He ap

to tell us plainly what comes next. peared to the disciples. He made it absolutely certain, by infallible proofs, that it was Himself come to life again, and alive for evermore. And He declared that into

this life we may all enter.

He brought life

That which men

and immortality to light. had always guessed, He made sure. Because He lives, we shall live also.

These truths, concerning God as the Maker of the world and the Father of mankind; concerning His love and His will, especially as made plain for us by His Son; concerning the meaning of sin as Christ taught it, and the escape from sin as Christ provided it; and concerning the life to come; should be a part of the moral and spiritual equipment with which a youth of the age of fifteen should be furnished. This much, at least, he ought to know and believe to his soul's health.

CHAPTER VII

THE SILENT INSTRUCTION OF EXAMPLE

I

N any home where there is a definite

desire to train the children in re

ligion, opportunity will be found for the direct teaching for which materials have now been suggested. Another kind of tuition, however, proceeds everywhere, whether we are conscious of it or not. This is the silent instruction of example.

The consciousness of God, and the revelation made by Jesus Christ are a general possession of all normal communities in a Christian country, and they come to the child as a part of his heritage. But the strength and vividness of the child's religion depend greatly upon the position of religion in his home. The father and mother are perpetually teaching religion to their

children, by their example, by the tones of their voices, by what they are even more than by what they say, by the conditions of their own relationship to the unseen world. These lessons are not in any book. They are in the personality of the parents.

It is true that this influence is not absolutely determining. The differences which appear in children who are trained under the same guidance show that. So also does the fact that children sometimes come out good from bad homes and bad from good homes. There is some truth in the theory that unselfish mothers make selfish children: they accustom the children to being waited upon, and made much of, and deferred to. This is a part of the process which is properly called "spoiling" children. It is plain, also, that there are presentations of religion which may be distasteful to children, and which are therefore in reality arguments against it. Some training is followed by a reaction against its

severity, its narrowness, its hostile or suspicious or nervous dealing with the natural joys of life. Even so, the religious influences of the home reveal their potency in their results; though the results are of the nature of a criticism of the domestic religion.

The fact that the chief training in religion is what the parents do and are rather than what they say in direct instruction, is, of course, discouraging when we consider what very inadequate examples most of us are. We hope that our children may grow up to be much better than we are. But there is one detail of encouragement in the matter. For many people it is impossible to "talk religion." Either it is so sacred a part of their experience that they cannot bear to put it into words, or it is so remote from what they know it ought to be, that silence seems more profitable than speech, or it is so much a matter of feeling, that they cannot well convey it to another,

or they are not good at explanation. But they can live it. Indeed, for good or ill, they must live it, whether they will or no. Thus this training in religion is within the ability of even the most reticent.

An important series of lessons in the silent instruction of example is given by conformity to the common customs of religion. The simplest thing which fathers and mothers can do for the direct religious welfare of their children is to attend church on Sunday. The neglect of such attendance suggests at once to the logical mind of the child that the institutions of religion are not highly prized by their parents. The zeal and punctuality with which such parents may insist upon the appearance of the children at Sunday-school or at church count for little, in the face of this inconsistency. The meaning is that the institutions of religion are mainly good for children; or, if the mother goes to church and not the father, that they are for children