Newspaper Page Text
May 26, 1909. TH
like a leisurely breakfast, and is still
more fatal to anything like family worship.
when the two great ends of life
seem to be money and pleasure, when
husbands and wives are never so happy
as when at the club, the bridge party or
i he theatre, and never so bored as when
forced to stay at home?the difficulty of
vi u u uvivtf'/mv uiuiai aiuiuopucic
for children to grow up in is obviously
very much increased. Yet the creation
of such an atmosphere is an absolute
necessity. Without it Christianity can not
win out. The Christian home is the hope
ol the world.
The atmosphere which seems to bo
nothing is in fact the most subtle, allpervasive
and powerful of all influences
affecting the physical health. In like
manner the moral atmosphere of the
home goes farther than any other force
to determine the character and destiny
of the children. And this atmosphere is
an exhalation from the hearts and lives
> 1 uiw |iaimi9 uuv lUevillUUIU pruauci OI
their character and example?'whether it
bo the miasma of insincerity, and worl 1liness,
and moneyworship on the one
hand, or on the other the sweet, pure,
sanctifying air of a reverent and happy
faith in God. The apostle speaks of "the
church in thy house"?the church?Kuriakon?that
which is the Lord's in thy
house.
A Personal Question.
How about your house? Have you
in it that which is the Lord's? And is
that the dominant influence there? Happy
the children of such a house! Well
nos it been said that "God has no kind
er gin 10 us uian a naiiowed home, the
memory of lessons from the lips of father
and mother, the early impressions of virtue
and wisdom, the sacred streams which
rise from that fountain head, and that
alone, and run freshing and singing and
broadening all through our lives . . . Not
without reason has a great cardinal of
the Romisih Ohurch said that if he may
have the children up to the age of five,
lie will not mind in whose hand they may
be afterwards; for It is almost impossible
to exaggerate the permanent effects of
those first tendencies impressed upon the
soul before the intellect is developed . . .
Things which we learn we can more or
less unlearn, but things which are
blended with the elements of our composition,
made parts of us before we are
conscious of our own personality, defy
the hand of time and the power of conscious
effort to eradicate them . . . Let a
child draw his first breath In a house
which is a sanctuary; let him come to
know by his quick childish perceptions
that there Is in his home a ladder set
up from earth to heaven, and that the
angels of God go up and down on lt{ let
him feel the Divine atmosphere in his
face, the air ail suffused with heavenly
light, the sweetness and the calm which
prevail In a place where aSoonstant communion
In malnUlna.1 ?-?1 * ? - ?
?ana in auer years
ho will ge aware of colces which call, and
hands which reach out to hhn from his
childhood, connecting him with heaven,
and even the most convincing negations
of unbelief will be powerless to
shake the faith which is deep as the
springs of his life."
The things that a child absorbs from
the home atmosphere about him In those
early years of "delicate susceptibility,
that season when the surface of life is
porous to the Highest," are the things
/
E PRESBYTERIAN OF THE SOU
that abide with him and make him what
he is to be.
The Father
Iu the making of that atmosphere the
father is a large factor. To a little child
this father is the greatest man ia the
world, the fountain of all wisdom, the
source of all authority, the wielder of all
power?to the child he stands in the place
of God. What an opi>or(unity and responsibility
are his! Yet how many fathers
neglect their privilege and shirk their
duty and throw the whole burden on the
meaner: An eminent business man of
New York recently said that if he had
his life to live over again, he would peril
aps make less money, but he would
spend more time at home with his sous,
so that the relations between them might
be more Intimate and that he might teach
them as none others can, the great issues
of character.
The Mother.
liut important as is the father's contribution
to the atmosphere of the home,
the mother's contribution is greater still.
It is not merely an alliterative epigram
when we say "'the hand that rocks the cradle
rules the world." It is a fact. The development
of the affections in children
precedes that of the intellect. The mother
governs through the affections, and
aa sut aitme is Drougnt into the closest
relations with the children during the
formative period of their lives they learn
to love her with a far different feeling
from that whiah is inspired by the father.
His is largely the rule of authority or
force. Hers is the rule of love, and
retna indeed, if we did not give it our
ing. Aye, more abiding, for it lasts and
lasts and lasts long after her gentle
spirit has passed into the better land.
Specific Instruction.
So much for the atmosphere of the
home ami tihe example of father and.
mother?the influences by which the
ideals are flxed, the character set, the
trend of the life determined, the habit of
virtue formed, and the love of righteousness
rendered Instinctive, so that even
when there is no time for reflection the
vuirn aeuiaes ior tJie right?and when
(the perilous period of adolescence is
reached and new desires are born and
new temptations assail, the truth and
purity inhaled in that Christian home
still hold the youth, to virtue's path.
But, in addition to this, specific instruction
is required, definite teaching
must ho given. For, after a while "the
understanding will begin to assert Itself;
the desire to question, to criticise, to
[prove, will aiwake. And then, unless
the truths of the heart have been applied
to the conscience in suoh a way as to
satisfy the reason, there may oome the
desolate time in which, while the habits
of practical life remain pure, and the
unconscious influence of early training
continues to be effective, thie mind is
shaken by doubt, and the hope of the
soul is shrouded In a murky cloud."
Now, how is this definite teaching
which will steady the mind and satisfy
the intellect of the man as well as the
heart of the child?to he rfvon?
The pulpit has a duity here. Our
church is pre-eminently a teaching
church. It has always exalted the eerrr.on
as a part of public worship because
it recognizes the reasonableness of faith
and the value of truth clearly apprehended
and firmly grasped for the permanent
control of the life. But tfce spe
TH. 19
cific duty of the pulpit In regard to the
matter before us, as we shall presently
see more fully, is to stimulate and guide
and help the parents in the teaching of
religion in the home.
The Sunday School also has a duty
here, and we should be blind, and recreant
indeed if we did not give it our
constant and careful oversight and our
constant and cordial support. But let
us remember that the Sunday School was
designed to be a supplement to home
training, and not a substitute for it. As
no preacher can ever take the father's
place, so no Sunday School teacher con
ever take the mother's place. "The
natural and the appointed place for chii
dren to make the acquaintance of God
is their own home. The most powerful
and; persuasive lips for declaring the
awful sanctities of religion are the
priestly lips of the ordained parent." To
the parent God has given the psychological
opportunity when revealed truth can
best be taught and spiritual guidance
can best be given. Those early years
of spiritual receptiveness and special
susceptibility to educating efforts?that
long minority of the child under the
lather's roof?these constitute the supreme
opportunity which God ha? tdvan
to the parent and to the parent alone.
The Sunday School, valuable as it Is in
a supplementary way, can not do the
work of the home, because, as has been
said, it does not get the child early
enough, and because when it does get
him, it is not able to repeat its impressions
with sufficient frequency.
The home then is the decisive factor
in tihe problem of religious education. It
is interesting to note that some of the
voluntary movements which are so characteristic
of our time have recognized
this and are (endeavoring to aid 'the
church in rousing parents to a sense of
theii duty. The platform of one of these
organizations runs thus:
"For upbuilding individuaJ faith, for
developing the home as an ally of the
Ohurch and for strengthening th? r.hnr?n
in the midst of world-wide missionary
responsibilities and activities, Uie World's
Morning Watoh urges a policy of systematic
religious instruction of the young
in the home by the parents seven days
in the week."
Why is it that with all our increase
of activity in Sunday School work and
all our improvement in Sunday School
methods, the children know so nmch less
of the Bible than those of fifty years
ago? The time was when nearly every
child in a Presbyterian home, by the
'memorizing of the great capital passages
of Scripture, made them an everlasting
and 'priceless possession: The
Ten Commandments, the 1st Psalm; and
..lie nui, ana tne lytn. an<l the 23rd, and
the 27th, and the 91st, and the 103rd,
and the 121 st, the 53rd chapter of Isaiah
and the 55th, the Sermon on the Mount,
the 15th of Duke, the 14tih of John, the
13th of 1st Corinthians?the time was
when the children knew theee?and knew
also that marvelous compendium of Biblical
doctrine, the 9horter Catechism, to
which even John Morley ascribes the intellectual
pre-eminemce of the Scottish
paesantry and "about which there is so
much ignorant ribaldry abroad today."
Do the children (of our time know
them?
Is it so now? If not, what is the rea(Continued
on Page 22.)