Religious Circle

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 14, 17 January 1925, Page 16

Religious Circle

(By '-' Forward.")

"Thou mnst build upward to a height beyond thyself. But first I would have thee thyself built with a square foundation, body, and soul. See - that through thee v the race progresses) not continues only." • "" "The. very foundation of the whole commonwealth is the proper bringing up of the young."—Cicero. THE CHILD—A POTENTIAL PAEENT. (< We often glibly use the old saying: 'The child is. father of the man," and the Words mean little to us, but gradually the world is waking up to the fact of the vital importance of fthe child as a factor in every department of. life, feomeone has declared that electricity aud the child are the two greatest discoveries of the twentieth century. From the moment of birth the child is a potential parent, and teachers and reli°i-* ous workers dare not lose sight of tliis fact. If we realised this, surely our homes would act differently, and surely the Church" would act far more wisely than it is doing. The idea of coming parenthood should influence the whole training of the child. Neglect of the present generation of children is cumulative in its disastrous effects, and as the years go by less and less will'the parents of our land realise their religious duty' to their children. Ea«h child is but the first link of an endless posterity, and as we consider our new years work let this thought' solemnise us too Whatever we teach let it be I of such a character that it will so act on the growing child that when its turn I comes it will be a saner and saJer parent than those who preceded it We need only to read our newspapers to see the call for such an education. Ihe levity with which mairiage is contracted the crude ideas of.parental duties aild the- tragia consequences of these perverted ideas all demand that schools ' churches, and homes should awake to the peril.. I am not advocating ses knowledge j in fact, I am very sceptical about -the value of such, but I am thinking of the wider knowledge-lthe laws of iife,_ the acquiring of patience, self-re-straint self-sacrifice, and obedience to tne rules of .companionship . Licence is the mark of age, and" restraints are irksome, but instead of sitting down and deploring "this ciiar-': actemticwe are called upoit to suit our efforts to the occasion, and to Ward' the new outlook as ah opportunity for dealing frankly • and wisely with the great facts of life. Reaching the child is one of creating a new world on the ruins of the old. The Sunday school can be a, vital force in this work.. Our lessons should be shaped towards fi" S ♦? \m U/ soci? l act"'it>es with and for the children should be moulded VbV the new. outlook; in fact, the idea of the potential parenthood of our children Should colour all our endeavours. To all who have to do with the training of the young I recommend these.words:— ' Tp bring up a child means carrying ■■ onfes soul in one's hand, setting one'l leet on a narrow path; it means never placing ourselves in danger of meeting' the cold-look on the part of the child that tells- us without words '■ that he ;__. finds us^insiifficienfc and unreliable lt^ means the humble realisation ■of the truth tha.t the ways. of injuring a, child are infinite, whfle the ways of being useful to him are few. How tt Om' + i °6Su-# 6 edu Cat°r remember that the child, even at four or five years of age, is making experiments with adults,. seeing through them, with marvellous shrewdness making his own valuations and reacting sensitively to: each' impression.. The slightest mistrust, the smallest unkindness, the least act of injustice or contemMuous .ridicule, leave wounds that lasib for u?.jm J 1! 6., finely-st i'ung soul of the | child Wljile on the other side, unexpected friendliness, kind advances, . just indignation, make, quite as deep an impression on those Senses which people term as soft as wai but treat ?L, tlley wele made of cowhide — The Century of the Child."—Ellen . Key. • . . . , WIN THE CHILD. Do not think this-means to condescend to unworthy, ways of enticing the child ior .pa. attachment so founded is doomed to be severed as flax before the flame. Win the child by every legitimate means, so that having secured his allegiance for Christ that bond at first a silken one of seemingly feeble strength may become in after years a bond strong os a cable to keep him from drifting with the tide of sin. Win the child. He is Christ's: don't.set out: With the conviction that he is not Uirists. By every right the child is Christ s. One has said, "Live . in the land of song and beauty and. invite him to your home. Let no place bo inore_radiant to him than the carclen where he may always find-you* in the company of the head gardenerl if he Wanders and you go in search of iiini, take the garden with you, for you may find him in 4he desert, and the scent of the flowers and their nod of recogmtion will remind him of the eardener who is his Wend and of the home which waits for him." This little parable is worthy of coni "4^ tlon by every Sunday school Win the child! That word • "win" conjures Up the eager search of the pearl-diveiy the quest of the . goldseeker vi the Ai-ctic snows of Yukon or the blazing sands of Kimberly, the unwavering patience of>a Captain Scott or 1 :in their search for the "South Pole. '"-■..•■'-■' Win the child! It calls for a great passion; a profound faith in the worth tiL l-n ' / J^V^Z c°™"etion that the child needs to be won. Yes,' but it calls for sacrifice" and patient endurance. Nothing worth winning is achieved in' a moment. Long days of toil, plans frustrated and readjusted, hopes deferred but unsurrendered, a patience that nothaM JL^i™^' a lov6 that is unquerich-.able-all these and more are the price of winning a child as a jewel for the crown of Christ You must buy it fo° it is not a gift. Buy -it to-day,: this new year, for to-morrow it may be beyond our reach. We have had our kit chance with many a child. The new bell and buy—paying in the currency JC-'f M £i arked wi6h the c™ 3°f Christ. The new year is an urgent call to every teacher to begin again, to count the cost and then having done so to set the wmmng of the child before us as our supreme ambition. - ■;'.