LC 
 
 
 , LsinHsay 
 
GIFT OF 
 
THE SPIRITUAL CARE OF A CHILD 
 
BOOKS BY 
 
 iHo&ertgon iUroton Htnisas 
 
 CULTURE AND REFORM 
 
 GIVING WHAT WE HAVE 
 
 VICTORY OF OUR FAITH 
 
 WHAT GOOD DOES WISHING DO? 
 
 WHAT IS WORTH WHILE? 
 
 THE SPIRITUAL CARE OF A CHILD 
 
 Price 35 cents each by mail 
 THOMAS Y. CROWELL & CO. 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
THE SPIRITUAL CARE 
 OF A CHILD 
 
 BY 
 
 ANNA ROBERTSON BROWN LINDSAY, PH.D. 
 
 ^ 
 
 AUTHOB OF "WHAT is WOBTH WHILE?" "CULTURE AND 
 
 REFORM," "GIVING WHAT WE HAVE," "WHAT 
 
 GOOD DOES WISHING Do?" ETC. 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 THOMAS Y. CROWELL & COMPANY 
 PUBLISHERS 
 
COPTBIGHT, 1907, 
 
 BY THOMAS Y. CBOWELL <fe COMPANY. 
 
 PUBLISHED, SBPTBMBBB, 1907. 
 
 
 
THE SPIRITUAL CARE OF A CHILD 
 
 THE upbringing of a child is one of the 
 most ancient of arts, and yet to this day, in 
 certain of its phases, it is the least mastered. 
 The physical care of a child has been deeply 
 studied, a baby's food is now analyzed and 
 measured to the fraction of an ounce. Its 
 intellectual life has been provided for, we 
 have a progressive system of education from 
 the kindergarten to the close of the graduate 
 courses of a University. But when we ex- 
 amine into the problem of the best spiritual 
 care of a child, we find ourselves far from 
 fixed guidance. 
 
 Civilization itself, over-refined and sensuous, 
 hampers both word and deed. There is a 
 moral constriction in public sentiment, and 
 aspiration is too often hampered by what 
 others say. Our times are the best times of 
 the world, and yet in many ways the spirit 
 of the age is intensely hostile to a child's 
 best welfare. 
 
 5 
 
 304046 
 
6 THE SPIRITUAL CdPE OF A CHILD 
 
 Consider the general type of citizenship 
 which we are to-day preparing in the Ameri- 
 can nation. Do we not too often overlay 
 childhood with impressions of a bitter struggle 
 for wealth, fame, position, or material success, 
 to the inevitable coarsening of temperament, 
 and degradation of ideals ? Do we not under- 
 mine fibre when we buy our children in- 
 dolence and ease ? Do we not put toy pistols 
 and noise for patriotism, and stories of mis- 
 chievous children, who daily imagine new 
 tricks, for the great and ancient heroisms of 
 the race? Do we not apparently value reck- 
 lessness instead of courage, competition instead 
 of loving-kindness? Do we not put forth 
 hasty impulses or soft-tongued sentiments for 
 real convictions ? careless parenthood for 
 reasoned control ? indifference for political 
 and civic ardor? 
 
 At the same time we are confronted, as a 
 nation, with the gravest and most inspiring 
 possibilities of history. Every impression in- 
 fluences type. Will these conditions of child- 
 hood result in the balanced temperament, the 
 just outlook, the regal endowments necessary 
 
THE SPIRITUAL CARE OF A CHILD 1 
 
 for spiritual control? The only right we 
 have to bring children into the world, is to 
 add to the spiritual force of the universe. 
 Populations are not nations, mere creatures 
 are not significant, and uninspired children 
 are but a kind of spawn. 
 
 Pertness and irreverence are our national 
 disgrace. Thinking men and women are 
 convinced that brilliant ability in the way of 
 business does not necessarily make men or 
 corporations honest, nor does public office 
 make men incorruptible to private privilege ; 
 professional standing in art or literature is 
 not always accompanied by high moral char- 
 acter ; and we are confronted, not only with 
 conditions of labor among the poorer classes 
 that are appalling, not only with luxury and 
 idleness in the wealthier ranks, but by the 
 reasons for these conditions, and by prob- 
 lems which, reaching out to all classes, seem 
 to concern the generic life of man. 
 
 Even the scientific study and application 
 of the psychology of childhood, valuable as 
 it is, does not of itself produce strong char- 
 acter. Parents, teachers, pastors, and all 
 
8 THE SPIRITUAL CARE OF A CHILD 
 
 those interested in the higher development of 
 children are beginning to ask : How can we 
 meet modern civilization with weapons which 
 shall guard our children from the darts of 
 sin? How can we strengthen them for the 
 physical strain of life, for their private 
 duties, and their public responsibilities ? How 
 can we bring up our children in spiritual 
 health ? to that sane outlook over life which 
 is not worn by worry, nor unbalanced by sor- 
 row ; which is undiscouraged by difficulty, and 
 unspoilt by victory; which can meet life with 
 quiet nerves, a sense of humor, a sense of maj- 
 esty, and a realization of spiritual opportunity ? 
 Let us begin an old, and yet new pro- 
 gramme. Let us believe that the relation of 
 the soul to God is the most important thing 
 in life. The foundations of the spiritual life 
 lie deep in prayer and reverie. Leisure, cul- 
 ture, and meditation have social uses, as well 
 as the jumping hurry of doing. If we do 
 truly thus believe, we shall plan our business, 
 our professional interests, our household hours, 
 our companionships, our reading, our amuse- 
 ments, and our public service in the light of 
 
THE SPIRITUAL CARE OF A CHILD 9 
 
 this belief, and shall not apparently try to in- 
 voke, at one moment, the help of the divine 
 spirit, and at another to breathe forth indiffer- 
 ence, worldliness, or antagonism toward God. 
 Can we lift our children higher than our own 
 ideals ? Can we lift them at all, if we do not 
 work out our ideals in some practical way ? 
 
 Let us give our children a positive religious 
 training. Let our religious teaching be defi- 
 nite and continuous. If we wish to drive a 
 nail into the wall, we do not say : Oh, let the 
 wall alone. When those boards are older, the 
 spike will go in of itself. Nor do we give it 
 one or two desultory raps with a hammer, look- 
 ing elsewhere as we pound. We choose the 
 exact spot where the nail is to go, and with 
 deliberate strokes, and an eye on the nailhead, 
 pound it firmly, until it is fixed in the desired 
 spot, then clinch it. If we wish truths to 
 lodge in a child's soul, we need not expect that 
 some haphazard chance of life will place them 
 there, nor suppose that they will become fixed 
 as we wish them to, without a definite purpose 
 on our part, and persistent effort. 
 
 Still less would we expect a garden to grow, 
 
10 THE SPIRITUAL CARE OF A CHILD 
 
 if, on looking over a tract of ground, we should 
 say : I shall have roses and apples there by 
 and by. Not that I have ever planted rose- 
 slips there, or set out fruit-trees, I do not 
 believe in forcing a crop that way, but in 
 a few years roses and fruit-trees will probably 
 spring up there of their own accord. 
 
 We cannot make our children spiritual, any 
 more than we can make a garden grow. But 
 we know that if we will plant good seed in 
 good soil, and rightly tend it, by and by the 
 desired plant will appear. Life springs, though 
 we know not how. 
 
 But what shall we plant? What spiritual 
 flowers and fruit do we wish to cultivate in 
 our children? What shall we sow broadcast, 
 to be quickened of God ? Let us decide, first 
 of all, whether or not we wish them to bring 
 forth the fruits of a distinctively Christian life. 
 Let us next ask ourselves whether we are will- 
 ing to put into the spiritual care of our chil- 
 dren the time, strength, money, love, and pa- 
 tience necessary. If so, let each of us now 
 take a sheet of paper and mark down on it 
 the traits that we sincerely wish to develop 
 
THE SPIRITUAL CARE OF A CHILD 11 
 
 in our children. On another sheet let us mark 
 the traits that our children now actually have 
 through their heredity, temperament, or present 
 environment. 
 
 We shall at once perceive that childhood is 
 a thing of beginnings, of promise; but a social 
 work second only to the creation of life is now 
 before the conscientious parent, upon whom is 
 laid the task of fashioning a new generation, 
 and preserving greatness, heroism, and ideal- 
 ism for the race. Only God can bring up a 
 child. Nothing will bridge the abyss of the 
 actual and the ideal, except faith, hope, love, 
 work, and the immediate help of divinity. 
 
 We also find that we must fling ourselves 
 into the task. Apathy never awakens enthu- 
 siasm. Prayer, not inattention, wins. And 
 yet what thunders at us, even above the gen- 
 eral roar of American life, is that parents who 
 apparently wish to guide their child aright, 
 themselves chase every phantom of the world, 
 and surround themselves with influences antago- 
 nistic to a faithful Christian life. Later, these 
 very parents mourn that their children do not 
 display the inspirational traits of humanity. 
 
12 THE SPIRITUAL CARE OF A CHILD 
 
 Truth, courage, justice, patience, magnanim- 
 ity, industry, loyalty, mental vigor, talent, 
 energy, mercy, honesty, chastity, earnestness, 
 decision of character, chivalry, tenderness, sym- 
 pathy, moral heroism, filial and conjugal affec- 
 tion, reverence, and spiritual intensity, all have 
 a reason for being, and a means of develop- 
 ment. Why do we not foster these lovely 
 qualities, if we really desire that they should 
 live and grow ? 
 
 Next, let us set down on another sheet of 
 paper an outline of the religious education that 
 we propose to give our children before they 
 are, say, ten years of age. Ought not children 
 of ten to have a general familiarity with the 
 whole Bible, a connected idea of Biblical his- 
 tory, and of its heroic figures, and a memoriter 
 knowledge of the Ten Commandments, many 
 passages of Scripture, the Creed, and the 
 church catechism? Ought not such children 
 to have read and enjoyed " Pilgrim's Progress," 
 and other sterling religious books ? Ought 
 they not to know many of the great hymns 
 of the church, words and music ? Ought 
 they not to know the outline of the lives of 
 
THE SPIRITUAL CAEE OF A CHILD 13 
 
 at least ten or twelve of the church reform- 
 ers, and to have an idea of the way in which 
 Christendom is organized in denominations 
 and religious societies? Ought they not to 
 be familiar with the lives of ten or twelve of 
 the historic missionaries of the church, know- 
 ing the country in which they labored, the 
 class of people chiefly reached, and the main 
 things which civilization owes to their work ? 
 Ought they not to know something of the 
 pictures, sculpture, and architecture of great 
 religious art ? Ought they not to have an idea 
 of the long struggle for religious liberty and 
 human freedom ? 
 
 Any teaching of doctrine should be as clear 
 as the teaching of a lesson in history or mathe- 
 matics. The study of religious truth should 
 never be made easy or maudlin, but should 
 demand thought and attention. Ought not 
 children of ten to understand something of the 
 meaning of law, and the way in which law 
 reaches from the nursery to the moral order 
 of the universe ? Ought they not to have an 
 idea of God, of the Trinity, of the life and 
 work of Christ, of the influence of the Spirit, 
 
14 THE SPIRITUAL CARE OF A CHILD 
 
 and of the meaning of sin, of conversion, of 
 providence, of duty, of divine sovereignty, of 
 personal accountability, and of immortality? 
 Ought they not to have been thrilled by the 
 heroic Christian virtues? Ought they not to 
 have been drilled in the showing forth of prac- 
 tical piety, in the self-restraint, unselfish- 
 ness, courage and fidelity of the Christian 
 life? Above all, ought not a child of this 
 age to be definitely and positively a Christian 
 child? 
 
 Where do we get our idea that all human 
 beings should be dragged from waywardness 
 to God? If they ever get away from Him, 
 they must return; but the natural process 
 should be an unfolding of the spirit Godward, 
 and there are children who have never had a 
 moment's consciousness of alienation. From 
 Him they came, and His they are. 
 
 The Sabbath-school, however helpful, can- 
 not, in an hour a week, produce this type of 
 education. School systems cannot at present 
 carry it out. Its foundations must be laid in 
 the home, and it must be maintained with daily 
 vigor and thoroughness. It is a brave person 
 
THE SPIRITUAL CAEE OF A CHILD 15 
 
 who will dare give any suggestions, but one or 
 two simple points may perhaps be noted. 
 
 First, the Sabbath must be at once removed 
 from worldly care, business, and mere idleness 
 or pleasure. Stately and supreme, it rises 
 above earth's turmoil, and calls to reverence 
 and devotion. If those splendid hours that 
 are meant to be the soul's best heritage are 
 given to worship and the spiritual care of child- 
 hood, there will come a blessing that will be 
 not only domestic, but national. For much 
 of the present-day hysterics and insanity are 
 due, from a strictly medical point of view, to 
 our lack of rest, insight, and repose. Seven- 
 day business eats out nerve and brain. But 
 inspiration is tonic, and a well-ordered Sabbath 
 is the utmost refreshment of nature. 
 
 Again, the Bible is the fundamental text- 
 book. Modern education wastes a great deal 
 of time. A child may be taught at home to 
 read directly from the Bible (of course a Bible 
 with pictures), and it may be made his earliest 
 story-book. After the first few primer words 
 have been learned, one of the simple Bible 
 stories or parables may be read to a child, and 
 
16 THE SPIRITUAL CARE OF A CHILD 
 
 he may then be allowed to pick out the words 
 of the text, reading a very little at a time, 
 and going over the same verses for some con- 
 secutive days. By this method, a child learns 
 to read with great rapidity. After drill in 
 his Bible work, he can read any book, and all 
 the time otherwise spent on less literature has 
 been gained, with the additional point that he 
 has learned to love the Bible, which, with its 
 fascinating pictures, stories, and strangely beau- 
 tiful wording, is his first introduction to the 
 world of letters. And this earliest familiarity 
 and affection he will not only never outgrow, 
 but his style will be marked with vigor and 
 fine imagery. 
 
 "Pilgrim's Progress" may be made attractive 
 by buying a large copy with good pictures, 
 mounting it, if necessary, on a music-stand, 
 and for the first year, with very young children, 
 reading only as far as where the burden rolls off 
 at the foot of the Cross. When he gets to be 
 five or six years old, a child will beg for the 
 rest of the story, and will read it, or wish it read 
 to him, many times over, for, to an imaginative 
 child, it is a story of endless interest. 
 
THE SPIRITUAL CAEE OF A CHILD 17 
 
 Again, family prayers will be maintained in 
 every representative Christian home. They 
 are highly educational, and may be made an 
 intellectual delight. We err if we are too 
 formal. Let us not think of family prayers as 
 an unvarying formula, but as a progressive 
 form of life. They should be vital and eager, 
 adapted to the age and development of the 
 child, and increasingly intellectual in outlook. 
 
 With small children a simple hymn and 
 reading are enough, using the Sunday-school 
 lesson as the basis of the reading, letting the 
 children themselves read it each morning dur- 
 ing the week, and taking up each day one or 
 two topics connected with it for explanation. 
 At the close of prayers it does not hurt to 
 play "Onward, Christian Soldiers," or some 
 other stirring music, letting the children march 
 around the house as a part of their devotions, 
 and, if they wish, carrying a flag or a doll- 
 baby! It is not irreverent to be happy, and 
 in this way they associate prayers, not with 
 a stiff exercise in which they must sit up 
 and keep their feet still, but with life, music, 
 energy, motion, and feel instinctively that in 
 
18 THE SPIRITUAL CARE OF A CHILD 
 
 this little service they are keyed to a bright 
 and joyful day. 
 
 As they grow older, this form of worship 
 may gradually change and become a season of 
 eager study. The Sunday-school lesson is 
 used only once a week. Whole books of the 
 Bible are undertaken and read through. 
 Revelation has a special charm for children. 
 We all know the story of the little boy who, 
 when called by his mother to do an errand, 
 asked to be let alone for a few moments, until 
 he "finished binding Satan for a thousand 
 years;" and the Angel with a Chain, the Beast, 
 the White Horse, and the New Jerusalem hold 
 the hearts of children with a spell. The 
 Gospels, Isaiah, Ruth, many of the Epistles, 
 Daniel, Jonah, Esther, Genesis and Exodus, 
 and Joshua, all have a special appeal. Next in 
 turn comes a love of the Psalms and the great 
 imagery of Job. 
 
 This period, I am thinking of children 
 between seven and ten, is the time to intro- 
 duce church history and missionary biography. 
 If there is not time in the morning hour, it can 
 be done at nightfall, in the precious "chil- 
 
THE SPIRITUAL CAEE OF A CHILD 19 
 
 dren's hour." Children from six years of age 
 upward will follow the course of Livingstone 
 on a map with the greatest eagerness. How 
 they enjoy the animals he saw, and how the 
 African names roll out! Paton and Moffat 
 also interest children especially, and they 
 love the life of Florence Nightingale, who 
 began her career by nursing a shepherd's dog. 
 Stanley, Duff, Eliot, Brainerd, Carey, Mackay, 
 Patteson, Crowther, Martyn, Heber, Judson, 
 John Williams, and Hannington are names that 
 children delight to know, as well as the names 
 of Knox, Calvin, Luther, Wesley, Fox, Melanc- 
 thon, Tyndale, Margaret of Navarre, Huss, 
 Admiral Coligny, Wishart, Coverdale, and 
 others. In reading these heroic lives, and in 
 talking of them, something great seizes upon 
 the life of a child. Such books add to the 
 moral fibre of the child, and are intensely 
 stimulating intellectually, and yet they do not 
 in any way lead to precocious thoughts or 
 feelings. 
 
 Cut out from the newspapers, also, incidents 
 displaying human heroism, and speak of them 
 at prayer time. Here and there, as opportunity 
 
20 THE SPIRITUAL CARE OF A CHILD 
 
 offers, can be fitted in talks on great human 
 subjects. Such topics ought never to be forced 
 in a cold way, but should come up naturally 
 from some question, event, or stray bit of 
 reading. Little talks on honor, on chivalry, 
 friendship, love, honesty, devotion to parents, 
 fidelity to conscience, may be woven in so 
 gently that they are not felt to be didactic, 
 and yet so firmly that the ideals inculcated 
 become a part of the child's very being. 
 
 Prayers should rise for every emergency of 
 sorrow, illness, trial, temptation, and also in 
 thanksgiving and gratitude for the usual joyful 
 course of life. Let the child learn to look 
 heavenward, not only for succor, but for inspi- 
 ration. Do not be afraid to pray in a noble 
 and majestic way. Throw imagination, sym- 
 pathy, and idealism into family prayers. 
 Nothing touches a child more deeply than to 
 be thrilled by its own parent, and the hearth is 
 an altar on which one's ultimate grandeur may 
 be laid. 
 
 And let the music at prayer time have a 
 triumphant and martial ring. Prepare the 
 child for victory. Let the young voices thun- 
 
THE SPIRITUAL CAEE OF A CHILD 21 
 
 der in the great processionals and paeans of 
 the church. Occasionally a word can be said 
 about the authorship of the words or music. 
 Heber's hymns are much more interesting than 
 indefinite stanzas. Buy some of the best ora- 
 torios or other church music, and as various 
 selections are rendered by the choir in the 
 church, refer to them at home, and play some 
 of the movements and anthems. In such and 
 other ways, the constructive work of the spirit 
 may be kept before the minds of children. 
 Unconsciously they breathe the atmosphere of 
 great work, and are led to resist inferior stand- 
 ards. Thus the hour for devotion may be 
 made the most ardent of the day. 
 
 Choosing a school for a child is almost as 
 difficult as choosing a place for its home. 
 What is its atmosphere? that spirit of 
 loyalty, attention, discipline, social culture, 
 intellectual energy, and spiritual aspiration 
 which is a curious combination of the influence 
 of the principal, the teachers, the students, 
 the parents, the visitors, the community-stand- 
 ards, and the memory of those who have once 
 been teachers or pupils of the school. The 
 
22 THE SPIRITUAL CARE OF A CHILD 
 
 school and the college never forget something 
 of every being remains. For years and gen- 
 erations the human personality flits through 
 corridor and hall. Going back to the city or 
 the country schoolhouse, or to Farmington, 
 Exeter, Andover, Groton, Eton, Rugby, Har- 
 vard, Pennsylvania, Oxford, Gottingen, Welles- 
 ley, Vassar, Williams, Yale, does one not still 
 feel the presence, hear the voice, and kindle 
 with the ardor of the absent and the dead? 
 It is inheritance and tradition that are spirit- 
 ually upbuilding in the school life of a child, 
 as well as its immediate environment and com- 
 rades. If we could lead ourselves to look, 
 not for fashion or prestige, or cost or cheap- 
 ness, or outward manners, furnishings, or wealth 
 or style, but to the heart of the school, to its 
 core of sincerity, and to the personality of its 
 teachers who should glow with love and life, 
 we would more readily fit our children into 
 the larger ways of civilization, and the divine 
 order of progress. The special value of the 
 public schools is their wonderful fidelity to 
 dreams of patriotism, truth, courage, individual 
 merit, honesty, justice, and the public order. 
 
THE SPIRITUAL CARE OF A CHILD 23 
 
 Choosing a church is more difficult yet. If 
 our children are to be large-minded, their 
 environment must be great. Oh, let us never, 
 by any chance, get into a dull and dragging 
 church! Let us pray for a pastor who shall be 
 a man of fire. Let him kindle the hearts of 
 our children into spiritual flame. May they, 
 in their turn, join the noble company of 
 prophets, martyrs, saints, and seers, and be of 
 the great historic train of those who bear aloft 
 the banner of the Cross, and aid in the world- 
 conquest. May the congregation be orderly, 
 reverent, and eager, and mutually helpful and 
 friendly. May the cause of missions, and all 
 other inspirational causes, be exalted, and the 
 devoted energy of the whole church community 
 be thrown into the most modern and pro- 
 gressive forms of social service. 
 
 For after all is said, the church is one of the 
 most potent forces to mould the hearts and 
 minds of men. Silently, tenderly, persuasively, 
 it lays its touch upon the spirit, and I often 
 wonder if we ever rise above our early pastor's 
 dreams. In many a child's heart he sets forever 
 the standards of aspiration and achievement. 
 
24 THE SPIRITUAL CAEE OF A CHILD 
 
 As to the companions of a child, we can 
 gather, but we cannot choose. Each child 
 knows its own mate, and no force nor entreaty 
 can change the immutable decree of nature. 
 But we can form a circle that is rational and 
 suitable, not forgetting that sometimes the 
 most golden hearts and manners are within 
 very simple doorways. Perhaps the most 
 interesting phase of a child's life is when the 
 little heart begins to move out into the world, 
 and, among many companions, to pick out the 
 special little friend to love. Here no guidance 
 is too gentle, nor any care too great. Simpli- 
 city is the great safeguard. The sophisti- 
 cated child is always in danger, the one who 
 knows too early the untruths, the vanities, and 
 perfidies of life, but a fresh and unspoilt spirit 
 instinctively clings to comradeship of purity 
 and truth. 
 
 And in that little child-world, with its boyish 
 fights, and its hot, girlish quarrels, there is in 
 miniature all the rest of life. Now is the time 
 to train for real romance, to accept the 
 affections as a growing force, to receive confi- 
 dences, and to lead the fast-developing nature 
 
THE SPIRITUAL CAEE OF A CHILD 25 
 
 into great ideals of human love, of honor, of 
 conjugal fidelity, of social stability, and of 
 parental responsibility. 
 
 When the hour of romance comes to a boy 
 or girl, it is possible to turn the life into all 
 dark ways of frivolity, sentimentality, caprice, 
 passion, bitterness, and despair, or to lead it 
 gently and truly out into a world of splendor 
 and of power. Even the hurts of love can 
 teach, and nothing is more educative than a 
 regal love-affair. We have mastered one of 
 the most difficult problems if we can succeed 
 in leading a child to look upon human love in 
 its more spiritual aspects, to think of romance 
 in its more delicate beauty, to dream of a 
 mate who shall be a mate for the soul. Much 
 of our deeper life is a search for this twin- 
 spirit, and in eternity we shall know why. 
 
 But a training for conjugal virtue lies deeper 
 far than this, in the implanting of traits of 
 patience, forbearance, and a love of justice; 
 in a refinement of spirit that abhors evil 
 thoughts or ways; in that strict acceptance of 
 duty which nowhere wins so little outward 
 glory as in the conjugal estate, but which is 
 
26 THE SPIRITUAL CAEE OF A CHILD 
 
 the underlying girder of the social structure. 
 Married life means the shouldering of care, and 
 its happiness and tenderness are to be main- 
 tained, not only by fidelity and courtesy, but 
 also by carrying cheerfully the daily task. 
 
 A vital peril in American life to-day is the 
 lack of old-fashioned girlhood and boyhood. 
 Our children must be sheltered, not only from 
 the natural elements, such as storm and hail 
 and snow, but from precocity, and from demor- 
 alization of soul. Unreal novels, theatre-going, 
 dancing parties, expensive tastes, and un- 
 chaperoned roamings for young boys and girls 
 are deadly in their injury to simplicity and 
 innocence. Out-door sports, healthful compan- 
 ionship by the home fireside, good books, simple 
 tastes, and meetings under surroundings that 
 are suitable and friendly must take the place 
 of these exciting amusements, if we are to 
 guard our children's youth and. freshness. 
 
 Shakespeare's heroines are not jaded, and 
 Wordsworth's women are as dainty as a 
 dream. Tennyson's pictures of girlhood are 
 like a wild rose. Why should youth forfeit 
 sweetness and every girlish grace ? Manhood 
 
THE SPIRITUAL CARE OF A CHILD 27 
 
 and womanhood have a commanding virtue 
 wholly lost in apish imitation. 
 
 Ideals of human love and tenderness exist. 
 There is a martial courage that is not afraid to 
 meet the facts of life ; there is a sturdy energy 
 that does not droop in discontent. Read the 
 story of James and Helen Chalmers in New 
 Guinea; of Robert and Mary Moffat in the 
 wilds of Africa ; of Livingstone and his wife, 
 who was Moffat's daughter; of John Halifax 
 and the girlhood of his bride. Read " Sesame 
 and Lilies," "Sonnets from the Portuguese," 
 " The Princess," " The Miller's Wife," Jeremy 
 Taylor's sermons on love and marriage; Emer- 
 son's " Friendship," and Spenser's " Epitha- 
 lamium," and fit the heart for life by biogra- 
 phy, poetry, and an occasional really great 
 novel, instead of by the gossip and catch-tale 
 of the hour. 
 
 The standards of love are rising every day. 
 Despite the social vexation and unrest of the 
 times, there has never been an age in which 
 men and women so deeply loved each other, in 
 which the chords of their talents and energies 
 responded with so much sweetness to each 
 
28 THE SPIRITUAL CARE OF A CHILD 
 
 other, or vibrated in such unison for world- 
 welfare. To the children of these parents shall 
 we not look for some of the great spiritual 
 triumphs of the race ? Conceived in tender- 
 ness, born to ideals and world-imagery, trained 
 to social service, dedicated to aspiration and 
 devotion, they are the flower of humanity, and, 
 by God's help, shall in their day and generation 
 reveal a larger world to man. 
 
 Economics has two sides. We may firmly 
 teach a child that he must be business-like and 
 self-supporting, and yet greatly err in our 
 training if we do not also teach him that each 
 human being is socially responsible, not only 
 for the honest earning of his income and the 
 well-balanced general investment and expendi- 
 ture of it, but also for the social burden of 
 poverty, ignorance, or misfortune, which must 
 forever be carried, and as far as possible 
 diminished, by those of normal income-earning 
 power. Giving is a straight duty, but the 
 giving should also be conducted in a scientific 
 way. 
 
 All training should provide for growth and 
 adventure. Life is a set-to. Civilization, from 
 
THE SPIRITUAL CARE OF A CHILD 29 
 
 one point of view, is a higher sort of fisticuffs. 
 There are hours when the soul dances like a 
 savage, and there is a trace of prehistoric 
 wildness in all brave spirits. A boy longs to 
 feel life within him as well as to watch it 
 from without, craves danger, excitement, and 
 new experiences of many kinds ; invents 
 jungles and Indian-plays ; likes thrills and 
 hair-raising things. Let him get his adven- 
 tures in right channels, even at some danger. 
 But for this, mothers need an elemental 
 courage. Think of Hannington risking his 
 neck as a boy on the cliffs for the eggs of 
 sea-birds! Coley Patteson in early manhood 
 climbed the Col de Geant, mounting on steps 
 cut by a hatchet for forty or fifty feet up a 
 sheer wall of ice, and descended the mountain 
 on "the worst day ever known there," in a 
 blinding storm. Later, a youth asks to know 
 the sensations and emotions of the race; leaps 
 into intensity and action; likes turmoils and 
 difficulties; exults in primitive anger and re- 
 sentment, as well as in the loftiest and most 
 ennobling exaltation. This instinct lies at the 
 root of many a lad's restlessness in his own 
 
30 THE SPIRITUAL CARE OF A CHILD 
 
 home. It is not that he loves home less, but 
 the universe more. Man is an itinerant and 
 wayfaring animal. He hates to be housed or 
 tied. He is convinced that manhood does not 
 grow up in the parlor, or in any sort of cloister. 
 
 Let us point out to our boys the starry and 
 unstained stretches of human experience, 
 wherein the soul of man may roam forever, 
 in undying freedom and delight. Let us stir 
 them to the great heroic actions of the race. 
 There is a celestial ambition, and it is open to 
 each new generation to achieve conquest and 
 remembrance. By daring moral courage, by 
 discovery, invention, insight into beauty, 
 mastery of human problems, by the creation 
 of new works of engineering and of art, by 
 intellectual ideals, by political supremacy, by 
 spiritual service, one may fling his life into 
 adventurous and Godlike helpfulness and joy. 
 
 If we invest a child with Christlikeness, we 
 invest the world with a new degree of spiritual 
 power. It is not an idle saying, that if a child 
 be trained in the way in which he should go, 
 when he is old, he will not depart from it. 
 Psychology literally corroborates the thought. 
 
THE SPIRITUAL CARE OF A CHILD 31 
 
 If he be taught the way of reverence, of prayer, 
 faith, obedience, and intellectual and physical 
 energy, he is the richer for all the years to 
 come. The conquest of life is made easier for 
 him; all the forces of habit, love, and will are 
 turned in the way of the divine purpose. 
 
 Food, air, sunshine, influence, teaching and 
 surroundings, pass into the life of a child. 
 Far back of his nourishment in infancy is the 
 inheritance which he has from ancestry and 
 tradition, that reverberation of decision and 
 spirituality which comes from generations who 
 have walked with God. Of all family enthusi- 
 asms, and pride of genealogy, this is perhaps the 
 most pardonable, the delight there is to find, 
 on looking back over a long line of forefathers, 
 that straight down the line there have been rep- 
 resentative men and women of faith and power. 
 
 And one of the noble ideals of man has been 
 to found a great house which should carry down, 
 from generation to generation, certain family 
 traits and powers ; an hereditary line of intel- 
 lectual and political ascendancy and social 
 prestige, with characteristic manners and tradi- 
 tions. Far down the line of our posterity 
 
32 THE SPIRITUAL CARE OF A CHILD 
 
 . 
 
 there shall really be renewed images of our 
 own selves: the likeness goes eternally on. 
 
 The encouragement of all educational work 
 is to perceive that in the long years of history 
 extraordinary things have been accomplished. 
 The daily process of training in virtue and 
 culture seems laborious, but effort is cumu- 
 lative. By slow accretions of knowledge, 
 character, and aspiration, whole races have 
 risen from savagery or barbarism, and genera- 
 tions of children have grown up to praise God 
 and to serve Him. This lends enthusiasm to 
 one's endeavor. It is our responsibility to have 
 large thoughts for humanity, and to work with 
 fidelity and energy. The very process of 
 spiritual evolution shall carry our work far 
 beyond our own imagination; it may stamp 
 history itself with the image of our dreams. 
 

 
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY