CHILD’S IDEA OF GOD.

Te Aroha News, Volume XLI, Issue 6572, 5 February 1925, Page 6

CHILD’S IDEA OF GOD.

In the autobiography of the famous Russian Maxim Gorki he tells of a conflict which went on in his mind when he was a boy, as to the character of God. Gorki’s father died when he was a babe, and his mother took him •to live with her parents. The grandfather had a violent temper which sometimes broke out like a thunderstorm and the child was terrified. The grandmother was a gentle, gracious lady, whom the child adored. But the old people were very religious. The boy was taken to church by his grandparents, but in his young mind there was a sharp distinction between his grandfather’s God and his grandmother’s God. One was harsh and cruel; the other was the friend of all creation. Gorki says that all through his childhood this dual conception of God occupied his mind.

It is generally conceded that early impressions are most lasting, and it is of the highest importance that children receive worthy conceptions of God. This idea of God is regulative of all religious thinking and for a child to get a distorted idea of God is nothing short of a calamity. It is extremely important that in the Sabbath school children receive such ideas of God as will cause them to love and serve Him. They should not be taught anything about God which they will have to unlearn in later years. It is a cruel thing to send children out into the world with no other conception of God than that of a great detective. It is a wonderful privilege tfeachers have of giving children such thoughts of God as will sweeten their lives and call forth in them the highest and the best.