Sunday-School Libraries. By Rev. Sanford H. Cobb [pp. 369-382]

Sunnday-School libraries.
which are displayed, little monsters of moral goodness who
have
"piled their goodness up so high,
That it topples down on the other side
And makes a kind of badness."
They have been strangely free from the sins of childhood,
strangely actuated at all times by the most holy motives,
and present portraitures of character unlike anything really
found in this world of sin. As a consequence their religion is
very unnatural; too often but a pompous spiritual pride; a
sickly sentimentalism; a puling, silly childishness, destitute
alike of all true spiritual vigor or joyousness, and not by any
means fitted for the brave struggles of a life beset with temptations. They are too good to live, and must die young.
Now upon the mind of a thinking, healthy child, such a
book can have only an injurious and repulsive influence.
There is no attractiveness in such portraits. They do not
show us the image of a hearty love to Christ. or the pattern
of an early piety moulded after the "holy child Jesus;" such
as God's grace allows us to see at times, and which we cannot see without finding our hearts touched and our appreciation of religious power exalted. We doubt not that there are
many children whom Jesus has sanctified, as his word shows,
from the womb. We have seen them, as we think; but not
in these books. The mind of a child, so sharply critical in
many ways, is quick to feel the difference, though he could
hardly tell you where it lies. If religion is like that, he wants
none; at least not until the hour of death makes it a supreme
necessity. If the good child is to go to heaven right away, he
will defer the effort to be good.
What a parody of the life-giving and joy-instilling gospel is
such teaching as this I Children should have set before them
a healthful example of religious truth, and not injurious illus trations of a morbid moral sense. They should be brought to
see the child Jesus, to know Him as a child, to know His love
for all children, and so to feel His presence giving zest to their
childish plays, and strength for their childish duties. It never
is the intent of religion to de-humanize a child or man. It is
meant to be enjoyed in this world, as well as in the next.
374
[JULY,