The Moral and Religious Training of Children [pp. 26-48]

MORAL AND R~ELIGIOUS TRAINING OF CHILDREN. 37
attends the first impressions of natural objects from which
both religion and science spring as from one common root.
The awe and sublimity of a thunder-storm, the sights and
sounds of a spring morning, objects which lead the child's
thoughts to what is remote in time and space, old trees, ruins,
the rocks, and, above all, the heavenly bodies,-the utilization of
these lessons is the most important task of the religious teacher
during the kindergarten stage of childhood. Still more than the
undevout astronomer, the undevout child uhder such influences
is abnormal. In these directions the mind of the child is as
open and plastic as that of the ancient prophet to the promptings of the inspiring Spirit. The child can recognize no essential
difference between nature and the supernatural, and the products of mythopceic fancy which have been spun about natural
objects, and which have lain so long and so warm about the
hearts of generations and races of men, are now the best of all
nutriments for the soul. To teach scientific rudiments only about
nature, on the shallow principle that nothing should be taught
which must be unlearned, or to encourage the child to assume
the critical attitude of mind, is dwarfing the heart and prematurely forcing the head. To indulge in goody talks, or to moralize about God or heaven, is here impertinent and stultifying.
The one course paralyzes the healthiest and strongest sentiments, the other cultivates sentimentality and the affectation of
impossible insights, or else makes these subjects uninteresting
or positively distasteful later, when the mind is ripe for them.
It has been said that country life is religion for children at this
stage. However this may be, it is clear that natural religion
is rooted in such experiences, and precedes revealed religion in
the order of growth and education, whatever its logical order in
systems of thought may be. A little later habits of truthfulness are best cultivated by the use of the senses in exact observation. To see a simple phenomenon in nature and report it fully
and correctly is no easy matter, but the habit of trying to do so
teaches what truthfulness is, and leaves the impress of truth
upon the whole life and character. I do not hesitate to say,
therefore, that elements of science should be taught to children
for the moral effects of its influences. At the same time all
truth is not sensuous, and this training alone tends to make the