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

MORAL 4AND RELIGIOUS TRAINING OF CHILDREiV. 43
us. In that country only clergymen who have passed a special
examination for that purpose are allowed to teach the Bible to
children. This is done in the schools in a way so impressive
that the knowledge of the Bible possessed bythe average German child of the age of confirmation is infinitely better than
that acquired by the best children under our uniform lesson system. The causes of unbelief in that country are not found in
what precedes that age, but may be due in part to the fact that
Bible study generally ceases then for life. The Old Testament
is from beginning to end one long and impressive argument in
favor of the practical wisdom of righteousness as a condition of
personal welfare and national stability-a lesson not untimely
now, and in our land. This lesson must be thoroughly and protractedly taught before the sublime altruistic stand-point of the
New Testament can be apprehended. Up to this point the essential training of Jewish, Catholic, and Protestant children now
differs only in method and detail, and it seems by no means
impossible that a portion of this common element may be some
time mutually agreed upon, and even taught in public schools
by common consent and with the real advantage of superior
methods to all.
Probably the most important changes for the educator to
study are those which take place between the ages of twelve and
sixteen, when the young adolescent receives from nature a new
capital of energy and altruistic feeling. It is a veritable second
birth, and success in life depends upon- the care and wisdom
with which this energy is husbanded. These changes constitute
a natural predisposition to a change of heart, and may perhaps
be called, in Kantian phrase, its schema. Even from the psychophysic stand-point it is a correct instinct which has slowly led so
large a section of the Christian church to centre its entire cultus
upon regeneration. In this I of course only assert the neurophysical side, which is everywhere present, tho everywhere
subordinate to the spiritual side. As everywhere, too, the
physical is regulative rather than constitutive. It is therefore
not surprising that statistics show-so far as I have yet been
able to collect them-that far more conversions, pro rata,
take place during the adolescent period, which, according to
the best authorities, does not normally end before the age