil, upon which they are almost sure to enter. 
 The nursery is to them an infant school of 
 fretfulness and ill-tempered selfishness. The 
 
THE parent's duty. 67 
 
 father's lips teach them to despise religion, 
 and the mother's example leads them to re- 
 gard frivolous pleasures as the great charm of 
 life. They learn no habits of self-government 
 or self-denial, because they see nothing but 
 self-indulgence around them. They gain no 
 exalted ideas of duty, for they are practically 
 taught that to eat, drink, and be merry is the 
 great object of life, and that money is the root 
 of all excellence and the foundation of all re- 
 spectability. They know that nominally they 
 belong to a Christian family ; but for all they 
 learn of the religion of Christ, they might as 
 well be heathens. 
 
 The evil is greater or less according to the 
 degree of refinement and general education 
 under which it appears ; but under all cir- 
 cumstances, whether of poverty or riches, of 
 vulgarity or refinement, of ignorance or in- 
 tellectual culture, the moral and religious 
 incompetency of parents is a wrong and 
 a misfortune to their children. A trust is 
 thereby committed to those who are not 
 morally able to discharge it. A responsi- 
 
68 THE parent's duty. 
 
 bility rests upon them to which they are not 
 equal. They are teachers without having 
 been taught themselves, and guides over a 
 road upon which they have never travelled. 
 Their children ask them for bread, and they 
 give them a stone ; for a fish, and they give 
 them a serpent. 
 
 We say that it is a wrong done and a hard- 
 ship endured. But how shall it be corrected ? 
 how shall it be prevented? — questions which 
 are hard to answer, but which society must 
 answer, at its peril. The regeneration of the 
 world, and the safety of the Christian Church, 
 under whatever organization it may appear, 
 depend upon the issue. The rising genera- 
 tions of our land must be educated to be 
 Christians, with greater care and faithfulness 
 than heretofore exercised, or they will not 
 grow up Christians at all, or only nominal 
 Christians at the best. Parents must be the 
 principal educators, and the greater part ol 
 parents are incompetent to the task. So in- 
 competent are they very often, that they do 
 not recognize the duty, and are perhaps throw- 
 
THE parent's duty. 69 
 
 ing their influence into the wrong scale. 
 These are the facts of the case, and constitute 
 the real difficulty to be encountered. We 
 would do what little we can to call the atten- 
 tion of religious-minded people to the subject, 
 and through them to secure the diffusion of 
 correct ideas. 
 
 For, to acknowledge the difficulty, and dis- 
 tinctly to recognize the duty, is a large part of 
 the reform to be effected. Let parents be 
 taught the obligation under which they have 
 come, the solemn responsibility in which their 
 lives are passed. It is not children to be fed 
 and clothed, but immortal souls to be edu- 
 cated, who are placed under their care; — to 
 be educated, not chiefly in knowledge, but in 
 practical wisdom ; — to be taught how to learn 
 and how to live ; to be taught how to govern 
 themselves under the law of obedience to 
 God ; to be directed in the formation of the 
 moral and religious character; — in a word, to 
 be educated as Christians, with the hope of 
 Christian salvation. This is the great work 
 which parents have to do ; and by doing it, 
 
70 THE parent's duty. 
 
 they act as the agents of God in the regenera- 
 tion of the world. 
 
 Let the parental duties and obligations be 
 thus seen and acknowledged, and our thought- 
 lessness in entering upon them, and our negli- 
 gence in discharging them, would cease. But 
 we are reluctant to discern the truth of our 
 position, because we feel incompetent to its 
 duties ; — an incompetency which does indeed 
 generally exist, for although it is sad to say, 
 yet it is true, that comparatively few parents 
 are, by their own education and character, 
 competent guides in leading their children to 
 God. Their own religious knowledge is so 
 imperfect, and thgir own religious attainments 
 are so small, that their direct teaching is full 
 of mistakes, and the indirect teaching of their 
 example still more full of blemishes. They 
 therefore try to escape from the duty, and de- 
 volve it upon others. But they cannot escape. 
 Whether they will or no, they are the princi- 
 pal teachers of their children, and, either for 
 good or evil, are the chief directors of their 
 moral a«id religious life. 
 
THE parent's duty. 71 
 
 What, then, should they do ? If they are 
 conscientious persons, they will become learn- 
 ers, that they may teach. They will learn 
 with their children and from them, becoming 
 guides while they are themselves seeking the 
 way. By their earnestness of purpose, they 
 will make up for their deficiency in attain- 
 ment, and by their own endeavor to advance 
 in the religious life, will excite their children 
 to the same desire. They will thus, while ac- 
 knowledging their deficiency, be doing their 
 best to remove it, and will give to their chil- 
 dren an example, although not of unblemished 
 goodness, yet of sincere Christian endeavor. 
 And this is the main thingi This is the most 
 important end to be secured. We might al- 
 most say that the child's heart will find its own 
 way to God, if encouraged to seek for it. The 
 most important part of religious education is 
 to impress upon the child the supreme impor- 
 tance of duty and the necessity of a religious 
 life. Whenever this has been duly enforced 
 and duly impressed upon him, his regenera- 
 tion has begun. 
 
72 THE parent's duty. 
 
 It is not the incompetency of parents, there- 
 fore, but their indifference, which stands in 
 the way. With the Gospel in their hands as 
 a text-book, they cannot go far wrong in 
 teaching, so long as they are themselves try- 
 ing to learn, and to follow the instructions 
 they give. Make all requisite allowance for 
 their incompetency, and for all other difficul- 
 ties of the case, and yet we must acknowl- 
 edge, that, if the present generation were to 
 be formed under such general influences as 
 those of which I speak, the next generation 
 would be morally and religiously far in ad- 
 vance of our own. Our great trouble, at the 
 present day, is also the worst omen for the 
 future. It is the neglect of the moral and re- 
 ligious home education. It is the disposition 
 of parents to devolve upon schools and teach- 
 ers that which they ought to do themselves. 
 Their children are expected to learn religion 
 at the church and Sunday school, while they 
 are learning worldliness, sin, and irreligion at 
 home. The bad home-influence, which lasts 
 all the week, is to be counteracted by one or 
 
THE parent's duty. 73 
 
 two hours on the Lord's day. A vain hope, 
 which no one who deserves to be the parent 
 or guardian of the young would entertain. In 
 the nursery and at the fireside must the Chris- 
 tian morality be taught, or they will be but 
 seldom learned. Parents must lead the w^ay, 
 or children will not follow. They must be 
 the teachers, or children will not learn. They 
 must, by precept and example, avow the ne- 
 cessity of a Christian life, or children will not 
 feel its obligation. 
 
 I would not undervalue the external aid 
 which the Sunday school and church may 
 lend to the religious education of the young. 
 Unless very badly conducted, the Sunday 
 school affords a great amount of religious in- 
 struction, and by the affectionate influence of 
 good teachers leads the child, almost uncon- 
 sciously, to the religious life. As an aid to 
 parental influence, it is invaluable, and even 
 as a substitute for parental influence, often 
 accomplishes a great deal. Children will often 
 carry home with them moral and religious 
 principles, which save them, in part, from the 
 
 7 
 
74 THE parent's duty. 
 
 deleterious example of parents themselves. 
 Parents are therefore performing part of their 
 duty by placing their children under this in 
 struction, which may partially supply their 
 own neglect. But such was not the intended 
 agency of the Sunday school, nor can it, under 
 such circumstances, accomplish its best result. 
 It was intended as an aid, and not as a coun- 
 teracting influence ; to confirm the parental 
 teaching, not to conflict with it ; to help the 
 parents in their work, and not to take the 
 work out of their hands. Let the Sunday 
 school be so used and cherished, and it be- 
 comes, strictly speaking, of infinite value ; but 
 if made an apology for parental neglect, its 
 best efficacy is destroyed. 
 
 In like manner of the Christian Church. 
 All its arrangements should have more or less 
 reference to the interests of the young. The 
 Saviour said to Peter, '' If thou lovest me 
 more than the rest, feed my lambs," and the 
 Christian pastor is very unfaithful who neg- 
 lects the more youthful part of his flock. He 
 should bring them as near hiniself as possible, 
 
THE parent's 
 
 SO as to interest them in the 
 istrations of religion in their early years. He 
 should take the Sunday school under his gen- 
 eral care, and do whatever he can, both at the 
 church and from house to house, in directing 
 the religious education of the young. His in* 
 fluence upon them will ultimately be the 
 strongest influence which he exerts. He may 
 modify and improve the character of his 
 adult congregation, but he may sometimes 
 mould, and almost create, the character of 
 children. 
 
 But while I say this, it is manifest that he 
 must work with parents, not against them ; to 
 insure the success of their efforts, rather than 
 to originate a work of his own. He may be- 
 come the most efficient help by adding the 
 religious sanction to the parental authority; 
 but he can do almost nothing if left to work 
 alone. 
 
 In this respect parents are not unfrequently 
 themselves to blame, when most ready to find 
 fault with the ministers of religion. They 
 expect all the religious influence to come 
 
76 THE parent's duty. 
 
 from him, as if it were his exclusive busi- 
 ness, and do little or nothing themselves. 
 They regret to see their children growing up 
 almost without religious education, and com- 
 plain that theur pastor is not more diligent in 
 looking after the lambs which wander from 
 the fold. But they are giving him a task 
 which no one man, nor ten men, can do. It 
 is a task, or rather a labor of love, which God 
 has divided among many, giving to each 
 father and mother their several duties to per- 
 form. They are the true pastors to their 
 children, the ministers of religion, to bring 
 them to Jesus Christ. The utmost faithful- 
 ness on the part of the public minister cannot 
 make the children of his congregation devout, 
 unless the home ministrations of religion, 
 through the precept and example of religious 
 parents, are daily laying the foundation on 
 which he builds. We come, therefore, again 
 to the same truth, that, if children are to be 
 educated at all as Christians, they must be so 
 educated at home. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 SCHOOL EDUCATION. 
 
 I MAY, perhaps, without impropriety, here 
 allude to a subject which constitutes one of 
 the points of controversy among the friends of 
 education. How far should the schools and 
 seminaries of learning, to which children are 
 sent for ordinary education, be intrusted with 
 their religious and moral culture? Should 
 any religious influence be exerted, or not? 
 Shall the Bible be used as a class-book, or 
 altogether excluded ? Shall it be read as a 
 school exercise, and shall the teacher be au- 
 thorized to explain it? This is the general 
 question in its most general aspect. It as- 
 sumes a more definite and narrow form in 
 what are called parochial schools, the object 
 of which is to give to each religious denomi- 
 
 7* 
 
78 SCHOOL EDUCATION. 
 
 nation, and if possible to each pastoral charge, 
 exclusive control in the education of the chil- 
 dren under its care. They make the school- 
 teacher also the religious teacher, and the 
 clergy or church the acting superintendents 
 and directors of the school. Such is the sys- 
 tem which the Church of Rome has always 
 followed, and almost all other churches which 
 have been established by law. In England, 
 the majority of the people, being dissenters, 
 are unwilling to submit to such a system, and 
 the Church, being established by law, is un- 
 willing to consent to any other ; and therefore 
 no effective system of popular education has 
 ever been adopted. In this country the vol- 
 untary system is followed in religious affairs, 
 and common school education is made a sub- 
 ject of law. The intention has been to sepa- 
 rate the public schools entirely from sectarian 
 religion, and it has been accomplished, gener- 
 ally speaking, except in so far that, as the great 
 majority are Protestants, the American system 
 of common school education has a general, but 
 a decided, Protestant character. The same 
 
SCHOOL EDUCATION. 79 
 
 may be said of our private schools and other 
 seminaries of learning, except those estab- 
 lished by particular religious sects for the 
 furtherance of their own religious views. 
 
 I cannot go into the minute discussion of a 
 subject so large and complicated as this, and 
 would only express my opinion upon the 
 general point at issue. The broad principle 
 can be settled, although practical difficulties 
 in its application may sometimes occur. In 
 a Christian community, it is certainly not too 
 much to say that Christian education should 
 be encouraged, and that Christian principles 
 of education should prevail. That is to say, 
 Christian morality should be taught, and a 
 general Christian tone should pervade the 
 school, both in its instruction and its disci- 
 pline. The teacher should be, in general 
 terms, a Christian believer, and both in man- 
 ners and moral conduct above an average 
 standard of Christian demeanor. Otherwise 
 he is not a fit teacher for the children of 
 Christian parents, and will do more harm to 
 their morals than good to their minds. But 
 
80 SCHOOL EDUCATION. 
 
 to require of him to become the direct teacher 
 of religion would be, I think, to expect too 
 much, and by requiring it we should incapaci- 
 tate him from performing his other duties. 
 There must be division of labor, and there is 
 a time and place for everything. The school- 
 house is intended for mental culture and the 
 attainment of knowledge. The religious in- 
 fluence which it exerts should be chiefly indi- 
 rect and incidental, — an influence which is 
 undoubtedly very strong, either for good or 
 evil, but which depends upon the personal 
 character of the teacher more than upon the 
 direct instructions given. The Bible may or 
 may not be used as a school-book, according 
 to the particular circumstances of each case. 
 In some form we should decidedly prefer, and 
 almost insist upon, its use, if only by reading 
 such portions of it as govern the moral con- 
 duct, and concerning which there can be no 
 sectarian dispute ; for its use in any way is a 
 distinct recognition of Christianity as the law 
 of life. But to make religion and religious 
 opinions a regular study, just as grammar and 
 
SCHOOL EDUCATION. 
 
 81 
 
 algebra are taught, would be the conversion 
 of good day-schools into bad theological semi- 
 naries, and the great purposes of school edu- 
 cation would be defeated. Not one teacher 
 in a hundred would be competent to the task, 
 and children would become disgusted witli 
 religion, as being the dullest part of their 
 school exercise. 
 
 We need scarcely say, therefore, that the 
 more narrow system of parochial schools, the 
 express object of which is to inculcate a sys- 
 tem of belief, is one with which we have no 
 sympathy. At the best, and when best con- 
 ducted, they undertake to do a work which 
 properly belongs to the household and to the 
 Church, and by attempting to do it neglect the 
 work which properly belongs to themselves. 
 They are, therefore, very seldom good schools, 
 and seldom make good scholars. Their 
 course of study is generally contracted, and 
 there is a certain moral pressure, a weight of 
 authority, brought to bear upon the youthful 
 mind, by which its vigor is checked and its 
 individuality destroyed A decent average of 
 
82 SCHOOL EDUCATION. 
 
 scholarship is attained, and a stereotyped uni- 
 formity of character, as the best result which 
 can reasonably be expected. Nothing can be 
 more unfavorable to the just development of 
 the youthful intellect than to know that pre- 
 viously determined opinions must be formed. 
 To feel one's self restrained from inquiry, and 
 to see on every side the limits beyond which 
 we must not go, as if it were a predestined 
 order of Providence that we must remain in 
 this or in that sectarian connection, so that we 
 must be kept even from familiar intercourse 
 with all except those of our own way of think- 
 ing, is an influence almost as pernicious as 
 any that could be devised. The vigorous 
 mind rebels against it, and becomes impatient 
 of all restraint. The feebler intellect yields to 
 the contracting force, and is educated into 
 imbecility. 
 
 Such is the common working of sectarian 
 schools. In proportion as they become sec- 
 tarian, they fail in making learned or strong- 
 minded m'en. The best teachers cannot neu- 
 tralize the narrowing influence of the system 
 
SCHOOL EDUCATION. 88 
 
 under which they are thus compelled to work, 
 and, generally speaking, good teachers refuse 
 to work under such a system at all. How- 
 ever fixed their own religious belief, they will 
 rarely consent to become the tools even of 
 their own sect. They feel the necessity of 
 working freely to work well, and the restricted 
 precincts of a sect do not suit them as a place 
 of working. Sectarian schools, therefore, gen- 
 erally have but second-rate teachers, and are 
 avoided by all persons who wish their chil- 
 dren to be well and thoroughly taught. The 
 religious influence of home instruction and 
 example is enough, when added to that of the 
 church and Sunday school, without endeavor- 
 ing to exclude all other influences. We ad- 
 vocate the parental and conservative influence 
 in the early formation both of opinions and 
 character, but we do not advocate a degree of 
 restraint which destroys freedom. The out- 
 side influences should be allowed and en- 
 couraged for the very purpose of preventing 
 the conservative, household influence from 
 becoming too strong. Children should grow 
 
84 SCHOOL EDUCATION. 
 
 up with the sense of freedom, even while they 
 are directed, and although encouraged to 
 adopt the faith of their fathers, should not be 
 denied the opportunity of thinking for them- 
 selves. They should be allowed to hold 
 familar and equal intercourse with those 
 who are taught differently from themselves, 
 and their religious preferences should thus be 
 prevented from becoming ignorant and unjust 
 prejudice. Such is the intended effect of 
 what may be called the American system of 
 education. It is a Christian system, because 
 Christian morality is its basis, and the validi- 
 ty of Christian institutions is recognized. It 
 is becoming more and more Christian, I think, 
 because higher moral attainments are daily 
 required from those who become teachers of 
 the young. In former times the intellectual 
 competency of the teacher was too exclusively 
 cared for, and teachers of bad habits and un- 
 governable temper were employed. But the 
 standard of character and of moral qualifica- 
 tion is becoming higher every day. This is 
 getting to be understood as the teacher's most 
 
SCHOOL EDUCATION. 85 
 
 legitimate moral and religious influence, and 
 the importance of making it a silent, but 
 strong, Christian influence, is more and more 
 clearly discerned. A salutary change is there 
 fore taking place, both in public and private 
 schools, by which a better moral and religious 
 influence upon the young is attained. The 
 ofiice of teacher is regarded more as a profes- 
 sion, not to be taken up for a few years as a 
 stepping-stone to something else, but to be 
 adopted as the business of life, and the first 
 qualification insisted upon is a good moral 
 character. I can remember when such a 
 question would hardly have been asked. 
 Habits of intemperance and profanity, and 
 other moral deficiencies, were winked at, and 
 scholars were often kept under demoralizing 
 influences without any thought being given 
 to the subject. There is yet great room for 
 improvement, but the tendency is now in the 
 right direction. While sectarian influence is 
 discouraged or forbidden, more attention is 
 given to the general moral influence exerted, 
 and the foundation of the religious character 
 
 8 
 
86 SCHOOL EDUCATION. 
 
 is thus in part laid by those who are not al- 
 lowed to be direct teachers of religion. It is 
 a decided Christian influence of which I speak, 
 and upon which I would insist, without secta- 
 rian bias. If the teacher's character is what 
 it ought to be, the whole weight of his au- 
 thority will be given in favor of the Christian 
 virtues and graces, and by their submission 
 to him and respect for him his pupils will be 
 continually taught the great practical lesson 
 of life. 
 
 But does not this silent influence of the 
 teacher's character involve sectarian not less 
 than Christian principles? I think not. The 
 great Christian principles of faith and obedi- 
 ence, or, as we might express it, the principles 
 of religious morality, are the same to all Chris- 
 tian sects. The Beatitudes belong to all Chris- 
 tian believers. When questions of practical 
 goodness are proposed, sectarianism is put to 
 silence. Teachers may have, and ought to 
 have, their own individual opinions, and may 
 therefore belong to one sect or another, accord- 
 ing to the dictates of their own consciences 
 
SCHOOL EDUCATION. 87 
 
 but the judicious teacher may instruct for 
 years without his scholars knowing to what 
 sect he belongs. He need not know at what 
 churches they are taught to worship on the 
 Lord's day, and may yet be helping them all 
 to attain that Christian character upon which 
 all their religious teachers insist. The young 
 who are thus brought together and thus treat- 
 ed are saved from narrow prejudices, by their 
 intercourse with each other ; and they learn the 
 great practical lesson, that opinions may differ 
 among those whose religious principles are 
 the same. 
 
 The whole working of sectarian schools is 
 in contravention, and often in contradiction, 
 to this. Under whatever name they are estab- 
 lished, they must proceed upon the restricted 
 and separatist principle of sect. They are 
 Episcopal, or Methodist, or Catholic schools, 
 and their distinctive sectarian name becomes 
 to their pupils, respectively, the representative 
 idea of all goodness and truth. They make 
 youthful bigots, and inculcate religious preju- 
 dices, very often to the neglect of religious 
 principle. 
 
88 SCHOOL EDUCATION. 
 
 The more I see of them in their practical 
 working, the more I dislike them. They may 
 increase sectarian strength, but do not pro- 
 mote the cause of true religion, while they are 
 a sad hinderance to the cause of learning. In 
 the latter respect, particularly, they are to be 
 strongly condemned. They do not make 
 scholars, nor allow men to become such. Try 
 them by this practical test, and they will be 
 found wanting. How few of the eminent men 
 of this country were educated in sectarian 
 schools I Take as an illustration the Jesuit 
 colleges, which have had the advantage of 
 large means and of learned teachers, so far as 
 books can make learned men, and how small 
 a number of their Alumni have become dis- 
 tinguished in any department of science or 
 literature, of statesmanship or learning! I 
 believe that this general principle may be laid 
 down, and is sustained by fact, that, in this 
 country at least, the seminaries and universi- 
 ties which have allowed the least sectarian in- 
 fluence have uniformly made the best scholars. 
 From such institutions have our men of large 
 
SCHOOL EDUCATION. » 
 
 minds and practical ability come. It is almost 
 impossible to be at once scientific and secta- 
 rian, and he whose mind is large enough to 
 be a statesman or philosopher cannot easily be 
 a bigot. So far as the support and endow- 
 ment of schools or colleges may be concerned, 
 they may be under the care of different sects 
 for the sake of securing greater unity of ad- 
 ministration and greater energy of action. 
 But the object ought not to be sectarian, and 
 all sectarian influence should be studiously 
 excluded. Let the foundation be as broad as 
 Christianity itself, and a superstructure can be 
 raised thereupon for the true advancement of 
 science and learning, for the full development 
 of a strong and manly character, and at the 
 same time for the cherishing of Christian vir- 
 tue under the Christian law. 
 
 The view now taken of this subject is 
 strongly confirmed by a report lately present- 
 ed to the New York Legislature, in the case 
 of Columbia College of that State. The 
 charge brought against the institution was 
 that of sectarian influence in the election of 
 
 8* 
 
90 SCHOOL EDUCATION. 
 
 Professors, and was substantially proved. But 
 the circumstances under which the wrong was 
 done, and the manner in which it was done, 
 were such as to exempt the Trustees from 
 legal prosecution, and the decision was there- 
 fore given, according to the letter of the law, 
 in their favor. It was proved that they had 
 rejected a candidate whom they would other- 
 wise have gladly received, simply and solely 
 because of his obnoxious religious opinions. 
 But it was done without technical violation 
 of their charter, and, although a great moral 
 outrage, could not be treated as a legal of- 
 fence. The committee, however, by whom 
 the investigation was made, take the oppor- 
 tunity of expressing themselves very strongly 
 against all sectarian institutions of learning. 
 They denounce all sectarian influence, from 
 whatever direction it may come, as injurious 
 to the cause of education and to the real pros- 
 perity of all institutions in which it is allowed. 
 They say : — 
 
 ** Indeed, it is a question worthy the consideration of 
 the statesman, the Christian, and the scholar, whether our 
 
SCHOOL EDUCATION. 91 
 
 Beminaries of learning and colleges throughout the State 
 do not suffer more from the sectarian character that is 
 given them, or is assumed by them, than from any other 
 cause, and whether their want of success and prosperity 
 may not generally be attributed to the sectarian influences 
 that surround them, and whether there is any way by 
 which their condition can be improved, except by becom- 
 ing in fact what they are in theory, free from all sectarian 
 control." 
 
 Such is the decision of experienced and 
 practical men. Institutions of learning and 
 science must be surrounded by a free atmos- 
 phere, or the mind will have only a contracted 
 and imperfect growth. The condition of free- 
 dom is indispensable to the pursuit of knowl- 
 edge. Both teacher and scholar must feel 
 that no restraint is placed upon them, except 
 that of the divine law, and that no penalty, 
 either direct or indirect, will be visited on 
 them in consequence of their exercising the 
 freedom which God has given, the liberty 
 wherewith Christ has set them free. Under 
 no other circumstances can the generous love 
 of truth for its own sake exist. Under no 
 other circumstances can the youthful mind 
 
92 SCHOOL EDUCATION. 
 
 and character receive that just and manly 
 training which is needed to make scientific 
 and learned men. Subject to God alone, 
 is the motto under which all systems of school 
 and collegiate education should be conducted, 
 and under no other will the mental and moral 
 character receive its best development. 
 
 Will it be said that so great freedom may 
 result in the rejection of Christianity itself, 
 and of all religious faith ? We again answer, 
 No. There is no such danger, there need be 
 no such fear. Let what we have now said be 
 kept in connection with what has been urged 
 upon the subject of home education and the 
 direct religious influence of the Church, and 
 there is no such danger, and need be no such 
 fear. That early religious influence will be a 
 direction to the mind sufiiciently decided, and 
 nothing more will be needful, except the in- 
 culcation of Christian morality and the silent 
 influence of Christian teachers, to secure, in 
 almost all cases, a Christian result. There is 
 more infidelity created by the constraints and 
 unfairness, the favoritisms and the penalties. 
 
SCHOOL EDUCATION. 98 
 
 exercised by sectarian institutions, than would 
 result from the greatest degree of religious 
 freedom which, under Christian teachers, could 
 possibly be allowed. 
 
 For let it be still observed, that it is only 
 under Christian teachers that we desire this 
 free system of education to be tried. Give as 
 large and generous interpretation to the word 
 Christian as any reasonable man would ask, 
 and make allowance for all latitude of opinion 
 which an honest man would claim for him- 
 self, while still claiming to hold the Christian 
 faith; but we cannot depart from the funda- 
 mental principle already laid down, namely, 
 that none should be intrusted with the care of 
 education in a Christian community, except 
 those who are, in general terms. Christian be- 
 lievers, and above the average standard of 
 Christian demeanor. So far as they teach 
 morality, by precept or example, it should be 
 Christian morality, and although they may 
 seldom speak the word religion or name the 
 name of Christ, their scholars will breathe a 
 Christian atmosphere, and, without perceiving 
 
94 SCHOOL EDUCATION. 
 
 the source from which the assistance comes, 
 will be aided in the Christian life. We would 
 not by any means have sectarian schools, but 
 we ought to require that the Christian influ- 
 ence of home education shall not be destroyed. 
 Let school education, from the earliest to the 
 latest stage, from the primary school to the 
 university, be conducted on such principles, 
 — conservative in respect to Christian faith 
 and character, but free in respect to sectarian 
 doctrines and disputes, — and we should have 
 a genuine American system, properly belong- 
 ing to a free country which, although free, is 
 yet a part of Christendom. We should thus 
 secure individual freedom, and, at the same 
 time, do all that we properly can to establish 
 and perpetuate that Christian allegiance which 
 is the indispensable condition of our national 
 prosperity. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE DIVINE METHOD. 
 
 We proceed now to a different part of my 
 general subject, which leads to an entirely dif- 
 ferent direction of thought. For, in the be- 
 ginning, I proposed to myself two separate 
 objects. First, to show the importance of 
 early religious education, and the necessity of 
 its being carefully attended to by parents, as 
 the principal education of their children, which 
 cannot be safely neglected or deferred. My 
 second object is to show that this same early 
 religious education, when wisely conducted, 
 and especially when directed at home, is the 
 most efficient and the divinely appointed 
 means of Christian regeneration. To this 
 point I have alluded from time to time, and 
 my belief in its truth is my justification, if 
 
96 THE DIVINE METHOD. 
 
 any be needed, for introducing into a religious 
 discussion so many topics which are generally 
 treated as secular interests. 
 
 It is the want of perceiving this divinely 
 appointed connection between education, as a 
 work committed to human hands, and regen- 
 eration, as a work of the Divine Spirit, which 
 has brought the duty of early religious educa- 
 tion into comparative neglect. It has been 
 considered only as a human work, with refer- 
 ence only to present human results, and as 
 being no part of the greater spiritual work, 
 the redemption of the soul. The latter has 
 been regarded as God's department, in which 
 human agency can do little or nothing. A 
 mystical idea of religion, of regeneration and 
 redemption, has been cherished, by which they 
 are taken out of all ordinary experience, and 
 put beyond all human control. Parents have 
 therefore learned to excuse themselves for their 
 neglect of moral and religious education, in 
 the vague, but irrational hope, that, by and 
 by, the grace of God will make it all right. 
 They see their children's character becoming 
 
THE DIVINE METHOD. 97 
 
 very different from what it ought to be, under 
 the worldly and irreligious influences which 
 surround them, but they regard this as the 
 natural and unavoidable working of a nature 
 originally corrupt, nor do they feel responsible 
 for the result. Even religious parents some- 
 times look upon the fatal progress without 
 concern, as being something which subsequent 
 religious experience can in a few days or hours 
 rectify. 
 
 On the other hand, those who look upon 
 the subject more rationally, so far as this 
 world is concerned, and guard the moral train- 
 ing of their children with greater care, fail to 
 perceive the spiritual efficacy of Christian edu- 
 cation. They attend to it only as a worldly 
 interest, and their work is therefore but imper- 
 fectly done. 
 
 I would elevate, if I could, the whole idea 
 of education, — of intellectual, moral, and re- 
 ligious education, — so as to make it alto- 
 gether a true Christian nurture, — a human 
 agency, indeed, but divinely appointed, — the 
 human means by which the Divine Spirit can 
 
98 THE DIVINE METHOD. 
 
 most effectually work. The redemption of 
 the soul from sin is the great work of life, and 
 Christian education is the most certain means 
 by which that work can be accomplished. 
 
 I do not question the Divine power, but 
 nothing can be more certain than this, that, 
 in all the working, both of God's providence 
 and of his grace, he not only employs finite 
 agencies to do his work, but uses them in ac- 
 cordance with the laws which he has made. 
 This is true of the spiritual not less than of 
 the natural life. The Divine action is not a 
 lawless action, not arbitrary or eccentric, but 
 equal and just. Under all theories of religion, 
 however mystical they may be, we are com- 
 pelled into this conclusion, that human means 
 are used as a part of the needful means in the 
 accomplishment of the Divine ends. When- 
 ever the sinner is converted, and whenever the 
 religious life begins, it is some human voice 
 which brings the message, some warning of 
 Scripture heard, some influence of example, 
 some reawakening of earlier thought by prov- 
 idential events, or some other more or lesp 
 
THE DIVINE METHOD. 99 
 
 directly human means, by which the divine, 
 regenerating influence is brought to bear. 
 There may be seeming exceptions to this, but 
 I doubt if any real exceptions do, as a matter 
 of fact, exist. Even Saul of Tarsus, miracu- 
 lously converted, had been prepared for his 
 great v^ork by a careful religious education, 
 which only needed the purer light in fitting 
 him to become the Apostle of Christ. A man 
 of irreligious education and immoral life could 
 not have been converted into the Paul who 
 stood before Agrippa. It would have been a 
 violation of the Divine law, a radical departure 
 from the principles of spiritual growth. Even 
 in grafting a tree to change the quality of its 
 fruit, you should take a healthy stock, grow- 
 ing in the right soil, and a suitable climate, 
 or your success will be small. 
 
 What I would say, therefore, is this, and 
 I address it particularly to those who have 
 been accustomed to think of regeneration as 
 exclusively a divine work. I acknowledge it 
 to be a divine work, but, inasmuch as it is 
 done through subordinate agencies, we have a 
 
100 THE DIVINE METHOD. 
 
 right to suppose that it will be best done when 
 the best agencies are employed. The uncor- 
 rupted mind can be brought nearer to God 
 than that which has been debased by sin and 
 worldly desire. The providential influences 
 by which we are surrounded work to best ad- 
 vantage, and all the ministrations of God's 
 word, and all the silent working of his spirit, 
 are most likely to be effectual for the accom- 
 plishment of the designed end, if the heart 
 has been prepared for them and educated to 
 receive them from the first. 
 
 Even admitting the doctrine of original sin, 
 by which the soul is born in corruption, we 
 inay still reasonably contend that the soul's 
 conversion to God and its renewal in the 
 Divine image may be more easily and more 
 effectually attained before the additional bur- 
 den of actual sin and personal transgression 
 has been placed upon it Or, in other words, 
 the earlier the regenerating influence is brought 
 into action, the better will the work be done. 
 The earliest means employed are the most 
 likely to be effectual, and the best means 
 
THE DIVINE METHOD. 101 
 
 which can be employed are parental influence 
 and home education, aided by whatever exter- 
 nal influences the ministrations of religion can 
 supply. Upon such means the blessing of 
 God is most likely to rest, and by such agen- 
 cy is the Divine Spirit most likely to work. 
 Take almost what theory of religion you 
 please, and unless we deliberately discard all 
 the teaching of common sense and experience, 
 we shall look to the early education of the 
 young as the principal and most certain 
 means of their salvation. 
 
 Yet it is not to be concealed that a great 
 deal of the pulpit preaching and religious in- 
 struction of the day presents a different view, 
 and undervalues the importance of the early 
 religious training of which I speak. It is 
 sometimes held up to suspicion, as if it were 
 the preaching of morality instead of religion, 
 of human agencies instead of the Divine 
 Spirit. They who grow up in the nurture 
 and admonition of the Lord, and who have 
 been Christians in faith and practice from 
 early childhood, are held to be less certain of 
 
102 THE DIVINB METHOD. 
 
 genuine conversion than those who have been 
 steeped in guilt, and literally the enemies of 
 God, up to the time of the tremendous con- 
 flict with which a new life begins. The long- 
 continued iniquity which makes so great 
 change needful, takes almost a meritorious 
 place in the narrated experience, and those 
 whose earlier life has been such as to prevent 
 the necessity of violent conversion, are held to 
 be self-righteous moralists and doubtful con- 
 verts. Many a quiet heart, which has always 
 reposed in God and always borne the cross of 
 Jesus Christ in the spirit of self-denial and 
 prayer, has been disturbed with misgivings 
 and fear by such preaching as this. Many a 
 true believer has been almost shaken from 
 the Christian faith, by being taught the neces- 
 sity of a change which has been long ago in 
 early life experienced, and of which the practi- 
 cal fruits have been through a long life mani- 
 fested, but which cannot, as a genuine expe- 
 rience, be felt again. 
 
 Still worse, and as the result of the same 
 wrong instruction, there are many who are 
 
THE DIVINE METHOD. 103 
 
 betrayed into neglecting the religious educa- 
 tion of their children, and there are many 
 young persons who indulge themselves in 
 continued habits of sin, because they think 
 that a divine working, more mighty than hu- 
 man means, will interpose, and by a strong 
 and outstretched arm save them from ruin. 
 A sad and we might almost say fatal delu- 
 sion ; for even if that day of deliverance comes, 
 the scars of former sins will remain, and the 
 redemption, even if effectual, will be " so as 
 by fire." The laws of our spiritual nature 
 cannot be disregarded with impunity, and it 
 is of children that it was most expressly said, 
 when they were brought to Jesus, " Of such is 
 the kingdom of heaven." Ask the convert 
 himself, and, if he is a sincere man, he will 
 confess that all his repentance, and all the 
 operating grace of God, have not removed the 
 bad consequences of youthful sin. He would 
 give worlds to live over again those wasted 
 years of early life, to do then effectually what 
 he is now striving to do with agony and tears. 
 Give me, then, early religious education as 
 
104 THE DIVINE METHOD. 
 
 the best and divinely appointed means of the 
 Christian, which is the Regenerate, life. Child- 
 hood and youth is the season when all educa- 
 tion, intellectual, moral, and religious, is most 
 successfully given, and by planting good Chris- 
 tian seed in the heart, no room will be left for 
 the pernicious weeds of iniquity to grow. 
 
 Yet I read, only yesterday, in a religious 
 publication, an account of a man who went 
 into a prayer-meeting, being at the time past 
 middle life, and who, after listening for a 
 while, rose in his place, and said, that he be- 
 lieved himself to be as bad a man as ever 
 lived ; that he had been in all parts of the 
 world, and practised the worst iniquities of 
 every place, but that his conscience was now 
 troubled, and he wished to be prayed for. 
 Ten or fifteen minutes were accordingly spent 
 in prayer, and he then rose and said that all 
 tears were washed from his eyes, and the bur- 
 den of sin taken from his heart. He received 
 the congratulations of the assembly, and all 
 united in thanksgiving for the redemption of 
 his soul. 
 
THE DIVINE METHOD. 105 
 
 Not SO was John Bunyan's pilgrim rescued, 
 who spent days and nights in the struggle and 
 the conflict, before the burden of his past sin 
 fell off, and who then felt the necessity of still 
 contending and pressing forward, as if the 
 avenger were behind him, for the attainment 
 of the prize. 
 
 The man may have been honest in his 
 words, and his conviction of sin may have 
 been sincere. But who among those who 
 gave thanks for his redemption would have 
 trusted him the next day? They would re- 
 quire weeks and months, nay, years, of trial, 
 before they would confide to him the keeping 
 of the charity purse ; but one hour's religious 
 experience is enough for the redemption of his 
 soul ! It would seem that common sense can 
 be used everywhere but in religion, and men 
 are wiser when they act as children of this 
 generation than when they act as children of 
 light. I would not speak disparagingly of the 
 efforts to save the sinner, however hardened he 
 may be. Nor would I withhold from him 
 whatever encouragement may properly be 
 
106 THE DITINE METHOD. 
 
 given. His case is not hopeless, however bad. 
 He may yet turn, and, by resolute effort re- 
 deeming the time, save himself from the evil 
 which impends. But I only say, that it would 
 have been better for him to have been saved 
 from his wanderings, and that it is more safe 
 to trust in the religion of those to whom it 
 comes in the unobserved, but effectual, expe- 
 rience of early life. The religious character 
 formed by early education, is stronger and 
 better than that which becomes good only by 
 conversion. Considered as an education for 
 practical life, it is far better and more worthy 
 of reliance. Considered as the Christian re- 
 generation, it is far more perfect, and is at 
 least equally the work of the Divine Spirit. 
 Revivals of religion may sometimes be good, 
 and are often blessed in the conversion of 
 wicked men; but to educate the young by 
 bringing them up in the nurture and admo- 
 nition of the Lord, is a work still more blessed 
 and more sure of success. The preacher's 
 voice may alarm the indifferent, — " Awake, 
 thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, 
 
THE DIVINE METHOD. 107 
 
 and Christ shall give you light"; but the 
 sweet voice of maternal love is still more elo- 
 quent, and the gentle influences of a Christian 
 home are a stronger instrumentality by which 
 the Heavenly Father draws us into the fold of 
 Christ. In one word, Christian education 
 is the great means by which, under the grace 
 of God, the kingdom of Jesus Christ must be 
 established, both on earth and in heaven. For 
 myself, I thank God for this more than for all 
 other blessings, that my childhood was passed 
 in a Christian home. Most gratefully do I 
 here acknowledge the obligation to faithful, 
 religious parents, by whose instruction, of 
 example more than of precept, the love of God 
 seemed a natural affection, and obedience to 
 the law of Christ was the common law of the 
 household; — an obligation which cannot be 
 repaid ; but their children rise up to call them 
 and their memory blessed. 
 
 The earnestness with which I have spoken, 
 and the frequent repetition of the same leading 
 idea, may have seemed unnecessary and tire- 
 some. But I believe that no subject, either of 
 
108 THE DIVINE METHOD. 
 
 temporal or spiritual interest, is more important 
 than that which we have now been consider- 
 ing. There is no subject upon which greater 
 or more fatal mistakes are committed. They 
 are fatal to the welfare of our children, and 
 therefore to our own happiness. They hinder 
 the prosperity of our churches, and prevent 
 their growth. They give to all education a 
 worldly and irreligious tone, by reason of 
 which intellectual culture produces alienation 
 from God. The one thing needful in the 
 Christian Church, for its true revival, for the 
 effectual renewal of its spiritual power, I firm- 
 ly believe to be this of which I have now so 
 earnestly spoken, and of which, if I had the 
 power, I would yet more earnestly speak. It 
 is the judicious attention to the young, the 
 Christian education by which they may grow 
 up in the knowledge and love of God. In an 
 age when all intellectual influences are so 
 active, and the youthful mind is so rapidly 
 developed and the youthful character so early 
 formed, religious influences must be made 
 equally active, so as to give a heavenly direc- 
 
THE DIVINE METHOD. 109 
 
 tion to all. The Christian principles and faith 
 must work with the development of the earli- 
 est affections, and the family circle become 
 the household church of Christ. '^ Feed my 
 lambs," is the word of Christ's comuiandment, 
 to which his ministers should now give most 
 earnest heed. Their most eloquent preaching 
 will do little good,, unless the youthful ear is 
 reached. The churches of the land, however 
 magnificent, will fall into contempt, unless 
 youthful hands are laid upon the altar, and 
 out of the mouth of babes and sucklings must 
 the praise be perfected. 
 
 In other countries where religious institu- 
 tions are maintained by law, and a strong 
 religious conservatism is thus exercised, the 
 young might be neglected with comparative 
 safety. But with us everything depends upon 
 them. The conservative principle must be 
 planted in their hearts, or their precocious lib- 
 erty will be used as a cloak of lawlessness. 
 Religious faith must be made one of their 
 earliest instincts, the law of their moral and 
 intellectual life. The mother must therefore 
 
 10 
 
110 THE DIVINE METHOD. 
 
 be the teacher of religion, and the nursery be- 
 come the sphere of religious instruction. The 
 parental relation should be recognized as a 
 religious guardianship, and the father's voice 
 should teach the lesson of reverence towards 
 God. 
 
 Then would the cause of religion begin to 
 prosper. Then would our churches be filled 
 with sincere worshippers. Then would the 
 formality of religion cease, and its spiritual, 
 which is its practical life, appear. For then 
 would our young men become our religious 
 men, and our daughters would grow up to 
 become, in their youth and beauty, as the 
 polished columns in the temple of God. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 PARENTAL RESPONSIBILITY. 
 
 We come then to this serious and almost 
 startling result. The spiritual welfare of the 
 child depends upon the parent. Our chil- 
 dren enter upon an inheritance of good or 
 evil influences, by which their moral and re- 
 ligious character is determined. Exceptional 
 cases occur; but after we have made the 
 most liberal estimate of them that facts 
 justify, the rule still remains. The religious 
 history of families and of communities may 
 thus be traced, from one generation to an- 
 other, with small danger of mistake. The 
 child must possess unusual energy of will, 
 or must be favored by unusual providential 
 circumstances, to escape from becoming irre- 
 ligious under the influence of an irreligious 
 
112 PABBNTAL BESPONSIBILITY. 
 
 home. The sins of the paient are, in this 
 sense, visited upon the children. But when 
 a Christian spirit pervades the household, 
 the children breathe it and grow up in the 
 Christian life. If I am stating this too 
 strongly, let proper abatement be made, and 
 there will still be left unquestioned enough 
 to sustain me in my present argument. 
 
 It follows, therefore, that parents owe a 
 duty to their children, which should engage 
 their most earnest and prayerful attention. 
 It is not only to feed and clothe them, and to 
 provide for them the physical comforts which 
 they need. To this the parent is prompt- 
 ed by the instinctive love of his offspring, 
 and its intentional neglect would place him 
 lower than the brute. Nor is it only to 
 select good teachers and schools for intel- 
 lectual culture, considered as a preparation 
 for active and honorable usefulness in the 
 world; for this would be our duty, as par- 
 ents, even if we had no religion and no 
 hope in Christ. The obligation imposed 
 upon us by the parental relationship is 
 
PARENTAL RESPONSIBILITY. 113 
 
 higher and more sacred than anything that 
 belongs to physical comfort or v/orldly suc- 
 cess. It is to form the character of our 
 children in the religious life ; to bring them 
 into the fold of the Redeemer ; to educate 
 them as the children of God. They are in- 
 trusted to us, not only for time, but eter- 
 nity ; and it is our first and principal duty 
 to lead them to that spiritual, regenerate 
 life, which is the life with God, whether on 
 earth or in heaven. Such is the parent's 
 duty, under the providential appointment of 
 God, to which all other parental duties are 
 secondary and comparatively unimportant. 
 Education in the Christian faith and Chris- 
 tian virtue is the one great end to be at- 
 tained. 
 
 But how different is this from the com- 
 mon current of thought and action ! When 
 we speak of a good education, the ideas 
 first suggested are those of science and art, 
 of literature and languages and accomplish- 
 ments. If we speak of the Christian graces, 
 the more excellent way of Faith, Hope, and 
 
114 PARENTAL RESPONSIBILITY. 
 
 Charity, we are understood to have intro- 
 duced an entirely different subject. Such 
 things scarcely belong to the popular idea 
 of a good education. The attainment of 
 knowledge, the cultivation of taste, refine- 
 ment of manners, and the like, become, even 
 with parents, the prominent, if not the ulti- 
 mate, thought in the education of their chil- 
 dren. And for the attainment of these, what 
 terrible risks do they incur, and to how 
 many fatal dangers is the youthful charac- 
 ter exposed ! For the sake of an " accom- 
 plishment," perhaps, the influence of immoral 
 and vulgar teachers is allowed. The perils 
 of the boarding-school are paid for, in pur- 
 suit of a fashionable education. Protestants 
 place their children in convents and Jesuit 
 colleges, with the reasonable probability that 
 their religious faith will be undermined or 
 perverted, because of some supposed advan- 
 tages in learning the modern languages, or in 
 gaining superficial accomplishments. Boys 
 and girls are sent hundreds of miles away 
 from home, at an age when the need of 
 
PARENTAL RESPONSIBILITY. 115 
 
 parental guidance is the greatest, and are 
 kept for years under the influence of tempta- 
 tions which mature virtue could scarcely re- 
 sist, and at the same time are liberally sup- 
 plied with money, as if to facilitate their 
 ruin. Is it not a perverted idea of edu- 
 cation which leads to such mistakes as 
 these ? It is the placing knowledge above 
 virtue, manners above morals, intellectual at- 
 tainments above religion. Why can we not 
 perceive, that the highest intellectual culture 
 is no compensation for the loss of virtue ; 
 that those who fail in the attainment of 
 Christian faith, and are betrayed into de- 
 parture from Christian principles, are misera- 
 bly educated, either as men or women, let 
 their intellectual attainments be what they 
 may. Looking to this life only, the right 
 education of character is a thousand times 
 more important than the attainment of 
 knowledge ; for the uneducated man, with 
 good common sense and sound principles, 
 is worth more, even for the common pur- 
 poses of worldly life, and is more worthy 
 
116 PARENTAL RESPONSIBILITY. 
 
 of respect, and by simple manliness of char- 
 acter will accomplish more, than the most 
 finished scholar, who has gained his educa- 
 tion at the expense of his principles. But 
 when we remember, that the use of this 
 present life is to prepare us, by the service 
 of God, for a life of eternal service in heaven, 
 we discern, almost with trembling, the great- 
 ness of our folly, in placing the intellectual 
 above the moral and religious education of 
 the young. Let parents see to this, with 
 serious and prayerful thought, or they may 
 be doing to their children the greatest harm, 
 when they are seeking to do them good. 
 Let everything be made to give way to 
 that one great work to be accomplished, — 
 to bring them up in the nurture and admo- 
 nition of the Lord. I know that it would 
 be a revolution in the common plans of 
 educating the young, but such a revolution 
 is needed. I would not lower the standard 
 of intellectual education, but would only 
 place that first which ought to stand first, 
 — Christian virtue and Christian truth. 
 
PARENTAL RESPONSIBILITY. 117 
 
 Let me also again say, although in repe- 
 tition, that, in this view, the most important 
 part of all education is done by parents 
 themselves. Whether they know it or not, 
 they are doing it. It cannot be delegated 
 to others, any more than the relation of 
 parent and child can be changed. The 
 great majority of religious men and women, 
 however different the influences under which 
 they may have been educated, trace back 
 the sources of their religious life to a pious 
 mother or father. It is the want of that 
 early influence which fills the world with 
 scepticism and guilt. Sometimes, indeed, 
 those whose early training has been good, 
 and who have received from their parents 
 an education which ought to have resulted 
 in a Christian life, make shipwreck of their 
 faith, and go astray in the paths of in- 
 iquity. But there is always great hope of 
 their return, if those early principles of right 
 were deeply implanted. Very often it proves 
 with them only a temporary wandering, and 
 the prayers of the mother's heart are at length 
 
118 PARENTAL RESPONSIBILITY. 
 
 answered. But if they have grown up to 
 worldliness and irreligion and consequent 
 wrong-doing, as their natural progress, under 
 the influence of an irreligious home, the hope 
 of their redemption must be, and it is proved 
 by observation to be, very small. Their early 
 habits of sin and worldliness become their 
 nature, which refuses to be changed. 
 
 How great, then, is the responsibility of 
 parents ! How effectually do they stand be- 
 tween their children and God, to separate 
 them from him by the repulsion of an irre- 
 ligious character, or to bring them near to 
 him by the gentle influence of obedience and 
 faith I It is a responsibility of which we 
 may well think with awe. We must an- 
 swer before God, not only for ourselves, 
 but for the children whom God giveth to 
 us. We are their providential guardians, 
 and God will require them at our hands. 
 We may, indeed, fail in our efforts, and 
 circumstances beyond our control may de- 
 feat our best endeavors. But, up to the 
 point of doing the best we can, both by pre- 
 
PARENTAL RESPONSIBILITY. 119 
 
 cept and example, we are undoubtedly re- 
 sponsible for the result. An almost com- 
 manding influence belongs to us, and we 
 are bound to use it well, both by the love 
 which we bear to our children, and by the 
 allegiance that we owe to God. We may 
 shrink from admitting the fact, or try to lose 
 sight of it, but the providential arrangement 
 under which we are appointed to live and 
 work cannot be changed. 
 
 One thing, however, may be said, to en- 
 courage us under the feeling of insufficiency, 
 and to make that which may seem a burden 
 of responsibility supportable. A distinct rec- 
 ognition of our duty, and a humble, prayer- 
 ful desire to do it, almost insures its faithful 
 performance. Carelessness is generally the 
 cause of failure, and not incompetency. If 
 we feel the responsibility imposed upon us 
 by the parental relation as we ought, our 
 mistakes will correct themselves, and the 
 spirit in which we try to perform our duty 
 will save our children from the worst effect, 
 both of our errors and our faults. Children 
 
120 PARENTAL RESPONSIBILITY. 
 
 see very quickly, and are better judges of our 
 real character than we suppose. They learn 
 more from what we are, than from what we 
 say, and can discern, underneath our mis- 
 takes of management, the religious and loving 
 spirit in which we are trying to work. Or, 
 on the other hand, they will discern the self- 
 ish and worldly temper of the parent, where 
 it exists, however carefully it may be covered 
 over by the usual proprieties of life. It is 
 the spirit, therefore, in which we work, more 
 than our skill in working, that insures suc- 
 cess. The conscientious endeavor seldom 
 fails. We may be able to give no rule for 
 domestic government, and may have no the- 
 ory of discipline, and yet, as each case of 
 difficulty occurs, a sincere purpose will find 
 its own way of action. Speaking from my 
 own experience, indeed, I am afraid of the- 
 ories of domestic education, and would rather 
 leave the details of government to the con- 
 scientious parent, than impose upon him the 
 best system that can be devised. General 
 principles may be urged, but individual com 
 
PARENTAL RESPONSIBILITY. 121 
 
 mon sense must be left to apply them. The 
 one great and indispensable requisite for 
 exerting a right religious influence on our 
 children, is the possession of a right relig- 
 ious character ourselves. To obtain this is 
 the beginning, and almost the end, of our 
 work, in the religious education of the young. 
 Parents who are conscious to themselves of 
 a worldly and irreligious character may well 
 shrink from the responsibility which they 
 have assumed. If not for their own sake, 
 yet for the sake of their children, they should 
 cultivate in themselves a higher life, with 
 prayer and supplication, as the only means 
 of performing the most sacred and important 
 duty of their lives. To young parents, es- 
 pecially, this truth needs to be plainly pre- 
 sented. They enter upon a new world, both 
 of care and enjoyment, while they watch the 
 unfolding of the infant's mind. They ask ad- 
 vice concerning its management, and fondly 
 hope to keep it, in its growing years, from 
 temptation and guilt. They feel ready to 
 make almost any sacrifice of money and of 
 
122 PARENTAL RESPONSIBILITY. 
 
 comfort, to secure this result. But there is 
 only one way, humanly speaking, to secure 
 It, — which is, by themselves learning to live 
 a religious life. In proportion as.they attain 
 this excellence, the difficulties of their task 
 will disappear. Let them begin their married 
 life by consecrating themselves to God, and 
 their home will become, almost of its own 
 accord, a nursery of goodness and truth. 
 But unless they care enough about religion 
 to do this, they should prepare themselves 
 to be disappointed in their children. They 
 have no right to expect that those who are 
 led, will go in advance of their leaders. 
 They have no right to require of their chil- 
 dren a higher standard of virtue and relig- 
 ion than that according to which they them- 
 selves live. 
 
 One general rule for the guidance of the 
 young in the religious life, I would venture 
 to give ; partly because of its importance, 
 and partly because of its frequent neglect. 
 They must be taught obedience. Few com- 
 mands of Scripture are more earnestly en- 
 
PARENTAL RESPONSIBILITY. 123 
 
 joined than this, — " Children, obey your par- 
 ents in the Lord, for this is right." " Honor 
 thy father and thy mother," is one of the 
 leading commandments of the Bible. It lies, 
 I believe, at the root of the religious life. 
 It is, I had almost said, the only founda- 
 tion on which the religious character of the 
 young can be established. Our word piety^ 
 by its derivation, means filial reverence, and 
 the ideas are so closely associated that we 
 can hardly separate them from each other. 
 It is an easy transition from filial respect 
 to religious awe. Children who have been 
 early taught the lesson of obedience to their 
 parents, can easily learn the higher lesson 
 of obedience to God. It is, in both cases, 
 the respectful and reverential submission to 
 authority, under the sense of duty. By the 
 early and judicious exercise of such author- 
 ity, children are taught those lessons of self- 
 denial and self-control, of reverence and 
 trust, which are so good a preparation for 
 their willing self-consecration to God. They 
 may be thus saved, in part at least, from 
 
124 PARENTAL RESPONSIBILITY. 
 
 the waywardness and presumptuous self- 
 conceit which betray so many young per- 
 sons into thinking that they can be guides 
 to themselves, without the restraining power 
 of religious faith. 
 
 I do not advocate sternness or severity 
 in domestic discipline. In a well-governed 
 family, no iron rule is needed, and punish- 
 ment, of whatever kind, is a rare occurrence. 
 But it is almost the parent's first duty, in 
 the moral education of his children, to in- 
 stil the idea and enforce the duty of obe- 
 dience. With gentleness, but promptly and 
 with decision, a right beginning should be 
 thus made, and the principle of parental 
 control established. At first it is, of course, 
 an unreasoning or instinctive submission, on 
 the part of the child, to the stronger will of 
 the parent, and cannot be called a moral 
 act. But gradually, as the infant mind is 
 developed, a higher principle is introduced, 
 and the instinctive habit of obedience be- 
 comes a willing and affectionate perform- 
 ance of duty. The child who has received 
 
PARENTAL RESPONSIBILITY. 125 
 
 such training from a religious parent soon 
 learns to feel that the great source of all 
 authority is in the Divine law, and, by an 
 almost natural progress, his filial obedience 
 is changed to the service of God. The rec- 
 ognition of authority, and the habit of re- 
 spectful, deferential obedience to those who 
 have a right to exercise authority, are in- 
 dispensable elements in the religious char- 
 acter. 
 
 I apprehend, that a great deal of the 
 neglect of religion among the young is ex- 
 plained by the neglect of their parents to 
 teach them this early lesson of obedience. 
 It may seem to be a small matter, at first, 
 which parental indulgence overlooks or ex- 
 cuses, in the indolent expectation that time 
 will make it right. But those children are 
 saved from a world of trouble, whose par- 
 ents have the practical good sense to di- 
 rect them, from the very first, in the right 
 way. What can we expect from the young 
 who are allowed to rebel against parental 
 authority, and refuse obedience to the pa- 
 
126 PARENTAL EESPONSIBILITY. 
 
 rental command, but wilfulness, and passion- 
 ate self-indulgence, and rebellion against God 
 himself? The parent is appointed by God 
 to think for his children and direct them, 
 and in doing so it is his bounden duty to 
 require their obedience until they can think 
 maturely for themselves ; and if he neglects 
 to do this, either through indolence or any 
 other motive, it is at the serious peril, both 
 temporal and spiritual, of the child. But 
 I fear that it is one of the great defects in 
 our modern theories of domestic education, 
 that the views of discipline are held so 
 loosely, that the child governs the parent, 
 instead of the parent's governing the child. 
 The idea of authority is almost discarded, 
 and children are left, both in religion and 
 morals, to choose for themselves. 
 
 In conclusion, let me take pains to ex- 
 press, with greater plainness, one thought 
 which has been continually present to my 
 own mind, and without which all that I 
 have said is untrue. " Except the Lord build 
 the house, they labor in vain that build it. 
 
PARENTAL RESPONSIBILITY. 127 
 
 Except the Lord keep the city " — and the 
 family, — " the watchman waketh but in vain." 
 Paul may plant and Apollos may water, but 
 it is God who giveth the increase. We must 
 labor, in this work of religious education, 
 with a religious spirit. It must be done by 
 human agency, but it is, nevertheless, a di- 
 vine work. " No one cometh to me," said the 
 Saviour, " except the Father draw him " ; and 
 it is true, I believe, of the child, not less 
 than of the man. It is not a mechanical 
 work, by machinery, in which we are en- 
 gaged, but a spiritual work, for those in 
 whom God himself w^orketh, both to will 
 and to do. We must be workers together 
 with him, and a part of our agency must 
 be prayer. There is no element of success, 
 in the religious education of our children, 
 more important than this habitual feeling 
 of absolute reliance upon God. He does 
 not work wisely who works presumptuously, 
 and if we think to command success, a wrong 
 spirit enters into the work, so that we in- 
 vite disappointment. In all moral and re- 
 
128 PARENTAL RESPONSIBILITY. 
 
 ligious enterprises, and especially in our care 
 of the young, everything depends on the 
 spirit with which we act. But if, together 
 with the judicious use of means, we labor to 
 accomplish a Christian end, with a prayer- 
 ful and Christian spirit, in the service of 
 God, our labor will not be in vain. 
 
 THE END. 
 
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