Class UC ^' 
 
 Book -C-^ 
 
 GoEyriglitl^". 
 
 COPyRICHT DEPOSm 
 
EDUCATION 
 
 
 IN 
 
 Religion and Morals 
 
 .%*. 
 
 GEORGE ALBERT COE, Ph.D. 
 
 JOHN EVANS PROFESSOR OF MORAL AND INTELLECTUAL 
 PHILOSOPHY IN NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY 
 
 AUTHOR OF 
 
 THE SPIRITUAL LIFE AND 
 OF A MATURE MIND " 
 
 THE RELIGION 
 
 CHICAGO NEW^ YORK TORONTO 
 
 FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY 
 
 LONDON AND EDINBURGH 
 MCMIV 
 
OCT 29 1904 
 notfurtgM emv» 
 
 COPY Sr 
 
 U 
 
 
 Copyright, 1904 
 Bv FLEMING H. REVIiLL COMPANY 
 
 CHICAGO: 63 WASHINGTON STREET 
 NEW YORK: 158 FIFTH AVENUE 
 TORONTO: 37 RICHMOND STREET, W. 
 LONDON: 21 PATERNOSTER SQUARE 
 EDINBURGH: 30 ST. MARY STREET 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGB. 
 
 Preface 5 
 
 Pakt I. 
 THE THEORY. 
 
 CHAPTER. 
 
 I. The Place of Character in Education 11 
 
 II. The Necessity for Religious Education.... 21 
 
 III. God, Nature, and Man in Education 33 
 
 IV. The Christian View of Childhood 44 
 
 V. The Characteristics of Modern Education.. 70 
 
 VI. Contributions of Modern Education to Re- 
 ligion 85 
 
 VII. Education as Development of Living Beings 98 
 
 VIII. Education as Development of Persons 119 
 
 IX. Punishment and Play 136 
 
 X. Reality and Symbol as Means of Educa- 
 tion 151 
 
 XI. Personal and Social Forces in Education.. 171 
 
 Paet II. 
 THE CHILD. 
 
 XII. The Religious Impulse 195 
 
 XIII. How the Impulse Develops 208 
 
 XIV. Periods of Development — Infancy and Child- 
 hood 226 
 
 XV. Periods of Development — Adolescence 247 
 
 Part III. 
 INSTITUTIONS. 
 
 XVI. The Family 271 
 
 XVII. The Sunday School 286 
 
 XVIIL Societies and Clubs 312 
 
 XIX. Christian Academies and Colleges 325 
 
 XX. State Schools 348 
 
 Part IV. 
 THE PERSPECTIVE. 
 XXI. The Church and the Child — A Glance 
 
 Backward 373 
 
 XXII. Education and Present Religious Problems. 389 
 
 A Selected and Classified Bibliography 407 
 
 Index 423 
 
PREFACE 
 
 The present place of religious and moral 
 education in our civilisation is paradoxical. 
 Everybody knows that the moral health of 
 society and the progress of religion depend 
 largely, if not chiefly, upon the training of 
 the young in matters that pertain to char- 
 acter, yet no other part of education receives 
 so little specific attention. The growth of 
 popular government has increased the impor- 
 tance of high character in the people, yet no 
 substitute has been found, one has scarcely 
 been sought, for the dogmatic religious in- 
 struction that has been properly excluded 
 from the people's schools. At a time when 
 the massing of the people in cities is exposing 
 children as never before to the forces of evil, 
 family training in religion and morals suf- 
 fers, according to all accounts, a decline. At 
 the bloom period of the Sunday school, com- 
 plaints arise that the populace is ignorant, 
 perhaps growingly so, of the Bible, and that 
 the rate of accessions to the churches is de- 
 creasing. The age of reform in education, 
 when we fancy that the child is at last 
 
6 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 coming to his own, is an age that neglects the 
 most important end of education, and stands 
 perplexed as to the means to this end. 
 
 We are, in fact, confronted by an emer- 
 gency in respect to education in morals and 
 religion. The emergency is not due, how- 
 ever, to poverty of resources. In the state 
 school and the Sunday school we have two 
 vast organisations which we may bring, when- 
 ever we will, under the more complete con- 
 trol of the highest educational principles. 
 Ihe nineteenth century made extraordinary 
 progress in respect to the methods of teach- 
 ing, and the results are ready to be utilised 
 in church and home and school. Modern psy- 
 chology, especially the child-study movement, 
 is accumulating knowledge that has impor- 
 tant applications to religious and moral cul- 
 ture. The store of biblical knowledge and of 
 knowledge of religion is increasing, and it 
 demands to be spread abroad. 
 
 To help bring this supply into closer touch 
 with the need is the aim of this book. It is 
 not chiefly a book of methods, nor is it merely 
 a treatise on educational theory. It is rather 
 an effort to bring the broadest philosophy of 
 education into the closest relation to prac- 
 tice; to show how principles lead directly to 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 methods, and so to strike the golden mean 
 between unpractical theorising and mere 
 routine. I have tried, likewise, to exhibit 
 the principles and forces of religious and 
 moral education in their highest concreteness 
 as factors in the general movement of human 
 life. A large part of our present difficulty 
 lies just in the fact that our philosophy of 
 life has been isolated from practical methods 
 of training for life, and that this training 
 has been isolated from the actual life of the 
 world. 
 
 I have made no attempt to separate the 
 religious from the moral factors in educa- 
 tion, for the simple reason that they belong 
 together in practice. Morals are not religion, 
 and religion is not morals; nevertheless full- 
 grown religion includes morals. The stand- 
 point of Christianity, moreover, is that of 
 wholeness of life, from which no human 
 good can be excluded. 
 
 The division of the book into relatively 
 short chapters, and of the chapters into num- 
 bered sections will, it is hoped, help to adapt 
 the whole to the use of classes for teacher- 
 training without detracting from the com- 
 fort of the general reader. Readers who de- 
 sire to pursue further any of the topics here- 
 
8 EDUCATION IX RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 in discussed will find information as to read- 
 ing in the classified bibliography that is 
 appended to the work. 
 
 George Albert Cob. 
 Evanston, Illinois, September, 1904. 
 
PART I 
 THE THEORY 
 
CHAPTER I 
 
 THE PLACE OF CHARACTER IN EDUCATION 
 
 1. Three Factors What makes schools 
 
 in the Idea of -11^ 
 
 Education. necessary, and what are 
 
 they for? These questions 
 can be answered by a simple analysis of facts 
 with which everyone is familiar. Schools 
 exist, in the first place, because children exist, 
 that is, because the race includes individuals 
 who are incomplete but capable of developing. 
 In the second place, schools exist because 
 there are higher and lower kinds of mature 
 life. Children are schooled for something. A 
 conception of a goal, or a kind of life that is 
 really worth living, presides, explicitly or im- 
 plicitly, over all educational effort. Finally, 
 schools exist because adults possess accumu- 
 lated results of experience as to what is the 
 better and what the less good life. Education 
 gives to children the benefit of experience 
 other than their own, and in advance of their 
 own. Thus the factors involved in the idea 
 of education are these: An immature being, 
 ft goal or destiny for life, and older human 
 
12 KDUCATIOX IX RELIGION AND MOUALh? 
 
 beings who Qan help the younger to realize 
 this goal or destiny. 
 
 2. Over- Emphasis Each of these factors has 
 Po?nt*of\1ew* been at some time so promi- 
 nent in the minds of men 
 as to obscure one or both of the others. Up 
 to comparatively recent times, the value of 
 adult experience has so occupied the thoughts 
 of educators as to prevent them from seeing 
 the necessity of understanding childhood. 
 Adult interests, ways of looking at things, 
 rules of conduct, were assumed as a standard 
 for all, and the school accordingly aimed to 
 produce conformity more than it aimed to 
 secure development. "Modern" education is 
 based, first of all, upon recognition of the 
 child as one of the determining factors. The 
 differences between the child mind and the 
 adult mind are noted, and the whole notion of 
 education has become an application of the 
 notion of development. 
 
 8. Over- Emphasis Over-empliasis upon the 
 
 upon th© Goal. i j i- p 
 
 goal or destiny oi man is a 
 general characteristic of mediaeval education. 
 The school was a handmaid of the church, 
 and the church conceived her mission to men 
 as that of saving their souls from eternal per- 
 dition. A religion broad enough to include 
 
I'LACK Ol'' CHARACTER IN EDUCATION 13 
 
 everything that is worthy of being a part of 
 our temporal life, and a religious education 
 equally broad, were not characteristic of the 
 period. The mediEeval view of religion was 
 exclusive rather than inclusive; it contrasted 
 the goods of religion with the goods of this 
 world, the blessings of eternal salvation with 
 the fleeting things of time; and as a result 
 it could not utilise in education the whole of 
 accumulated experience, but only a part of 
 it. The educator was the priest— not the 
 man within the priest, but the priest as rep- 
 resenting the goal of life abstracted from 
 the content of life. For the same reason 
 the point of view of the child himself was 
 ignored, and the way was left open for re- 
 pression and forced conformity as distin- 
 guished from development. 
 
 4. Over- Emphasis At the present time this 
 upon the Child. , , ^ 
 
 tendency is no longer 
 
 dominant. Education has been brought close 
 to the life that now is, so close, in fact, that 
 we sometimes forget to ask what this life 
 really signifies, what its goal is. Moreover, 
 another temptation to forget what the child 
 is to be educated for, grows out of the ex- 
 traordinary emphasis that modern education 
 places upon the child himself. The laws of 
 
14 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 the child-mind yield laws for educating that 
 mind. We are not to conform the child to 
 adult points of view, but the teacher is to 
 conform himself to the point of view of the 
 pupil. As Froebel says, "Education and in- 
 struction should from the first be passive, 
 observant, protective, rather than prescribing, 
 determining, interfering. ' ' ^ From too ex- 
 clusive attention to this principle, modern 
 education (though not Froebel) tends to for- 
 get its own goal. It looks backward to the 
 laws and forces of the child's mind, rather 
 than forward to the destiny that is to be 
 achieved. Nevertheless education is for 
 something. It is development, but develop- 
 ment toward something as well as away from 
 something.^ 
 5. The Aim of What, then, is the goal of 
 
 Education. Is it i ^. „ 
 
 knowledge? education? 
 
 Most persons, if asked 
 what the child is supposed to receive from 
 the educational process, would reply that 
 he receives instruction, knowledge, intel- 
 lectual training. The success of a school 
 
 1 W. H. Herford : The Students' Froebel. Boston, 
 1894, p. 5. 
 
 ' "It is the danger of the 'new education' that It re- 
 gards the child's present powers and interests as some- 
 thing finally signilicant in themselves." — John Dewey: 
 The Child and the Curriculum (Chicago, 1002), page 20. 
 
PLACE OF CHARACTER IN EDUCATION 15 
 
 is popularly measured by the rapidity 
 with which its pupils appear to in- 
 crease their stock of learning. This notion 
 arises in our minds in a natural way, for it 
 is a result of a long historical process, and— 
 we may add—of an ancient error. Man has 
 been defined as a rational animal, and his 
 moral and spiritual life have been supposed 
 to rest upon and grow out of a set of ideas 
 either reasoned out or believed in. Knowl- 
 edge and intellectual culture were therefore 
 regarded as the essential marks of an edu- 
 cated man. We shall have occasion in other 
 chapters to discuss the relation of knowing 
 and doing. Here it is sufficient to note 
 merely that the intellectualistic notion of man 
 has been abandoned by the thought of our 
 time, or rather set into relation to the com- 
 plementary truth that man is will as well as 
 intellect. A corresponding change is taking 
 place in our notions of education. 
 6. Is it Power? With the enlarging con- 
 
 trol over nature, and the 
 vast expansion of commerce and industry that 
 have followed the triumphs of modern sci- 
 ence and invention, there has arisen a de- 
 mand for men who can do things— men who 
 can build railroads and steamships, manage 
 
16 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 vast properties, organise and lead men. 
 Under the influence of these practical de- 
 mands, the populace has tended to modify 
 its conception of the aim of education in the 
 direction of power and effectiveness as dis- 
 tinguished from both learning and mental 
 acuteness. Instead of the "clear, cold, logic- 
 engine" which mere intellectualism regards 
 as the proper product of education, the drift 
 of popular thought is now toward another 
 kind of mental engine, the kind that keeps the 
 practical machinery of life in motion. But 
 we cannot stop here. For modern commerce 
 and industry are not more distinguished by 
 a new relation of man to things than they 
 are by a new relation of man to man. The 
 relations between men are becoming wider 
 and more complex; there is greater depend- 
 ence of one upon another; and just at this 
 juncture the modern city springs up to teach 
 us that we are still in the rudiments of the 
 art of living together. Meanwhile the ex- 
 periment in popular government is seen to 
 depend for its outcome upon the kind of char- 
 acter that prevails among the people. 
 
 7. Is it Social These conditions are 
 
 Adjustment? . j.-, ^ ^e ^ 
 
 lorcmg upon thoughtful 
 
 men a conviction that the great need of our 
 
PLACE OF CHARACTER IN EDUCATION 17 
 
 time is a full-grown, wisely directed social 
 consciousness, and that the development 
 thereof must be the aim of education. The 
 school is an instrument of society for social 
 ends. It must not merely train the intellect,;; 
 impart knowledge, and develop power; it 
 must also fit the individual for occupying 
 his proper place in the social whole. The 
 day is already past when an intelligent edu- 
 cator can think that his work consists in train- 
 ing or instructing individuals as such. Of 
 course education is training of individuals, 
 and more attention than ever is being paid 
 to individuality, but the final consideration is 
 not the individual taken by himself, but fill- 
 ing the proper place of an individual in so- 
 ciety. This implies respect for the rights and 
 interests of one's fellows, readiness to co-ope- 
 rate for common ends, and a sense of political 
 responsibility. Thus the end of true educa- 
 tion is seen to fall within, not outside of, the 
 sphere of ethics. 
 
 o rrj M.- ■ That education aims not 
 
 8. Education is 
 
 Ethical in both at mere knowledge or mere 
 
 End and Process, p^^^.^^ ^f ^^^ ^^^^^ ^^^ 
 
 rather at knowledge and power put to right 
 uses is fully recognized by the educational 
 thought, though not by the popular opinion, 
 
18 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MOKALS 
 
 of the day/ The advance movement in reli- 
 gious education takes its start, not in an edu- 
 cational atmosphere that is indifferent to the 
 higher values of life, but in one that is al- 
 ready suffused with moral aspiration. Here 
 and there, no doubt, a teacher entertains a con- 
 trary ideal of his work ; probably the number 
 of teachers who have not awakened to serious 
 reflection upon the nature of their work is 
 considerable; but certainly the general mass 
 of those who do reflect will be found by any 
 
 * Witness the following typical definitions and proposi- 
 tions : 
 
 Nicholas Murray Butler : "Education is 'a gi'adual ad- 
 justment to the spiritual possessions of the race." — ^ITie 
 Meaning of Education (New York, 1898), page 17. 
 
 J. G. Compayre : Education is "the sum of the reflec- 
 tive efforts by which we aid nature in the development 
 of the physical, intellectual, and moral faculties of man. 
 In view of his perfection, his happiness, and his social 
 destination." — Lectures on Pedagogy (Boston, 1893), 
 pages 12f. 
 
 William James : "Education cannot be better 
 described than by calling it the organization of acquired 
 habits of conduct and tendencies to behavior." — Talks 
 to Teachers (New York, 1899), page 29. 
 
 Herbert Spencer : "To prepare us for complete living 
 is the function which education has to discharge." — 
 Education (New York, 1872). 
 
 John Dewey : "I believe that education is the funda- 
 mental method of social progress and reform I 
 
 believe that education is a regulation of the process of 
 coming to share in the social consciousness." — My Peda- 
 gogic Creed (New York, 1897), page 16. 
 
 Arnold Tompkins : "The true end of teaching is one 
 with the true aim of life ; and each lesson must be pre- 
 sented with the conscious purpose of making the most 
 out of the life of the one taught." — The Philosophy of 
 Teaching (Boston, 1895), page 71. 
 
 J. P. Munroe : "The question to be asked at the end 
 of an educational step is not "What has the child 
 learned?' but 'What has the child become?'" — The 
 Educational Ideal (Boston, 1896). page 2. 
 
PLACE OF CHARACTER IN EDUCATION 19 
 
 inquirer to occupy the ethical standpoint. 
 Moreover, the ethical end is not thought of as 
 a far-off culmination of one's education, but 
 as an idea that is to be realized in every step 
 of the educational process. The child is to 
 grow continuously in the moral, as in the in- 
 tellectual life, and these two aspects of life 
 are regarded as being properly inseparable. 
 Every study is to contribute directly to the 
 growth of the moral self. The school, in fact, 
 now becomes a miniature society united by 
 the ethical bond of regard for one another, 
 and each task is wrought with an ethical pur- 
 pose or inspiration as real as that of mature 
 men in their respective callings.^ 
 
 9. Education We are now in position to 
 
 must take Cog- n -, . i „ 
 
 nizance of the formulate a general concep- 
 true Nature and tion of education. Educa- 
 
 Destiny of Man. ,• • jv j. 2. -4. 
 
 tion IS any eftort to assist 
 
 the development of an immature human being 
 toward the proper goal of life. This defini- 
 tion takes full account of the three factors 
 which we noted at the outset. It recognises the 
 
 ^ "I believe that the school is primarily a social in- 
 stitution. Education being a social process, the school 
 Is simply the form of community life in which all those 
 agencies are concentrated that will be most effective In 
 bringing the child to share in the Inherited resources of 
 the race, and to use his own powers for social ends. I 
 believe that education, therefore, is a process of living 
 and not a preparation for future living." — .John Dewey : 
 My Pedagogic Creed (New York, 1897), page 7. 
 
20 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 educator who makes the effort from the stand- 
 point of maturity, the child with his laws of 
 development, and the truth that some kind of 
 life is better than other kinds. Yet the defi- 
 nition remains formal because it does not tell 
 us what sort of life is worth living and de- 
 veloping toward. It assumes the ethical point 
 of view, but it leaves the ethical ideal in un- 
 certainty. We make progress if we say that 
 the proper goal of life is social existence, and 
 so change our definition to the following: 
 Education is any effort to assist the develop- 
 ment of an immature human being toward 
 social adjustment and eiifieiency. But we can- 
 not rest in this definition unless we are will- 
 ing to say that the proper goal of life is 
 simply social adjustment and efficiency, and 
 nothing more. Certainly education cannot 
 accept as its end anything less than the high- 
 est destiny that man is capable of. Therefore, 
 any satisfactory answer to the question, 
 "What is education?" must include an an- 
 swer to the question, "What is the highest 
 capacity of man 1 ' ' 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 THE NECESSITY FOR RELIGIOUS EDUCATION 
 
 10. Religious We have just seen that 
 
 Education is that -, ,• -t n 
 
 which Recognises education necessarily refers 
 
 Man's Divine to the goal of life, whatever 
 
 *^ '"^" that goal may be. "The 
 
 true end of teaching is one with the true 
 aim of life." According to our concep- 
 tion of the meaning of life, then, will 
 be our conception of education. He who re- 
 gards the acquisition of mere things as man's 
 supreme interest will think of education in 
 narrowly utilitarian terms. To him it will 
 signify apprenticeship to a trade, the mastery 
 of manual and mental tools, the learning of 
 such facts and the cultivation of such habits 
 as will enable one to utilise nature's resources 
 and get the better of one's fellows. On the 
 other hand, he who thinks of life in ethical 
 terms will think of education in ethical terms 
 also. To him "the most truly practical edu- 
 cation is that which imparts the most numer- 
 ous and the strongest motives to noble ac- 
 tion."^ He realises that "none of us liveth 
 to himself, and none dieth to himself," but 
 
 1 Thomas Davidson: History of Education (New York, 
 1901), page 260. 
 
22 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 rather that the individual can realise himself 
 only through society. Education then be- 
 comes a means of introducing young life to its 
 proper place in the social organism. If, 
 finally, we believe that complete self-realisa- 
 tion requires not only human society, but also 
 fellowship with God, then it follows that for 
 us education is the effort to assist immature 
 human beings toward complete self-realisation 
 in and through fellowship with both their fel- 
 lows and God. Under this conception true 
 education does not stop with the development 
 of individual power, as under the first of the 
 notions just described, or with mere social 
 adjustment, as under the second, but it in- 
 cludes them both and also something more. It 
 aims at individual power, but forbids the 
 selfish use thereof; it aims at social adjust- 
 ment, but holds that complete society includes 
 God and man. 
 
 11. It Aims (1) to This standpoint may be 
 
 Develop the '' 
 
 Religious Nature, approached in three other 
 ways, from each of which 
 it receives further illumination. First, since 
 education is effort to develop the child, to 
 bring his germinal powers to maturity, we 
 may ask whether the child has a religious 
 nature, as he has also a social nature. The 
 
NECESSITY FOR RELIGIOUS EDUCATION 23 
 
 detailed answer to this question, and the evi- 
 dence therefor, will be given later. Here it is 
 sufficient to note that the possession of a re- 
 ligious nature on the part of the child is a 
 necessary presupposition of religious educa- 
 tion. For, as we have already seen, to edu- 
 cate is not to secure conformity to adult ideas 
 and practices, but to help the immature 
 powers of the child to unfold and to grow. 
 The demand for religious education that is 
 being heard at the present day does not add 
 anything to the formal conception of educa- 
 tion as development of native capacities to- 
 ward complete living, but it asserts that, just 
 as the social destiny is p re-formed in the men- 
 tal structure, so also is the religious destiny, 
 and that in any complete education the one 
 as well as the other must be developed.^ 
 
 12. (2) To Trans- We have just approached 
 
 mit the Religious ,. . i ,• .i i 
 
 Heritage of the religious education through 
 
 Race. a consideration of the child. 
 
 We may also approach it 
 through the conception of the adult who un- 
 dertakes to help the child. For, included in 
 the accumulated experience whereby men are 
 fitted to help childhood is religion. Butler 
 
 ^ See addresses by George A. Coe and Edwin D. Star- 
 buck in Proceedings of The Religious Education Associa- 
 tion (Cliicago, 1903), pages 44-59. 
 
 / 
 
24 EDTJCUTIOX IN RIOLIGIOX AND MORALS 
 
 defines education as "a gradual adjustment 
 to the spiritual possessions of the race. ' '^ Un- 
 der the term "spiritual possessions" he in- 
 cludes the scientific inheritance, the literary 
 inheritance, the aesthetic inheritance, the in- 
 stitutional (or politico-social) inheritance, 
 and the religious inheritance, to all five of 
 which the child is entitled. Through long 
 labor and pain, through experiment and re- 
 flection, the race has acquired ideas, habits, 
 institutions, all of which are of recognised 
 worth, but few of which could be acquired by 
 anyone through his unaided powers even in 
 the longest lifetime. Education puts each 
 new generation into possession of these race- 
 acquisitions. As someone has said, this en- 
 ables each generation to stand upon the shoul- 
 ders of the last. Applying this to religious 
 <iducation, we may say that it is the process 
 whereby adults who have achieved something 
 of right relations to their fellows and to God 
 assist the young to reach similar relations. 
 
 13. (3) To Adjust The third method of ap- 
 the Race to its , , , . , . , 
 
 Divine proach borrows a biological 
 
 Environment. notion. Life includes ad- 
 
 justment to environment, 
 and the highest life is that which has the most 
 
 » Nicholas Murray Butler : The Meaning of Education 
 (New Yorli, 1898), Lecture L 
 
NECESSITY FOR RELIGIOUS EDUCATION 25 
 
 far-reaching adaptations. An animal with 
 eyes adjusts itself to distant objects, as well 
 as to those that are in contact with the body. 
 When memory appears it results in adapta- 
 tion to the invisible and the future. 
 Mind as a whole can, in fact, be looked 
 upon as an instrument of adjustment. 
 Conscience and the social instinct bring 
 about conduct adapted to the social en- 
 vironment, and, if religion be true, the re- 
 ligious impulse adjusts the individual to God, 
 who environs us all. Under this biological 
 figure, education may be looked upon as a 
 special factor in the universal process of re- 
 lating living beings to their world, and re- 
 ligious education as the most universal or far- 
 reaching part thereof. Moreover, since the 
 religious aim in education includes the ethical 
 or social, religious education is the adaptation 
 not merely of individuals but also of society 
 or the species to the divine environment. Ac- 
 cepting the notion that education consists of 
 acts performed by society for social ends, we 
 reach this final outcome of our biological fig- 
 ure: In religious education organised man 
 provides for a progressive adaptation of the 
 race to its divine environment.^ 
 
 * "Education Is the eternal process of superior adjust- 
 ment of the physically and mentally developed, free, con- 
 
26 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 14. Religious From every point of 
 
 Education not ,i ,. • j 
 
 Distinguished by ^lew, then, religious educa- 
 
 Its Method. tion is simply education 
 
 that completes itself by 
 taking account of the whole child, the whole 
 educator, and the whole goal or destiny of 
 man. It is not distinguished— primarily, at 
 least, and in the sequel we shall see not at 
 all— by any peculiarity of method or by 
 any peculiarity in its means, such as 
 the Bible, the catechism, or the personal 
 influence of the parent or teacher. While 
 it is inevitable that the details of ma- 
 terial and of method will vary with varying 
 conceptions of the end in view, the end, not 
 the means, is the fundamental point of dif- 
 ference. The Sunday school is a school in 
 the same sense as the public institution that 
 bears that name. Home training is training 
 in the same sense that the word "training" 
 bears in either the Sunday school or the day 
 school. Schools and training, of whatever 
 kind, rest finally upon general laws of the 
 mind and body of the being that is to be de- 
 veloped. 
 
 Perhaps the simplest illustration of this 
 
 sclous, human being to God, as manifested In the Intel- 
 lectual, emotional, and volitional environment of man." 
 — H. H. Home: The Philosophy of Education (New 
 York, 1904), page 285. 
 
NECESSITY FOR RELIGIOUS EDUCATION 27 
 
 point is the law of habit. This law is basic in 
 all training whatsoever because it is the gen- 
 eral method by which a movable element of 
 mind or character becomes a fixture. It ap- 
 plies to the intellect no more than it does to 
 the emotions ; to the outward act no more than 
 to the inward motive or ideal. The only way 
 in which Ave can make what we wish to out 
 of an undeveloped being is to cause him to 
 form an appropriate habit. What is true of 
 the law of habit is true also of all the general 
 laws of the mind that underlie education. 
 They underlie all education, and necessarily 
 so. The primary difference between religious 
 and other education, accordingly, is the end 
 in view, or the conception of human life that 
 it represents. 
 
 15. What^ is If^ then, there is here any 
 
 Education? fundamental antithesis at 
 
 all, it is not only an an- 
 tithesis ; it is a conflict. For the sake of con- 
 venience of language, and especially because 
 the public schools of our country do not give 
 religious instruction, "general" education 
 has come to be distinguished not only from 
 technical and professional training but also 
 from training in religion. There results an 
 unfortunate habit of thought. Education in 
 
28 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 religion is looked upon as a kind of special 
 training, or as a side current apart from the 
 main gulf-stream of culture. Like the train- 
 ing of bookkeepers, the study of Sanskrit, or 
 the exploration of the polar regions, it is sup- 
 posed to pertain simply to those who have a 
 special interest therein. The Sunday school, 
 and even religious training within the family 
 are therefore regarded as mere appendages of 
 the educational system. But religious educa- 
 tion can no more accept this place than reli- 
 gion itself can consent to be a mere depart- 
 ment of life. If religion were just a specialty 
 of priests, monks, and nuns ; or if it belonged 
 to Sunday, but not to Aveek days ; or if it ap- 
 plied to only a part of our conduct and our 
 ideals, then, indeed, religious education and 
 general education might be contrasted with 
 each other. In that case we would do well to 
 change our terminology. Reserving the terra 
 education to designate the development of the 
 man as such, we should use the term training 
 to indicate the special preparation for a par- 
 ticular occupation or function, as medical, 
 legal, business, or religious training. But re- 
 ligion claims to belong to the man as such. It 
 assumes to include morals, or the relations 
 between man and man, and indeed to reach to 
 
NECESSITY FOR RELIGIOUS EDUCATION 29 
 
 every aim or ideal whatsoever. Whatever re- 
 ligion may have been to early man, and what- 
 ever it may be to other civilisations than our 
 own, to us it is an all-inclusive, all-command- 
 ing principle, the very stuff that human life 
 is made of, or it is nothing at all. Conse- 
 quently, for us religious education is simply 
 education in the complete sense of that term, 
 or else it is not education, but mere special 
 training. It is therefore not strictly correct 
 to call it a part, even a necessary part, of 
 general education. Special times and places 
 and material may, of course, be set apart with 
 a special view to the religious development of 
 the child, but only in order that his whole 
 development, in every department, may be 
 raised to the religious level.^ 
 16. The Unity of In reality we have here 
 
 ptom^lhe' ^^^ reached the principle of the 
 Psychological unity of education. The 
 
 oin o lew. principle asserts that edu- 
 cation is not made up by aggregating 
 
 * Nicholas Murray Butler opposes the use of the 
 term 'religious education' on the ground that education 
 Is a unitary process and that religious training, intel- 
 lectual training, etc., apart from the whole, have no real 
 existence as education. — See Lecture I in Principles of 
 Religious Education (New York, 1900). With this gen- 
 eral point of view I think we may agree at the same 
 time that we employ the term religious education to 
 designate — not a part of general education, but — the 
 essential character of any truly general development of 
 the human person. 
 
30 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 parts, each of which exists on its own 
 account, but that it is rather like the sin- 
 gle life that realises itself in the various 
 organs of a human body. The reasons for this 
 point of view are three-fold. In the first 
 place, the child himself is a unit. He is not a 
 bundle of faculties— an intellect, plus a will, 
 plus a heart, etc. The old fashioned faculty- 
 psychology, which thus divided the man, is a 
 thing of the past. The whole child is at work 
 in each of his studies, not memory in one, 
 reason in another, perception in a third ; and 
 if the teacher cannot get the whole child thus 
 engaged the effort at teaching fails. The idea 
 of education, accordingly, is not that the child 
 acquires first one thing, then another, but that 
 he is first one thing, and then he develops in- 
 to something different. The principle of unity 
 thus carries us back once more to the ethical 
 conception of education," that is, the concep- 
 tion of what the child is becoming. 
 17. (2) From the From the ethical point of 
 
 Ethical Point of . , ■ •, , -,■ 
 
 Yje^_ View, also, we quickly dis- 
 
 cover that education, right- 
 ly considered, is a unit. For the ethical 
 view of life is an effort to introduce into life, 
 or to discover within life, organisation, har- 
 mony, unity. We begin our existence as crea- 
 
NECESSITY FOR RELIGIOUS EDUCATION 31 
 
 tures of mere impulse. The little child is ab- 
 sorbed first in one situation, then in another; 
 he does not connect them or feel the need of 
 doing so ; as far as his consciousness goes, life 
 is framentary and unorganised. What edu- 
 cation has to do for him is to bring into his 
 impulses due subordination of one to an- 
 other ; into his fragmentary interests a princi- 
 ple of organisation ; into his life as a whole a 
 purpose and a meaning. That is, he is to de- 
 velop toward an ideal self, and this ideal 
 presides as mistress over the whole process. 
 Education is unitary, then, not merely be- 
 cause in the actual self of the child there is 
 no separation of faculties, but also because 
 the ideal of a completely unified self is an 
 implicit principle of the whole development. 
 
 18. (3) From the The unified self with 
 
 Religious Point i • i . i • i - i • £ 
 
 of View. which ethics has to do is, or 
 
 course, the social self , or 
 the self' realised in society. Religion alone, in 
 strictness, looks to that complete unification 
 of the self which includes not only my fel- 
 lows but also my entire world. Ethics as 
 such is usually considered as having to do 
 merely with human relationships; religion 
 with our relations to the ultimate ground of 
 our being. Now, whether or not religious 
 
32 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 faith is well founded, the aspiration for unity 
 with the ultimate ground of our being is im- 
 plicit in all education. The endeavor of all 
 of us as men is to find ourselves at home in 
 this our world. The practical interest in con- 
 trolling nature and the theoretical interest in 
 knowing her blend into the one interest of 
 overcoming the apparent opposition between 
 the self and its world. Self-realisation can 
 never be complete except as an ultimate unity 
 is found here. Thus religion, instead of be- 
 ing a department of education, is an implicit 
 motive thereof. It is the end that presides 
 over the beginning and gives unity to all 
 stages of the process. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 GOD, NATURE, AND MAN IN EDUCATION 
 
 19. The Narrow Thus far we have con- 
 
 and the Broad . ^ j i . • i 
 
 Sense of sidered education simply as 
 
 "Education." a voluntary activity on the 
 
 part of men, an effort of the 
 older to help the younger. This is education 
 in the narrow or strictly technical sense. But 
 there is a larger sense of the term, also, ac- 
 cording to which it designates everything that 
 enters into the process of shaping the char- 
 acter of the child, and finally everything that 
 shapes mankind in the large.^ Thus we 
 speak of the education of a nation, as Israel, 
 or of the human race, as well as of individu- 
 als. We say, also, that nature helps in vari- 
 ous ways to educate the race and the indi- 
 vidual, and that "experience is a stern school- 
 master." In the present chapter an effort 
 will be made to view religious education in 
 this large way, and especially to connect the 
 two obvious factors in it, man the educator 
 
 i Cf. J. K. F. Rosenkranz : The Philosophy of Educa- 
 tion (New York, 1889), pages 10, 21f. 
 
34 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 and nature the educator, with God as edu- 
 cator in the supreme sense. 
 
 20. The Divine The thought that God 
 
 Education of ^ , . ^ 
 
 Igpggl^ educates men is a very old 
 
 one. "The law," says the 
 Letter to the Galatians (3: 24) "hath been 
 our tutor to bring us unto Christ." This ap- 
 pears to have been the general standpoint of 
 the early Christians with reference to the his- 
 tory of Israel. That history was a divine 
 preparation of the nation for receiving the 
 supreme revelation in Christ. God spoke to 
 the fathers through the prophets, and by this 
 means gradually brought about the fulness of 
 the time that made the sending of his own 
 Son a practicable measure. Herein the early 
 Christians did not read the notion of race 
 education into the ancient scriptures ; it was 
 already there, and very close to the surface, 
 too. The story of Israel is a story of growth 
 from small beginnings to a great nation; of 
 the setting of tasks, of specific instruction, of 
 testing, punishing and rewarding, all with a 
 view to bringing to maturity the "son" who 
 was "called out of Egypt" (Hosea, 11: 1). 
 Jehovah was a father, and Israel was a child 
 who was being brought up. 
 
GOD. NATURE AND MAN IN EDUCATION 35 
 
 21. The Divine By extending this jiotion 
 
 the^FTace? ° i^st a little farther, we 
 
 come to think of divine 
 providence in the whole of human history as 
 a divine education of the race. God does not 
 merely judge the nations, punishing evil and 
 rewarding good; he also trains the nations 
 toward righteousness. The growth of civili- 
 sation is the progress of mankind in this di- 
 vine school. Particularly in the history of 
 religion do we find this manifest. Lessing, 
 and the philosophers of religion who have 
 built upon his great conception of the divine 
 education of the human race, have taught us 
 to see in the religions of the world a gradual 
 self-revelation of God to men. This is a 
 modern idea, and yet the roots of it were 
 certainly present in the mind of Paul when 
 he proclaimed his philosophy of religion to 
 the Athenians. God, he declared, not only 
 created men, but also appointed their national 
 existence, and implanted in them an impulse 
 to seek after him. Further, God recognises, 
 as flowing from this divinely implanted im- 
 pulse, lower as well as higher stages of re- 
 ligion, and in Christ he brings to a culmina- 
 tion what was dimly revealed even in ignorant 
 modes of worship (Acts 17: 22-30). At a 
 
36 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 later point in our study we shall see how true 
 it is that the race begins its career in an in- 
 fantile state and moves toward maturity only 
 through a gradual process of education. 
 
 22. The Divine But the race consists of 
 
 Education of .,..,, , ,i j- 
 
 the Individual. individuals, and SO the di- 
 vine education of the race 
 is the divine education of individual boys and 
 girls. Boys and girls, let us say, rather than 
 men and women. For the plasticity that is 
 pre-requisite to education largely disappears 
 when youth passes into full manhood and 
 womanhood. Maturity is, indeed, the great 
 period for acquiring things and knowledge, 
 but not for forming character. As far as race 
 progress in character is concerned, the chief 
 contribution that maturity can make is to ac- 
 cumulate the means and instruments for mak- 
 ing the next generation better than the pres- 
 ent through improved education.^ If God is 
 
 1 "I believe that education is tlie fundamental method 
 of social progress and reform I believe that all re- 
 forms which rest simply upon the enactment of law, or 
 the threatening of certain penalties, or upon changes in 
 mechanical or outward arrangements, are transitory and 
 futile.... I believe that the community's duty to educa- 
 tion is, therefore, its paramount moral duty. By law 
 and punishment, by social agitation and discussion, so- 
 ciety can regulate and form itself in a more or less hap- 
 hazard and chance way. But through education society 
 can formulate its own purposes, can organise its own 
 means and resources, and thus shape itself with definite- 
 ness in the direction in which it wishes to move." — John 
 Dewey: My Pedagogic Creed (New York, 1897), pages 
 16 f. 
 
GOD, NATURE AND MAN IN EDUCATION 37 
 
 the supreme educator of the race, he is for 
 the same reason the supreme educator of each 
 child. This aspect of the educational prob- 
 lem has been almost entirely overlooked, even 
 by religious teachers. Education has been 
 persistently thought of as something done for 
 the child by his elders, while the possibility 
 that it may consist still more in something 
 vrrought within the character by the Divine 
 Spirit has been scarcely dreamed of. It will 
 therefore be worth while to see how we are to 
 connect the thought of God as the great edu- 
 cator of the race with the humble, everyday 
 effort of parent or teacher to bring up a child 
 in the way that he should go. 
 
 23. The Divine First of all, the child 
 
 Hand in the i? ^i i? r-i t i. 
 
 Religious Nature comes forth from God bear- 
 
 of Man- ing the image of the Crea- 
 
 tor. That God created man 
 in his own image may once have seemed to 
 imply many grotesque notions of God, as that 
 he has a physical form which ours resembles. 
 But the phrase never loses its power over us 
 because, with every advance in our concep- 
 tions of God, we discover something corre- 
 sponding thereto in the structure of our own 
 mind. Man has a religious nature. The defi- 
 nite establishment of this proposition is per- 
 
S8 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 haps the greatest service that the history and 
 psychology of religion have performed. Not 
 very long ago men were still asking whether 
 religion might not have arisen through priest- 
 craft or statecraft, or at least through some 
 incidental feature of human experience. Ee- 
 ligion was looked upon as a theory or belief 
 which men had formed for themselves some- 
 what as we form our hypotheses of inhabit- 
 ants in other planets. Some tribes were said 
 to be entirely without religion, and hence it 
 was inferred that religion does not belong to 
 humanity as such. But the ' tribe destitute of 
 religion' is found to be purely imaginary, 
 and the history of religion begins its recital 
 with the affirmation that man as such has a 
 religious impulse out of w^hich have sprung 
 all the religions of the world.^ 
 
 Out of this impulse springs, not less, 
 the entire religious development of the indi- 
 vidual. Here is something that neither 
 parent nor teacher imparts, something that 
 must first be there if their labor is to 
 have any religious effectiveness. Into the 
 constitution of every one of us God has 
 wrought his plan for human life. In every 
 genuine utterance of the religious impulse 
 
 1 See, for example, Morris Jastrow : The Study of Re- 
 ligion (New York, 1901), pages 195 f., 293, et passim. 
 
GOD. NATURE AND MAN IN EDUCATION 39 
 
 there is manifested 'prevenient grace,' the 
 divine empowering and inspiration that 
 'come before' our human acts and give them 
 effect. Thus, at every step in religious edu- 
 cation God himself— the present, living God, 
 the Word that enlighteneth every man coming 
 into the world — is the supreme factor. 
 
 24. The Divine It follows that parents 
 
 Vocation of i . i i . 
 
 Parents and ^^^ teachers are properly 
 
 Teachers. instruments in the divine 
 
 hand for playing upon the 
 divinely constructed strings of human nature. 
 Man as educator is not the complete source of 
 his own activities. His desire to build up 
 right character in the young is not an inven- 
 tion, it is an inspiration. The same hand that 
 impels the child through what we call the 
 religious impulse impels the educator also to 
 supply food for the growth of that impulse. 
 And what a vocation is this of parents and 
 teachers! In their hands as in no others lie 
 the reins of the chariot of God. In the na- 
 ture of things, the kingdom of God must 
 grow chiefly by securing control of young 
 life. The religious impulse must be fed and 
 it must be led on to realise its full manhood 
 through voluntary obedience to Christ. This 
 is religious education. It controls the stream 
 
40 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 at its source. The broad river of humanity is 
 what it is made to be in the home and in the 
 school of whatever kind. Parents and teach- 
 ers are making history; they are making or 
 unmaking civilisation; they are promoting or 
 holding back the triumph of God's kingdom 
 upon the earth. They are doing this whether 
 they will or no. The young life that touches 
 their life is plastic. It takes the shape of that 
 with which it comes into contact. Every par- 
 ent, every teacher, and indeed every person 
 who has any relation to young life has there- 
 fore a divine vocation. He is set apart, 
 chosen, to reveal God. This is true of irre- 
 ligious as well as religious parents, of teach- 
 ers in the week-day school as well as teachers 
 in the Sunday school. Whoever is placed where 
 he molds the life of a child or youth, however 
 he came to be so placed, is bound to this serv- 
 ice. 
 
 25. Nature as a The educational reform 
 
 Education. of the last century is char- 
 
 acterised chiefly by two 
 marks : On the one hand, it gives a new rec- 
 ognition to natural law in the educational 
 process, and on the other hand it defines the 
 end of education in social terms. The nature- 
 side appears most prominently in the extraor- 
 
GOD, NATURE AND MAN IN EDUCATION 41 
 
 dinary attention given to the child— his phys- 
 ical and mental structure, his spontaneous 
 impulses, the stages of his growth, and the 
 relation of his development to the evolution 
 of the human species. We have come to see 
 that education is not imposed by us upon na- 
 ture but is rather a voluntary carrying for- 
 ward of a natural process. Every sensation 
 that streams in upon the infant mind contrib- 
 utes something to the formation of the per- 
 sonality. The baby's spontaneous throwing 
 about of arms and legs helps to develop the 
 motor centers which constitute the physical 
 basis of will and self-control. Play is a gen- 
 uine school in which nature drills the pupil 
 in every faculty. The whole contact of the 
 child with nature is, in fact, educative. But 
 even this is not half the story. For in the 
 spontaneous reactions which the child makes 
 to his environment we behold adaptive mental 
 traits which he has inherited through 
 his relation to the species, and the species 
 through its place in the general evolution of 
 living beings. The past of the race speaks in 
 the child, and the past of life upon this 
 planet speaks in the race. The social instinct, 
 for example, which is one of the corner stones 
 of all character-building, is natural in the 
 
42 EDLX'ATION IX RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 complete sense of the term nature, and it has 
 a long human and pre-human history. All 
 our deliberate efiPorts to educate can do no 
 more than continue the work thus begun by 
 nature. We do not bestow a mental consti- 
 tution upon the child ; we merely feed, stimu- 
 late, and direct what is already there. We 
 may say, therefore, that education carries for- 
 ward what nature has already begun.^ 
 
 26. The Educative What then ? Shall we 
 Presence of God .-, • ^ .^ , ^ i 
 
 in Nature. think that, because educa- 
 
 tion is natural, God is not a 
 factor in it ? Eather, let us say that, just be- 
 cause evolution has provided a basis upon 
 which our spiritual building can be erected, 
 just because the movement of life has been 
 upward toward the capacity and the impulse 
 of love toward God, therefore we discover God 
 
 ^ "Education is conscious or voluntary evolution." — 
 Thomas Davidson: History of Education (New York, 
 1901), page 1. Cf. Nicliolas Murray Butler: The 
 Meaning of Education (New York, 1898), Lecture I, 
 and the* following words from Bishop Spalding : "Life 
 is the unfolding of a mysterious power, which in man 
 rises to self-consciousness, and through self-conscious- 
 ness to the knowledge of a world of truth and order 
 and love, where action may no longer be left wholly 
 to the sway of matter or to 'the impulse of instinct, 
 but may and should be controlled by reason and con- 
 Bclence. To further this process by deliberate and in- 
 telligent effort is to educate. Hence education is man's 
 conscious co-operation with the Infinite Being in pro- 
 moting the development of life ; it is the bringing of 
 life in its highest form to bear upon life, individual and 
 social, that it may raise it to greater perfection, to ever- 
 increasing potency." — J. L. Spalding : Means and Ends 
 of Education (Chicago, 1901), page 72. 
 
GOD, NATURE AND MAN IN EDUCATION 43 
 
 in evolution and conclude that the ultimate 
 source of education as respects nature, thv. 
 child, and the educator— all three— is He in 
 whom "we live, and move, and have our be- 
 ing. ' '^ This way of regarding nature is com- 
 pleted in the universally received doctrine of 
 the immanence, or abiding presence, of God. 
 This means, among other things, that ma- 
 terial atoms are forms of divine activity ; that 
 the laws of nature are simply the orderly 
 methods of his rational will, which is in com- 
 plete control of itself ; that evolution does not 
 suffer any break when man, a self conscious 
 and moral being, appears, because the whole 
 of evolution is, in reality, a process of realis- 
 ing a moral purpose ; that the correlation of 
 mind and brain is just the phenomenal aspect 
 of the real correlation of our mind with the 
 divine power which sustains us; that the de- 
 velopment, physiological and mental, that 
 man receives through nature is part of an 
 all-inclusive educational plan, and that, in 
 our work as educators, God is working 
 through our reason and will to carry forward 
 the universal plan. 
 
 ^ See Newman Smyth : Through Science to Faith 
 (New Yorlj, 1902) ; also Henry Drummond : The Ascent 
 of Man (New Yorl£, 1898). 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 THE CHRISTIAN VIEW OF CHILDHOOD 
 
 27. Jesus and The inclusion of nature 
 
 Little Children. -1.1 • -j. 1 tp c 
 
 and the spiritual liie 01 
 man in a single conception, as was done in 
 the last chapter, brings us face to face with 
 the Christian conceptions of the natural and 
 the spiritual man, of depravity and grace, as 
 far as these have a bearing upon childhood. 
 We must, in short, go forward from the stand- 
 point of religious education in a merely gen- 
 eral sense to that of specifically Christian edu- 
 cation. 
 
 The central idea, the controlling principle 
 of such education, must be sought in the life 
 and teachings of Jesus. Here we are at once 
 struck by a distinctive attitude and a distinc- 
 tive utterance. It is clear that Jesus was 
 fond of children ; he had the same tender feel- 
 ing, the same helief in them that every nor- 
 mal man among us experiences who comes 
 close to the life of a little one. To Jesus child- 
 life is not a dark picture, but a bright one. It 
 does not depress his soul with a sense of evil 
 or of danger, but lifts it up with a feeling of 
 the nearness of divine things. We should find 
 this in the picture of Jesus taking little chil- 
 
THE CHRISTIAN VIEW OF CHILDHOOD 45 
 
 dren into his arms, even if he had left no re- 
 corded word on the subject. But he expressly 
 declares this to be his view. He took little 
 children into his arms and "blessed them." 
 The word here rendered "blessed" has the 
 same root as our term "eulogy," and in this 
 particular passage the simple root is strength- 
 ened by a special prefix that denotes intensity. 
 The root-meaning, "to speak well of," has ac- 
 quired various derivative meanings, but it is 
 a word that could not be used of a person or a 
 thing that one did not approve of. 
 
 28. Jesus' Teach- This of itself would be 
 
 mg Concerning u ^ i ^ i ^i, 
 
 the Child and the enough to let US know the 
 
 Kingdom. mind of the Master concern- 
 
 ing childhood. But the 
 Master put his thought into still more specific 
 form. "For of such," he said, "is the king- 
 dom of God. ' ' The ' ' of such " is a possessive ; 
 it is the same form as the "theirs" in the first 
 Beatitude, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, 
 for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. ' ' That is, 
 Jesus asserts that the kingdom of God be- 
 longs to little children, it is theirs. The state- 
 ment is not that the kingdom belongs to those 
 who are like little children— that is a sepa- 
 rate statement which refers to adults. 
 Adults who are at enmity with God must enter 
 
4P, EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 the kingdom by humbling themselves and be- 
 coming like little children, but to little chil- 
 dren themselves the kingdom already be- 
 longs. It may, perhaps, be significant that 
 this passage occurs in the oldest of the Gos- 
 pels, that of Mark. Additional weight is 
 given to it by Jesus' repeated references to 
 childhood as an illustration of the qualities 
 necessary for entering the kingdom and for 
 attaining greatness therein. 
 29. Jesus' View A distinction is made. 
 
 Spiritual then, between the status of 
 
 Development. little children and that of 
 
 mature and wilful sinners. 
 The latter must repent and be converted, but 
 children, already possessing the life-principle 
 of the kingdom, require spiritual development. 
 Jesus ' recorded words do not, it is true, say 
 all this, yet all of it is implied in the circum- 
 stances under which he spoke the words that 
 have come down to us. He was speaking to a 
 Jewish audience. Now, as soon as we realise 
 the sense that a Jewish hearer must have 
 found in his words, they become illuminated 
 for us. Every Jewish child, by virtue of his 
 blood, was regarded as under the covenant 
 made with Abraham; he was already a mem- 
 ber of the theocratic kingdom. In no sense 
 
THE CHRISTIAN VIEW OF CHILDHOOD 47 
 
 was he an outsider who had to be brought in. 
 According to the law he was simply to be 
 taught from infancy the story of Israel, a 
 story in which he belonged from birth, and 
 when he reached the age of thirteen he be- 
 came, as a matter of course, subject to the 
 whole law. This conception of childhood 
 Jesus here adopts, spiritualises, and fills with 
 his own good news of the kingdom, not of Is- 
 rael, but of God. As the Jewish child was 
 within the Abrahamic covenant by virtue of 
 descent from Abraham, so all children are 
 within the household of God by virtue of the 
 divine grace which Jesus here announces. 
 Normal child development, then, takes place 
 entirely within the kingdom of grace. It con- 
 sists of a gradual apprehension of the princi- 
 ples of the kingdom, and increasing partici- 
 pation in the activities and responsibilities 
 thereof. The parables of the growth of the 
 kingdom apply to the individual as well as to 
 the world at large. In both spheres the law 
 is "first the blade, then the ear, then the full 
 corn in the ear." 
 
 30. What should We shall see, after a 
 
 Christians Expect while, that the assumption 
 
 Children? ^^ responsibility by the 
 
 Jewish child at the age of 
 
48 EDUCATION IN UELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 thirteen is a normal and typical fact. A tran- 
 sition more or less rapid, more or less pro- 
 found, is to be looked for in the early and 
 middle years of adolescence. But children 
 should be expected to remain within the king- 
 dom from infancy, so that the adolescent tran- 
 sition, when it comes, may be a step, not into 
 the Christian life, but within the Christian 
 life. Many children of Christian parents do, 
 as a matter of fact, reach Christian manhood 
 in this way. Taught from the start to count 
 themselves children of God, from stage to 
 stage of their growth they exercise a faith that 
 is proportioned to their powers. These rep- 
 resent the normal development of a child 
 under Christian influences. The fact that 
 many children who are brought up in Chris- 
 tian homes go away from God does not indi- 
 'jate that Jesus was in error in his view of the 
 child and his development. He knew that 
 tares may spring up in any wheat field, and 
 that in the child as well as in the adult the 
 kingdom wages a contest with evil. But who 
 shall say how much of this falling away is due 
 to a general failure on the part of the church 
 to apprehend Jesus' plan of the kingdom? 
 Many Christian parents assume that their chil- 
 dren are aliens or outsiders who must wait to 
 
THE CHRISTIAN VIEW OP CHILDHOOD 49 
 
 be brought in when they grow older. Many 
 other parents who believe in childhood re- 
 ligion nevertheless neglect to teach their chil- 
 dren unequivocally that they are already chil- 
 dren of God. The present alarming falling 
 away of the children of the church is just 
 what should be expected under present condi- 
 tions. 
 
 31. The true Idea One great hindrance to 
 of Christian ^, „ ,, , , 
 
 Nurture has been the tull acceptance and 
 
 Obscured by the practice of Jesus' principle 
 Doctrine of • , i p -, • 
 
 Depravity. IS to be lound m a misun- 
 
 derstanding of the facts 
 that underlie the doctrine of natural deprav- 
 ity. That there are facts back of this doc- 
 trine must be obvious to any sober observer 
 of life, whether that of the race or that of the 
 individual, that of the adult or that of the 
 child. In every one of us the good has a 
 struggle against evil; in every one of us the 
 good is so modified by evil that ideal charac- 
 ter is never quite attained. Before a child can 
 form a moral judgment he displays tenden- 
 cies Avhich, if they develop without check, will 
 issue in a bad character. Nevertheless, the 
 doctrine of total depravity in its unrelieved 
 form (a form which it no longer bears) con- 
 tradicts the whole idea of religious education. 
 
50 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 For it says that there is nothing in the child 
 that is worth bringing out, that development 
 can do nothing for him, that he must wait for 
 something to happen to him before he can so 
 much as begin to be religious. The only con- 
 ceivable training for a being in this condition 
 would be external and chiefly negative. Fear 
 might be employed to prevent outbreaks, and 
 habits of external conformity to religious in- 
 stitutions might be formed. But the person- 
 ality would remain undeveloped, uneducated. 
 This would be carpentry, an external shaping 
 of materials, not education, which is the inner 
 development of a self. 
 
 There is no way to educate a dead soul. 
 Life, development, education — this is the as- 
 cending series of conceptions. Before there is 
 education there must be life, a life that con- 
 tains within itself a law of development. We 
 shall soon see how theology has largely over- 
 come the theoretical ditficulties that it created 
 for itself in the doctrine of total depravity. 
 But we have not yet recovered from the prac- 
 tical difficulties that it entailed upon the laity. 
 We still suffer from the inertia of the older 
 view. For even yet we scarcely think of the 
 child, in our habitual thought, as being spirit- 
 
THE CIIRiSTlAN VIEW OF CHILDHOOD 51 
 
 ually alive. Perhaps we do not distinctly re- 
 gard him as completely dead, but we certainly 
 have not acquired the habit of seeing the life 
 that is there or of feeding it in any adequate 
 manner, 
 
 32. Illustrations The pressing necessity of 
 
 of this . , . , 
 
 Obscuration. securing a positive and 
 
 sharply defined point of 
 view with reference to the child makes 
 it advisable that we should look with 
 wide open eyes at the immediate past of 
 our present neglect. The past is not so much 
 one of neglect as of misunderstanding and 
 mishandling of the child. The lot of the child 
 in colonial days is indicated in the following 
 passage from the diary of Cotton Mather: 
 "I took my little daughter Katy [a tot of 
 four yearsl into my Study and then I told my 
 child I am to dye Shortly and shee must, 
 when I am Dead, remember Everything I now 
 said unto her. I sett before her the sinful 
 Condition of her Nature, and I charged her 
 to pray in Secret Places every day. That 
 God for the sake of Jesus Christ would give 
 her a new Heart. I gave her to understand 
 that when I am taken from her she must look 
 to meet with more humbling Afflictions than 
 
52 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 she does now she has a Tender Father to pro- 
 vide for her. "1 
 
 In 1831 the American Tract Society pub- 
 lished a little book (abridged from an earlier 
 one printed in Great Britain) called Persua- 
 sives to Early Piety, by J. G. Pike. What 
 motives to piety were set before the young in 
 1831 ? First and foremost is fear. In the 
 Introductory Address to the Young Reader 
 the author exclaims: "Of how little conse- 
 quence is this poor, transient world to you, 
 who have an eternal world to mind ! " Of the 
 value of religion he says: "The living neg- 
 lect it, but the dead know its value. Every 
 'saint in heaven feels the worth of religion 
 through partaking of the blessings to which it 
 leads; and every soul in hell knows its value 
 by its want." He goes on to say that the 
 occasion for religion is our depravity. "The 
 sinfulness of your nature, my young friend, 
 is not partial ; it is not confined to some of 
 your powers or faculties; but, like a mortal 
 poison, spreads through and pollutes the 
 whole. . . So far are our best actions, in 
 our natural state, from helping us, that even 
 they are polluted and loathsome." The Per- 
 suasives ends, naturally, with a realistic de- 
 
 » Alice Morse Earle : Child Life in Colonial Days 
 (New Yorl£, 1899), page 236. 
 
THE CHRISTIAN VIEW OF CHILDHOOD 53 
 
 scription of the torments of literal hell fire. 
 In song, if anywhere, the heart of Jesus 
 should find expression, yet in a collection of 
 "Hymns for Sunday Schools, Youth and 
 Children"^ published as late as 1852, the child 
 is made to sing from the standpoint of human 
 ruin and fear. Compare the following child's 
 hymn, for example, with the words of Jesus 
 concerning childhood : 
 
 "There is beyond the sky 
 
 A heaven of joy and love ; 
 And holy children, when they die, 
 
 Go to that world above. 
 
 "There is a dreadful hell, 
 
 And everlasting pains ; 
 There sinners must with devils dwell, 
 
 In darkness, fire, and chains. 
 
 "Can such a child as I 
 
 Escape this awful end? 
 And may I hope, whene'er I die, 
 
 I shall to heaven ascend? 
 
 "Then will I read and pray. 
 
 While I have life and breath ; 
 Lest I should be cut off to-day. 
 
 And sent t' eternal death." 
 
 33. The Doctrinal The difficulty for educa- 
 Difficulty has -• -i . 4. ^ j.i, 
 
 been Overcome. tion that grows out of the 
 
 doctrine of depravity is 
 practically overcome in some churches through 
 the countervailing doctrine of baptismal re- 
 generation. This provides for spiritual life in 
 all baptised infants and makes genuine Chris- 
 
 ^ New York, Carlton & Phillips, 1852. I have made 
 further citations from this interesting collection in The 
 Religion of a Mature Mind (Chicago, 1902), pages 
 314 f. 
 
54 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 tian nurture possible. In other churches the 
 difficulty had to be met by a new adjustment 
 of the notions of sin and grace, and this ad- 
 justment has actually been made. We owe it, 
 in large measure, to Horace Bushnell who, 
 just before the publication of the hymn just 
 quoted, issued his book on Christian Nurture 
 (1847). He maintained that a positive re- 
 ligious life does not need to wait for the crisis 
 of conversion, but that, under the pervasive 
 influence of the Christian family, "the child 
 should grow up a Christian, and never know 
 himself as being otherwise." To the objec- 
 tion that this theory ignores the child's de- 
 pravity and the necessity for regeneration, 
 Bushnell replied in substance that wherever 
 sin can abound there grace can much more 
 abound. That is, he overcame the difficulty, 
 not by denying depravity, but by exalting 
 the grace of God. The unquestionably good 
 qualties shown by little children he inter- 
 preted as signs of the divine in-working. 
 With this in-working parents and teachers 
 are to co-operate so that development of the 
 divinely implanted germ may be continuous. 
 A similar position was taken a little later 
 by F. G. Hibbard, who approached the prob- 
 lem from Arminian rather than Puritan pre- 
 
THE CHRISTIAN VIEW OF CHILDHOOD 55 
 
 suppositions.^ He maintained that children 
 —all children — are in a state of favor 
 with God, who imparts to them a genuine 
 spiritual quickening or principle of life. 
 This view he supports at length from Scrip- 
 ture and from the current belief of his 
 own communion that all chidren who 
 die in infancy are saved. If dying infants 
 are saved, it must be through divine grace, 
 but why should such grace be given to those 
 who die, but withheld from those who need it 
 for living? This view requires a change in 
 the ordinary notion of conversion, for now 
 the real question becomes— not. Will this 
 child ever be converted to God ? but— Will he 
 ever be converted away from God ? One can- 
 not become a member of the kingdom of sin 
 except through one's own evil choice to sur- 
 render one's heavenly citizenship. 
 
 Through such writings and other influences 
 there has come to prevail somewhat generally 
 the view that the Holy Spirit is continually 
 present in the heart of man from the begin- 
 ning of consciousness, and that thus a genuine 
 spiritual life is imparted, in germinal form, to 
 
 1 F. G. Hlbbard : The Religion of Childhood ; or, 
 Children in their Relation to Native Depravity, to the 
 Atonement, to the Family, and to the Church (Cincin- 
 nati : Foe & Hitchcock:, 1866). 
 
56 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 all who do not positively refuse to accept it. 
 The existence of evil tendencies is not thereby 
 denied, but such tendencies are believed to 
 find a continuous corrective in divine help as 
 far as this is not rejected or neglected. Neither 
 is the need of individual decision lessened un- 
 der this view, for normal growth takes place 
 only through co-operation of the individual 
 will with the inner divine impulsion. 
 
 34. Good and Evil This change in the doc- 
 Impulses in . . 1 ■ J. £ • 1, „ 
 
 Children. trmal pomt 01 view has 
 
 been accompanied by more 
 thorough observation of the actual impulses 
 of children. The general result thereof is to 
 confirm the universal Christian belief that, 
 in some sense, the natural man is at enmity 
 with the spiritual man. At the same time it 
 shows that the natural man is, in some sense, 
 already spiritual. The impulses of children 
 are partly wholesome, partly unwholesome. 
 
 It is clear that children's "lies," which 
 were formerly regarded as clear evidence of 
 childhood depravity, have been misunder- 
 stood. In order to recognise the difference 
 between fact and fancy, considerable expe- 
 rience is necessary. Even grown persons 
 commonly confuse the two. How much more 
 a little child, who has everything yet to 
 
THE CHRISTIAX VIEW OF CHILDHOOD 57 
 
 learn ! Moreover, even when this distinction 
 is realised, . the child may not understand 
 the moral quality of wilful deception. He 
 deceives in self-defense just as he raises his 
 arm to ward off a blow. He has still to learn 
 the social effect of a lie. In short, when we 
 look at children's falsehoods from the stand- 
 point of the child himself we discover no such 
 inbred evil as was once assumed to be there. 
 
 Similarly the cruelty that is attributed 
 to little children is probably not cruelty at 
 all. For the young child has had no expe- 
 rience that enables him to interpret the 
 signs of suffering in animals or in men. 
 He does not delight in inflicting pain upon 
 others, for he does not realise that he is 
 inflicting pain. He has, however, great curi- 
 osity to see what will happen, and he de- 
 lights to feel his own power through witness- 
 ing the effects of it in the reactions of living 
 things. At these points, then, childhood's im- 
 pulses are not as bad as they have been repre- 
 sented to be. 
 
 At certain other points, however, the young 
 child displays impulses that are little above 
 those of the brutes. Every infant, to begin 
 with, is an almost complete egoist. His greed 
 is boundless ; he is subject to unregulated an- 
 
58 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 ger and envy ; he resists all the restraints that 
 are essential to social existence. On the other 
 hand, germs of positive good, such as sym- 
 pathy, kindness, generosity, affection, spring 
 up very early and in advance of instruction 
 and moral reflection.^ 
 
 35. How Interpret Thus good and evil im- 
 
 these Impulses? . i -i i 
 
 pulses mix in every child. 
 
 Yet not "good and evil" in any complete 
 sense. We must, in fact, make still another 
 effort to see the facts from the point of view 
 of childhood itself. Greed and anger that 
 would be reprehensible in us may bear no 
 such character in an infant. "No such char- 
 acter^'; that is precisely it. Character is a 
 confirmed habit of moral choice, and this the 
 young child has not yet attained. It would 
 be well, therefore, to drop both adjectives, 
 "evil" and "good," in our description of 
 childhood, at least of young childhood, or 
 else learn to give them an unwonted meaning. 
 The child has not a character as yet; he is 
 merely a candidate for character. He is 
 neither good nor bad ; he is merely becoming 
 one or the other. Some of his impulses, if 
 they grow unchecked and unregulated^ will 
 
 ' On this whole subject, see James Sully : Studies of 
 Childhood (New York, 1900), Chapter VII. 
 
THE CHRISTIAN VIEW OF CHILDHOOD 59 
 
 issue in bad character ; others, if they grow 
 symmetrically, will result in good character. 
 That is the whole story. 
 
 No, not quite the whole. For the two sets 
 of impulses do not stand on quite the same 
 footing. One set relates the child to the 
 lower animals, the other to distinctly human 
 life. The law of evolution has for the first 
 time enabled us to see such facts in their true 
 perspective. The unlovely impulses are traces 
 of lower orders of life out of which man has 
 evolved, and out of which each individual 
 child develops. The individual begins life on 
 the animal plane, somewhat as the human 
 race did, and he has to attain through devel- 
 opment the distinctly human traits. But it 
 is natural that he should attain them} The 
 law of development is written in his members. 
 The lower tendencies are, indeed, natural in 
 the sense that they spontaneously appear and 
 actually compete with the higher; but in a 
 profounder sense of "natural" the higher 
 tendencies are the natural ones, in the sense, 
 namely, that they represent what both the 
 
 ' Comenius, one of the earliest founders of natural 
 method, says : "It is more natural and, through the 
 grace of the Holy Spirit, easier for a man to become 
 wise, honest, and righteous, than for his progress to be 
 hindered by incidental depravity." — .Tohn Amos Comenius : 
 The Great Didactic, Translated by W, M, Keatlnge (Lon- 
 don, 1896), p. 203, 
 
60 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 child and the race are becoming. In order 
 to live his own life the child must control 
 and regulate his impulses. He not only 
 must but also does discriminate between 
 them, and generally he identifies himself 
 with at least a part of the general group 
 of impulses that we call wholesome. Fin- 
 ally, as will be shown in the proper place, 
 even the impulses that we call lower are ca- 
 pable of being transformed into instruments 
 for the realisation of the higher nature. 
 Greed, anger, envy, all represent spontaneous 
 energy that can be directed into either useful 
 or harmful channels. The work of education, 
 accordingly, is to furnish nutriment for the 
 higher tendencies and direction for the lower. 
 
 36. A Positive We are now ready to see 
 
 Religious Nature , ,, £ . i. 
 
 is Presupposed ^ow these facts bear upon 
 
 in Religious religious education. First, 
 
 Education. .^-^•^p -J.- 
 
 the denial or a positive re- 
 ligious nature to man through the doctrine of 
 total depravity tended to paralyse religious 
 education, (a) It denied that there was any- 
 thing to develop. (6) It judged the child 
 from the standpoint of the adult, and there- 
 fore could not secure any natural leverage in 
 the child-mind, (c) It employed repression, 
 instead of securing expression, with the 
 
THE CHRISTIAN VIEW OF CHILDHOOD 61 
 
 result of distorting the personality, and 
 often of producing opposition to religion. 
 (d) Taking maturity as a standard, it encour- 
 aged religious precocity, which is clearly un- 
 wholesome, (e) It placed undue emphasis 
 upon conversion experiences, and this led, on 
 the one hand, to emotional excesses, and on 
 the other to unnatural (and unspiritual) 
 straining after subjective states. 
 
 Education in religion must start out, then, 
 with the assumption that the child has a posi- 
 tive religious nature. This does not imply 
 any of the following notions: (a) That the 
 child is 'all right' as he is. Even a mature 
 Christian is not 'all right.' Both must strug- 
 gle to maintain and to increase the life that 
 is within them, and both may stumble without 
 forfeiting that life. (&) That the child can 
 grow up properly by a merely 'natural' pro- 
 cess, without divine help. Even a mature 
 Christian needs daily help, (c) That the life 
 principle in the child can take care of itself 
 without our help. On the contrary, just be- 
 cause a positive religious nature is here, defi- 
 nite spiritual food must be supplied, (d) 
 That the child has any definitely conscious re- 
 ligious experience or sense of God. He is 
 merely becoming conscious of spiritual things. 
 
62 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 To speak positively, the possession of a 
 positive religious nature implies three things : 
 (a) That the child has more than a passive 
 capacity for spiritual things. Just as animals 
 go forth in search of food, so a positive spirit- 
 ual nature goes forth spontaneously in search 
 of God. (&) That nothing short of union 
 with God can really bring a human being to 
 himself. The absurdity of a miser's life is 
 that a heart that hungers for God feeds on 
 gold. The tragedy in the life of every volup- 
 tuary is that a few drops of pleasure are of- 
 fered to slake a thirst for eternal things. In 
 fact, in all our strivings for wealth, pleasure, 
 honor, culture, we are really seeking to satisfy 
 a divine craving. The real meaning of every- 
 thing with which we have to do is God, who is 
 in all and through all. Failing to find him, we 
 lose even our self, (c) That the successive 
 phases in the growth of the child personality 
 may be, and normally are, so many phases of 
 a growing consciousness of the divine mean- 
 ing of life. Both the idea of God and the 
 religious regulation of life can develop from 
 crude beginnings, just as the song of a lark 
 comes out of a songless egg. In Part II we 
 shall have to show how the religious demand 
 
THE CHRISTIAN VIEW OP CHILDHOOD 63 
 
 of the child utters itself, and how the religious 
 nature grows. 
 
 37. Resulting "We saw in the last chap- 
 
 Conception of . , .^ . -1 1 i • 
 
 Christian ter how it IS possible to m- 
 
 Education. elude God, nature, and man 
 
 in a unitary conception of 
 religious education. At last, after a long dis- 
 cussion, we are ready to include Christ in 
 the same conception, and thus rise to the 
 thought of distinctively Christian education. 
 The view of God in his world that was sug- 
 gested in the last chapter is the Christian 
 view. The Christian view of the child fits 
 therein perfectly. In the spontaneous life of 
 the young child, all free from calculation and 
 deliberate choice, we see the human life of 
 love and reverence emerging out of nature. 
 Here the meaning of nature begins to show 
 itself; here creation rises from its valleys and 
 plains toward the mountain summits. God 
 himself makes the heart hungry. But where 
 shall nutriment adequate to this creature's 
 demands be found? Here is appetite of a 
 new and surprising sort. What is man? He 
 has been made only a little lower than God. 
 He has been crowned with glory and honor, 
 and all things have been put under his feet. 
 Yet even that is not enough for him. He will 
 
64 EDUCATION IN ItELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 have conscious union with the one being who 
 is higher than himself. Now, Christianity 
 says that in Christ God gives himself to men 
 as their light, their bread, their life. Chil- 
 dren, all of us, apprehending reality first of 
 all through sensuous media, we receive God 
 through his historic manifestation in that 
 which we can see with our eyes, and that 
 which we can handle with our hands of the 
 Word of Life. In Christ God responds to our 
 hunger. Feeding upon him we grow in like- 
 ness to God ; that is, we develop, we are edu- 
 cated. Christian education consists, then, in 
 so presenting Christ to immature souls that 
 they shall be by him enlightened, inspired, 
 and fed according to their gradually increas- 
 ing capacity, and thus made to grow continu- 
 ously within the courts of the Lord's house. 
 
APPENDIX TO CHAPTER IV 
 
 EDUCATION, DEPRAVITY, AND THE BIRTH PROM 
 ABOVE 
 
 I believe that one of the most serious ob- 
 stacles to the proper training of children is to 
 be found in the inertia of outgrown or mis- 
 understood theological conceptions. One of 
 the most misunderstood of these conceptions 
 is that of the "new birth" as it is related to 
 the normal development of the religious con- 
 sciousness. Education and regeneration have 
 been habitually contrasted with each other, as 
 though Jesus, in his declaration to Nicodemus, 
 had in mind suddenness or any other tem- 
 poral conception rather than the qualitative 
 unlikeness of two kinds of life and the divine 
 source of one of them. It would be well to 
 go back to the primary meaning of the scrip- 
 tural words by speaking of the "birth from 
 above" rather than the "new" birth. The 
 life from above is a kind of life, and its source 
 is God. There is here no antithesis to educa- 
 tion or development. A mature Christian is 
 expected to grow in the divine life ; why may 
 not a child grow in it also ? Why may not the 
 
66 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 life be there from the start? Education does 
 not bestow it upon the child, or enable him 
 to create it for himself; it merely helps him, 
 as the usual means of grace help adult Chris- 
 tians, to work out what God works within. A 
 child who thus grows up has the life from 
 above as truly as a converted rebel. Receiv- 
 ing as he goes along "the true light, even the 
 light that lighteth every man as he cometh 
 into the world," he has a right to be called a 
 child of God. (C/. George A. Coe: The Re- 
 ligion of a Mature Mind (Chicago, 1902), 
 Chapter VII: "The Right to be Called a 
 Child of God"). 
 
 That the present theological standpoint 
 of leading Christian denominations fur- 
 nishes, in nearly every case, an adequate 
 theoretical basis for Christian education is 
 reasonably clear from a survey of our pres- 
 ent situation. The Presbyterian General 
 Assembly has declared that all children who 
 die in infancy are saved. Here it is proper to 
 apply the remark of Hibbard already referred 
 to (see page 54). Cf. Henry VanDyke: God 
 and Little Children (New York, 1890). A 
 well known Presbyterian clergyman, in re- 
 sponse to a question, writes to me as follows: 
 "The Presbyterian doctrine concerning the 
 
EDUCATION AND THE BIRTH FROM ABOVE 67 
 
 relation of young children to God is this: 
 That by original nature, in their first state, 
 they are in a state of deficiency, needing the 
 touch of divine grace with regenerative power 
 before they are made the subjects of salva- 
 tion. . . This touch of divine grace or 
 regenerative presence in the child life may 
 come at birth, or, as I believe and I think 
 others do, may come before birth or quickly 
 after. It is a point, of course, upon which 
 there can be no knowledge, but the point is 
 that the child in its infant days becomes the 
 subject of regeneration, and is never really 
 alienated from God, but from birth is his 
 child and may and should grow up into a 
 simple, normal, filial relation. ' ' Accordingly, 
 "in the belief of our church young people are 
 born members of the church." 
 
 A representative Congregationalist makes a 
 similar answer. After making allowance for 
 difl'erences between congregations, he says: 
 "The general faith is that all young children 
 are, even though unconsciously, the children 
 of God, and in the normal development of the 
 child's soul its relation changes only as the 
 relation of the child changes to the external 
 world." 
 
 The Methodist position, which is based upon 
 
68 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 a tendency to magnify the free grace of God, 
 is the same. The emphasis which the Wes- 
 leyan movement has always placed upon con- 
 version has undoubtedly brought about a 
 somewhat general expectation that even chil- 
 dren who have enjoyed Christian training 
 will pass through a crisis of repentance and 
 conversion. Yet a long succession of the lead- 
 ing authorities of Wesleyanism, of whom 
 Hibbard is an example, has taken the position 
 that a child may grow to maturity entirely 
 within the kingdom of God. John Wesley, 
 Fletcher, Watson, Adam Clarke, Whedon, 
 have all asserted it. See article on "Wesley 
 and other Methodist Fathers on Childhood 
 Religion," by C. W. Rishell in Methodist Re- 
 view, September-October, 1902; also R. J. 
 Cooke: Christianity and Childhood (New 
 York, 1891), and article by J. A. Story on 
 "The Religion of Childhood" in Methodist 
 Review, July- August, 1900. 
 
 Of thirty-four candidates for the ministry 
 of the English Wesleyan church who were re- 
 cently called upon to relate their religious 
 experience, considerably less than half, ac- 
 cording to a report in the Methodist Recorder 
 for August 6, 1903, mentioned any definite 
 time or place of conversion, while many dis- 
 
EDUCATION AND THE BIRTH FROM ABOVE 69 
 
 tinetly testified that their religious life had 
 been a gradual growth from childhood. 
 
 A representative Baptist clergyman says on 
 the same point: "It is the general belief that 
 young children are God's children, and will 
 be saved if they die in that early stage ; that 
 they inherit evil tendencies which are sure to 
 manifest themselves as they develop, and these 
 tendencies, consented to and intensified by the 
 personal will, are so radical and strong that 
 they call for what the Scripture designates 
 "regeneration," a spiritual crisis wrought by 
 the Spirit of God. This crisis may be accord- 
 ing to age, temperament and previous moral 
 conduct, sudden and marked or almost imper- 
 ceptible, like the dawn of day. In a normal 
 life there comes a time of decision, when the 
 soul yields to God or pulls away; the latter 
 act makes the accountable child a wayward 
 child, a sinner condemned. ' ' 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 THE CHARACTERISTICS OP MODERN EDUCATION 
 
 38. Three Con- The characteristics of 
 
 trasts between , j .• i. 
 
 Medieval and modern education may be 
 
 Modern studied from either of two 
 
 Education. • . <» • -jtt 
 
 points of View. We may 
 observe the school itself— the teaching force, 
 the controlling bodies, the material of instruc- 
 tion, the relation of the curriculum to life — or 
 we may note the movement of educational 
 theory in the works of writers on this subject. 
 In the present section the former method will 
 be used. If we compare mediaeval with 
 modern schools, three contrasts will strike us 
 at once. First, medigeval teachers were prac- 
 tically all clergymen or other church func- 
 tionaries, while the teaching force of modern 
 schools is drawn chiefly from the laity. SeC' 
 ond, the control of mediaeval schools was vest- 
 ed in the church, while that of modern schools 
 is vested chiefly in the state. Third, the point 
 of view of the school has changed from that 
 of preparation for personal salvation through 
 believing dogmas, authoritatively handed 
 down by the church to that of preparation 
 
CHARACTERISTICS OF MODERN EDUCATION 71 
 
 for the common life, particularly the life of 
 society, by the acquisition of so-called secular 
 knowledge. 
 
 At first sight the contrast here seems to be 
 very sharp. The mediaBval school had in view 
 the eternal salvation of the soul; the modern 
 school, the living of our temporal life. The 
 mediaeval school was "scholastic," the mod- 
 ern is "scientific." Scholasticism means the 
 carrying' on of all studies, all intellectual 
 work, under the assumption that beliefs for- 
 mulated by the church have final authority, 
 so that they may not be inquired into in the 
 sense of being tested. On the other hand, the 
 scientific spirit is that of free inquiry. It 
 recognises no authority for the inquiring mind 
 except that of fact and of reasoned truth. It 
 assumes the right to test all things and hold 
 fast only that which stands the test. Its chief 
 concern is not to maintain what is already 
 accepted as true, but rather to extend the 
 bounds of certain knowledge. The function 
 of discovering new knowledge pertains, of 
 course, to no educational institution below 
 the university, but the spirit of science per- 
 meates modern schools of all grades.* 
 
 1 The term science is used in English in two or more 
 senses. In the narrower sense it means the natural and 
 physical sciences ; in the broader sense it signifies all 
 
72 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 39. Apparent These three contrasts 
 
 Conflict between , i. j. • i t j^i 
 
 iviodern show what IS meant by the 
 
 Education and statement that the modern 
 
 ^ '^'°"' school is "secular," while 
 
 the mediaeval school was religious. At first 
 sight, the "secularisation" of the schools ap- 
 pears to involve a conflict with religion. For, 
 while religion demands submission, the spirit 
 of modern education encourages individual 
 judgment. The church asserts that this or 
 that is true, basing its assertion upon divine 
 revelation ; the spirit of the school authorises 
 each man to inquire for himself whether it 
 is true or not. Religion talks of unseen reali- 
 ties, while modern education turns attention 
 more and more to things that can be seen and 
 handled. Religion makes God the first and 
 supreme interest, but the "secular" school 
 avoids speaking of God, and leaves to outside 
 or incidental agencies the chief, and possibly 
 the only, development that the child's reli- 
 gious nature receives. 
 
 knowledge that is based upon the scientific method, viz., 
 observation and analysis. "The scientific spirit" has 
 reference solely to the method of study, that is, the 
 method which bases conclusions on observed facts and 
 just reasonings therefrom rather than upon authority, 
 speculation, argument, etc. This commonplace remark 
 is made here because popular religious discussions fre- 
 quently use the terms science and scientific as though 
 they referred simply to the habitual points of view or 
 characteristic methods o£ the physical and natural 
 BCiences. 
 
CHARACTERISTICS OF MODERN EDUCATION 73 
 
 It is therefore of the highest importance 
 to inquire how much of real conflict there 
 is here. Is the modern school either a rival 
 or an opponent of religion? In principle, 
 as we shall see, it is not, but in its 
 practical working at some times and in 
 some places it may and probably does hinder 
 religion. In fact, purely secular education 
 is a reaction from the one-sidedness of 
 the medieval schools, and as a reaction it 
 is itself one-sided. There may be adequate 
 reason Avhy state schools should abstain from 
 positive religious instruction, but in that case 
 state schools cannot be regarded as more than 
 a part of a proper educational system. Re- 
 ligious education there must be, either within 
 or without the state schools. If modern edu- 
 cation has progressed faster in its secular than 
 in its religious phases, the practical conclusion 
 is not that what we have attained is false, but 
 only that it is partial, and that the friends 
 of religion have slept when they should have 
 been at work. It is certainly true that the 
 mediaeval church school and the modern secu- 
 lar school are opposed to each other, and if 
 these two were our only alternatives, our pres- 
 ent situation would be alarming. But there 
 is a third alternative, and that is for religious 
 
74 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 -T- ■ - — ■ 
 
 education itself to become modern and hence 
 capable of taking: its place alongside of and 
 possibly also within the typical modern school. 
 The practical measures for accomplishing this 
 end will engage attention at a later point in 
 our discussion. We must first of all make 
 sure that there is no fundamental opposition 
 of principle between religion and modern ed- 
 ucation, as, for instance, in respect to author- 
 ity. 
 
 40. The Necessity The problem of authority 
 
 of Authority in , ,i , r. J^ 
 
 Education. S^GS to the roots of the 
 
 whole idea of education. 
 We simply cannot educate without teaching 
 pupils to think for themselves. It is a founda- 
 tion stone of the theory of teaching that the 
 personality develops from Avithin by the free 
 expression of what is there, not by being com- 
 pressed into a mold, or by receiving addi- 
 tions from without. MHiat place is left, then, 
 for authority ? It is said that speculative an- 
 archists, who deny altogether the right of 
 men to govern men, sometimes carry their 
 theory to the point of giving up all positive 
 control of their own children. The theory is 
 that the child will find out what is best for 
 him through his own experience.^ Whether 
 
 1 Cf. article on "Some Socialist and Anarchist Views 
 
CHARACTEIIISTICS OF MODERN EDUCATION 75 
 
 such parents restrain the propensity of baby 
 to put everything into his mouth is not re- 
 lated, but it is certain that a child could not 
 live without restraint. It is equally certain 
 that education consists in exercising control 
 of some sort. Even if it does not use external 
 compulsion, it at least arranges the conditions 
 so as to secure reactions of one kind rather 
 than another, and so limits the range of pos- 
 sible experience. It makes the child some- 
 thing that he would not become if he were 
 left to himself. It chooses for him before he 
 is able to choose for himself. We do not wait 
 for the child to decide for himself whether 
 he will be clean, whether he will learn to read, 
 whether he will become acquainted with 
 Shakespeare, with history, and with science. 
 In both the family and the school, society gen- 
 uinely predetermines the future of its new 
 members. Authority, consequently, lies at 
 the very basis of education both secular and 
 religious. 
 
 41. Genera! What is the nature of 
 
 Nature of this . , . ,, .^ „ -^ ., ,, 
 
 Authority. this authority? Is it the 
 
 arbitrary will of any per- 
 son or group of persons? If it were that, it 
 
 of Education" in the Educational Review, Volume XV, 
 page 1. 
 
76 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 would be mere strength asserting itself against 
 weakness. Parent and teacher are not the 
 source of authority, but rather instruments 
 of it. They themselves can be true educators 
 only as they submit to the same authority 
 that they exercise toward the child. Educa- 
 tion, that is, has authority simply to make ef- 
 fective in child-development the laws and 
 ideals of life that the adult finds binding upon 
 himself. This is as true of the state as it is 
 of the citizen. The state is simply an ar- 
 rangement whereby man makes effective the 
 obligations and ideals which he recognises as 
 binding. It is a part of his submission to au- 
 thority. In a word, it is impossible for any 
 individual to live to himself, and for any 
 human organization to live to itself. Child 
 and adult alike live in and through society, 
 and society implies authority. But society 
 also is under the authority of some ideal of 
 social existence which leads the way of prog- 
 ress. An arbitrary state is just as irrational 
 as an arbitrary individual. It is un-human, 
 as well as inhuman. The powers that be are 
 all ordained as administrators of an authority 
 which they do not originate. Keligion says 
 that they are ordained of God, and ethics can- 
 not say less than that they are ordained by 
 
CHARACTERISTICS OF MODERN EDUCATION 77 
 
 the moral ideal. The authority that educa- 
 tion assumes with respect to the child, then, 
 is identical with the authority of morals and 
 of religion. 
 
 42. Authority in In point of authorita- 
 
 Education. tiveness, then, religious ed- 
 
 ucation stands upon the 
 same level as education in general and, in- 
 deed, human life in general. The real dis- 
 pute, accordingly, is not between religion and 
 modern education, but between two concep- 
 tions of religious authority. All education 
 employs authority. Nevertheless, modern ed- 
 ucation humbles itself before the little child 
 by submitting the whole of civilisation to the 
 test of a fresh experience. How far the new 
 personality can express itself in what we re- 
 gard as the true and the good, and how far it 
 must reject and revise and supplement what 
 we offer, is always an open question. Now, 
 the scholastic notion of authority declares 
 that with respect to a certain set of proposi- 
 tions called dogmas this question is not open. 
 Everywhere else the general theory of educa- 
 tion is accepted as true, but here the principle 
 of development from within is no longer 
 trusted. An external standard is immovably 
 fixed, and if any individual finds that the life 
 
78 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 ■within him— his conscience, his reason, his 
 spiritual aspirations — cannot express itself in 
 the forms of the dogma, scholastic authority 
 must and does declare that this is a sign of a 
 bad will. The scholastic notion of authority 
 is not only opposed to the secular school ; it is 
 in irreconcilable conflict with modern educa- 
 tion itself. 
 
 But there is another conception of spiritual 
 authority which is perfectly harmonious with 
 the educational principle of free self-expres- 
 sion. It holds that the immanent God utters 
 himself in the mind of everyone of us in the 
 form of what we call our higher self. Cer- 
 tainly there is that in the self which com- 
 mands, judges, approves and rebukes all that 
 is merely individual to me. My highest des- 
 tiny can be nothing less or more than to be- 
 come, in the highest possible degree, this bet- 
 ter self which is germinal, yet commanding, 
 in my consciousness. Here is divine author- 
 ity, but it works within the individual as an 
 impulse, not without him as compulsion. But 
 there is also an external aspect to authority. 
 For the best impulse does not grow without 
 food ; the mind does nothing and knows noth- 
 ing of itself without the concurrence of an ob- 
 ject which stimulates it to activity. We find 
 
CHARACTERISTICS OF MODERN EDUCATION 79 
 
 even ourselves only through our objective ex- 
 periences. Hence anything in our present 
 civilisation or in history that actually does 
 call out our higher nature and enable it to be- 
 come dominant in us acquires thereby author- 
 ity over us. Yet such authority is never 
 merely external ; it exists as authority for us 
 only when it actually becomes the self-expres- 
 sion of our higher nature.^ 
 
 Authority in this sense is not only compati- 
 ble with modern education; it is essential 
 thereto. Education in its totality is nothing 
 more than the process whereby ideal impulse 
 and food for it, or inner and outer authority, 
 come most effectively together. From this 
 point of view the question as to the authority 
 of religion in education resolves itself into 
 these two question: Is there a natural reli- 
 gious impulse, and is there in our civilisation 
 anything that can satisfy it ?- 
 
 * This is simply a general statement of the principle 
 Involved In the common Christian belief that the spirit- 
 ual content of the Scriptures cannot be discovered by 
 us without the concurrent help of the Holy Spirit. That 
 is, external authority is not actual authority as long as 
 It stands alone. On the other hand, it is equally true 
 that internal authority attains a definite character for 
 us only through contact with external fact which in 
 some measure corresponds to it. 
 
 * A fuller exposition of this conception of authority In 
 religion Is contained in George A. Coe : The Religion of 
 a Mature Mind (Chicago, 1902), Chapter III — "Author- 
 ity In Religion." See also L. Labertbonniere : The Ideal 
 Teacher : or. The Catholic Notion of Authority in Educa- 
 tion (Cathedral Library Association, 534-536 Amsterdam 
 
80 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 43. The Great Other characteristics of 
 
 Educational ■, -i ^- -i. 
 
 Reformers. modern education will ap- 
 
 pear from a survey of the 
 development of educational theory. The 
 names of several educational reformers have 
 direct significance for the problems of reli- 
 gious education with which we are here con- 
 cerned. A mere mention of them will intro- 
 duce us to our ovv^n problems, and it may stim- 
 ulate some readers to secure a personal ac- 
 quaintance with some of the classical litera- 
 ture of education.^ Since the beginning of 
 the Reformation a remarkable transformation 
 has taken place. Making no effort to trace the 
 historic continuity of its various features, we 
 may note, first, that Luther, applying the 
 Reformation principle of the rights of the in- 
 dividual, demanded compulsory education of 
 a liberal kind for all children. The Moravian, 
 Comenius (1502-1571; the Great Didactic, 
 London, 1896), undertook to organise a com- 
 plete course of instruction based upon the 
 
 Avenue, New York City), and J. L. Hughes: Froebel's 
 Educational Laws for all Teachers (New York, 1899), 
 pages 24-28. 
 
 ^ Some of the most available secondary sources of In- 
 formation on this topic are as follows : Thomas David- 
 son : History of Education (New York, 1901) — a his- 
 tory of both education and educational theories ; R. H. 
 Quick: Educational Reformers (New York, 1890); 
 J. P. Munroe: The Educational Ideal (Boston, 1896); 
 J. G. Compayr^: History of Pedagogy (Boston, 1896). 
 
CHARACTERISTICS OF MODERN EDUCATION 81 
 
 principle of drawing out the faculties in the 
 natural order of their development, particu- 
 larly by means of facts rather than books. In 
 France Rousseau (1712-1778; Emile, New 
 York, 1895), believing that the evils of life 
 are due chiefly to the artificiality of civilisa- 
 tion, demands a return to nature. This in- 
 cludes natural education, that is, as Rousseau 
 believes, development through the exercise of 
 spontaneous impulses, both physical and 
 mental. Rousseau carries this idea to mon- 
 strous extremes, but the idea itself, in one 
 form or another, has dominated the whole 
 modern movement. Pestalozzi (1746-1827; 
 Leonard and Gertrude, Boston, 1895), a 
 Swiss, a man of prophetic gleams but poor 
 organising ability, makes the school an ex- 
 pression of love for men, and for all men. 
 The end thereof is not mere learning, but also 
 a trained character and wholesome affections. 
 The method, based upon Rousseau, is chiefly 
 that of familiarising the child with things 
 rather than with words. In Germany Herbart 
 (1776-1841; Science of Education, Boston, 
 1896) defines the end of education as moral 
 life; shows how interest is the true spring 
 of study, and reveals the true nature of men- 
 tal acquisition as the assimilation of new 
 
82 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 ideas by means of those already possessed. 
 Froebel (1783-1852; The Education of Man, 
 New York, 1888), another German, founds 
 the kindergarten on the principles of Pesta- 
 lozzi, which he also carries forward. Free de- 
 velopment is now the central idea. Joyous 
 activity takes the place of repression and ex- 
 ternal imposition. Hence play and manual 
 occupations receive recognition as educational 
 processes of the highest importance. 
 
 44. Summary of The educational move- 
 
 the Modern i ,i i i . i 
 
 Movement in J^ent thus barely suggested 
 
 Education. ^yas embedded in the politi- 
 
 cal movement that has given 
 us the modern free state, and also in the intel- 
 lectual movement that has given us modern 
 science. The same aspiration that gave the 
 franchise to the common people has endeav- 
 ored to liberate the child also from unnatural 
 burdens. The same intellectual awakening 
 that has given us our unprecedented knowl- 
 edge of nature has also destroyed the educa- 
 tional monopoly that was once exercised by 
 books, language, and the formal part of "po- 
 lite learning. ' ' Bearing these general histori- 
 cal tendencies in mind, we shall perhaps 
 gather something of tie profound significance 
 of the following summary of the modern 
 
CHARACTERISTICS OF MODERN ERUCATION S3 
 
 movement in education. (1) From being an 
 exclusively ecclesiastical affair, education has 
 become also an affair of the state. (2) It 
 has ceased to be the privilege of certain 
 classes (clergy and nobility), and has become 
 a right of all the people. (3) Its scope has 
 widened from mere instruction to the training 
 of the whole person— the will, the feelings, 
 and the body, as well as the intellect. 
 (4) Instruction itself has broadened so as to 
 include the study of nature and of man along- 
 side the study of merely literary and ab- 
 stractly logical subjects. (5) The material 
 employed has changed more and more from 
 mere symbols, such as books, formulge, etc., 
 toward things which the child can observe for 
 himself. (6) The teacher's point of view 
 has changed from that of the subject as he 
 himself, a mature person, thinks it to that of 
 the child and his natural, spontaneous 
 methods of apprehension. (7) The notion of 
 the process has changed from that of bestow- 
 ing something upon a passive child to that 
 of providing means whereby the child may 
 actively and freely express himself. The child 
 is to develop from within by his own activity. 
 (8) Finally, in these later days, as we saw in 
 the first chapter, education has passed beyond 
 
84 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 the individualism of both the mediEeval and 
 the Reformation period, and is now recog- 
 nised as a social process in aim as well as in 
 origin. 
 
 In the next chapter we shall ask what bear- 
 ing certain of these views have upon religion 
 and education therein. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 CONTRIBUTIONS OF MODERN EDUCATION TO 
 RELIGION 
 
 45. Why Modern In a broad sense Chris- 
 
 Education has . •, • ,v o .-, 
 
 Neglected the tianity IS the source 01 the 
 
 Religious Factor, whole movement for the re- 
 form of education. For 
 modern schools are an offshoot from church 
 schools, and parts of modern educational phil- 
 osophy can be traced back to mediaeval times. 
 The demand for popular education and for 
 natural methods grew up within religion, and 
 several of the great prophets of the modern 
 reform — notably Pestalozzi and Froebel — 
 have looked upon it as distinctly religious. 
 Nevertheless, education became independent. 
 It based itself upon psychology and child- 
 study, not upon Bible, church, or creed. It 
 has built up a set of principles of its own 
 without stopping to ask what bearing they 
 may have upon religion. We have to deal, 
 accordingly, with two apparently unrelated 
 theories, the religious and the pedagogical, 
 and with two independent practical activities, 
 those of the church and those of the school. 
 
86 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 This was, perhaps, inevitable. For religion, 
 being the most conservative factor of civilisa- 
 tion, has been relatively slow in assuming a 
 final attitude toward the rapid changes of the 
 modern world. That the whole of education 
 should wait for official religion to assimilate 
 the principles of modern life was scarcely to 
 be expected. Church and state became sep- 
 arated or else lost the close union of former 
 days; modern democracy was born and grew 
 to a giant; modern science gave us a new 
 world. Here principles were at work that had 
 to be incorporated into the training of the 
 young. Progress took the line of least resist- 
 ance. Leaving theological and ecclesiastical 
 disputes to adjust themselves, the schools took 
 into themselves the factors of life upon which 
 there was least dispute. The reform occurred 
 where reform was most practicable. 
 
 46. Can Religion At last, however, this 
 
 Principles of Unnatural division between 
 
 Modern religion and education, 
 
 Education? , . i i i • i 
 
 church and school, is awak- 
 ening a discontent that promises better things. 
 Protestants and Catholics alike are beginning 
 to realise that what still remains of religious 
 education has been outstripped by the secular 
 schools. Demand is now made not only for 
 
CONTRIBUTIONS OF MODERN EDUCATION 87 
 
 more religious education, but also for better, 
 and the general assumption is that one needed 
 step is to adopt into religious training the 
 principles of teaching that are recognised in 
 the state schools. Some persons believe that 
 the reform of religious education is already 
 going too fast in this direction. They fear 
 that secularisation of religion will follow the 
 adoption of methods that characterise secular 
 schools. Now, religious education must cer- 
 tainly be religious in point of process as well 
 as in point of purpose. No real advance can 
 be made by grafting into religion anything 
 that is not in its own nature religious. What 
 kind of union, then, is this that is proposed ? 
 Has the educational reform any contributions 
 whatever to make to religion? The answer to 
 this question can be found only by analysis 
 of the great principles underlying modern ed- 
 ucation. Let us undertake such analysis. 
 47. Universal Universal education, to 
 
 Education is a , . •,-, ,- n 
 
 Christian Idea. ^egin with, IS essentially a 
 
 Christian idea. For its 
 
 foundation is the worth of man, a conception 
 
 which Jesus has emphasised as no other 
 
 teacher has done. In spite of the perversion 
 
 of Christian institutions and ideas in behalf 
 
 of oppression in many forms, original and es- 
 
88 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 sential Christianity has been the great eman- 
 cipator, the great protest against all exploita- 
 tion of human life. Rich and poor, learned 
 and unlearned, master and servant, king and 
 peasant, become, under Christian influences, 
 simply so many children of God and brothers 
 one of another. Jesus teaches that the hairs 
 of our heads are all numbered, that a human 
 life is of more value than the whole world, 
 and that God places so high a value upon us 
 as to give his only Son for our salvation. 
 Here is basis broad enough for democracy and 
 for universal education. 
 
 48. So, also, is Modern education recog- 
 
 Development ,i • i-c xi 
 
 from Within; nises the inner lite as the es- 
 
 sential life of a man. It pro- 
 claims that things are not life, and that noth- 
 ing can enlarge us that does not become a part 
 of our inner being. The school is not to hang 
 something upon the child, but to develop 
 something within him. Here, surely, is sup- 
 port for spiritual religion. "Out of the 
 heart," said a wise man of ancient times, "are 
 the issues of life." The Great Teacher re- 
 affirmed this thought again and again. Not 
 what comes to a man from the outside, but 
 what comes up out of the inner being, is the 
 
CONTRIBUTIONS OF MODERN EDUCATION 89 
 
 decisive fact of life. At this point, then, 
 
 Christ and modern pedagogy are at one. 
 
 49. Likewise "Ail- Modern education not 
 
 'Round , , T. . 
 
 Development"; O^ly P^ts emphasiS upon 
 
 the inner life, but it also 
 conceives that life broadly. Life is more than 
 knowledge; it is also appreciation of what is 
 lovely and of good report ; it is sympathy with 
 other life ; it is righteousness of purpose. To 
 teach is more than to train the intellect and 
 fill it with information. It is to make men. 
 The transformation in our schools from the 
 idea of mere instruction to that of symmetri- 
 cal development is not yet fully accom- 
 plished, but in principle the victory has been 
 won. This victory is a move in the direction 
 of religion. For, though religion concerns 
 the intellect, it is most of all a matter of the 
 heart and the will. Jesus declared that he is 
 come that we may have life, and that we may 
 have it abundantly. There is a sense in which 
 every true teacher could say this of himself, 
 for he is to help his pupils, not only to know, 
 but also to live. Whatever culture of the 
 feelings and the will the school is able to im- 
 part is so much preparation of the soil for the 
 reception of religious impressions. 
 
80 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 50. And Active Though modern educa- 
 
 Self- Expression. ^, , . ,i • 
 
 tion emphasises the inner 
 
 life, it demands that this life come to outward 
 expression. "No impression without expres- 
 sion" is its motto. It declares that a mental 
 act is not complete until it has expressed itself 
 by means of the motor apparatus, and hence 
 that we do not really grasp an idea until we 
 set it at work. Does not this remind us of the 
 very words of Jesus when he said that one 
 who hears his words without doing them is 
 like a man who built his house on shifting 
 sands, while he who both hears and does is 
 like a man who built upon a rock? Entrance 
 into the kingdom is accorded, not to those 
 who say "Lord, Lord!" but to those who do 
 God's will. In religion and in education alike 
 the inner and the outer are properly indis- 
 soluble; they are the concave and the convex 
 sides of the same curve. Hence education, 
 working in its own way, enforces the lesson 
 of religion. This lesson is especially signifi- 
 cant in this day of practical affairs; for the 
 only kind of faith that is convincing to a 
 modern man is the faith that shows itself in its 
 good works, the faith that spiritualises con- 
 duct, business, and all our human relations. 
 
CONTRIBUTIONS OF MODERN EDUCATION 91 
 
 51. Christianity Another side of the same 
 
 puts the Concrete • • , -,,.■, 
 
 before the principle requires that the 
 
 Abstract; sensible shall come before 
 
 the rational, the concrete 
 before the abstract, the reality before the sym- 
 bol. The word, the rule, the theory, is not to 
 be introduced until the pupil has something 
 to express by means of it. Hence, education 
 begins, though it does not end, with things of 
 sense. The training of the senses and of the 
 muscles, which has become so prominent in 
 our schools, proceeds from no unspiritual 
 view of life, but from the actual structure of 
 our minds. In the manual-training class the 
 child learns vastly more than mere material 
 things. He learns arithmetic, the laws of na- 
 ture, self-control; he cultivates attention, im- 
 agination, character. A laboratory, or a 
 landscape, or a mass of clay for modeling, if 
 only such meanings be found therein, is fully 
 as spiritual as a book. Modern education 
 busies itself with objects that are visible and 
 tangible because of what they reveal, and be- 
 cause of their effect upon the inner life of the 
 child or youth. Is not this principle a princi- 
 ple of religion also ? What is the meaning of 
 the central idea of Christianity, incarnation, 
 unless it be that men come into relation with 
 
92 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 the invisible God through a visible person? 
 "That which we have heard, that which we 
 have seen with our eyes, that which we be- 
 held, and our hands handled, concerning the 
 Word of Life"— this preface of St. John's 
 first letter would serve with equal appropri- 
 ateness to introduce a fundamental concep- 
 tion of modern education. When this prin- 
 ciple has its perfect work in our schools, it 
 will counteract two tendencies that are un- 
 favorable to religion — ^the tendency to think 
 ■of it as abstract and speculative, and the 
 opposite tendency to ignore the spiritual as- 
 pects of the visible world. 
 
 52. Offers Free- The educational principle 
 
 dom through „ „ ,„ 
 
 Obedience; of ^^^^ sell-expression IS 
 
 equally harmonious with re- 
 ligion. At first sight freedom may seem to 
 clash with all authority, but the apparent con- 
 flict disappears when we understand what 
 pedagogy means by freedom. Freedom cer- 
 tainly does not mean that the pupil is to do 
 just as he likes; for what one likes may actu- 
 ally repress and enslave. Unwholesome food 
 may be liked, but it depresses the vital powers. 
 Freedom is the active self-expression, not of 
 incidental desires, but of the deeper demands 
 of the nature. These deeper demands contin- 
 
CONTRIBUTIONS OP MODERN EDUCATION 93 
 
 ually oppose our more superficial impulses, so 
 that the attainment of freedom implies the 
 learning of self-restraint and of obedience. 
 Capricious indulgence of desire ends in slav- 
 ery. We cannot be ourselves unless we train 
 our vagrant impulses to bow before the deep- 
 er and higher things of the spirit. Freedom 
 does not exclude authority, then, but requires 
 it. What pedagogy insists upon under the 
 name of freedom is simply that the teacher 
 shall utilise the deeper currents of life so as 
 to help the child from within rather than in 
 any merely external fashion. The deeper 
 currents, as well as the superficial ones, will 
 manifest themselves in spontaneous interests 
 which it is the duty of the teacher to seize 
 upon. Artificial leverage is to be shunned. 
 A¥hatsoever is done for the child must include 
 a spontaneous expression of the child. When, 
 for example, restraint must be used, it should 
 be so applied as promptly to transform itself 
 into self-restraint. 
 
 Here, once more, modern education pre- 
 pares the way for religion; for religion is it- 
 self a proclamation of liberty. Its promise is 
 to release us from bondage to sins and fears 
 and the pettiness of our merely individual de- 
 sires. It releases us from the sense of being 
 
94 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 oppressed by the bigness of the world, and 
 makes us realise that all things are ours, 
 "whether things present or things to come, or 
 life or death. But it grants us this liberty 
 only through self-surrender, only through 
 that losing of our life whereby we gain life. 
 In other words, religion assumes that her com- 
 mands are also the commands of our own 
 deepest self. It is thus that the obedience 
 that we render to her is our highest freedom. 
 Education and religion are thus at one in 
 teaching us freedom through obedience. 
 
 53. And Trains Modem education is like- 
 
 the Individual , . .^, ,. , 
 
 for Society. Wise working with religion 
 
 for the adjustment of the 
 individual to society. The demand that every 
 child shall have opportunity for education 
 recognises the ultimate worth of the person. 
 It is in direct line with Christianity, which 
 looks down through wealth, position, nation- 
 ality, social circumstance, to the individual 
 heart. On the other hand, both education 
 and religion recognise right relations to one's 
 fellows as a necessary part of true life, 
 Christianity sets before us the ideal of a 
 divine society in which each citizen loves all 
 the others as he loves himself. Something like 
 this is coming to be recognised as the end of 
 
CONTRIBUTIONS OF MODERN EDUCATION 95 
 
 education. No longer is it possible to look 
 upon knowledge, power, intellectual and 
 aesthetic culture, or anything else that is mere- 
 ly individual, as the aim of the school. The 
 school is to make men, and strong men; but 
 men strong in regard for one another, strong 
 in their loyalty to law, strong in the spirit of 
 co-operation. 
 
 54. Thus the These are the essential 
 
 Basis of Modern , , • ,• r. n 
 
 Education is characteristics 01 modern 
 
 Christian; educational philosophy. 
 
 Every one of them is not 
 only reconcilable with religion, but actually 
 included within the Christian view of life. 
 We may therefore say that the modern educa- 
 tional movement as a ivhole has consisted in 
 the working out of certain pedagogical aspects 
 of Christian belief. It has by no means ap- 
 preciated all the wealth of educational prin- 
 ciple that is contained in Christianity, nor has 
 it always kept itself free from un-Christian 
 tendencies of the times. Educators have often 
 been unconscious of their indebtedness to re- 
 ligion; now and then one of them has been 
 hostile to the church. Doubtless, too, the ad- 
 ministration of education has improved less 
 rapidly than educational theory. Yet, for all 
 that, the educational movement of modern 
 
96 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 times has never been really independent of 
 religion. It has builded better than it knew, 
 for its inspiration has come from the highest 
 source. As far as it goes, the school is essen- 
 tially a creation of the religious spirit, and its 
 work is essentially religious and Christian. 
 
 55. And its It follows that the entire 
 
 Methods are v. j £ j i j.- i 
 
 Adapted to body 01 modern educational 
 
 Education in principle is adapted to the 
 
 Religion. .„ ■,£•■• 
 
 specmc work oi training in 
 
 religion. The spirit of modern education was 
 received from religion, and now, enriched by 
 new knowledge and wrought into a system, it 
 returns to its source to become the basis of a 
 reform in the educational methods of the 
 church itself. The contribution of modern 
 education to religion, then, is a suitable form 
 and method for religious education. Thus, 
 by another route, we reach once more the in- 
 sight that the essential characteristic of such 
 education is not its method, but rather its rec- 
 ognition of the whole personality of the child, 
 the whole content of civilisation, and the 
 whole ideal of human life. 
 
 56. The Nature Now at last we are ready 
 
 of Method. „ . j n 
 
 tor a more extended exposi- 
 tion of the chief principles that underlie 
 
CONTRIBUTIONS OF MODERN EDUCATION 9T 
 
 sound method. Methods are no longer to be 
 thought of as mere catches or devices for 
 holding the pupil's interest while we pour 
 ideas into his passive or neutral mind. Inge- 
 nuity is, of course, of real value to a teacher, 
 for the teaching process can never be a merely 
 mechanical cutting of cloth according to a 
 pattern. But ingenuity should be in the serv- 
 ice of insight. In the absence of educational 
 principles, mere devices soon degenerate into 
 vices. Sound methods grow directly out of 
 the inmost nature of the child and of the 
 world in which he is to realise himself. They 
 are simply expressions of the nature of real- 
 ity ; they are the laws of the child 's self-reali- 
 sation making themselves effective through us 
 who teach. 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 EDUCATION AS DEVELOPMENT OF LIVING BEINGS 
 
 57. The Mechan- Qur definition of educa- 
 
 ical, the Vital, ,. ^i, ^ -^ ■ £c 4. 
 
 and the Personal, tion says that it IS an efltort 
 
 to assist development. It 
 consists in exercising influence upon a living 
 being. Now, the effect of any influence de- 
 pends not merely upon the source, direction, 
 and intent of it, but also upon the kind of ob- 
 ject upon which it is directed. We influence 
 mere things through pushes and pulls, but a 
 vital process cannot be controlled in quite the 
 same way. In education we have to do with 
 life, not with mere things. We can build a 
 house by laying one brick upon another, but 
 we can, increase the weight of a living organ- 
 ism only by feeding. AVe can bring an organ- 
 ism to maturity only as an inner prin- 
 ciple of growth makes use of the con- 
 ditions wTiich we provide. Whatever be the 
 ultimate nature of vital processes, this prac- 
 tical difference between them and mechanical 
 processes has always to be observed. A liv- 
 ing thing grows only by assimilating food. 
 Education, then, because it has to do with the 
 
EDUCATION AS DEVELOrMENT OF LIFE 99 
 
 growth of living beings, cannot be any mere 
 mechanical compulsion, any mere moulding 
 of material, any mere heaping up or storing 
 of anything whatever. Its type must be feed- 
 ing, not pushing and pulling, not mere adding 
 and subtracting. It succeeds only as external 
 material is transformed into living tissue, and 
 this act of transforming is performed by the 
 organism itself. Education is not a mechan- 
 ical but a vital process. 
 
 Further, it is not only vital, but also per- 
 sonal. To be a person is not merely to act 
 from a law that is within, and to impose this 
 law upon external material ; it is also to take 
 possession of the law, to be a lawgiver to one *s 
 self, and so to have self-knowledge and ex- 
 ercise self-control. A mere thing has no self ; 
 a plant or animal has no self ; for they never 
 take possession of themselves, and their acts 
 are never their own in this deep sense, but 
 rather processes wrought upon or through 
 rather than by them. Now, education seeks 
 to influence action that is already self-action, 
 or in process of becoming such. It is a rela- 
 tion between persons. Reserving for the next 
 chapter an analysis of the personal aspect of 
 development, let us see what is involved in 
 the organic or vital aspect thereof. 
 
 LofC. 
 
100 EDUCATlOiN IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 58. The Psycho- j^ hiiman being is neither 
 
 Physical , „ 
 
 Organism. ^ lump 01 matter, nor a 
 
 ghost, nor one of these plus 
 the other, Man is neither a body that feels 
 and thinks, nor yet a soul that merely uses the 
 body as a dwelling place or as a tool. Pythag- 
 oras and Plato looked upon the body as a 
 prison of the soul, and many Christian writ- 
 ers followed their example. Their view has 
 a partial, but only partial, justification. In- 
 citements to sin and vice arise largely out of 
 what is called animal impulse and instinct, 
 and in many other ways the body appears as 
 an obstacle to the soul. Apparently it is the 
 body that grows weary and demands sleep, 
 that grows hungry and demands food, that 
 contracts disease, that holds us bound to 
 place and circumstance. Certainly it is true 
 that bodily conditions represent to us our 
 mental limitations, and that tlie attainment 
 of good character consists in no small measure 
 in securing control of the body for moral ends. 
 Yet mind and body are not two utterly for- 
 eign powers. The mind does not merely con- 
 quer the body. The relation is far more inti- 
 mate and positive than that. In a sense man 
 is both body and mind; the one life has two 
 aspects. Something like this thought appears 
 
EDUCATION AS DEVELOPMENT OF LIFE 101 
 
 to have been in Paul's mind when, in his dis- 
 cussion of the resurrection, he attributed 
 bodily life to us even in the future world.^ So 
 far is the body from being a prison, or a resi- 
 dence, or a mere tool, that for the practical 
 purposes of education we are obliged to look 
 upon the physical life and the mental life as 
 one life." In psychology this relation bears 
 the name of the co-ordination or parallelism 
 of mind and brain. All mental activity is 
 accompanied by brain activity; the attributes 
 of the human mind appear in connection with 
 a human brain, and there only; maturity of 
 mental life must wait for maturity of body; 
 mental health and disease have as their re- 
 verse side corresponding brain states. Even 
 this is only the beginning of the story. We 
 shall see in the sequel not only that the condi- 
 tions of bodily growth are also conditions of 
 mental development, but also that the specific 
 training of character takes place partly in 
 and through specific training of the body,^ 
 
 M Cor. 15, 35-49. 
 
 " Our purpose at this point is simply to secure a prac- 
 tical working view of the facts. The metaphysical prob- 
 lem has been touched upon in Chapter III, § 26. 
 
 * A recent writer has shown that many character-de- 
 fects have a little-suspected physiological ground. Thus, 
 a boy who indulges in 'foul' playing in basket-ball em- 
 ploys this underhand means very likely because he is 
 not physically capable of winning, or of doing his part 
 toward winning, in the normal manner. His physical 
 
102 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 59. How the From the vital aspect of 
 
 Child Gives Laws t ,. •, n ti .,i j. 
 
 for Education. education it lollows that 
 educational laws do not 
 originate altogether with the teacher and 
 merely find their application in the child; in 
 large part they originate in the child and find 
 their point of application in the teacher. In 
 a true sense, the child gives laws, and the 
 teacher obeys. As a gardener is governed by 
 the vital laws of the rose bush or c'herry tree 
 that he would cultivate, so it is with the 
 teacher. As far as the child's body is con- 
 cerned, this principle is obvious, but how few 
 of us realise its application to the child's 
 mind ! The child or the youth perceives, feels, 
 and thinks in his own way, and that way is 
 different from ours. His mental development 
 depends upon his having mental food appro- 
 priate to these mental traits. The educator's 
 duty is to find out what kind of food is appro- 
 priate, and, having provided it, to rely upon 
 the internal processes of assimilation to do the 
 rest. This implies effort to discover how each 
 thing in the child's life appears from the 
 
 vitality is likely to be found below the normal. — See 
 article by Ellas G. Brown in Boyliood, 1903 : "Curable 
 Physioal Defects," etc. — There is, in fact, scarcely a de- 
 fect of disposition or of liabitual will in a child or youth 
 concerning wbich it is not wise to ask how far, if at all, 
 physical conditions contribute to it. 
 
EDUCATION AS DEVELOPMENT OF LIFE 103 
 
 child's own standpoint; it implies, also, imag- 
 ination and sympathy, which alone make it 
 possible for an adult to enter into child life 
 in any living way. 
 
 What self-control and self-restraint does 
 not this require! How easy it is to assume 
 that what is obvious to us ought to be obvious 
 to the young also; how laborious to ask our- 
 selves each time how it seems from their point 
 of view. How easy it seems for our strength 
 to compel weak childhood to adapt itself to us 
 and to things as they appear to us. Yet in 
 reality we can no more compel a child's mind 
 than we can compel his digestion. Within 
 limits, to be sure, we can control both, but 
 wholesome control in either case consists in 
 providing appropriate food and other con- 
 ditions. It consists in our obeying rather 
 than compelling. Even when a child out- 
 wardly conforms to us ; when lips repeat what 
 we wish to hear ; when the child is sincere in 
 his utterances, there may be mental indiges- 
 tion and mal-assimilation. By and by, when 
 some catastrophe to faith or character occurs, 
 we wonder how it is that a person who has 
 enjoyed such a good bringing up can go so 
 far astray. The root of the matter is that, 
 from the beginning, pressure has taken the 
 
104 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 place of food, and the resulting conformity 
 has been mistaken for growth. In other cases 
 we are puzzled to behold good character blos- 
 soming in a bed of weeds. The child's train- 
 ing has been neglected, yet he turns out well. 
 In such cases, if we could see all the condi- 
 tions, we should generally discover that, in 
 some way, the child had actually had access 
 to appropriate food.^ 
 60. Tha Child is A difference between 
 
 not a Diminutive , ., , ,.„ , , ,, ,.„ , 
 
 Adult, but child liie and adult hie has 
 
 Qualitatively always been recognised, of 
 
 course. But the points of 
 difference have not generally been under- 
 stood. Our first thought is that the child 
 is simply small and weak, that the dif- 
 ference between him and a grown person 
 is merely quantitative. But this is not 
 true of either mind or body. The adult 
 body is not only larger and stronger; it 
 has also functions that are altogether absent 
 in the child. So it is with the mind. There is 
 not only a difference in range of experience 
 and power of inference, but also in emotional 
 color, in felt values, in personal meaning in 
 things and ideas. An adult and a child who 
 
 ^ Yet we must never assume that circumstances alone 
 determine cliaracter. See tlie next chapter, especially 
 I 67. 
 
EDUCATION AS DEVELOPMENT OF LIFE 105 
 
 are placed in the same situation do not neces- 
 sarily experience it as the same, any more 
 than an artist and a plowman feel a given 
 landscape in the same way. A subjective 
 principle enters into the interpretation in 
 every case, and childhood and youth at their 
 various stages have characteristic modes of 
 interpretation. The language of religion and 
 morals does not mean just the same in the 
 mouth of a child as in that of an adult. A 
 given act, also, that indicates a certain mental 
 condition in adult life may be performed by 
 a child from an entirely different internal 
 impulse. Some of the evidence for this prop- 
 osition will be given as we proceed, but all 
 child study proves it. The child lives in his 
 own world, and, though he may be truly re- 
 ligious, he will be so in his own way. He 
 should not be expected to reproduce the re- 
 ligion of his elders, even in diminutive form. 
 
 61. Development Another way of stating 
 
 IS IVIor© thsn 
 
 Mere Growth. this important difference 
 
 between the child and the 
 adult is this : The child develops, and develop- 
 ment is more than mere growth. Growth 
 signifies increase in size or strength, while 
 development includes the further notion of 
 qualitative change. The normal progress of 
 
106 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 a child is not movement up an inclined plane ; 
 there is not simply more and more of the 
 same thing. We have not simply to provide 
 a certain kind of food in larger and larger 
 quantities. The problem of education is 
 vastly more complicated than that. The diet 
 of the mind, as well as that of the body, has 
 to be changed from time to time. The practi- 
 cal outcome is that we must begin to observe 
 times and seasons in child development. We 
 must know when to change from one kind of 
 food to another. The resulting conception is 
 that of a series of stages which have much 
 in common, but each of which makes its own 
 demands and its own contributions to the 
 child's progress. 
 
 62. Education is Development, rather than 
 
 More than Mere • ■ ,• • j.x. £ ii, 
 
 instruction. instruction, is therefore the 
 
 central idea in education. 
 Instruction has reference to the intellect, or 
 function of knowing, while education has ref- 
 erence to the whole living being. Moreover, 
 instruction is not necessarily educative at all ; 
 for it may issue in increase of knowledge 
 without any increase of the self. Instruction 
 is truly educative only when it contributes to 
 self development, only when it enters into 
 vital and nutritive connection with the child's 
 
EDUCATION AS DEVELOPMENT OF LIFE 107 
 
 life from stage to stage, only when the knowl- 
 edge that it conveys ceases to be an external 
 possession and becomes, so to speak, flesh of 
 one's flesh. The best thing that can happen 
 to any child is to have the means of living his 
 own life completely at each stage. That is 
 the best preparation for the future, and noth- 
 ing, absolutely nothing, is gained by attach- 
 ing information to the outside of his life. Of 
 course, a truth may have lower and higher 
 aspects ; it may even be adapted to all stages 
 of development; and in general such truths 
 are the most educative of all. Yet the higher 
 aspects must await the coming of the child. 
 To unfold them too early is to make them ex- 
 ternal and to run the risk that this external 
 look of them will exclude all further consid- 
 eration, even at the appropriate age. 
 63. Adaptation is These remarks have im- 
 
 More than Mere ,. , t .• 
 
 Simplification. mediate apphcation to re- 
 
 ligious education. For our 
 ancient and inveterate habit has been, first, to 
 regard the child as simply a diminutive adult ; 
 second, to identify religious instruction with 
 religious education ; and, third, to assume that 
 the mere simplification of such instruction 
 constitutes adequate adaptation. For adults 
 there has been a longer catechism, and for 
 
108 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 children the same catechism abbreviated. 
 Adaptation to childhood has been, in fact, 
 largely verbal, as though the child could really 
 take in a system of theology if only the Avords 
 and sentences were short and simple. That 
 this is no exaggeration of the practically uni- 
 versal attitude of only a few years ago could 
 easily be proved from printed matter intended 
 for use with children. Connected with this 
 misunderstanding of the child Avas a misun- 
 derstanding of the adult also, for the assump- 
 tion was made that the graces of the Chris- 
 tian life are in general products of a knowl- 
 edge of Christian doctrines. Undoubtedly 
 a completed character is one in which the 
 truth is consciously realised in conduct. But 
 this rational element is certainly not the most 
 prominent factor even with adults, much less 
 with children. Other elements of character 
 appear first, such as right feeling, aspiration, 
 habit. These things grow through processes 
 that are unconscious to the child, and often 
 to parents and teachers. Unconscious imita- 
 tion and unreasoned adoption of prevailing 
 standards are far more influential than any 
 possible teaching of doctrine. 
 
 Adaptation to the child, therefore, does not 
 consist chiefly in the simplification of Ian- 
 
EDUCATION AS DEVELOPMENT OF LIFE 109 
 
 guage or even of ideas. It does not consist 
 chiefly in any scheme of instruction what- 
 ever. It implies, first of all, that the whole 
 environment of the child be attended to. His 
 education, for weal or for woe, goes forward 
 through everything with which he comes into 
 contact. Food, sanitary conditions, contact 
 with nature, with books, with newspapers, 
 with pictures, the tone of the family life, the 
 principles that actually control the conduct 
 of those abouthim — all these must be included 
 in any broad scheme of adaptation. Then will 
 be added adaptation in respect to instruction. 
 This will include, in addition to simplification, 
 the adjustment of the subject-matter itself to 
 the various stages of development, and the 
 adjustment of method to the characteristic 
 mental standpoint at each stage. 
 
 64. Spontaneous What, then, is the clue to 
 
 Interests as Clue ,, j. i j- a c ^t,^ 
 
 and Leverage. ^he actual state 01 the 
 
 child's mind? In general, 
 his spontaneous interests. Not all his inter- 
 ests, for it is possible to work up artificial 
 ones. By means of rewards and punishments, 
 by appeals to vanity, emulation or selfishness, 
 by stimulation of various kinds, even the 
 stimulus of love for a teacher, the child may 
 be made eagerly to run in a road other than 
 
110 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 that of normal development. The mere fact 
 that a child is interested in a study does not 
 prove that the study is wholesome for him or 
 that the method is sound. The interest may 
 be a destroying fever, or, if not positively 
 deleterious, it may over-develop the mind in 
 one direction while essential powers are going 
 to decay. What the child's nature actually 
 calls for at any stage can be discovered only 
 by noting what he spontaneously does in the 
 presence of abundant material for self-expres- 
 sion. The child is essentially active in both 
 body and mind. Watch him when he has per- 
 fect freedom, and you shall discover that 
 work, both mental and physical, is done with 
 enjoyment. Through such work comes power, 
 development, education. Here the child re- 
 veals himself, and here parent and teacher 
 find the true educational leverage. They have 
 the task of providing truly educative material 
 in which the pupil's interest will be spon- 
 taneous, not forced or over-stimulated. 
 
 Here is a boy who insists upon taking the 
 family clock to pieces in order to see how it 
 keeps time. This spontaneous interest may be 
 treated in either of three ways; It may be 
 suppressed, or it may be indulged without 
 guidance, or it may be guided toward an 
 
EDUCATION AS DEVELOPMENT OF LIFE 111 
 
 educational end. To suppress it is to cause 
 a wholesome intellectual impulse to wither. 
 To indulge it without guidance leads to de- 
 structiveness and sensationalism — things will 
 be taken to pieces for the sake of the imme- 
 diate impression. But through wise feeding 
 of this interest the boy may attain not only 
 to knowledge of mechanical principles and 
 devices, but also to habits of observation and 
 sound induction. 
 
 Note, similarly, the restless hands of the 
 boys in yonder Sunday-school class. Here is 
 a sign that occupation should be provided for 
 hands as well as brain, and that body and 
 mind should work together in the learning of 
 the day's lesson. 
 
 Here is a child who calls for stories, stories, 
 without end. Of what possible use would it 
 be to give such a child instruction in a doc- 
 trinal catechism? Let the spontaneous in- 
 terest be fed, yet not for the sake of quieting 
 the child. For the content of the story ed- 
 ucates. Imagination, feeling, moral and spir- 
 itual aspiration can be called out by simply 
 bringing appropriate images before the mind 
 in the story form. 
 
 "When a boy reaches the age that calls for 
 "blood and thunder" stories, what shall be 
 
112 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 done? Shall we condemn his taste because 
 we ourselves have outgrown it ? Shall we try- 
 to suppress such reading? That would give 
 incentive for the clandestine reading that has 
 helped to ruin many a boy. Secret disobedi- 
 ence is the natural result of trying to sup- 
 press a spontaneous interest. And even if 
 our negative measures succeed, what do we 
 accomplish? We simply take something of 
 the spirit, the freshness, the initiative out 
 of the boy; he is in the way of becoming 
 namby-pamby. The only sound method is to 
 supply the demand by providing wholesome 
 tales of adventure and heroism.^ 
 
 65. Securing and The problem of securing 
 
 Holding i i i t , , . • ■, 
 
 Attention. ^^^d holding attention has 
 
 bothered teachers always 
 
 and everywhere. One reason therefor is that 
 
 the relation of attention to interest has been 
 
 only imperfectly understood. On this point 
 
 there are two extremes to be avoided. One is 
 
 the old notion of compelling attention by 
 
 creating artificial interests, whether by means 
 
 of rewards and punishments, or by means of 
 
 emulation or other kinds of artificial stimula- 
 
 ' At the same time, we should remember that an In- 
 terest that appears to be spontaneous may be a product 
 of earlier training or of earlier neglect. See Introduc- 
 tion to Irving King : The Psychology of Child-Develop- 
 ment (Chicago, 1903). 
 
EDUCATION AS DEVELOPMENT OP LIFE 113 
 
 tion. The other extreme consists in relying 
 so completely upon spontaneous, pleasure- 
 giving interests as not to produce the abso- 
 lutely essential habit of giving attention to 
 disagreeable things. If we adopt the first ex- 
 treme, the artificiality of the incentives upon 
 which we rely is likely to be attributed by the 
 pupil to the subject-matter of instruction. 
 But if we adopt the second extreme, our pupils 
 will fail to learn the lesson of doing duty as 
 good soldiers, whether it is agreeable or not. 
 
 The child must be trained, then, to attend 
 to unattractive things, yet not as a slave under 
 compulsion, but through an inner, personal 
 interest in them. This is to say that the 
 range and depth of his interests must be in- 
 creased. The entering wedge is the present, 
 spontaneous interest, whatever it may be. 
 This already has the attention. The next 
 move is to feed this interest with such ma- 
 terial as enlarges and guides it, and so trans- 
 fers attention to new matter M^hich at first 
 perhaps is not felt to be interesting. Interest 
 in things present can be extended to things of 
 the same class in the past. From picture to 
 story, from story to biography, from biog- 
 raphy to history; from a battle as an out- 
 ward event to the issue involved, and finally 
 
114 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 to political or ethical principles ; from our na- 
 tional heroes to the heroes of the Bible and of 
 Christian history — these will represent the 
 principle of extending interests and so ex- 
 tending attention. In general, attention 
 should be secured and held through the in- 
 trinsic value which the child feels to be 
 present in the subject-matter of instruction. 
 This does not exclude such extrinsic incite- 
 ments as arise naturally through group activ- 
 ities, but it warns us against detaching in- 
 struction from the immediate, spontaneous 
 interest. On the basis of intrinsic interest 
 the teacher can secure the hardest work, 
 work that even approximates the hardships 
 that children willingly go through in carry- 
 ing on their sports or other self-initiated en- 
 terprises. Furthermore, self-imposed hard 
 work, if the subject-matter be worthy and 
 of sufficient breadth and depth, is the most 
 educative. For in later life the real test of 
 our character will be whether we will impose 
 upon ourselves tasks that we might escape, 
 whether we will take an interest in that which 
 is worthy of our interest.^ 
 
 1 On the relation of spontaneous to acquired interests, 
 see William James : Talks to Teachers on Psychology 
 (New York, 1899). On the necessity of starting all in- 
 struction at the child's level and upon the ground of 
 an already existing interest, see Patterson DuBols : Th« 
 Point of Contact in Teaching (New York, 1901). 
 
EDUCATION AS DEVELOPMENT OF LIFE 115 
 
 66. Apperception This principle of building 
 
 or Mental - .,, . . j 
 
 Assimilation. from witmn outward must 
 
 be pursued a step further. 
 A spontaneous interest means that the mind 
 is actively seeking its food. Now, just as 
 physical food, in order to fulfil its end, must 
 be not only eaten but also assimilated, so in- 
 struction must be mentally assimilated before 
 it can build up the mind.^ The technical 
 name for mental assimilation is apperception. 
 The fact is as simple as the name is clumsy. 
 The essential fact is that we understand a 
 new idea by means of ideas we already have. 
 A little boy who had learned to call a dog 
 "bow-wow," gave the same name to cats, 
 sheep, and other small animals. When the 
 Thanksgiving turkey appeared upon the table, 
 "Bow-wow" was his remark. Similarly cows 
 and other large animals were called "ossy" 
 (horse). This extension of old names to new 
 objects is an outward sign tbat new objects 
 are being grouped into the classes already 
 recognised. The new is tbus being assimilated 
 by means of the old. In the days before the 
 Chicago River had been purified by means of 
 the drainage canal, a little girl was heard to 
 
 ^ To this physical simile, Patterson DuBois has added 
 several others, as nurture by atmosphere, by light, and 
 by exercise. — The Natural Way in Moral Training (New 
 YorJt, 1903). 
 
116 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 remark to a companion, "I hate rivers, don't 
 you?" "Why?" said the other. ''Because 
 they smell so ! " was the reply. This little girl 
 was interpreting her instruction in geography 
 by means of her own experiences. 
 
 This process is a universal one. We see the 
 new through the old, the distant through the 
 near ; we understand things that Ave have not 
 experienced by imaging them under the form 
 of those that we liave experienced. We grasp 
 the idea of God's love through our experience 
 as children and parents, or as wives and 
 husbands, and the highest conception of 
 divinity that we can form is that which we 
 receive through contemplation of a com- 
 plete human life. On the other hand, each 
 new experience or idea, in the act of 
 being interpreted by means of an old one, 
 modifies it. After the little boy had called 
 the Thanksgiving turkey "bow-wow," this 
 name meant more to him than before, and the 
 object, dog, had new and wider relationships. 
 The great fact of apperception, then, broadly 
 stated, is that the old idea interprets the new 
 one, but is modified by it. 
 
 The applications of this principle to educa- 
 tion are perfectly direct. First, the success 
 of any educational effort depends at every 
 
EDUCATION AS DEVELOPMENT OF LIFE 117 
 
 stage upon the extent and depth of the child's 
 past experience not less than upon the new 
 material that is presented. Hence the value 
 of large and varied contact with nature, of 
 handling things, of using tools, of engaging 
 all the senses and all the active powers. 
 Second, perceiving anything is more than 
 merely seeing it, and learning a truth is more 
 than committing to memory the formula 
 thereof, even though the meaning of every 
 word in the formula be understood. The 
 ability to define and formulate, or even to 
 give correct answers to searching questions 
 does not measure one's actual acquisitions. 
 The important question always is this : What 
 does this mean to the child in terms of his 
 own experience? Third, it follows that the 
 teacher must give at least as much attention 
 to what is already in the child's mind as to 
 the new ideas that are to be presented. The 
 new idea cannot be handed over, or fired into 
 the waiting mind. It can only be attached to 
 some idea already there, and if it is not so 
 attached it is not really acquired. One of the 
 great undertakings of the child-study move- 
 ment is to discover what is the stock of ideas 
 of children at various ages. Such a stock of 
 ideas reveals "the point of contact" with the 
 
118 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 child's actual experience, and knowledge of it 
 enables the teacher to effect the junction or 
 rather fusion of the new and the old through 
 the child's own spontaneous interest. Many 
 applications of this principle to religious and 
 moral instruction lie upon the surface. Others 
 will be unfolded as we proceed. 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 EDUCATION AS DEVELOPMENT OP PERSONS 
 
 67. What is it to We have said that the 
 
 be a Person? i m t • , i 
 
 cniid IS not merely an or- 
 ganism, physical and mental, but also a 
 person. What is it to be a person ? Without 
 being too formal or technical, we may answer 
 that personality implies self-knowledge and 
 self-control, or, more definitely, the ability to 
 think one's self in relation to one's world, set 
 ends before one's self as desirable, and freely 
 choose them as one's own. Now, education is 
 intended to assist the child to realise himself 
 as a person. Here our figure of development 
 through feeding ceases to be adequate. For, 
 whereas digestion and assimilation are 
 wrought within us rather than by us, we are 
 persons only through acts of self-discrimina- 
 tion, self-criticism, and choice that are strictly 
 our own. There is a sense in which personal- 
 ity or selfhood may be said to be self-attained 
 rather than bestowed. From within are the 
 issues of life. Of course we are not self- 
 originating but created, yet the deepest mys- 
 tery of creation lies just in the fact that we 
 
120 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 are at once dependent creatures and yet free 
 persons, that we are bestowed upon ourselves 
 and yet have to attain to ourselves. At the 
 beginning of life we are free persons only in 
 a potential sense. We are not in possession 
 of ourselves, but we are possessed by impres- 
 sions and impulses. In a very complete sense 
 we are as yet creatures of circumstances. Only 
 through a long and slow process of education 
 does anyone attain to his own self, but in pro- 
 portion as he does attain thereunto he becomes 
 free. He is no longer a mere mental mechan- 
 ism moved by blind impulse, but in some 
 measure he uses the mechanism of his own 
 mind for self-chosen ends. He is no longer a 
 mere creature of circumstances; he does not 
 merely adjust himself to his environment, but 
 rather he adjusts his environment to his own 
 ends. What a circumstance shall be to a 
 person depends upon what the person chooses 
 to make of it.^ In view of all this we may well 
 modify our earlier definitions of education by 
 making it to be an effort to assist immature 
 persons to realise tbemselves and their des- 
 tiny as persons. 
 
 » Mackenzie well says that what a circumstance Is to 
 us, and so what are to be reckoned circumstances, de- 
 pends upon our character. The same external or internal 
 fact Is one thing to one man, another to another. — J. S. 
 Mackenzie: Manual of Ethics (London, 1899), pages 
 85 ff. 
 
EDUCATION AS DEVELOPMENT OF PERSONS 121 
 
 68. Self-Realisa- Education is to assist 
 
 tion Requires ,. . 
 
 Self- Expression. seli-realisation. This im- 
 plies, first, that the pupil is 
 to be active, not passive. It implies, in the 
 second place, not only activity, or the exercise 
 of functions, but also self-originating activity. 
 In a sense the only education possible for a 
 person is self-education. This is not quite 
 the same as training. Training includes the 
 formation of habit and increase of power or 
 accuracy through practice ; education includes 
 all this and in addition the securing possession 
 of one's self or free self-realisation. A dog or 
 a horse can be trained, but only persons can 
 be educated. It follows, in the third place, 
 that true education must develop individual- 
 ity. Its products cannot be machine-made and 
 uniform. It is true, as Jesus tells us, that we 
 can save our life only by self-sacrifice for 
 society, but there must first be a self before 
 there can be self-sacrifice. The self-sacrifice 
 that Jesus had in mind is not dull conformity 
 or obliteration of individuality, but the active 
 contribution to society of something that is 
 worth while. The more distinctive the con- 
 tribution, the more does it enrich the life of 
 society. The social end of education is there- 
 fore not hindered but promoted through the 
 
122 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 development of strong individuality in 
 pupils.^ Summing up these implicates, we may 
 say that the education of persons must assist 
 their self-realisation, that self-realisation re- ^ 
 quires self-expression, and that this includes 
 activity, initiative or freedom, and individ- 
 uality. 
 
 69. "No Impres- The necessity for activity 
 
 sion without 
 
 Expression." on the part or the pupil 
 
 might have been shown in 
 the last chapter, where we were dealing with 
 the mind simply as an organism. For growth, 
 as everyone knows, comes through exercise. 
 But this truth attains vastly deeper meaning 
 through its connection with the principle of 
 personal self-realisation. With the thought 
 of personality in the background we now 
 proceed to examine the general relation of 
 activity to mental development. The neces- 
 sity of pupil-activity in education has attained 
 crystalline expression in two maxims or mot- 
 toes: "No impression without expression," 
 and "Learn by doing." The first of these 
 maxims means that everything received by 
 the pupil from teacher or text-book must 
 
 ' For a discussion of the social aspect of religious 
 education, see Chapter XXII. 
 
EDUCATION AS DEVELOPMENT OF PERSONS 123 
 
 be expressed by the pupil before it can 
 become a vital possession. We do not really 
 learn anything until we express it in 
 ■word or act. We do not first learn it 
 and then express it, but the expression is itself 
 a part of the process of acquisition. Impres- 
 sion without expression leaves the mind at 
 best in a state of apparent but unreal illu- 
 mination. Anyone can observe this in himself. 
 How often do we fancy that we have grasped 
 a subject, only to find the merest ghosts of 
 ideas in our mind when we try to tell what 
 we suppose we know or believe. How many 
 times, too, have we seen our subject develop 
 and grow clear in the act of talking or writing 
 about it. How much more so is it with 
 children, whose resources are so much less 
 than ours. Impression must pass promptly 
 over into expression, or become powerless and 
 meaningless. The very little child must tell 
 the story in his own words, or act it out ; older 
 children must recite the lesson, or write a 
 composition, or draw a map or picture, or 
 work out a problem, or devise a dramatic rep- 
 resentation. Such modes of expression are 
 not over and above the work of instruction, 
 but an essential part of it. 
 
124 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 70- An A teacher in a public 
 
 Illustration. , , • ^ .• i 
 
 school was instructing^ her 
 
 pupils in the history of our country. The 
 lesson for the day was the landing of the Pil- 
 grims at Plymouth. The story was first told, 
 and then the teacher said, "Would you like 
 to play this story?" The children assented, 
 and a leader, a little girl, was appointed. She 
 promptly called out other children and as- 
 signed them their parts, and without hint or 
 guidance from any source she devised and the 
 children enacted the following scene : The 
 Mayflower was represented by children ar- 
 ranged in two lines like those of a ship 's sides. 
 At bow and at stern a child held a flag. The 
 Pilgrims were represented by the other chil- 
 dren, who were first enclosed within the lines 
 just referred to, and later walked ashore with 
 due gravity. The value of such an exercise 
 is manifold. It makes the story vivid to the 
 pupil, gives it reality, fixes it in the memory, 
 and — what is at least equally important— de- 
 velops initiative and individuality. 
 
 71. "Learn by We shall see, after a 
 
 ^" while, how the motto, "No 
 
 impression without expression," is being ap- 
 plied in Sunclay-sehool instruction. But first 
 we must unfold the general principle a little 
 
EDUCATION AS DEVELOPMENT OP PERSONS 125 
 
 further. "Learn by doing" advances us an- 
 other step. This maxim means that an idea 
 is best acquired by doing something in which 
 the idea is used. Children, as everybody 
 knows, like to do things. Now, the modern 
 teacher takes advantage of this fact by lead- 
 ing the child to do things in which there arises 
 need for measurement (which involves arith- 
 metic), language (reading and writing), geo- 
 graphical and historical knowledge, etc. The 
 most advanced experiment in this direction is 
 that of Professor John Dewey, who has organ- 
 ised a school in which the child is to be led 
 by this method from the earliest kindergarten 
 age to his entrance to college.^ One purpose 
 of this school is to continue the natural educa- 
 tion that is begun in the family by the con- 
 tact of the child with life in the concrete. 
 The pupil accordingly engages in three do- 
 mestic occupations that are fundamental to 
 human well-being— the preparation of food 
 (cooking), of clothing (spinning and weav- 
 ing), and of shelter (carpentry, etc.). This 
 work introduces him at once to nature, and 
 he acquires some of the rudiments of natural 
 and physical science. Since it requires meas- 
 urement, symbols, and records, he is led to 
 
 ^ See John Dewey : The School and Society (Chicago, 
 1900). 
 
126 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 feel the need of arithmetic, reading and writ- 
 ing, and he studies them in response to his 
 own spontaneous interest, and for the sake of 
 their immediate usableness. The simpler 
 forms of these three occupations are first un- 
 dertaken, then the more complex. As this 
 sequence reproduces the order of the develop- 
 ment of civilisation, the pupil becomes inter- 
 ested in history; he lives it through, to some 
 extent, in miniature. At every step his in- 
 ventive or creative power is given scope, 
 whether in practical or artistic form. At 
 every step, too, the work is co-operative, and 
 therefore educative of the social feelings. The 
 bearing of this remarkable experiment is com- 
 plex, yet certain principles stand out clearly. 
 For one thing, the child is dealing with real 
 life, so that the ordinary artificial isolation of 
 the school from the home and from the v/orld 's 
 work is avoided. Then, always appealing to 
 the pupil's spontaneous interest, the school 
 arranges the material and the occupations so 
 that the resulting reactions adjust the indi- 
 vidual to his fellows, and to the knowledge, 
 the arts, and the industries by which society 
 lives. The point for our especial attention, 
 however, is the radical way in which the prin- 
 ciple of learning by doing is applied. Just as 
 
EDUCATION AS DEVELOPMENT OF PERSONS 127 
 
 the race has come by its knowledge primarily 
 through doing the things necessary for pre- 
 serving life and attaining life's chosen ends, 
 so the child is to be instructed by doing the 
 things in which he, too, is really interested. 
 
 72. The Sensor! - The necessity for educa- 
 
 Motor Arc* 
 
 tion through the pupil's ac- 
 tivity is grounded in our nervous and mental 
 structure. Looked at broadly, the work of 
 mind consists in transforming impressions 
 into acts. The nervous mechanism involved 
 in this process is technically described as the 
 "sensori-motor arc." The chief parts of our 
 nervous system are three: sensory nerves, 
 which conduct sense-stimulus to the brain; 
 the brain itself, which serves as a sort of cen- 
 tral telephone exchange for putting one 
 part of the organism into touch with other 
 parts; and the motor nerves, which conduct 
 the stimulus of motion to the muscles and 
 cause them to contract. Similarly, our typical 
 conscious states are first, impressions of sense ; 
 second, our thoughts and emotions ; and, third, 
 our volitions and impulses to action. At first 
 sight we fancy that these three come in serial 
 order, first impression, then thought, then 
 action ; but this is only half the truth. For, 
 while thought may be deliberate, and action 
 
128 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 may be postponed to await the conclusion of 
 reflection, nevertheless no one of these proc- 
 esses ever takes place entirely by itself. A 
 complete mental state involves all three 
 aspects of mind. With every impression 
 there goes at least a nascent act. At the very 
 least there are changes in the circulation and 
 the breathing, and even our voluntary muscles 
 contract and relax in greater or less degree 
 with the changing shades of mental impres- 
 sion. Anyone can easily prove this to himself 
 by occasionally taking note of the state of the 
 physical organism when the mind appears to 
 be merely receiving impressions, as in listen- 
 ing to a story, looking at a landscape, etc. 
 The point of all this, as far as education is 
 concerned, is that a mental state is never com- 
 plete until it has adequate expression, or until 
 act balances impression. Whatever clogs the 
 active or expressive channels clogs the whole 
 flow of mental energy. The result of inad- 
 equate expression is unclearness, misunder- 
 standing, forgetfulness, or possibly a super- 
 ficial conceit of knowledge. 
 73. Neglect of This principle holds for 
 
 Religtou's°" '" adults as well as for chil- 
 
 Training. dren, and neglect of it ac- 
 
 counts for many a failure, 
 
EDUCATION AS DEVELOPMENT OP PERSONS 129 
 
 complete or partial, in religious work. 
 Preaching, for example, is often weak, in spite 
 of both intelligence and earnestness, because 
 it fails to reveal a direct way for the hearers 
 actively to apply the truth they hear. An 
 effective sermon is not necessarily the same 
 as an affecting one. The pew must talk and 
 act before the impression made by the pulpit 
 can be a really vital matter, and the talking 
 and acting, let it be remembered, are not mere 
 consequences of having the truth, but also a 
 part of the process of getting hold of it. "If 
 any man will to do ... he shall know. ' ' If 
 this be true of church work with adults, how 
 much more does it apply to work with 
 children? Adults have many modes of self- 
 expression, some of which are indirect, and 
 many of which can be postponed to a greater 
 or less extent. But a child must express him- 
 self at once and directly, or the impression 
 fades beyond effective recovery. 
 
 In many cases church methods with the 
 young are very little more than a weakened 
 form of preaching. They ignore the necessity 
 of active expression. This is one of the reasons 
 why biblical facts and spiritual truths remain 
 so external to many pupils of the Sunday 
 school. Biblical history that is gone over and 
 
130 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 over in the class is forgotten, and the child 
 reaches maturity shockingly ignorant of the 
 simplest facts. One ignorant saint who puts 
 the Bible to daily use, and so expresses his 
 impressions, learns more of the Scriptures 
 in a year than many a bright Sunday- 
 school pupil learns in a double seven year 
 cycle. The same principle applies to the 
 "applications" or "lessons" to be gathered 
 from the biblical material. Many teachers 
 fancy that their most important duty is 
 to tell the class just what moral or spiritual 
 lesson can be learned from the passage under 
 consideration. But if a teacher stops here he 
 is likely to do more harm than good. A reli- 
 gious impression that does not secure expres-^/O 
 sion is worse than no impression at all. For 
 it remains external, it seems unreal, and the 
 repetition of such religious impressions leads 
 finally to a habit of regarding religion itself 
 as external and unrelated to one's real life. 
 
 74. Not only Let US nOW SCO the bear- 
 
 Activity, but . f> 11 .1 • 
 
 , I p mg 01 all this upon person- 
 
 Self- Activity, ality, an idea which for the 
 
 moment has been kept in the 
 background. We have seen that the child 
 should express whatever he is set to learn, 
 and that this expression takes place most nor- 
 
EDUCATION AS DEVELOPMENT OF PERSONS 131 
 
 mally when the facts or truths to be mastered 
 occur to him as essential parts of some active 
 work in which he is spontaneously interested. 
 A third and deeper aspect of the case is that 
 the pupil here takes the initiative and in the 
 outcome expresses not merely the fact or truth 
 that he is learning, but also himself. Pesta- 
 lozzi laid the stress upon activity, but Froebel 
 upon self -activity.^ That is, the child enters 
 upon a given educational activity because of 
 his own interest in that activity. In a sense, 
 he freely initiates and carries forward his own 
 education. While the teacher chooses for him 
 by providing certain kinds of material for 
 self-expression rather than others, the child 
 also chooses for himself because he is inter- 
 ested in tliat material. His reactions upon it 
 constitute his own free self-expression. He 
 not merely learns something, he also progres- 
 sively discovers himself. If it were possible 
 for him to put this aspect of his experience 
 into words, he might say: "I discover that, 
 to live my very own life, I must say 'I am,' 
 not 'I is'; that I must be able to know how 
 much one-third of one-half is; that I must 
 know the boundaries of my town, my county, 
 ray state ; that I must realise where my food 
 
 ^ J. L. Hughes : Froebel's Educational Laws for all 
 Teachers (New York. 1890), Chapters IX and X. 
 
132 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 comes from, how my ancestors attained civi- 
 lised life and conquered their liberty. All 
 these things belong to me, and I should be less 
 myself without them." 
 
 75. Freedom in This is the great principle 
 
 Education. /? £ i i -• 
 
 01 ireedom m education. 
 
 The child is not to be forced into any pre- 
 arranged mold. He is not merely to imitate. 
 He is not merely to assimilate food. He is 
 rather to attain to selfhood by a series of 
 spontaneously initiated activities that lead to 
 a progressive series of self-discoveries. The 
 movement for freedom in education is prac- 
 tically parallel with the modern movement for 
 popular government. The two reforms are, 
 in fact, parts of one effort of the human spirit. 
 When the movement for American indepen- 
 dence and for popular government in France 
 was organising itself, the pedagogical reform 
 was also setting in. The century of our po- 
 litical liberty is also the century in which the 
 child has been emancipated from repressive 
 school methods. Many men now living have 
 witnessed a large part of this peaceful revolu- 
 tion. They can recall a time when both the 
 instruction and the discipline in the ordinary 
 school were full of restraint and compulsion 
 intended to mold the child to the teacher's 
 
EDUCATION AS DEVELOPMENT OF PERSONS 133 
 
 ideas. In the well managed school of to-day, 
 if any child does not learn, if he is restless or 
 refractory, the teacher, instead of concocting 
 schemes for more effective compulsion, asks 
 himself wherein he has failed to understand 
 the child and adapt the school work to him. 
 
 The kindergarten has been not only the most 
 complete expression of this idea, but also the 
 leader of all other branches of general educa- 
 tion. It has stood as protector of the joyous 
 spontaneity of childhood. It has steadily 
 asserted that when the child comes into the 
 schoolroom he should not be expected to lay 
 aside the freedom of his home life and his 
 plays. He should continue freely to express 
 himself, and the school should find its mission 
 in providing means for fuller and richer and 
 freer self-expression. From the kindergarten 
 this idea has spread upward through the 
 whole school organism even to the college. 
 The elective system of studies has been 
 adopted by the colleges and is being adopted 
 by the high schools largely in response to this 
 principle. School discipline has become 
 largely a matter of student self-government. 
 As a consequence, school work has become 
 more joyous and discipline easier. 
 
 Now, joy in work leads to harder work and 
 
134 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 larger results. Two or three generations ago 
 most teachers would probably have denied the 
 proposition that pupils like hard work. To- 
 day thoughtful teachers would make a dis- 
 tinction : children and youths like hard work 
 that is self-expressive, but they still dislike 
 the task that has no personal meaning for 
 them. Children are not naturally lazy. Quite 
 the contrary. For behold the wealth of physi- 
 cal and mental energy that they put into 
 games and the solving of puzzles. It is utterly 
 natural for the young to work hard, and to 
 gain. thereby physical and mental ruggedness, 
 vigor, power of application. Every healthy 
 child or youth is a storage battery of power 
 that merely waits for opportunity to discharge 
 itself. Any pupil who is not habitually atten- 
 tive and interested should be assumed to be 
 either defective in body or mind, or else suf- 
 fering the results of defective method. 
 
 76. Interest of The interest of religion 
 
 Religion and j ^ • .^ • • i 
 
 iViorals in this ^^^ morals in the principle 
 
 Principle. of freedom in education is 
 
 greater, if possible, than 
 that of so-called secular education. For reli- 
 gion and morals have primary reference to the 
 free personality as such. Their aim is to 
 induce men freely to choose the good, nay, 
 
EDUCATION AS DEVELOPMENT OF PERSONS 135 
 
 they aim even to make men like the good and 
 find their freedom and self-realisation therein. 
 Religious and moral education, accordingly, 
 cannot be anything less than the progressive 
 attainment of freedom through the exercise 
 of freedom; and its method can be nothing 
 less than placing the child in a series of such 
 concrete situations as shall reveal him to him- 
 self as really interested in the good and self- 
 enlisted on its side. This involves growing 
 knowledge of good and evil, a developing 
 spiritual appreciation, and training of the 
 will. It is not instruction alone ; it is not habit 
 alone ; it is not merely instruction plus habit ; 
 it is also the personal sense of reality, of dis- 
 covering one's very own life. This is true not 
 only of the ethical side of religion, but also 
 of the sacred experiences in which the soul 
 realises the presence of God. Here, too, is 
 freedom and the highest joy, and the road 
 thereto is likewise that of free self-expression. 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 PUNISHMENT AND PLAY 
 
 77. Necessary The present chapter will 
 
 Limits of , ... 
 
 Freedom. 06 an attempt to illustrate 
 
 and apply the principle of 
 free self-expression by reference to the two 
 extremes, play and punishment. The former 
 appears at first sight to correspond most 
 closely to the idea of free self-expression, yet 
 to have little educational value, while the 
 latter appears to contradict the principle of 
 free self-expression, yet to be essential to 
 training of the moral will. We will begin 
 with punishment. This does, indeed, stand 
 for a limitation upon freedom, but upon re- 
 flection we perceive that freedom must, in any 
 ease, be limited. Every boy, for example, 
 wishes to play with powder and fire-arms. 
 Now, here is a situation in which, in general, 
 freedom cannot be and remain unlimited. 
 For, if the parent does not say "No," the ex- 
 plosives themselves will say it by injuring 
 the boy and curtailing his power. This is a 
 typical case. Unrestrained freedom destroj^s 
 freedom, and conversely the most complete 
 
PUNISHMENT AND PLAY 137 
 
 freedom is self-limiting. In the case of fire- 
 arms the most complete freedom is that of an 
 adult who, in view of the nature of explos- 
 ives, voluntarily restrains or sets rules to him- 
 self. 
 
 Free self-expression, then, includes self- 
 restraint. Now, the problem with regard to 
 punishment of the young is simply whether 
 punishments inflicted against the will of the 
 child may nevertheless constitute to the child 
 his own self-expression in the way of self- 
 limitation. We know that mere habits can be 
 formed under the influence of prospective or 
 actual chastisement, and that, to this extent, 
 the rod may help to form the character. But, 
 unless in and through the chastisement the 
 child discovers himself, the value of the habits 
 thus formed may be seriously doubted. The 
 practical aim must be to make all punish- 
 ments self-punishments, all restraints self- 
 restraints. 
 
 78. Common Children are punished 
 
 Mistakes as to , p, -, , i , 
 
 Punishment. l^ss often and less severely 
 
 than formerly. This is due 
 in part to increasing emphasis upon the 
 milder aspects of Christianity, in part 
 to the movement for freedom in educa- 
 tion, and in part, perhaps, to simple dis- 
 
138 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 inclination to take up a problem of so great 
 delicacy. In the main this change in the lot 
 of childhood is probably for the better. Yet 
 no one will deny that chastisement is often 
 inflicted unwisely, or that it is often omitted 
 where it is most needed. There is ground for 
 suspecting that few parents have any clear 
 notion, and fewer still any sound one, of the 
 relation of punishment to character building. 
 Penalties are inflicted for the sake of some 
 slight immediate end, such as quiet in the 
 household, or even as an act of resentment. 
 Punishment is frequently omitted altogether 
 for the sake of avoiding disturbance, or be- 
 cause a parent fears to create a situation 
 that he may not be able to control. It will not 
 be out of place, then, to state a few maxims 
 which grow directly out of the fact that our 
 supreme duty to the young is to assist their 
 development as persons. 
 
 That punishment should never be inflicted 
 upon children by an angry person, or be- 
 cause of anger, resentment, or irritation of 
 any kind, is almost self-evident. Whenever 
 it is inflicted it should be as deliberate and 
 well reasoned as an important business con- 
 tract, and it should be administered as a duty 
 that may not be put aside. Further, it should 
 
PUNISHMENT AND PLAY 139 
 
 have a definite good end in view; it should 
 look to the future, not merely to the past. 
 AAHiatever be our conceptions of divine pun- 
 ishments or of state punishments, certainly in 
 the case of children mere retaliation, the mere 
 vindication of broken law, and the mere asser- 
 tion of authority or of abstract justice are out 
 of place. The essential question is, What 
 effect will the proposed treatment of the child 
 have upon his own development? This ques- 
 tion cannot be answered without considering 
 the effect upon the spirit as well as the out- 
 ward conduct. To punish wisely is to punish 
 the inmost self so that life shall issue out of 
 it. 
 
 79. Punishment Punishment is educative 
 
 Expression. i^ proportion as the dis- 
 
 comfort of it seems to the 
 child to be a genuine expression of what he 
 himself is or does, so that desire awakens to 
 overcome the present self and rise to a higher 
 one. jIt is not enough to prevent the doing of 
 some things and secure the doing of others ; 
 discipline fails unless it helps the child to 
 desire to do and to abstain. Correct disci- 
 pline cultivates the preferences, the standard, 
 the sense of what one really is. In a word, 
 punishment should be the self-expression of 
 
140 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 a lower self out of which arises the sense of a 
 higher self. To this end, penalties should be 
 natural rather than artificial, that is, they 
 should be and seem to be direct results of the 
 child's own act rather than impositions of an 
 apparently arbitrary will. Children should 
 not be shielded too much from the painful 
 consequences of foolish conduct. There is 
 educative value in bruises, cuts, burns, and 
 even in scratches and blows from other chil- 
 dren. One of the worst situations into which 
 a child can be placed is a home that so shields 
 him from pain that he fails to learn the fact 
 of law, both natural and social, and the cor- 
 relative fact that self-restraint is essential to 
 the largest freedom. 
 
 Punishment in the strict sense— that is, as 
 distinguished from mere consequences that 
 occur under natural law— will have to do 
 chiefly with violations of the conditions of 
 social life. Here is where arbitrariness on the 
 part of parent or teacher is most likely to 
 creep in. Even rules that are really not arbi- 
 trary may seem so to the child, and punish- 
 ment for infringement of them, though it be a 
 true copy of real life, may seem to him arti- 
 ficial, unreasonable, and arbitrary. This is a 
 serious matter. For whatever seems to the 
 
PUNISHMENT AND PLAY 141 
 
 child like mere arbitrariness tends to call 
 forth a response of the same kind ; in defence 
 of his own sense of self, he conceals, deceives, 
 and devises unsocial means of self-assertion. 
 
 Rules and penalties, then, should not only 
 not be arbitrary; they should not seem to be 
 so. This will involve something in the way of 
 explanation, but more in the way of devising 
 social penalties that the offender shall see to 
 be self-imposed. For example, selfishness and 
 disregard of established order tend to break 
 up plays and games ; therefore, in the interest 
 of a game or play, Avhich is the child's own 
 interest, a wilful child must sometimes be 
 denied a desired pastime. Of course no chas- 
 tisement for the moment seems joyous, but 
 grievous. Temporarily the disciplinarian 
 must oppose the child; yet the nature of the 
 violated rule, the nature of the penalty, and 
 the personal attitude in the administration 
 thereof should all be such that the child 
 quickly realises that his deeper will is in har- 
 mony with the hand that chastises. A little 
 boy by his play in the family living room had 
 endangered a lighted lamp. He was repeat- 
 edly warned, but the play impulse overcame 
 him, he forgot, and soon the lamp was over- 
 turned. Thereupon one of the parents, ex- 
 
142 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 plaining to the little boy the dangers of a poor 
 memory, and pointing out that the little boy's 
 own memory needed external help, adminis- 
 tered sharp coi'poreal punishment. It was 
 for the sake of the future, not of the past ; it 
 represented a necessary order of things rather 
 than an arbitrary will ; it became to the child- 
 consciousness at once an expression of hia 
 imperfect self and a means of helping him to 
 realise a higher selfhood.^ 
 
 80. Educational Let US turn now to the 
 
 Value of Play. . •- n • i. 
 
 extreme opposite or punish- 
 ment, the unrestrained freedom of play. Al- 
 cuin (died 804), who is usually regarded as 
 the father of mediaeval education, looked upon 
 play as frivolous and worthy only of being 
 discouraged or suppressed. In this he was fol- 
 lowed by various educators. Until compara- 
 tively recent times, even those who have not 
 condemned plays and games have neverthe- 
 less looked upon them as essentially useless, 
 or at best as a relatively harmless way of oc- 
 cupying children who are too young to be 
 doing anything useful. All this is now re- 
 versed. The plays of the young, since they 
 
 1 See Elizabeth Harrison : A Study of Cliild Nature 
 (Chicago Kindergarten College, 1902), and Herbert Spen- 
 cer: Education: Intellectual, Moral, and Physical (Nev^ 
 York, 1872). 
 
PUNISHMENT AND PLAY 143 
 
 reveal the spontaneous interests, have become 
 a clue to educational problems; and since 
 spontaneous interest has become the leverage 
 of the teacher in the education of the child, 
 the conscious effort of teachers has been to 
 make the work of the schoolroom somewhat 
 like the work of the playground. There is no 
 absolute dividing line between the two kinds 
 of work. Nor is this all. For play itself 
 turns out to be a first-class educational pro- 
 cess. The play instinct is nature's way, and 
 so God's way, of deveyoping body, mind and 
 character. Quickness and accuracy of per- 
 ception; co-ordination of the muscles, which 
 puts the body at the prompt service of the 
 mind ; rapidity of thought ; accuracy of judg- 
 ment; promptness of decision; self-control; 
 respect for others ; the habit of co-operation ; 
 self-sacrifice for the good of a group— all 
 these products of true education are called 
 out in plays and games. Further, the play 
 instinct varies with the different -species and 
 with the two sexes, so that its specific forms 
 prepare the individual for his specific func- 
 tions. The plays of a lamb prepare for the 
 activities of a grazing animal; those of a 
 lion's whelp foretell the pursuit and killing 
 of prey. The plays of a girl look forward to 
 
144 KDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 motherhood; those of a boy to protecting, 
 building, acquiring. In short, play is a part 
 of nature 's school. 
 81. Relation of The relation of play to 
 
 Play to Religious ,. . -, .- -, 
 
 Education. religious education de- 
 
 mands a specific word. Just 
 as the gap between the school and play is be- 
 ing filled up, so the home and the church 
 should now at last awake to the divine sig- 
 nificance of the play instinct and make use 
 of it for the purpose of developing the spirit- 
 ual nature. The opposition between the play 
 spirit and the religious spirit is not real but 
 only fancied; just as that between play and 
 schooling in general. Through our ignorance 
 we have put asunder that which God hath 
 joined together. Here is the secret of much 
 of our lack of power with young people. We 
 teach children to think of their most free and 
 spontaneous activities, their plays, as having 
 no afifinity for religion, and then we wonder 
 why religion does not seem more attractive to 
 them as they grow toward maturity! We 
 mask the joy and freedom of religion by our 
 long faces, our perfunctory devotions, our 
 whispers and reticences, and then we find it 
 strange that young people are so inordinately 
 fond of worldly pleasures! As late as the 
 
PUNISHMENT AND PLAY 146 
 
 year 1900 a prominent Sunday-school leader 
 insisted upon keeping up this paralysing dis- 
 tinction. "It is wrong," he said, "to talk 
 about the kindergarten of the Bible school. 
 Wise primary workers are averse to turning 
 any part of the Bible school into a kinder- 
 garten because the thought of play should be 
 kept for places other than God's house, and 
 for times other than the Lord's day. The 
 .^ . little ones should be taught reverence very 
 "'^ early in life." As long as such notions pre- 
 vail, we should expect children to exclude 
 Grod from their plays, think of religion as 
 unnatural, and either grow up indifferent to 
 religion or else reserve their reverence for the 
 Lord's day and the Lord's house. Unless we 
 discover the unity of play Avith education in 
 religion as well as with so-called secular edu- 
 cation, we shall never secure control of the 
 whole child or the whole youth for Christ. 
 82. The Christian The practical problem is. 
 
 Interpretation of . . , , j. j xT. 
 
 Play^ m part, to extend the 
 
 Christian spirit through all 
 the games and plays of childhood and youth, 
 and the play spirit through the instrumental- 
 ities of religious education, so that the whole 
 life shall be lived as in the sight of God and 
 in friendship with Christ. If the thought of 
 
146 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 God or of Christ chills the joy of games and 
 plays, that merely proves that we have mis- 
 interpreted the divine to children. A child 
 who cannot freely unbend in the presence of 
 his earthly father or an elder brother is a 
 witness against such a father or such a 
 brother. There is imperfectly revealed 
 fatherhood, and imperfectly revealed brother- 
 hood. The fact that we have so represented 
 the Heavenly Father and the great Elder 
 Brother of us all shows how slow of heart we 
 have been, how slightly we have grasped the 
 principle of incarnation. God in Christ 
 means God in childhood as well as in man- 
 hood; God in childhood's plays, therefore, 
 as truly as in manhood's labor and worship. 
 In fact, the freedom of play is a normal ele- 
 ment of life and a normal attitude toward 
 life for adults as well as children. Bushnell 
 says : ' ' Play is the symbol and interpreter of 
 liberty, that is. Christian liberty. * * * 
 Play wants no motive but play; and so true 
 goodness, when it is ripe in the soul and is 
 become a complete inspiration there, will ask 
 no motive but to be good. Therefore God has 
 purposely set the beginning of the natural 
 life in a mood that foreshadows the last and 
 highest chapter of immortal character." Thus 
 
PUNISHMENT AND PLAY 147 
 
 play becomes " a natural interpreter of what 
 is highest and last in the grand problem of 
 •our life itself. "^ 
 
 Holding this view of play, we should strive, 
 not to make children like playless adults, but 
 to make adults like playful children. 
 Throughout education the play attitude of 
 mind should be preserved as far as possible. 
 After all, is it not right jolly to learn things, 
 to have an occupation, to do something worth 
 while ? Is it not fun to do right ? True, there 
 are unavoidable crosses; there is weakness 
 where we would have strength; there is wait- 
 ing when we wish to act, action when we 
 wish to rest; there are deprivation and sor- 
 row, and always the demand for self-sacrifice. 
 Yet Jesus made no mistake when he called 
 the yoke easy and the burden light, and Paul 
 was right when he called the law of Christ a 
 law of liberty. For children and adults alike 
 Christ is the great emancipator, the great re- 
 storer of the play spirit. Through him there 
 is rejoicing, even in tribulation ; through him 
 the meanest duty becomes a divine mission; 
 through him the human being for the first 
 time clearly realises that he is a child of God, 
 with a child's prerogatives. Why, then, are 
 
 'Horace Bushnell : Christian Nurture (New York: 
 Scribners), Part II, Ch. VI, pages 339 f. 
 
148 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MOEALS 
 
 we SO sober in our daily occupations, so un- 
 able to relax into the childlike state of mind ? 
 Because we think too meanly of our life; be- 
 cause of our narrow self-consciousness; be- 
 cause the larger self is denied a chance for 
 full utterance. If we would enter into the 
 fulness of life we must become as little chil- 
 dren, and we must remain so. Applying this 
 principle to the education of children, we 
 should strive to prevent even the semblance^ 
 of a break between the playground, the fam- 
 ily altar, and the church. 
 
 83. Christ as This wiU necessitate such 
 
 Playground. supervision of children's 
 
 plays as will make Christ 
 the master of the playground — the master, not 
 the spy or the oppressor; the promoter, not 
 the opponent of play. What a shame it is 
 that he has been represented to children as 
 mere restraint, a mere "don't," a negation, 
 whereas he is come that children may have 
 their own life and that they may have it 
 abundantly. That means play, with its fun, 
 its noise, its contests. The more of Christ 
 there is in play, the more fun there is; for 
 the things that Christ forbids, which center 
 in undue self-love, are the very things that de- 
 stroy play, while the things that he com- 
 
rUNISHMENT AND PLAY 149 
 
 mands, which center in social or group ac- 
 tivities, are the very things that keep play 
 going at its highest. This does not mean that 
 Christ would have goody-goody boys and 
 girls. Boisterousness, struggle, conquest, the 
 taking of risks and the facing of danger — all 
 these are at some time proper and truly 
 Christian. We must always remember that 
 "is" and "is not" are not the only alterna- 
 tives; there is also "becoming." The essen- 
 tial question is never, Does this child fulfil 
 the law of love? but rather. Is he advancing 
 normally toward a mature realisation and 
 fulfilment of it? 
 
 The normal way for children to make this 
 advance is to live out their childish selves in 
 association with one another. They are to 
 live, but they are also to live together. Their 
 contests, even their quarrels, are of value. 
 Quarrels among children are not to be in- 
 terpreted as signs of a fall from virtue, but 
 rather as thorns with which the child pricks 
 himself in his efforts to pluck the rose of 
 normal social existence. Childhood quarrels 
 provide one with a set of experiences that en- 
 able one to avoid quarreling later in life. 
 When grown persons indulge wrath and 
 envy and backbiting and clamoring, they de- 
 
150 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 scend from a plane that the child has not yet 
 reached, a plane that his early social experi- 
 ence helps him to reach. 
 
 Thus an act which in an adult is bad is not 
 necessarily so in a child. Christ comes to 
 children's quarrels, not to condemn them, but 
 so to illuminate them as to make them self- 
 rebuking and self-annihilating. To suppress 
 them by mere power is to sacrifice develop- 
 ment. They are essentially self-destroying, 
 and this is the very lesson that the child 
 learns from them. The same may be said of 
 children's anger. It is a stage of undevel- 
 oped life. Anger must be experienced before 
 character can become rugged. He who knows 
 not anger knows not how to fight the wrong. 
 So, also, of childhood greed and self-assertive- 
 ness. These impulses, if allowed to grow 
 without check, become in time an evil char- 
 acter. But they should develop into strength 
 of personality, power of resistance, power to 
 do and to win in worthy causes. To make 
 Christ master of the playground, then, means 
 such wise and subtle supervision of play as 
 helps childhood impulses gradually to inter- 
 pret themselves through their own expression 
 into the Christian philosophy of life. 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 REALITY AND SYMBOL AS MEANS OF EDUCATION 
 
 !?• 7^1 Divine In our discussion of ap- 
 
 Met'hod of i » « 
 
 Educating the perception and of self-ac- 
 
 ^^^^' tivity we caught a glimpse 
 
 of some practical applica- 
 tions of a principle, already formulated in 
 Chapter VI, concerning the superior educa- 
 tional value of concrete realities and actual 
 experiences as compared with that of words 
 or other symbols. This principle now de- 
 mands specific attention. If we ask ourselves 
 by what method the divine education of the 
 race from savagery to civilisation has pro- 
 ceeded, we shall be struck at once with the 
 fact that God seems to have hidden himself 
 behind the visible and tangible environment of 
 human life. The race has escaped from sav- 
 agery through its own self-activity, namely, 
 through the wrestlings of men with nature 
 and with one another. Thus concrete things 
 and visible persons have been the primary in- 
 struments of man 's training. Out of the tus- 
 sle with wild beasts, with the rigors of winter, 
 with hostile tribes, with all the conditions of 
 
152 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 physical existence, came quickened faculties, 
 useful customs and instincts, and a stock of 
 experience that was destined to unfold into 
 science, literature, art, and polities. 
 
 This is the case with morals and religion 
 as well as with the other elements of civilisa- 
 tion. In neither of these spheres was the race 
 started into life equipped with ready-made 
 ideas or formulas, or with any short-cut 
 method of acquiring them. Moral and reli- 
 gious ideas and feelings gradually unfolded 
 themselves through what seems, from our 
 point of view, like a haphazard, rough and 
 tumble, and very unspiritual struggle to live. 
 Yet the education of the race was actually be- 
 ginning. Its method was, first the sensible, 
 then the rational; first the concrete, then the 
 abstract ; first the experience, then the symbol. 
 This order will be found to hold at every stage 
 of race education. That great body of sym- 
 bols, the Bible, for example, came gradually 
 into existence as the recorded expression of 
 the growing religious experience oi the chosen 
 people. It is not the source of that experi- 
 ence, but a product of it, though each part of 
 the Scriptures, once in existence, entered as 
 a factor into the movement whence it sprung. 
 Yet the mere symbol, of whatever kind it may 
 
REALITY AND SYMBOL IN EDUCATION 153 
 
 be, and however useful in communicating the 
 results of experience, can never quite take the 
 place of the concrete fact. We recognise this 
 principle when we say that preaching, in 
 order to save the world, must be backed up by 
 genuine Christian living. From reality to 
 symbol, then, is a general principle of race 
 education. 
 
 85. From Thing to It is also a basic principle 
 
 Symbol is the -.it.- n ■> 
 
 Natural Order of ^^ the ducation of each 
 
 the Mind. child. Not only do the 
 
 senses develop in advance 
 of the reflectve powers, so that the first 
 knowledge to be acquired is sense-knowledge, 
 but this order represents a general principle 
 of mental acquisition and growth. Not that 
 all realities are sensible things, but simply 
 that realities, as recognised in some kind of 
 experience, come first, and the name, the for- 
 mula, the theory comes afterward. A baby in 
 the act of exploring one hand with the other, 
 or handling every possible thing ; a child who 
 runs and jumps and climbs and tries to do 
 whatever he sees anyone else doing; a boy 
 who is possessed by an impulse to make bows 
 and arrows, or toy wind mills; a youth who 
 begins to hear the wide world whispering to 
 him of a wider experience ; a geologist, break- 
 
154 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 ing a fragment from an exposed rock— all 
 these illustrate the same great fact. The haby 
 is laying up a stock of experiences which by 
 and by he will learn to name. The child is 
 learning nature's laws by bumping up against 
 nature. The boy is expanding his insight by 
 using upon things what insight he already 
 has. The youth craves to get at the reality 
 of life, and no mere telling him about life 
 will suffice. In each of these cases the symbol, 
 rule, or theory, when it comes, will have force 
 and vitality in proportion to the felt reality 
 of the experience for which it stands. 
 
 86. Significance The contrast between the 
 
 Laboratory and of o^'^er of nature and tradi- 
 Manual Training, tional school methods is ob- 
 vious enough. The tradi- 
 tional school is an institution that undertakes 
 to transfer the contents of a text-book to the 
 memory of the pupil. Yet a text-book is a 
 lifeless, external thing; it is not a god to be 
 bowed down to; it is not even the thing that 
 the child has to learn. What has to be 
 learned is the fact or the truth. The relation 
 of a book to a fact or truth is like that of a 
 window to a landscape. The window isn't 
 the landscape; it doesn't contain the land- 
 scape ; it is merely an opening through which 
 
REALITY AND SYMBOL IN EDUCATION 135 
 
 we may look for ourselves. Grammar, arith- 
 metic, geography— these are not books, nor 
 are they contained in books, and no pupil is 
 really trained in them who does not resort 
 to the same sources as the book-makers them- 
 selves. The newer school-ideals, accordingly, 
 aim to bring the pupil into immediate touch 
 with the very things that the text-book talks 
 about. Hence the rapid spread of laborato- 
 ries and manual training. By such means 
 the pupil not only secures opportunity for 
 self-activity; he also comes at the symbol 
 through the thing symbolised. He comes to 
 understand a generalisation by actual dealing 
 wuth some of the particulars upon which it 
 is based. He proves few things, of course, 
 and discovers less, but he becomes acquainted 
 wdth the methods of discovery and of proof, 
 and he acquires some experience of typical 
 facts and processes. Laboratories and man- 
 ual training are purposely classed together in 
 this statement. Naturally, yet unfortunately, 
 the public has not discriminated adequately 
 between industrial training and manual train- 
 ing. The one has in view the learning of a 
 trade or art; the other broad general educa- 
 tion. Manual training is not even, as its 
 name indicates, a training of the hands alone 
 
156 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 or chiefly, but rather a training of the per- 
 sonality through the use of the hands and 
 the mind at the same time, 
 
 87. Incomplete The general principle, 
 
 Applications of ■\^. . .i. \. i 
 
 the Principle. then, IS that the symbol 
 
 (name, formula, rule, 
 theory) should enter only when the pupil al- 
 ready needs it in order to fix and formulate 
 and generalise something with which he is 
 already at least partially acquainted. This 
 principle is easily misapplied. For example, 
 the proper use of pictures is easily misunder- 
 stood. A true picture is, indeed, one degree 
 nearer concreteness than mere words, yet pic- 
 tures themselves are at best symbols. They, 
 as well as words, have to be interpreted by the 
 child's own experience. "Mother," said a 
 little boy, "don't men ever go to heaven?" 
 "Why do you ask?" replied the mother. 
 "Because," said the little investigator, "none 
 of the angels I have seen pictures of have 
 whiskers ! " It would be interesting to know 
 what the gaudily colored pictures used weekly 
 to illustrate the Sunday-school lesson in pri- 
 mary departments really mean to little chil- 
 dren, and especially how far they really illus- 
 trate the lessons. 
 
 Another imperfect application of the 
 
REALITY AND SYMBOL IN EDUCATION 157 
 
 true principle is found in what used to be 
 called "object lessons." For here the object 
 placed before the child is commonly not the 
 thing that is to be studied, but only a symbol 
 for it, and often a very remote symbol, too. 
 In the teaching of morals, physical analogues 
 (a twig for the pliability of childhood, a tree 
 for the fixation of maturity, etc.) may some- 
 times be a helpful addition to mere words, but 
 at the best they merely improve our symbols. 
 Even when the very object that the child has 
 to study is placed before him, object teaching 
 does not always succeed. AVhen natural his- 
 tory, for example, is taught merely by means 
 of museum specimens, the object, being ex- 
 hibited out of its natural setting, and with 
 none of the motion and "go" of nature, is 
 never fully real to the pupil. Museum speci- 
 mens, taken by themselves, tend to become 
 only another kind of symbol. For this reason 
 the pupil is to be taken into the field, where 
 he beholds the life and movement of things, 
 and is drawn out to take part in it himself. 
 Then comes the need of the symbol as a 
 means of fixing, recalling, communicating 
 what he has done and experienced. History, 
 of course, has to be learned largely through 
 analogues and symbols, yet now and then 
 
158 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 there is opportunity to exhibit some object 
 actually connected with an historical event, 
 and always our own institutions stand as mon- 
 uments of the past. In general, dates, lists of 
 kings, and similar abstract material should 
 be withheld until they acquire meaning from 
 something that already lives in the imagina- 
 tion. The story, historical and geographical 
 pictures, the making of maps and diagrams, 
 or dramatic representations, should come first. 
 Many an adult can recall how dry and fruit- 
 less the study of history was until the read- 
 ing of a biography or an historical romance, 
 a visit to a battle field, the sight of an old 
 flint-lock musket, or some similar event made 
 history suddenly a living and moving reality. 
 88. Defects of The application of this 
 
 the Catechetical , . , . 
 
 Method. principle IS perhaps more 
 
 difficult in the teaching of 
 moral and spiritual truth than anywhere else. 
 For where shall the child experience the con- 
 crete fact ? He can see and touch many of the 
 things with which the state schools deal, but 
 he has no similar sense-experience of God, 
 or of Christ, or of duty. A large part of the 
 task that will be undertaken in Part III con- 
 sists in attempting to answer this question. 
 Meantime we may well illustrate the prin- 
 
REALITY AND SYMBOL IN EDUCATION 159 
 
 ciple by one or two specific examples drawn 
 from the field of religious education. The 
 most obvious one is the method of catechetics. 
 The cathechetical instruction of the early 
 church was in close relation to reality, for it 
 was used as a means of preparing converts 
 from heathenism for formal admission into 
 the church. The convert already felt the new 
 life as a fact of experience; he then went on 
 through cathechetical study to formulate it 
 and try to understand it. This was cate- 
 chetics in its original form. The instruction 
 of children by means of fixed questions and 
 answers is an entirely different thing. For 
 now the symbol is separate from the thing 
 symbolised, and an effort is made to fill the 
 child's memory with formulas the meaning of 
 which he cannot know in any vital way. These 
 formulas are expected to become useful by 
 and by. The mind is supposed to be pre- 
 empted by Christian truth and fortified 
 against the assaults of doubt. But the mind 
 is not really filled with truth. To communi- 
 cate truth, as distinguished from symbols, im- 
 plies assimilation of the truth through some 
 experience ; it implies a vital, not mechanical, 
 reaction of the mind. Mere mechanical cate- 
 chising produces various results. Some 
 
160 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 pupils merely shed the shower that falls upon 
 them; they repeat the words and then for- 
 get them. Others, because the need of self- 
 expression is ignored, feel themselves re- 
 pressed, and therefore they become cynical or 
 sceptical. Still others, filling their memory 
 with forms of doctrine, assume that they have 
 the truth, and so they become dogmatic or 
 priggish. The very first condition for the suc- 
 cess of a catechism is that the pupil should 
 need a formula in which to express and gen- 
 eralise something that is already vital in his 
 experience.^ 
 
 89. Memorising The memorising of Scrip- 
 
 *^ ''' " ** ture is most useful when it 
 
 obeys the principle. First the reality, then the 
 symbol. Forcing upon the child the memoris- 
 ing of passages that lack the "tang" of reality 
 to him may easily create prejudice against 
 the whole Bible. The only safe plan, and the 
 only one that is truly educative, is to see to it 
 that the passage to be memorised conveys to 
 the child a genuine meaning in which he has 
 an interest of his own. Now, one of the best 
 things about the form in which the Bible pre- 
 
 * Several recent catechisms seek to conform to peda- 
 gogical principles. See those by W. J. Mutch, New 
 Haven, Conn. ; those by .1. L. Keedy, Lysander. N. Y. ; 
 Doremiia Scudder's "Our Children for Christ" (Revell) ; 
 W. E. McLennan's "The Lord's Supper (Eaton & Mains). 
 
REALITY AND SYMBOL IN EDUCATION 161 
 
 sents truth to us is that it is so concrete. It 
 is full of movement, and much of it has im- 
 perishable value simply as literary art. It 
 appeals at once to the imagination of a child 
 and the taste of a man. Further, the contents 
 of many parts of the Scriptures grow in 
 meaning as we ourselves grow. Of course we 
 have to wait for maturity before we realise 
 anything like their full depth, but there is 
 abundant reason why we should know them 
 as soon as they can begin to be genuine nutri- 
 ment. The Twenty-third Psalm has a real 
 and natural application to childhood's inter- 
 ests, but the application grows more and more 
 profound with the moving years until old age 
 beholds itself descending into the valley of 
 deep darkness. The same is true of a large 
 proportion of the Scripture passages that 
 have endeared themselves to the hearts of 
 men throughout the ages. They can be un- 
 derstood by a child, though they cannot be 
 fully understood until the measure of life 
 has been filled to the brim. Happy the man 
 whose memory is stored with truth in the 
 forms of Biblical phraseology, for he has con- 
 stant means of self-expression, and therefore 
 of self-understanding. The mere possession 
 of an appropriate symbol hastens the recogni- 
 
162 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 tion of deeper reality. But the symbol must 
 be really possessed ; it must already be a sym- 
 bol of something if its capacity for symbolis- 
 ing is to develop. Clearly, then, such pas- 
 sages as can have little or no meaning for a 
 child should not be forcibly clamped upon his 
 memory. Fortunately, near the end of child- 
 hood and the beginning of adolescence there 
 develops great capacity and liking for mem- 
 orising. At this time no hardship is felt in 
 conning anything that is significant in matter 
 and pleasing in form. By this time, too, the 
 range of interest and the depth of moral ap- 
 preciation have begun greatly to increase- 
 This, then, is a peculiarly favorable period 
 for storing the mind with the greatest words. 
 90. Some Cases Sense before sound ! 
 
 might well be the motto of 
 every parent and teacher who undertakes to 
 assist a child to memorize. Sully tells of a 
 child who offered the first petition of the 
 Lord's Prayer in the form, "Harold be thy 
 name!" Here the sound is mis-heard, and 
 consequently sense is entirely lacking. In 
 other cases both sound and sense are misun- 
 derstood. A child upon returning home from 
 Sunday school asked his mother, ' ' Mamma, 
 why should children bathe their parents?" 
 
REALITY AND SYMBOL IN EDUCATION 163 
 
 Upon inquiry as to why the question was 
 asked, the- mother was informed that the 
 pupils of the Sunday school had been taught 
 this momentous command: "Children, hathe 
 your parents in the Lord, for this is right ! ' ' 
 Sometimes the words are understood, but the 
 sense and application are distorted. Sully 
 relates that one child, having heard the story 
 of how the Good Samaritan poured oil into 
 the wounds of the man who fell among thieves, 
 understood that the Samaritan poured par- 
 affin over the poor fellow !^ Another little 
 boy who had recently heard the story of the 
 creation of Eve came to his mother saying, 
 "Mamma, I'm 'fraid I'm g:oing to have a 
 wife, for there's a drefful pain in my side!" 
 If we could only know what meaning the chil- 
 dren find in words and sentences, what a rev- 
 elation we should have ! 
 
 91. Making the A notion has somehow 
 
 "Application" in i i i .1 u 
 
 Bible Teaching. gi'own up, probably through 
 unconscious imitation of 
 preaching, that the Bible is not really taught 
 unless the "application" is stated. The bibli- 
 cal passage is first unfolded, and then, out 
 of the teacher's own mind, or out of the mind 
 
 1 .Tames Sully: Studies of Childhood (New York, 
 1900), page 184. "Harold be thy name" will be found 
 on p. 185. 
 
tfi4 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 of some editor of Sunday-school helps, there 
 is brought forth something more which is 
 supposed to form a climax. The aim that in- 
 spires this method is a true one, namely, the 
 development of actual, present spiritual life 
 in the pupil. But is the method adapted to 
 the purpose in view? Life develops, not from 
 symbol to experience, but from experience to 
 symbol. What is actually done in this proc- 
 ess of drawing out the "lesson" of the lesson 
 is to increase the number of symbols without 
 increasing the experience of reality. Gen- 
 erally, too, the process consists in following 
 a strong symbol by a weaker one. Why 
 should the Bible have the supreme place in 
 the spiritual culture of the young? Because 
 morals and religion are there presented better 
 than we can present them in any words that 
 we can form. Its strength lies, in part, in its 
 freedom from abstract formulas, its nearness 
 to the concrete, its self-revealing application 
 to our own selves. Why, then, should a 
 teacher feel called upon to add another and 
 a weaker symbol to those of the sacred writ- 
 ings? 
 
 Suppose, for instance, that a Sunday-school 
 teacher draws out of the lesson for the day 
 the proposition, "We should be kind to one 
 
REALITY AND SYMBOL IN EDUCATION 165 
 
 another." This presupposes that the lesson 
 of kindness is actually embedded in the scrip- 
 ture passage. As soon as the pupil leaves the 
 class, or even before, he is likely to be con- 
 fronted with a concrete opportunity to be 
 kind. What, now, has he gotten from the les- 
 son that will induce him to be kind? The 
 least effective of all that he has gotten is the 
 teacher's formula; much more effective is the 
 passage of Scripture with its concrete pic- 
 ture ; most effective of all will be the concrete, 
 scriptural kindness which the pupil has wit- 
 nessed and experienced on the part of the 
 teacher. The influence is in proportion to the 
 concreteness of the material. 
 
 This principle does not imply reticence re- 
 garding spiritual truth, but rather that the 
 teacher should teach the Bible so well that the 
 pupil shall see for himself the spiritual truth 
 therein. Again, the principle does not forbid 
 making a direct appeal to the conscience of 
 the pupil on any fitting occasion. A "fitting 
 occasion, ' ' however, is one in which some con- 
 crete reality— whether the teacher's person- 
 ality, an historical incident, or the pupil's 
 own experience— overflows the spoken word 
 and makes it an instrument of reality.^ 
 
 » Cf. Burton and Mathews : Principles and Ideals for 
 the Sunday School (Chicago, 1903), pages 100, 101. 
 
166 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 92. Symbols But this is not the end of 
 
 apart from ^-^^ matter. We must ask 
 
 Reality Weaken 
 
 Char&cter. ^ot merely which is the 
 
 stronger incitement to kind- 
 ness, but also what is the effect of using weak 
 incitements. Anyone who has studied the 
 young can answer this question. The weak- 
 ness of the symbol tends to be attributed to 
 the thing symbolised. The anti-climax of the 
 teacher's remarks about kindness tend to 
 weaken respect for this virtue. Kindness 
 comes to be associated in thought with weak- 
 ness, and so manliness comes to signify some 
 amount of roughness or disregard for others. 
 Parallel results follow from teaching any 
 other duty or any spiritual privilege in this 
 way. The separation of the symbol from the 
 thing symbolised results in the separation of 
 thought from action ; this implies action from 
 impulse while principle looks on; but when 
 principle becomes an onlooker instead of com- 
 batant, then character is left to chance. This 
 is true of docile pupils as well as of restless 
 and intractable ones. The docile pupil is 
 likely to be simply a two or more sided one 
 who reserves a part of his self-expression for 
 other occasions. Or he may be unnaturally 
 passive and compliant. In either case the 
 
REALITY AND SYMBOL IN EDUCATION 167 
 
 actual character fails to receive its proper 
 nutriment. Character grows through reac- 
 tions upon concrete facts and conditions. 
 
 93. Development Specifically, what con- 
 
 of Character j. ^ j. ^ j-a- a 
 
 through Crete lacts and conditions? 
 
 Self- Adjustment Where is the child or the 
 to Community ,i . i i i i i- • 
 
 l_ifg_ youth to behold religion m 
 
 the concrete? What is it 
 that is to stir him to action and awaken his 
 consciousness of principles? In a word, the 
 kingdom of God actualised in various forms 
 of community life. The family is, or should 
 be, the first form in which the kingdom con- 
 fronts the child. Then come the public school 
 and the Sunday school. In neither of these 
 is the chief task that of imparting informa- 
 tion, but that of maintaining sound commu- 
 nity life and carrying forward appropriate 
 community tasks. Just as far as genuine 
 community life is maintained in either form 
 of school, the principles of the kingdom are 
 in actual operation. The same principle is 
 found in other forms of human organisation, 
 and finally in the church. Here is religion 
 objectively realised, and to it th-s child has to 
 adjust himself. Through them he is to dis- 
 cover that he is a social being, that he has cer- 
 tain duties, and that the ultimate meaning of 
 
168 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 life is found in that complete society in which 
 God loves us, and we love him and one an- 
 other.^ In a nutshell, then, the essential 
 method whereby reality is to be put before 
 symbol in religious education consists in plac- 
 ing such a social environment about the child 
 that his self-adjustments to it shall involve 
 both good habits and growing spiritual in- 
 sight. In such an environment the Bible or 
 other s3rmbols of religious life receive living 
 interpretation as, in turn, they illuminate the 
 facts and lead the way to higher things. 
 
 94. Necessity of Having laid much stress 
 
 the Symbol. ,, , , 
 
 upon the secondary place 
 
 of the symbol as compared with the experi- 
 ence that it registers, we must now remind 
 ourselves that our principle is not merely that 
 reality comes before symbol, but also that 
 symbol comes after reality. One of the most 
 important acquisitions of the human mind is 
 language. The naming of a thing is, in fact, 
 a part of the process of knowing it. The 
 name points out the qualities and relations of 
 a thing, and classifies it with other like things. 
 
 > One night a little child who had been accustomed to 
 use the prayer, "Now I lay me," requested permission to 
 malse up a prayer of his own. Permission being given, 
 he prayed as follows : "O God, isn't It nice to ride in 
 the cable car ! Please send me a bicycle. Amen." 
 Note the sense of fellowship, evidently a direct product 
 of human fellowships. 
 
REALITY AND SYMBOL IN EDUCATION 169 
 
 The name abides when the thing is absent ; it 
 can be called up by our own act, and can then 
 take the mental place of the thing itself; by 
 means of it we can communicate with one an- 
 other, and even adjust our conduct to facM 
 that are distant or future. This is possibly 
 one reason why some early peoples believed 
 that to know the name of a thing is to possess 
 power over the thing itself. To let the mem- 
 bers of another tribe know the name of one's 
 tribal god, or even the real name of one's self 
 was looked upon as dangerous. We must, in- 
 deed, put things first, but we must put sym- 
 bols second. After a child has grasped an 
 arithmetical or grammatical principle, the 
 statement of it becomes a help in many ways. 
 Definition helps clear thinking, and clear 
 thinking helps toward wise self-control. The 
 name, the rule, and finally the theoretical 
 formula, all have a place in ethics and reli- 
 gion. As religious training has in the past 
 erred by putting symbol in the place of real- 
 ity, so there is danger in our days of not reg- 
 istering our moral and religious experience in 
 any sufficient manner. Without definite reg- 
 istering of ideas communication becomes in- 
 definite, and education ends either in senti- 
 mentality or in mechanical habit. In proper- 
 
170 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 tion, then, as the child mind, through its own 
 concrete life, grows in ability to understand 
 the symbols that express the truth to us, these 
 symbols should be imparted. 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 
 PERSONAL AND SOCIAL FORCES IN EDUCATION 
 
 95. Character is We have just concluded 
 
 through that the chief factor in the 
 
 Suggestion and development of character 
 is found in the relations of 
 the young to the various communities of 
 which they are parts. Personality in its 
 social aspects thus acquires first-class signifi- 
 cance as an educational force. It is to be as- 
 sumed, of course, that each community to 
 which a child belongs, whether the family- 
 community or any other, will prescribe some 
 kind of rules to all its members, the children 
 included, and that these rules will be en- 
 forced under the principle of self-expression 
 as explained in Chapter IX. But this for- 
 mulated element in the child's personal and 
 social relations is by no means the only, or 
 even the most influential one. There is in ad- 
 dition what goes under the name of "the in- 
 fluence of personality," and also what we 
 might call "the influence of social atmos- 
 phere." 
 
 The present chapter will attempt an analy- 
 
172 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 sis of these subtle influences. We cannot be- 
 gin the analysis better than by a word con- 
 cerning the psychological process by which 
 they become effective. The central features 
 of the process are called suggestion and imi- 
 tation. The law of suggestion is that any 
 idea of an act or function tends to produce 
 that very act or function. For example, the 
 sight of a highly polished surface suggests to 
 us (very likely without our stopping to think 
 about it at all) the pleasant "feel" of such a 
 surface when the hand moves over it; conse- 
 quently we tend (often without realising 
 what we are doing) to stroke such surfaces. 
 In the course of a minute or so I saw five 
 persons thus "feel" the marble wainscoting 
 as they moved down one of the corridors of 
 the Chicago Public Library. Suggestion can 
 come in un-numbered forms; it can come in 
 the language of advice or persuasion; it can 
 come in the acts which we see others perform ; 
 it can come through our own inferences from 
 "what we see or hear; even our own acts tend 
 to repeat themselves. The last is self-imita- 
 tion, and in general imitation operates 
 through suggestion. Deliberate imitation is 
 comparatively rare, while imitation of the sug- 
 gestive order is universal and constant. One 
 
PERSONAL FORCES IN EDUCATION 173 
 
 takes on the fashions or "fads" of the time, 
 the manners of one's social group, even the 
 language, tone of voice, and facial expression 
 of those with whom one is constantly asso- 
 ciated, and all without clearly intending to 
 do so. 
 
 A moment's consideration of such facts 
 will show that this process is not a merely ex- 
 ternal one. "We do not merely "take on" the 
 external aspects of what we imitate, but the 
 internal aspects also. We experience feelings 
 appropriate to the acts performed, and much 
 of this feeling apparently results from per- 
 forming the act. If the people all about us 
 on the street are walking fast, we quicken our 
 pace, and presently we feel hurried. It is 
 thus that mobs and panics exercise their mys- 
 terious control over individuals. Now, chil- 
 dren are the greatest imitators, and thereby 
 they form not only external habits, but also 
 habitual modes of feeling, thinking, and as- 
 piring — in a word, character. 
 
 96. The Influence Apart from all our inten- 
 
 of Personality. .-0.1, j „ 
 
 tions, then, and even 
 
 against our intentions, personality propagates 
 itself. More than anything else, education in 
 its initial stages is the propagation of char- 
 acter through imitation working by sugges- 
 
174 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 tion. In the long run, what the teacher or 
 the parent gives to the young is just one's 
 self, very little more and very little less. "What 
 one is in both mental and bodily habit is 
 transmitted either by means of method or in 
 spite of it. A nervous teacher will have nerv- 
 ous pupils ; a peevish or arbitrary parent will 
 have peevish or arbitrary children. The child 
 will adopt the political and religious opinions 
 of parent and teacher without argument; he 
 will accept their standard of right and wrong. 
 Thus it is that a strong and wholesome per- 
 sonality may counteract defective methods, 
 while the best of methods never succeeds in 
 the absence of such personality. Of course, the 
 highest result is to be reached only when the 
 best personal qualities are joined with right 
 choice of material and the best methods of 
 using it. 
 
 97. "Condescend- The personal element in 
 
 i^ip., .*° . teaching is what we really 
 
 Unilaren and 
 
 Youth. are. It is not something 
 
 that can be put on when we 
 
 are with the young and taken off when we are 
 
 away from them. Anything merely put on 
 
 tends to defeat its own aim. The young have 
 
 sharp eyes and what they do not distinctly 
 
 see they often feel. To put into the voice » 
 
PERSONAL FORCES IN EDUCATION 175 
 
 tone, or into the face a look, or into our acts 
 a manner that we do not really feel is to run 
 great risk of creating a suspicion that we are 
 not quite genuine. Who can measure the 
 amount of repugnance toward the church that 
 has been awakened by the professional tone 
 that is often assumed by religious workers? 
 The professional tone is a sign that a fence 
 has been built around one's personality. It 
 means that a man is giving to his fellows 
 things or ideas, but not himself. How many 
 times has a spontaneous laugh knitted to- 
 gether teacher and pupil by revealing the real 
 man or woman in the teacher ! The pupil dis- 
 covers spiritual kinship between himself and 
 the teacher who laughs with him, for the two 
 partake of a common experience.^ This is a 
 typical case, and it stands for the general 
 truth that the positive influence of personal- 
 ity grows out of the sharing of experience, 
 whereby all the processes of suggestion, imi- 
 tation, sympathy, and self-expression become 
 free. 
 
 On the other hand, a negative or repulsive 
 influence of personality arises when one per- 
 
 ^ "Seldom should smiling, never laughing, have place 
 In religious instruction," says A. Vinet. — Pastoral 
 Theology (New York, 1856), page 234. To take this 
 ground Is to lessen the human touch through which alone 
 the best that Is In the teacher reaches the child, 
 
176 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 son seeks to influence or control another with- 
 out sharing his actual experience. Thus of- 
 fers of mere pity are often resented just when 
 sympathy is most needed. We do not wish 
 to be merely pitied, but we do long for com- 
 panionship. A faithful dog that shares our 
 bad fortune with us can comfort us more than 
 a man who merely reaches an arm down to 
 help us. The same principle appears in the 
 vanity of giving alms without love, and of 
 trying to do by means of money and institu- 
 tions what only the sharing of life can ever 
 accomplish. ' ' Come, let us live with our chil- 
 dren," said Froebel. No educational machin- 
 ery can ever take the place of this living with 
 the young, this entrance as a sincere partner 
 into their experience, and the corresponding 
 admission of them as real partners into one's 
 mature interests. 
 
 98. Childlikeness But how can a mature 
 
 in Men and . . i ^ ^c 
 
 \f^omen. person return to a level or 
 
 life that he has long left 
 behind ? And how can a child be a real part- 
 ner in mature interests? Must not the com- 
 mon plane upon which maturity meets child- 
 hood be simulated? The answer is that a 
 normally developed manhood or womanhood 
 retains something of childlikeness within it- 
 
PERSONAL FORCES IN EDUCATION 177 
 
 self. That we lose the child-heart and the 
 child-mind out of us results from false educa- 
 tion and from our sin and folly. The grejrtest^ 
 characters have ever retained the child wioiin 
 themselves, so that the perennial wonder of 
 the populace is that its heroes are so simple, 
 so spontaneous, so much "like one of the fam- 
 ily." The truly great man is nearer to the 
 common people and nearer to childhood than 
 those would-be great men who dry and shrink 
 and stiffen in the heat of artificial ambitions. 
 What we need, then, is not condescension to 
 the young, but rather rediscovery of the per- 
 ennial springs of our own childhood. Play, for 
 example, should never cease to be a part of 
 our daily routine, and even the simplest plays 
 should retain a native interest for us. We 
 would be better, happier, more efficient men 
 if we took a larger part with children in tag, 
 or hide-and-seek, or marbles and jackstones, 
 or kite-flying, or ball playing; and, sharing 
 thus in the experiences of the young, we 
 should have a far larger influence over them. 
 
 99. Letting the On the other hand, it is 
 
 Young Share in ., , , i -i. j.\ „„ 
 
 Mature Interests. POSSlble tO admit the yOUng 
 
 at an early age to genuine 
 participation in the occupations or daily 
 duties of their elders. Children long for oppor- 
 
178 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 tunities to do things. They watch their elders 
 at work and wish for some part to do. What 
 a boon it is when some sympathetic person 
 permits even a little co-operation. A little 
 girl would rather have some part in the house- 
 keeping than not ; a little boy is never happier 
 than when the father permits him to fetch 
 and carry, to handle tools, to feed or drive 
 the domestic animals, provided, always, that 
 such occupation brings real companionship 
 with the parent in accomplishing something. 
 Here is one point at which country boys have 
 the advantage of city boys. In the country 
 the family performs more kinds of service for 
 itself, so that there is a larger variety of pos- 
 sible occupations for the boy as well as his 
 father. The first time that a farmer's boy is 
 permitted to take a horse to the blacksmith 
 shop all by himself is likely never to be for- 
 gotten. The first time that any boy is trusted 
 to carry a package of money or to perform 
 some other act of real importance his sense of 
 responsibility and of honor is likely to burst 
 into sudden blossom. He feels himself to be 
 a part of the real world, and to be bound by 
 strong ties to his parents and their standards. 
 Such touches of reality can begin very early in 
 life, and they can be graded to fit the child's 
 
PERSONAL FORCES IN EDUCATION 179 
 
 growing capacity. They develop the liabit of 
 living a real life, that is, a life of social re- 
 sponsibility as contrasted with mere caprice 
 or mere impulse; and this habit of living in 
 realities goes farther toward developing solid 
 character than rivers of mere instruction and 
 advice. Moral instruction, in fact, becomes 
 significant only in proportion as it has some 
 such background, or rather in proportion as 
 it is an integral part of living in the realities 
 of life. Knowing the right and doing the 
 right need to be fused into one. 
 
 Thus, after all, the one prime essential for 
 moral and religious education is that the 
 young should live a common life with moral 
 and religious elders. A common life : this does 
 not mean living under the same roof, or eat- 
 ing from the same table, or receiving com- 
 mands and advice; it means having experi- 
 ences and occupations in common, so that the 
 real self of each, with its actual interests, is 
 revealed freely to the other. This law applies, 
 too, not merely to the externals of conduct or 
 to mere morals; it reaches to the inner re- 
 cesses of the soul. A child who lives in such 
 relations as these with elders who are vitally 
 spiritual comes in the most natural way to 
 include spirituality in his notion of real life ; 
 
180 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 he takes it for granted; it becomes his law, 
 and he makes efforts to obey it just as spon- 
 taneously as he makes etfort to win his games. 
 
 100. Fellowship If we trace any character, 
 
 the Starting Point ^ ■• t j^ -^ 
 
 of Both Good and ^^^^ ^r bad, to Its sources, 
 Evil Character. we always find it starting in 
 fellowship. The young life 
 comes into contact with a wholesome or un- 
 wholesome personality, and catches its spirit 
 as if by infection. From the idle gossip of 
 neighbors to the revelry of a saloon, the en- 
 tering wedge of evil is fellowship. Remove 
 this element, and the remaining factors in 
 temptation of many kinds would appear so 
 gross as to lose much of their attractiveness, at 
 least to one who is taking the first steps in evil. 
 After a sinful habit of any kind is set up, to 
 be sure, coarser and coarser motives suffice. 
 But the point at which the first step is taken 
 is not solicitation by any coarse motive in its 
 native coarseness, but in the garb of good fel- 
 lowship, conformity to custom, amiable com- 
 pliance with the standards of other persons. 
 In the pleasant atmosphere of fellowship, all 
 the forces of imitation and suggestion work 
 unimpeded upon an unformed character to 
 give it the complexion of its surroundings. 
 We do not become either good or evil, either 
 
PERSONAL FORCES IN EDUCATION 181 
 
 religious or irreligious, merely by deliberate 
 choice, and any plan of moral and religious 
 education that depends for success primarily 
 and chiefly upon such choices is sure to let go 
 the golden opportunity. The great lever of 
 good, as of evil, is fellowship, the sharing of 
 life. 
 
 101. The Mixed Theoretically the problem 
 
 Environment of „ . , 
 
 the Young, and ot moral and religious edu- 
 
 oup Resulting cation is not particularly 
 
 formidable. Keep the child 
 in constant fellowship with Christian charac- 
 ter and away from all other character, let in- 
 struction keep pace with the growing powers, 
 and the work is done. But the practical prob- 
 lem is not as simple as this. For the actual 
 environment of every child is mixed. In us 
 who follow Christ the wheat and the chaff are 
 not yet separated, and among the persons with 
 whom the child is in touch many are not dis- 
 ciples. We simply cannot shut up any child 
 to an environment that is completely whole- 
 some; we cannot shut out temptation and the 
 liability of a fall. Even if we could compass 
 such a plan, children subjected to it would 
 not be prepared for life in a world like ours. 
 They would not understand the world or their 
 own place in it. Rightly understood, the child- 
 
182 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 hood of Jesus, his bringing up in a social en- 
 vironment made up of both evil and good, is 
 an essential feature of the incarnation. Terri- 
 ble as the danger is, the very best thing for 
 the child is that he should be subjected to the 
 evil as well as the good influences of his social 
 environment. Only so comes discrimination, 
 strength of resistance, realisation of the 
 world's need, practical adaptation, and the 
 soldierly spirit in the contest for the kingdom 
 of God. But, this being the case, the duty is 
 upon us to make of religious and moral edu- 
 cation a never-sleeping, never-pausing cam- 
 paign. We are not merely to extend informa- 
 tion and advice to the young; nay, we are to 
 fight evil in the concrete side by side with the 
 child. The chief feature of the schooling of 
 his character is to be his participation in our 
 work and in our fight to set up the kingdom 
 of God in the world. 
 
 The strategic position in the campaign of 
 moral and religious education now becomes 
 plain. It is the element of fellowship. We are 
 to make wholesome fellowships — whether in 
 the home, the school, the church, the college, 
 or the neighborhood— so warm, so natural, so 
 unremitting, so unreserved that every un- 
 wholesome fellowship shall seem artificial and 
 
PERSONAL FORCES IN EDUCATION 183 
 
 unattractive. This is the central position, but 
 it is not all. For now we see that every 
 social institution, custom, and sentiment has a 
 bearing upon the growing character. For ex- 
 ample, the non-enforcement of the laAVS, or the 
 desultory and inconsistent enforcement of 
 them, influences the character of the young 
 directly. The most serious thing about all 
 forms of tolerated wrong is that they train 
 the young to low standards. In a word, then, 
 the campaign for the religious education of 
 the young is all one Avith the campaign for 
 personal and social righteousness, and its pe- 
 culiar part of the fight depends upon com- 
 radeship and life-sharing between the older 
 and the younger. 
 
 102. The Public We have already touched 
 
 EdtTcat^o^r in ^^^ merely upon direct per- 
 
 M orals. sonal influences, but also 
 
 upon what may be called 
 the influence of the social atmosphere. A par- 
 ticular instance df this kind is found in the 
 relation of the public press to the formation 
 of character. In the press public sentiment 
 is both revealed and guided. Here the spirit 
 of the times or of a party speaks directly to 
 the young. Without traveling, without large 
 acquaintance with men, without study, one is 
 
1S4 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 made to feel as others are feeling, to judge as 
 others are judging, to desire what others are 
 desiring. The enlargement of knowledge and 
 the broadening of sympathy that have come 
 through newspaper reading is a remarkable 
 fact, and it is a blessing for which we can 
 hardly be too thankful. The whole newspaper- 
 reading world is fast coming to feel itself akin 
 to all mankind. Yet the newspaper is capable 
 of becoming a greater blessing still. It can 
 do vastly more for childhood and youth than 
 it is doing. To a considerable extent the press 
 of today is training the young to morally ob- 
 jectionable conceptions of life. For example, 
 consider that, from the time that boys are 
 able to read, one of their chief interests is in 
 games, and then note the kind of food that 
 the sporting pages of the daily papers pro- 
 vide for this interest. Again, what impres- 
 sion as to domestic life are boys and girls and 
 young men and young women receiving from 
 the representations of it that are constantly 
 found in the daily press? What standards 
 of citizenship, what attitude toward law, in 
 short, what kind of life is fostered in the 
 young by the reading of newspapers? It is 
 worth asking whether newspaper men, in 
 their effort to tell the news, do not habitually 
 
PERSONAL FORCES IN EDUCATION 185 
 
 make prominent the less wholesome aspects of 
 life, and whether; as a consequence, young and 
 old are not mentally associating too much with 
 questionable company. Then, too, newspa- 
 pers, as they are at present conducted — that 
 is, the ordinary daily papers— so present the 
 news as to produce constant excitement in the 
 reader. The result is an uneasy habit of 
 mind, inability to be at home in one's own 
 thoughts, feverish consciousness of the larger 
 world. The outcome is not only unrest, but 
 also overvaluation of publicity. We are ap- 
 parently moving toward a time when little 
 boys and little girls will scarcely regard a 
 game of ball or a birthday party as really suc- 
 cessful unless it is noticed in the public 
 prints ! 
 103. Capture the The power of the news- 
 
 Priluppositions! P^per Hes less in what it 
 positively asserts as to 
 right and wrong than in what it takes for 
 granted, what it tolerates without pro- 
 test, what it habitually presents as inter- 
 esting reading. All this tends to form 
 the child's presumptions regarding life. It 
 creates presuppositions or standards with ref- 
 erence to which he judges himself and others. 
 Now, this is the very way in which much of 
 
186 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 the best work of moral and religious educa- 
 tion has to be done. That is, by means of our 
 habitual assumptions and our habitual inter- 
 ests we must capture the child's presupposi- 
 tions in favor of true standards of value. In 
 some ways we do this already with a fair de- 
 gree of success. An American boy, a German 
 boy, or an English boy grows up loyal to his 
 fatherland without knowing how he becomes 
 loyal. He breathes in pride of country from 
 the social atmosphere. The sense of family 
 loyalty and honor is successfully fostered in 
 the same way; the child never knows any 
 other view of his family. Thus also many of 
 the everyday virtues are already taught. But 
 this capturing of the presuppositions can ex- 
 tend very much farther. The older persons 
 with whom the young are in habitual con- 
 tact should constantly reveal themselves not 
 only as lovers of their family and their 
 country, but also as lovers of God and Christ 
 and humanity. The Christian idea of life 
 need not be "dragged in" at all; it calls for 
 no dry sermonising or moralising; it needs 
 only to be talked about and acted upon as we 
 talk and act with respect to family honor or 
 patriotism. A child who is reared in this way 
 easily counts himself as belonging to God and 
 
PERSONAL FORCES IN EDUCATION 187 
 
 Christ from the start, just as he counts him- 
 self an American or a member of his father's 
 family. 
 104. But Self- While it is true that per- 
 
 Conscious Choice •,-. • <.<. j ^ ■ ,, ^ 
 
 Must Come. sonality IS catching," and 
 
 that much of the best work 
 in character training is effected through imi- 
 tation and suggestion, it is also true that 
 character depends upon deliberate choices. 
 We cannot rely upon the force of mere imita- 
 tion or suggestion to carry anyone through 
 the crises of moral and spiritual experience. 
 There will arise the insistent question whether 
 the habitual presupposition is correct, and al- 
 so that ofttimes tragical question, what kind 
 of success one shall choose to seek, what kind 
 of self one shall choose to be. What, now, is 
 the relation of the personal and social forces 
 that we have described to the voluntary fac- 
 tor that now enters into the problem? The 
 problem of personal choices does not normally 
 grow acute until the beginning or middle of 
 adolescence, that is, not much before the years 
 from twelve to fifteen, though it may arise in 
 minor and gradually increasing degree before 
 that age. This self-conscious element in moral 
 and spiritual development should be permitted 
 to awaken spontaneously. It should not be 
 
188 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 forced. It is a distinctly wholesome sign for 
 a child up to the beginning of adolescence 
 simply to assume that he is included with his 
 parents within the kingdom of God, and to 
 take no thought for decisions or experiences 
 other than those directly involved in filling his 
 proper place in the family, in the school, 
 among his playmates, etc. During this period, 
 therefore, the character is forming chiefly un- 
 der the silent and unconscious influence of the 
 personal and social environment. But, sud- 
 denly or gradually, the child awakens into a 
 self-conscious, self-acting, factor in the for- 
 mation of his own character. 
 
 105. The Will not There are three theories 
 
 l;coS"pSEo1- as to what is now to be 
 Authority. done for him. The first 
 
 theory advises simple com- 
 pulsion: Compel the youth to go to church, 
 to read his Bible, to pray, to learn 
 his catechism; repress his doubts by stern 
 condemnation; in a word, choose "for him. 
 This would, of course, violate the entire theory 
 of development through free self-activity. The 
 second theory advises that reliance be placed 
 upon habit and standard already formed. The 
 idea is to keep the youth going through the 
 same motions as in childhood, and to prevent 
 
PERSONAL FORCES IN EDUCATION 189 
 
 iudividual variations by the sheer force of 
 training received while the personality was 
 passively compliant. This is substantially the 
 method in use by the Catholic church. It, 
 too, fails to give scope to the principle of free 
 self-activity. It thinks of the teaching au- 
 thority as one that not merely feeds but also 
 commands the intellect, even prescribing pains 
 and penalties for variations. This is simply 
 a modified form of the theory of compulsion, 
 for to prevent the individual will from be- 
 coming conscious of itself is to compel the 
 personality just as truly as to crush a will that 
 has once become self-conscious. 
 
 106. How Prevent The third theory eneour- 
 
 a Break with j^i i. n i i £ 
 
 Childhood ages the full blossoming of 
 
 Training? self-conscious thought and 
 
 self-conscious will, even 
 though this brings peril of false thinking and 
 wrong choices. It declares that there is no 
 other way in which the personality can be- 
 come fully mature. The danger of this theory 
 is that it shall rely too much upon a single 
 phase of what ought to be a continuous proc- 
 ess. Certainly we should not expect ado- 
 lescence to be a completely new beginning; 
 neither conversion nor any other process ever 
 makes up for the neglect of early training. 
 
190 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 Our problem, then, is simply this : How can 
 the relatively passive impressions of child- 
 hood become a genuine factor in personal re- 
 flection and choice except under the inertia of 
 mere habit? The solution of the problem is 
 to be found in providing the child with pre- 
 suppositions that have the simplicity, the di- 
 rectness, the appealing eloquence of the eter- 
 nally and obviously real. What the youth 
 most needs when he comes to the age of self- 
 questioning is to feel that his life is already 
 real, not artificial. He feels this with re- 
 spect to affection between himself and his 
 parents, and consequently, in spite of the 
 chafings under parental authority, in spite of 
 the acts of rebellion, that come into the life 
 of most youths, very rarely do the youth's 
 feelings really cut loose from the family. 
 There remains a fundamental sense of re- 
 ality. This is the heart of the problem of 
 moral and religious training— to be real, to 
 rely upon nothing artificial, to bring the eter- 
 nal into the forms of a child's daily life, and 
 into the forms of a child's daily thought. The 
 youth will receive some help from reasoned 
 instruction ; he will receive more from a con- 
 tinuance of that sharing of life of which men- 
 tion has been madej he will be greatly in- 
 
PERSONAL FORCES IN EDUCATION 191 
 
 fluenced by the mere habits of his childhood ; 
 but that which will hold him most firmly and 
 certainly to conservative choices will be his 
 immediate feeling of the naturalness and 
 reality of his existing standards. 
 
PART II 
 THE CHILD 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 
 THE RELIGIOUS IMPULSE 
 
 107. Connection At this point a new divi- 
 
 between Parts I „ i • , i • 
 
 and II. sion 01 our subject begins. 
 
 Thus far we have been seek- 
 ing to obtain a wide, perspective view of the 
 factors, processes, and fundamental presuppo- 
 sitions of religious and moral education. The 
 position that we have reached is, in brief, this : 
 That the function of education is to assist 
 immature human beings to attain their proper 
 destiny; that the proper destiny of men is 
 prefigured and partly provided for in the 
 structure of the mind; that man's mental 
 structure is not only ethical (and so demands 
 unity with his fellow men), but also religious 
 (and so demands union with God) ; that this 
 religious nature is an expression of the imme- 
 diate presence of God in every human mind; 
 that God himself is therefore the prime mover 
 in all true education ; that the highest outward 
 stimulus for the religious nature is God re- 
 vealed in Christ, so that God educates his 
 children for union with himself through 
 Christ ; that the essential agency in education 
 
106 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 is never things or ideas, but persons, and that 
 the essential method of education is the shar- 
 ing of life between a higher and a lower per- 
 son whereby the principle of incarnation is 
 carried forward in each new generation ; that 
 education is therefore a whole of which in- 
 struction is only a part; that the essential 
 process is the self-active, and therefore free, 
 expression of the child's personality; that the 
 method of education is not to force or press 
 something upon the personality, but to pro- 
 vide fitting material for the spontaneous ex- 
 pression of its higher self; that education de- 
 pends, therefore, upon the child's spontaneous 
 interests, and is to adapt itself to the various 
 stages of the child's development ; finally, that 
 the natural line of moral and spiritual prog- 
 ress runs through the various social groups 
 with which the child is in fellowship up to 
 the supreme fellowship with G-od. 
 
 We thus obtain a point of view from which 
 to organize and to judge the vast mass of facts 
 and institutions that have to do with moral 
 and religious training. Our next task will 
 be to secure as clear an idea as present knowl- 
 edge permits of the normal order and method 
 of the child's moral and spiritual develop- 
 ment. 
 
THE RELIGIOUS IMPULSE 197 
 
 We already have the idea that G-od works 
 within the child in what we call his reli- 
 gious nature, and upon him through his 
 environment, particularly his environment of 
 persons, but this is only a general scheme, the 
 details of which are yet to be filled in. We 
 begin with a more detailed study of that with- 
 in the child which religious education is called 
 upon to develop, namely, the religious im- 
 pulse. 
 
 108. The Char- The science of religion, as 
 
 acter of i i -i . j 
 
 Primitive ^^ have already noted, 
 
 Religion. shows that religion is uni- 
 
 versal, and that it springs 
 from an impulse that is native to the human 
 mind. But the science of religion has occu- 
 pied itself almost altogether with the adult 
 consciousness. As a result, the character and 
 place of the religious impulse in child-con- 
 sciousness remains, for the most part, yet to be 
 worked out. In the present chapter an at- 
 tempt will be made to show the continuity be- 
 tween this impulse in adults and in children, 
 and in subsequent chapters of Part II the 
 stages and methods of its development will be 
 discussed. 
 
 We must begin by asking what is meant 
 by the religious impulse. If we turn for an 
 
198 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 answer to primitive tribes, this is the sight 
 that meets our eyes: Men live together in 
 small groups or tribes of which the tie is com- 
 munity of blood. The prevalent interests are 
 food-getting, fighting other tribes, and marry- 
 ing. The universal view of nature is animism, 
 or the belief that all objects have the same 
 kind of life that the savage feels in himself. 
 Natural, objects that smite the attention, or 
 that seem to control the food-supply and other 
 conditions of life, are feared, placated, and 
 venerated. Dreams and visions lead to the 
 belief that there is a soul separable from the 
 body, and that this part of one's ancestors 
 survives death. The honor paid to such an- 
 cestral spirits becomes ancestor worship. The 
 total result is many gods, whose character and 
 conduct are a reflection of the character and 
 conduct of the worshipers.^ Where in all this, 
 one may well ask, is there anything cognate to 
 our own ethical and spiritual ideals? 
 
 109. General Before seeking a direct 
 
 Nature of the , ,, • 
 
 Religious Impulse, answer to this question, it IS 
 
 well to notice that much 
 more may be involved or implied in an act or 
 a state of consciousness than the subject of 
 
 * A brief and luminous discussion of primitive religion 
 may be found 'n Part I of A. Menzies : History of 
 Religion (New Yorii, 1903). 
 
THE RELIGIOUS IMPULSE 199 
 
 it realises. A character in one of Moliere's 
 plays was greatly surprised to find out that 
 he had been using nouns and verbs all his 
 life without knowing it ! Just so, long before 
 we know the principles of logic, we employ 
 them to test our own and others' thought. 
 The same is true of the principles of ethics 
 and aesthetics. After the act has been done, 
 and especially after a mode of action has be- 
 come well developed, science and philosophy 
 begin to inquire what is really involved there- 
 in. Our present question concerning savage 
 religion, then, is not so much, What does the 
 savage himself think about his religion? as 
 What inner principle is actually at work 
 within it? 
 
 A good evidence of the necessity of this 
 distinction is found in the discussion whether 
 primitive religion is monotheistic. It is reason- 
 ably certain that the gods of any savage tribe 
 do not all stand upon the same level, and in 
 some tribes there hovers in the background 
 of thought a being so much like a single, orig- 
 inal god as to cause some students to believe 
 that monotheism was the original religion of 
 all mankind. Yet it is doubtful whether any 
 primitive or approximately primitive tribe 
 could without prolonged training really grasp 
 
200 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 the idea of one only God. Primitive man 
 sees and hears his gods just as he sees and 
 hears his fellow men, and the evidence for 
 many gods is to him just like that for many 
 men. Nevertheless a tendency toward unity 
 is there. It is native to the human mind. 
 Just as the social instinct led on from tribal to 
 national organisation, so the religious impulse 
 led toward the subordination of some gods to 
 others ; and just as the national consciousness 
 even in our day is broadening out into a con- 
 sciousness of humanity, so there could be no 
 final rest in religious development short of 
 monotheism. The significance of this discus- 
 sion for our present purpose will appear as we 
 proceed. We shall see that the educator needs 
 to know both how the child himself thinks and 
 feels, and also what inner principle or tend- 
 ency is there at work. 
 
 110. Impulse to Religion exists at all be- 
 
 Unification of r. i ^i i 
 
 One's Self and cause men find themselves 
 
 One's World. ajj(j their world standing 
 
 over against each other in 
 an antithesis, even opposition, that needs to be 
 resolved. To strive to reach a thought that 
 shall include the self and the world is to begin 
 to philosophise. But before the philosophic 
 impulse becomes aware of itself, men must 
 
THE RELIGIOUS IMPULSE 201 
 
 ^nd a way to live in and with their world so 
 that human ends may be attained. Thus it is 
 that in nature, or above nature, they seek for 
 a power, or for powers, that take an interest 
 in human well being. This involves the idea 
 of something greater and, in some sense, bet- 
 ter, than has been actually experienced. That 
 is, it involves the notion of an ideal world 
 over against or alongside of the real world. 
 This ideal may be only slightly in advance of 
 the actual life of the tribe; it may lack what 
 we should recognise among ourselves as eth- 
 ical quality ; yet it is to the savage a superior 
 thing, a higher point of view. It expresses a 
 certain divine discontent that spurs men on to 
 seek and find an ever higher unity of them- 
 selves and their world. Moreover, the opposi- 
 tion that religion seeks to solve is within man 
 as well as between him and nature. Man 
 never regards his present state as properly 
 final; self-judgment pursues him, and self- 
 judgment moves upward as fast as one's at- 
 tainments increase. The religious impulse is 
 thus toward the progressive unification of the 
 man with himself, his fellows, natura, and all 
 that is. It is man's effort to be at home in his 
 world and with himself.^ 
 
 * This is, of course, only a description of the religious 
 Impulse. The explanation of it would require a reference 
 
202 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 111. Four Factors To be more specific, the 
 Involved. ,. . , , . 
 
 religious impulse contains 
 
 the following factors : 
 
 First, a more or less clear realisation that 
 we are limited and dependent. Our depend- 
 ent relation to visible things is first recog- 
 nised, but both the idea and the feeling of 
 dependence tend to push backward beyond all 
 things that are themselves dependent to their 
 ultimate ground. Thus, implicitly at first, and 
 later explicitly, the religious impulse contains 
 what Schleiermacher called the sense of abso- 
 lute dependence, and so a sense of the ultimate 
 unity of one's self and one's world. 
 
 Second, human wants always outrun their 
 supply. It is an ultimate fact of our consti- 
 tution that we can always think more, and 
 that desire follows the thought. How much 
 gratification of the senses does it take to sat- 
 isfy a man ? How much wealth, power, knowl- 
 edge, honor, afi'ection? How much of any 
 kind of good whatsoever? A man who is so 
 satisfied with what he has and is as not to 
 want to attain to something more we set down 
 at once as abnormal; he is diseased in body, 
 mind, or character. Buddhism, recognising 
 
 to the Logos who lighteneth every man. Men feel after 
 God if haply they may find him, yet all the while It Is 
 God himself who inspires the search. 
 
THE RELIGIOUS IMPULSE 203 
 
 the fact that to be conscious is to desire, con- 
 cludes that complete satisfaction can be had 
 only in unconsciousness. But this is a 
 contradiction, for a satisfaction of which no 
 one is conscious is not satisfaction at all. It 
 is evident, then, that the self-realisation that 
 men seek is, implicitly or explicitly, a progress 
 to which no limits can be assigned. This im- 
 plies an assumption that man's essential self 
 is an ideal self, his world an ideal world which 
 presides over the so-called real world, and 
 that this ideal world is unitary and all-en- 
 compassing. 
 
 Third, the ideal world and the ideal self 
 here implied are spontaneously taken as the 
 truly real self and the truly real world pri- 
 marily because of the strength of our felt 
 wants. Imagination, hope, expectation, rea- 
 son, all do service to this inner propulsion. 
 We believe in God primarily because we need 
 God. This does not mean that the ideals by 
 which individuals and societies live are first 
 abstractly conceived and later believed to be 
 real. Just the reverse; they are at first con- 
 crete beings whom early man believes that he 
 actually beholds with his eyes. It has taken a 
 long history and a considerable amount of ab- 
 stract thought to separate between our ideals 
 
204 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 and our belief in their reality so as to be able 
 to ask whether the gods actually exist. Even 
 now, when this question has been clearly 
 asked, the immediate demand for ideal good is 
 more influential than all reasoning in forming 
 our religious beliefs. 
 
 Fourth, the specific qualities of these ideal 
 beings or, as it comes to pass, this ideal being, 
 are derived from our human experiences. "We 
 could not understand any kind of superiority 
 that is not an extension of something that has 
 at least partially appeared within us. All 
 gods are conceived anthropomorphically ; they 
 are idealised men. The quality that is ideal- 
 ised may be power, or jealousy for the tribe, 
 or fatherliness, or a special interest like agri- 
 culture or war, but it is always human. Chris- 
 tianity puts its approval upon this principle 
 by declaring that in a complete human life we 
 have not only the highest but also an adequate 
 revelation of Grod, 
 
 112. The Religious A WOrd or tWO will nOW 
 
 Impulse in the , ., .. . , 
 
 Child, reveal the continuity be- 
 
 tween the religious impulse 
 of adults and of children. We have seen that 
 this impulse, in its most general aspect, is an 
 outgoing after unity between the self and its 
 world. A new-born infant has, of course, no 
 
THE RELIGIOUS IMPULSE 205 
 
 definite idea of either its self or its world. Yet 
 the process of securing these ideas begins at 
 once, if, indeed, it did not begin before birth. 
 He acquires both ideas chiefly through the 
 active putting forth of his powers. The im- 
 pulsive movements of arms and legs, for ex- 
 ample, are early steps in what, if it were in- 
 tentionally done, might be described as an ex- 
 pedition of exploration and discovery. Each 
 new experience of the world is likewise a new 
 revelation of the self. Further, in and through 
 these experiences runs demand of one sort and 
 another — for food, for activity, for the satis- 
 faction of curiosity, for companionship, and 
 so on. Very soon all three factors, a world, a 
 self, and a demand, become dimly explicit, as 
 they have been implicit from the start. And 
 not only does the child differentiate himself 
 from objects and make demands upon them, 
 but also, through memory, expectation, and 
 disappointed hopes, he begins to construct an 
 ideal world alongside the world of actual ex- 
 perience. For a long time the ideal is exceed- 
 ingly crude, and the feelings accompanying 
 it lack the depth of what Ave are accustomed 
 to call spiritual. But what if the baby's ideal 
 world is made up of imaginary foods and toys 
 and beings subject to his whims? His situa- 
 
206 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 tion is not worse than that of early man, and 
 the same idealising principle is at work in both 
 eases. In both cases that which is natural 
 comes first, and then that which is spiritual. 
 Only large experience of life can reveal to an 
 individual or to the race what is the meaning 
 of the struggle to live, and to live well. The re- 
 ligious principle is at work, in fact, in all that 
 goes to make up human experience. The very 
 first impressions that the child gets of his 
 world, his first glimmering sense of self, his 
 earliest sense of need, all these begin to form 
 his view of the world and his attitude toward 
 life. In a word, the personal interpretation 
 of experience advances step by step with ex- 
 perience itself. 
 113. When This enables us to answer 
 
 Should Education ,, i- ^i, i. • 
 
 in Religion ^^^ question that IS somc- 
 
 Begin? times asked, When should 
 
 religious training begin ? 
 Some persons would begin it as soon as lan- 
 guage is acquired; others oppose all religious 
 training of the young on the ground that re- 
 ligion should be a matter of deliberate and 
 rational choice, which is not possible before 
 manhood is reached. Both these views rest on 
 two false assumptions. The first is the intel- 
 lectualist view of man, which makes life grow 
 
THE RELIGIOUS IMPULSE 207 
 
 out of knowledge rather than knowledge out 
 of life. The other is the notion that training 
 with respect to religion can be postponed to 
 some particular period of life. Not for a 
 single year does the mind remain neutral or 
 blank with reference to the interpretation of 
 life. Impressions are already leading to re- 
 actions of both an emotional and a motor sort, 
 and these reactions are already forming into 
 habits. To such habits there is also an in- 
 tellectual side, or the meaning, more or less 
 articulate, which the world and life are be- 
 ginning to have. Very early, too, the child 
 witnesses specific religious phenomena. We 
 cannot hide from him our churches, our sa- 
 cred books, our worship. The real question, 
 then, is never. When shall his religious train- 
 ing begin? for it really begins with the be- 
 ginning of experience, and it goes forward 
 with experience. The real question is, What 
 kind shall it be ? Shall it be positive or nega- 
 tive, symmetrical or distorted, repressive or 
 emancipating? 
 
CHAPTER XIII 
 
 HOW THE IMPULSE DEVELOPS 
 
 114. General The first beginning of the 
 
 Direction of ,. . , , , . 
 
 Development. religious development in 
 
 both the race and the in- 
 dividual is exceedingly humble. Apparently 
 there is just a jumble of likes and dislikes, 
 desires and efforts, all directed to particular 
 visible things, and all having their immedi- 
 ate reference to physical needs. The ideal 
 and unifying element of the religious im- 
 pulse is not yet conscious of itself, but blind 
 and unformed. Such is the beginning; what 
 now is the goal, and how shall development 
 be recognised? An impulse develops when 
 the range or depth of its control increases, 
 when the activities to which it leads become 
 a habit, and when the impulse itself rises 
 from the level of mere impulse to that of a 
 principle rationally approved and deliber- 
 ately adopted as a method of life. 
 
 The goal of religious development includes 
 all these, not merely a part of them. Ra- 
 
now THE IMPULSE DEVELOPS 209 
 
 tional approval of religion or of Christianity 
 is not enough, nor even deliberate choice 
 thereof. How often has all this failed to is- 
 sue in steady religious living. On the other 
 hand, mere habit in the absence of rational 
 reflection tends to become mechanical, and ul- 
 timately to hinder growth. Again, there may 
 be wide range of religious interest, but shal- 
 lowness, as, on the other hand, there may be 
 intensity and depth, but narrowness. Breadth, 
 depth, habit, insight, deliberate choice— all 
 are to be aimed at. This follows not only 
 from our observation of incomplete religious 
 characters, but also from the nature of the 
 religious impulse. Religion demands com- 
 plete unity of life. It reaches out to every- 
 thing, and down to the bottom of everything; 
 it includes our whole mental equipment and 
 activity, whether of thought, of emotion, or of 
 will. Stating this in the concrete terms of the 
 Christian view of life, we may say that the 
 outcome to be looked for in the religious train- 
 ing of the young is that, through both habit 
 and choice, the life should be completely con- 
 trolled by Jesus' principle of love to God and 
 man, and that one should see and feel that 
 this principle gives to life its meaning and 
 value. 
 
210 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 115. Internal and The primary factor in 
 
 External Factors. i j i . • 
 
 any such development is 
 the child's own impulse, which we have 
 already agreed to regard as the utterance 
 of the Divine Spirit within him. But, 
 left to itself, this impulse will no more grow 
 than will a seed that is deprived of moisture. 
 It is ordained that man should depend upon 
 man, and that the revelation of God to men 
 should come through the interactions of men 
 with one another. If an American child be 
 reared from earliest infancy by savages, he 
 grows up savage, not civilised; if he should 
 grow up among wild beasts he would fall 
 short of the knowledge, the morals, and the 
 religion even of savages. The importance of 
 the external factor in education, then, is meas- 
 ured by nothing less than the distance be- 
 tween what children in a Christian environ- 
 ment actually become, and what they would 
 become if they grew up in isolation from hu- 
 manity. Not, indeed, that education bestows 
 all this, but rather that it furnishes essential 
 conditions for the growth of the native im- 
 pulse. God's way of making men is through 
 men. It is civilisation that makes children 
 civilised ; it is existing religion that makes 
 children grow in religion. The only qualifica- 
 
HOW THE IMPULSE DEVELOPS 211 
 
 tion that need be made to this statement grows 
 out of the fact that civilisation itself proceeds 
 in large measure from the religious impulse. 
 Yet civilisation is of slow growth precisely 
 because each individual of any generation is 
 made what he is chiefly by the other individ- 
 uals who surround him. An individual may 
 be in advance of his times, yet only within 
 limits. The greatest leader in any age is yet 
 a product of his age. Thus, while the re- 
 ligious impulse is an original endowment of 
 each of us, and while an individual may sur- 
 pass the limits of his training, nevertheless, 
 each individual owes his general religious de- 
 velopment to the influences of the community 
 in which he is raised. 
 
 116. The Theory What and how much can 
 
 of Recapitulation. , t „ i -i i - 
 
 be done for a child at any 
 period of growth, however, depends upon in- 
 ternal factors. The religious impulse has laws 
 of its own. One of these laws is found m the 
 general parallel between the development of 
 the child and the history of the race. As the 
 human body before birth passes through a se- 
 ries of forms that correspond in the main to 
 ascending embryonic forms of animal life m 
 general, so, after birth, the mind progresses 
 toward maturity through stages that corre- 
 
212 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 spond roughly to the stages of human history 
 in the large. In a certain modified sense, the 
 child is first a savage, then a barbarian, and 
 finally a civilised being.^ This is called the 
 theory of the recapitulation of racial history 
 by the individual. Its general correctness 
 there appears to be no good reason for doubt- 
 ing. The fact was noted generations ago, and 
 it was clearly stated by some of the great 
 educators, notably Froebel. The discoveries 
 of biology in the last half century have served 
 to confirm it, and to call renewed attention to 
 it on the part of educators. The question 
 naturally arises whether we have not here a 
 clue to the natural order of child-development, 
 and also a principle for the selection of ma- 
 terial. 
 
 117. Its Contribu- This theory certainly 
 tion to Education. ^ -, 
 
 helps us to secure perspec- 
 tive with reference to the phenomena of child 
 life. We are reminded that "the child" is not 
 a being having fixed qualities, but one that 
 is continually outgrowing itself. We are bet- 
 ter able to judge what is normal and what 
 abnormal at any period. We learn that the 
 child naturally outgrows many traits that we 
 
 ^ See articles by Van Liew and others in the first and 
 second year books of the Ilerbart Society (Chicago- 
 University of Chicago Press). 
 
HOW THE IMPULSE DEVELOPS 213 
 
 should not wish to have perpetuated. We 
 cease to measure his conduct at one period 
 by the standards of a later period. We learn 
 to tolerate and even approve much that our 
 forefathers, comparing children's conduct 
 with adult standards, felt constrained to con- 
 demn. A striking example of this change is 
 the new attitude toward the fights of little 
 boys. Many, probably most, students of ped- 
 agogy to-day look upon such fights as within 
 limits an expression of a normal and proper 
 impulse. Again, the theory of recapitulation 
 enables us to appreciate as never before cer- 
 tain spontaneous interests of children and 
 youth. We find a new meaning, for example, 
 in boys' "gangs" when we discover how close- 
 ly they resemble the tribal form of human or- 
 ganisation. Similarly, the temporarily ab- 
 sorbing interest in exploration, hunting, or 
 mimic war at certain ages becomes illumi- 
 nated. 
 
 118. Limits of its Qn the Other hand, how- 
 ever, any effort to deduce a 
 system of religious education from the theory 
 of recapitulation is fatally short-sighted. It 
 assumes that the internal factor in develop- 
 ment is practically self-sufficient, and it con- 
 ceives this factor as a mere push from be- 
 
214 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 hind, an impetus which the individual receives 
 from the past of the race. Now and then an 
 educator appears to be chiefly anxious that 
 the process of recapitulation should have full 
 swing; that the child should be a complete 
 savage, then a complete barbarian, and that 
 natural instinct should bear complete sway. 
 In this way, it is believed, he will most surely 
 attain to a high civilisation in the end. This 
 is not altogether untrue, but it is one-sided. 
 The racial push from behind never enabled 
 a child to attain to civilisation in an environ- 
 ment of beasts or savages. How far the child 
 shall go in the process of recapitulation de- 
 pends chiefly upon the kind of environment 
 in which he is placed. Further, a high en- 
 vironment does not first become effective after 
 the child has passed through earlier stages of 
 culture; it is effective from the beginning. 
 For the whole life of a civilised child, after 
 earliest infancy, is different from that of a 
 savage child. The two start at the same point, 
 but the contrasting environments quickly 
 produce great differences in development. 
 
 119. A Case in Por an example, we may 
 
 Point. -, o ^ 
 
 compare the acts and feel- 
 ings connected with eating on the part of an 
 American child of five years and a savage 
 
HOW THE IMPULSE DEVELOPS 215 
 
 child of equal age. The savage child grabs 
 a morsel in his hand, and devours it much as 
 our cats and dogs devour the food that we 
 throw to them. His manners are in no ap- 
 preciable degree socialised, his person is 
 filthy, and he has no desire to have it other- 
 wise. His feelings are as coarse as his acts. 
 Now, it may well be that the civilised child's 
 feelings have not kept perfect pace with the 
 imitative process by which he has acquired 
 some refinement of manners, yet, on the»whole, 
 his feelings as well as his conduct are already 
 largely civilised. He dislikes filth, he has 
 a positive appreciation of order, and he ac- 
 tually shares in the family spirit of mutual 
 regard one for another. All this has been 
 attained, moreover, without undue pressure 
 from the parents. He finds at least as full 
 self-expression in the neatness, order, and 
 good manners of the family table as the sav- 
 age child does in his own uncouth mode of 
 eating a meal. Recapitulation, then, does not 
 imply, that each child reproduces the stages 
 of human history, or that he must wait, as 
 the race did, for any special degree of fitness 
 before he is introduced to the higher forms 
 of life. 
 
il6 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 120. What is a The fact is that, from the 
 
 Childhood? Start, little by little, chil- 
 
 dren assimilate the highest 
 elements of their environment. They do it nat- 
 urally, too, without forcing. To suppose that 
 the natural child is the child as he would be 
 in the absence of all influence from our adult 
 convictions as to what is true and good, is to 
 substitute for concrete children a mere ab- 
 straction. What is natural to childhood is 
 revealed, not by what happens in the absence 
 of food, but in the presence of abundant food. 
 If recapitulation were the sole basis of reli- 
 gious nurture, we should be obliged deliber- 
 ately to withhold ourselves from children in 
 order that their environment might be meagre 
 enough to fit their stage of culture. But the 
 truth is that, if forcing and pressure be 
 avoided, a child who is in contact Avith 
 mature life develops with perfect naturalness 
 while constantly absorbing elements of the 
 higher culture. 
 
 Yet the fact of recapitulation remains as a 
 background of the whole process. The child's 
 spontaneous interest will not extend equally 
 to all parts of the higher life with which he 
 is in contact, nor will he assimilate any part 
 of it completely until he reaches maturity. 
 
HOW THE IMPULSE DEVELOPS 211 
 
 For example he will be attracted at one 
 period to heroism and self-sacrifice in the 
 form of -what is called physical courage, at 
 another in the form of philanthropies. At 
 both periods, however, he may be under the 
 positive influence of civilised and even Chris- 
 tian ideals. 
 
 121. The Absorb- In this way the religious 
 
 ent Power of . , , . , 
 
 Childhood. impulse may have a truly 
 
 Christian character through 
 all stages of its development. It acquires this 
 character, not by first knowing and then do- 
 ing, but by first doing and then knowing. It 
 begins with habits which at first mean a little, 
 but later a great deal, and so there is carried 
 forward what has been called the progressive 
 re-interpretation of experience. For example, 
 under the good old custom of family worship, 
 the whole family engaged in the same reli- 
 gious exercise. Certainly this exercise had a 
 different meaning for each member. To old 
 age, already catching glimpses of the deep- 
 shadowed valley, the Scripture lesson and the 
 prayer meant one thing ; to middle age, bear- 
 ing the heat and burden of the day, another; 
 to youth, with its golden dreams, still another. 
 Different needs, different feelings, different 
 kinds of strength centered around the same 
 
218 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 act of worship. Nor did the adaptation end 
 here, for the little child put his own meaning 
 into family prayer, just as the other members 
 of the family did. To him it was not artificial 
 unless it was perfunctory— and so artificial— 
 to his elders also. The child feels reality 
 where his elders feel it, though he feels it 
 differently. When just a little thought is 
 taken to adapt idea and phraseology in fam- 
 ily worship to the child, his participation 
 therein is full and real; the exercise then 
 grows in meaning with the growth of his ex- 
 perience, and so it remains an educational 
 force through all stages of growth. 
 
 122. Religious Recapitulation, then, may 
 
 Development of , , , ■_,, . r,- u 
 
 Race and of ^^^^ place withm a high 
 
 Child Compared. religion, and not merely as 
 a preliminary to it. Here 
 we have an essential contrast between the 
 religious development of the child and that 
 of the race. The religion of the race began 
 with nature-worship and ghost-worship ad- 
 dressed to many gods, and in only the faintest 
 degree was it ethical. Only through long 
 struggle did the gods become clear embodi- 
 ments of moral ideals, and only here and 
 there was monotheism attained at all. Now, 
 it is true that children are at first animists; 
 
HOW THE IMPULSE DEVELOPS 219 
 
 they interpret all nature by means of what 
 they feel in themselves. It is also true that in 
 very early life hob-goblins are easily believed 
 in. Between these beliefs and the religious 
 beliefs absorbed from elders there is, of 
 course, no absolute dividing line. Animistic 
 ideas are freely used in the interpretation of 
 religion. A little girl explained thunder as 
 "God rolling barrels up in heaven." Other 
 children have thought of God as a carpenter, 
 a juggler, a preternaturally big man, and so 
 on.^ I believe it was John Fiske who, in 
 childhood, imagined God as an aged book- 
 keeper leaning over his desk up in the sky 
 and looking down to see how little children 
 conduct themselves in order that he might 
 record all their demerits. 
 
 But, for all that, in no strict sense do such 
 children pass through a period of nature- 
 worship or ghost- worship. For, first, chil- 
 dren's sense of dependence is directed chiefly 
 to the parents rather than to nature or to 
 imaginary beings. The motives which made 
 early men worship as they did centered large- 
 ly in anxiety regarding the food supply and 
 protection from the rigors of nature, from 
 
 1 Sully gives an entertaining list of sucb ideas. See 
 James Sully: Studies of Childhood (New York, 1900), 
 i pages 120-132, and 506-513. 
 
220 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 wild beasts, and from hostile tribes. This 
 anxiety was communicated from parent to 
 child. But in modern civilised life these prob- 
 lems have been practically solved. The pa- 
 rent is no longer anxious, for he has an ade- 
 quate supply, and so he takes the place in 
 the child-mind that nature-gods occupied in 
 the primitive mind. In the second place, the 
 environment of the child-mind of to-day is 
 profoundly different from that of primitive 
 man. We rightly speak of early man as being 
 in a condition of childhood. This implies that 
 the mind of each primitive child grew up 
 among childish minds — minds that merely 
 reinforced a child's spontaneous notions of 
 nature. Thus the influence of nature was at 
 a maximum, and that of persons at a mini- 
 mum. But, in proportion as men advanced 
 toward civilisation, the environment of per- 
 sons acquired more influence over the child's 
 mental life. When religion becomes predom- 
 inantly ethical, it no longer reinforces child- 
 ish notions of nature, but turns the child's 
 attention at once toward the regulation of 
 personal relationships. Children's grotesque 
 notions of God are not spontaneous and self- 
 evolved ; they can be traced directly to defec- 
 tive teaching, as in the case of John Fiske's 
 
HOW THE IMPULSE DEVELOPS 221 
 
 bookkeeper-god. And even in such notions, 
 of which the bookkeeper-god is a good illus- 
 tration, we commonly find that the ethical 
 element has already been introduced. In 
 general, then, the religious impulse, under 
 proper conditions, may be expected to move 
 directly from attachment felt for earthly 
 parents to reverence for the Heavenly Father. 
 The child's conceptions of the Heavenly 
 Father will be crude, of course, but they need 
 never have the rude qualities of all early 
 gods. 
 
 123. Sketch of Leaving out of account 
 
 Normal Religious n ^i, " -.in 
 
 Development. ^^^ ^he moment the formal 
 
 or instructional side of re- 
 ligious training, let us try to sketch the ef- 
 fect of normal relations between a child and 
 his elders. The mother or nurse begins the 
 work of training the moral and religious na- 
 ture by her gentle, regular, hygienic response 
 to the infant's physical needs.^ Here begins 
 the revelation of love, human and divine, as 
 
 * See J. G. Compayre : The Intellectual and Moral De- 
 velopment of the Child (New York, 1896). Part I, pages 
 168 f., and 193 (note) : also G. Stanley Hall: Article on 
 Moral and Religious Training, etc., in the Pedagogical 
 Seminary, volume I, page 199. Froenel remarks : "Pure 
 human, parental and filial relations are the key, the first 
 condition, of that heavenly, divine, fatherly, and filial 
 relation and life, of a genuine Christian life in thought 
 and action." — Education of Man (New York, 1888), Sec- 
 tion 61. See, also, sections 21 and 88. 
 
222 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 the meaning of life, and of law and order 
 as the method of love. The infant soon dis- 
 covers that his wants are ministered to by 
 the moving, speaking objects that we call per- 
 sons. His world is a world of persons, and 
 supreme among them are the parents. His 
 sense of dependence upon them is the reli- 
 gious impulse in its earliest stage.^ In some 
 cases, probably many, an attitude toward a 
 parent that is indistinguishable from wor- 
 ship develops in the early years. It would 
 be strange if it were not so.- I have in my 
 possession an account of a gentleman who 
 still remembered the occasion on which he dis- 
 covered that his father and God were not the 
 same being. This corresponds, no doubt, to 
 nature-worship in the race. But quickly there 
 springs up a contrast between the parent and 
 an ideal being. For the child's demands out- 
 run the. supply which the parent can or will 
 provide. Nevertheless, for a long time the 
 parent continues to be the nearest represen- 
 
 1 "I don't need to pray to-night," said a little child, 
 "for papa is going to sleep with me." 
 
 * "The moment when the baby's mind first passes on 
 from the sight of his bottle to a foregrasping or imagi- 
 nation of the blisses of prehension and deglutition . . . 
 marks an epoch in his existence. . . . This is the 
 moment at which . . . 'mind rises above the limi- 
 tations of the actual, and begins to shape for itself an 
 Ideal world of possibilities.' " — James Sully : Studies of 
 Childhood (New York 1900), page 405, 
 
HOW THE IMPULSE DEVELOPS 223 
 
 tative of ideal being that the child knows. 
 
 The possibility of religious development is 
 provided for in the fact that the child's de- 
 mands thus reach out into an ideal world. 
 A place is here prepared for the idea of divin- 
 ity, and constant contact with the parents' 
 religious life furnishes content for the idea 
 as rapidly as the child can assimilate it. His 
 religious ideas and attitudes will grow with 
 the developing sense of need. Demand for 
 the supply of merely physical needs is fol- 
 lowed by demand for knowledge. The age of 
 curiosity, of free imagination, of fairy tale, 
 reproduces something of the myth-making 
 stage of religion in general. The incomplete- 
 ness of the parents' response to the question- 
 asking impulse permits the child-mind to pass 
 on toward the ideal of a being who can answer 
 all questions. 
 
 After the question-asking age comes a 
 period in which eons.cience and the sense 
 of law become more prominent. At first 
 the family is the moral universe of the 
 child. The parents are discovered to possess 
 not only power to supply hunger, and knowl- 
 edge to supply curiosity, but also authority 
 to command the will. Yet the still greater 
 discovery is made that the parents are not the 
 
224 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 source of law, but subjects of it, and so the 
 child projects into his ideal world a supreme 
 moral will.^ 
 
 At length comes the adolescent period, 
 with its blossoming of the social instinct, 
 and its tendencies to deeper feeling and 
 broader outlook. The child who is just 
 becoming a man looks out into his new world 
 seeking complete expression for his new im- 
 pulses. He finds society a mixture of love 
 and hate, of self-sacrifice and self-seeking, of 
 greatness and littleness, of beauty and ugli- 
 ness, of truth and falsehood. He flees once 
 more to the ideal being that has hovered over 
 his whole experience, and attributes to it all 
 power, all truth, all beauty, and all love. God 
 is no longer mere power, wisdom, and moral 
 will ; he is the universal Father, and his king- 
 dom becomes the one object of complete worth 
 in the world. The youth now takes God as 
 his portion in a new and deeper sense, and 
 enlists as a soldier of the kingdom. Yet here, 
 as at all earlier stages, this ideal side of the 
 nature is called out and fed by the personal 
 elements of the environment, by the ideal 
 qualities of parents, of friends, of the Christ. 
 
 ^ See J. Mark Baldwin : Social and Ethical Interpreta- 
 tions in Mental Development (New York, 1897), pages 
 327ff. 
 
HOW THE IMPULSE DEVELOPS 225 
 
 In this whole development three principles 
 are manifest : First, the soil of all religious' 
 seed-planting and growth is the spontaneous 
 idealising of life. Second, the ideal qualities 
 manifested by persons interpret the child's 
 idealising impulse to himself and give it spe- 
 cific content, while the faith of the child in 
 the reality of ideal being is reinforced by the 
 living faith of his elders. Third, the instruc- 
 tional element in this development comes in 
 as a needed interpretation of what is already 
 a reality to the child. 
 
CHAPTER XIV 
 
 PERIODS OF DEVELOPMENT: INFANCY AND 
 CHILDHOOD 
 
 124. Our Deficient In spite of the great ad- 
 
 Knowledge of • 1 M 1 11 
 
 Childhood. vance in child-psychology 
 
 during the last twenty 
 years, our insight into the growth of the mind 
 is still very far from being complete. The 
 ideal is to secure a history of the experience 
 of a normal child as that experie^ice appears 
 to the child himself. Now, though our reminis- 
 cences of our childhood are of some worth, 
 they are scanty and beset with illusions of 
 memory. On the other hand, our observations 
 of children are beset with a tendency to in- 
 terpret childhood activities and words as 
 though they meant the same to the child as 
 they do when they occur in our own lives. 
 This is an instance of what is called "the 
 psychologist's fallacy", or attributing our 
 own states of mind to others (whether ani- 
 mals or men) whenever they perform the same 
 acts that we do. A good example has already 
 been given in the misinterpretation of chil- 
 dren's "lies" and "cruelty." In particular, it 
 
PERIODS OF DEVELOPMENT 227 
 
 is essential to remember that the young mind 
 is relatively undifferentiated; it simply does 
 not have the sharply defined mental states 
 that we experience in ourselves. We are not 
 to think of it as a miniature reason, a minia- 
 ture will, and a miniature conscience, but 
 rather as a simpler personality which is in 
 process of organising itself into reason, con- 
 science, and will.^ 
 
 125. The Periods In a rough way, however, 
 it is possible to detect the 
 chief periods of growth and some of the 
 characteristics of each. Before maturity is 
 reached, two main periods, each with sub- 
 divisions, are lived through. The earlier, 
 comprising infancy and childhood, extends 
 to the age of about twelve; the later, 
 called adolescence or youth, covers the next 
 ten or twelve years. The subdivisions of the 
 first period are as follows: Infancy, to 
 the age of six ; early childhood, six to eight or 
 nine; and later childhood, eight or nine to 
 twelve or thirteen. In general, the period of 
 childhood ends with girls about a year earlier 
 than with boys, and the period of adolescence 
 two or three years earlier. The subdivisions 
 
 * See Irving Kin? : The Psychology of Child-Develop- 
 ment (Chicago, 1903). 
 
228 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 of adolescence will be given in the next 
 chapter. 
 
 Concerning the periods of growth two re- 
 marks must now be made. The first is that 
 thus far the present work has employed the 
 term "child" to designate simply the imma- 
 ture human being, no line being drawn, except 
 now and then, between childhood in the nar- 
 rower sense and adolescence. From this point 
 on the technical sense of ' ' childhood ' ', as des- 
 ignating the period between infancy and ado- 
 lescence, must be borne in mind, else confu- 
 sion between the narrower and the wider use 
 may occur. A second needed remark is that 
 the periods of growth are generally not 
 sharply marked at their boundaries in respect 
 either to time or to mental traits. Some in- 
 dividuals pass through a given stage more 
 rapidly than others, and so the figures just 
 given must be understood to represent simply 
 C\^ a rough overage. Further, the mental traits 
 of any period make their appearance grad- 
 ually rather than suddenly, though there are 
 plenty of exceptions to this rule. As a graphic 
 representation of mental growth, therefore, 
 neither an inclined straight line, nor a broken 
 line like the profile of a stairway, would be 
 
PERIODS OF DEVELOPMENT 229 
 
 true to the facts, but rather a wavy line that 
 is a mean between the two.^ 
 
 126. Point of Our present task is to 
 
 infancy. point out the chief mental 
 
 traits and spontaneous in- 
 terests that offer a leverage to religious and 
 moral influences at the successive stages. In 
 the period of infancy, three points of leverage 
 are discernible. First, as already indicated, 
 physical needs can be ministered to in such 
 a way as to reveal love as the moving force in 
 persons, and law and order as the method of 
 love. Second, after language has been ac- 
 quired, the parent, and later the kindergart- 
 ner can color the infant 's moral sky by means 
 of appropriate simple stories. Such stories 
 should have no moral attached, but their 
 cumulative effect should be to represent the 
 truth of life. Third, the play impulse lends 
 itself, through imitation, to the culture of 
 social qualities. In the plays of the kinder- 
 garten, habits of co-operation, of giving, of 
 submission to a social whole, are formed. The 
 same habits can be formed in a well-regulated 
 home also. Merely to do for a child rather 
 
 1 A general discussion of periods of growtli will be 
 found In A. F. Chamberlain: The Child (London, 1901), 
 Chapter IV. and in Samuel B. Haslett : The Pedagogical 
 Bible School (New York, 1903), Part II. 
 
230 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 than with him; to make the whole household 
 revolve about him, is to prevent him from 
 being a real member of the family, for a mem- 
 ber both gives and receives. 
 
 127. Point of In early childhood (six 
 
 Contact in Early . ■ ■, . • \ i 
 
 Childhood: (1) to eight or nine), character- 
 
 The Social Order, training proceeds by meth- 
 ods that are similar, yet 
 more developed. First, the child's relation to 
 parental feeding and care, to the necessary 
 law and order of the household, and to play- 
 mates, now involves rules which the child him- 
 self recognises as binding. He is already 
 beyond the control of mere unreflective im- 
 pulse, and there begins a struggle between his 
 impulses and his rudimentary principles. The 
 social order is reflected in his own conscious- 
 ness; the social and the egoistic principles 
 thus come into collision within him, and so he 
 makes the acquaintance of conscience, though 
 in a most rudimentary way. The training of 
 character at this point will consist in trans- 
 forming merely external rules into genuinely 
 internal ones. To make rules prevail exter- 
 nally is not enough. To secure compliance 
 through merely egoistic motives, as is done in 
 much of what is called rewards and punish- 
 ments, is to make secondary the very thing 
 
PERIODS OF DEVELOPMENT 231 
 
 that training should make primary. Already 
 the child appreciates some of the reasons for 
 the rules that are imposed upon him, and to 
 this extent reasons should be given. Yet 
 reason is still too frail to be the sole reliance. 
 Often the only reason that can be given is 
 that ''we always do so," "it is the custom," 
 and so on. Hence, the child must be allowed to 
 discover by experience that obedience brings 
 happiness and disobedience pain. But both 
 the happiness and the pain should have two 
 qualities not usually associated with the pop- 
 ular notion of rewards and punishments: 
 They should as far as possible be simply nat- 
 ural consequences of the child's conduct, and 
 they should be shared in by the whole group 
 of which the individual child is a member. 
 The whole family should suffer and rejoice to- 
 gether, and thus each child should come to 
 think of his pains and pleasures as the pains 
 and pleasures of his social self. 
 
 128. (2) The This is a period of active 
 
 Imagination. . . ,. /^t • . 
 
 imagination. Objects are 
 
 becoming definite, images of them are multi- 
 plying, and these images are combined and 
 separated in the freest manner. Stories, more 
 involved and connected than those of infancy, 
 and especially stories of dramatic action, are 
 
232 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 in the greatest demand. The same story is 
 wanted over and over, and in the same lan- 
 guage. Here is opportunity to fill the mind 
 with a stock of images that shall represent life 
 in its truth. The stories that are employed 
 should not be goody-goody, nor should they 
 contain any effort to reveal spiritual ideas and 
 motives that are beyond the young child's 
 stage of spontaneous interest. What is needed 
 is, once more, the truth of life embodied in 
 simple, sensuous forms, especially forms of 
 outward action.^ 
 
 129. (3) Expres- Expressive activities, al- 
 
 sive Activities. . ., 
 
 ways in order, now take on 
 
 a special significance. To the relatively aim- 
 less activities of the infant succeeds effort for 
 successful activity, for attaining some end 
 that is definitely conceived. Hence the de- 
 light of children in re-telling a story or act- 
 ing it out ; securing control of objects ; arrang- 
 ing objects in accordance with some plan; 
 constructing things or participating in the 
 work of the household. Here is opportunity 
 
 ^ One of the delights of • my own childhood was the 
 story-telling of my maternal grandmother. There were 
 tales of Indians, and bears, and thrilling escapes. Yet 
 the story that has proved to be most tenacious in my 
 memory is a crude recital of a moral temptation and a 
 moral victory. The story had abundant action, and 
 abundant humor. Whether a moral was appended I 
 cannot say, but I know that the story made truthfulness 
 appear as the natural way of getting along. 
 
PERIODS OP DEVELOPMENT 233 
 
 for the sharing of life mentioned in Chapter 
 XI, and also for expressive activities in con- 
 nection with stories from the Bible or from 
 other literature. Temples, cities, forts, sol- 
 diers, ships, will be gladly constructed as a 
 living-out of story-material.^ Further refer- 
 ence to constructive activities will be made in 
 Chapter XVII. 
 
 130. The Use of Here an important ques- 
 
 Wonder-Stories. ,. . x -^ • ^ ^ n 
 
 tion arises : Is it wise to tell 
 
 to children as true, or to permit them to re- 
 gard as true, stories that they will ultimately 
 doubt or disbelieve ? Extreme positions have 
 been taken upon this question. On the one 
 hand, some parents refuse to tell their chil- 
 dren any myth or fairy-lore, even denying 
 them the joys of dear old Santa Clans. Such 
 cases as the following are cited in support of 
 this position : A little girl is said to have re- 
 
 ' Another reminiscence may be pardonable. If I may 
 trust my memory, the occupations that gave me the 
 most satisfaction at this period were these : In the 
 earlier part of it, digging holes, and building canals, 
 tunnels, and bridges in the clean sand under the limbs of 
 an ancient maple tree ; going to a gulch back on the farm, 
 digging holes in its hard-packed, sandy walls (I can 
 still smell the odor of the freshly uncovered sand), and 
 gathering " fools' " gold. Later came jumping from the 
 high beams of the barn into the hay-mow ; hunting hens' 
 nests : riding the horses to water ; riding the horse that 
 drew the "cultivator." or otherwise "helping" in the farm 
 work ; gathering hlckorynuts and butternuts. At the 
 close of my early childhood I became a dweller In a 
 village, and it seems to me now that my life became all 
 at once relatively empty. 
 
234 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 marked/ 'What you told me about Santa Claus 
 is untrue, and how can I know that what 
 you are telling me about God is true?" At the 
 opposite extreme are theorists who say that,, 
 since the individual recapitulates the history 
 of the race, the child should be supplied with 
 such mental furniture as the race possessed 
 at a corresponding stage. Hence, the Greek 
 and Teutonic mythologies, fables, fairy- 
 stories, and folk-lore of many varieties have 
 been recommended. On the same ground it 
 is proposed to feed children with wonder- 
 stories from the Bible, and apparently the 
 stories which adults have the most difficulty 
 to accept are regarded as best adapted to 
 childhood. "There is nothing more natural 
 for the child," it is said, "than the belief that 
 the one whom he thinks of as God should do 
 wonderful things, should make the iron to 
 swim, the water to burn or the sun to stand 
 still when his great servants requested him 
 to do so. He will be troubled sufficiently in 
 later life when reason and the philosophic 
 tendency have developed and he has to wres- 
 tle with the nature of miracles, their necessity 
 and their plausibility, and all this should be 
 left for maturer years. "^ 
 
 ^ S. B. Haslett : The Pedagogical Bible School (New 
 York, 1903), page 248. See also pages 305-313. 
 
PERIODS OP DEVELOPMENT 235 
 
 It is, indeed, easy to understand how chil- 
 dren thus fed come to "be troubled suffi- 
 ciently in later life," but why should we thus 
 lay up trouble in store for them? Sound ed- 
 ucation will try to prevent the upheavals, not 
 to say catastrophes, that these words imply. 
 The correct method of handling the myth and 
 wonder-story seems to lie midway between the 
 two extremes. A little boy who had begun to 
 guess the truth of the Santa Claus myth came 
 to his mother a day or two before Christmas 
 with the question, ' ' Mother, is grandma Santa 
 Claus?" "Yes," replied the mother. "Is 
 Auntie L. Santa Claus?" "Yes," was the 
 answer again, and to each appeal for literal 
 truth the mother responded with literal accur- 
 acy. Yet when Christmas Eve came, the boy 
 hung his stocking as usual, and he and his 
 younger sister entered into the whole Santa 
 Claus myth with the same zest as before. The 
 point of this incident is that truth contained 
 in figures can feed the imagination at the 
 same time that the reason is fed with the same 
 truth in literal form. Reason and imagina- 
 tion are not antagonistic to each other except 
 where false education has made them so. 
 
 One extremist would feed the reason and 
 starve the imagination, while the other would 
 
236 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 stuff the imagination without reference to 
 reason. The present tendency is toward the 
 latter extreme, and the current is setting so 
 strongly that way that a warning is needed 
 lest we prolong for another generation the 
 difficulty with biblical wonder-stories that has 
 so seriously troubled the last several genera- 
 tions. If we do not believe that a serpent 
 spoke articulate language, or that the sun 
 stood still at Joshua's command, we should 
 not teach these stories as though they were 
 true. If we doubt them, we should not teach 
 them as though we did not doubt. As soon 
 and as far as any child shows an inclination 
 to discriminate literal truth from imaginative 
 forms, the literal truth should be given to- 
 gether with the figure that clothes it. This 
 does not imply the foisting of theories or of 
 debated points upon children who are not 
 ready for them, but it does imply fidelity to 
 the truth as we see it. Only through such 
 fidelity can we prevent catastrophic doubts in 
 later life. 
 
 131., Children's This brings us to the 
 
 Questions. , , n vi j > 
 
 problem of children s 
 
 questions. In later infancy and early child- 
 hood, curiosity is likely to be insatiable. Its 
 demands often outrun the knowledge of 
 
PERIODS OF DEVELOPMENT 237 
 
 parent and of teacher. The facts and laws of 
 nature, particularly the mystery of genera- 
 tion and birth, Bible history, human institu- 
 tions and customs, moral laws, God— all these 
 topics and many more are included in the 
 demand for information. What response shall 
 be made to this demand? Our central prin- 
 ciple of the sharing of life offers a reply. 
 Just as fast as the child's spontaneous inter- 
 ests call for information, a perfectly honest 
 and open response should be made. The 
 parent or teacher should share his knowledge 
 with the child without stinting. This does not 
 mean that the child is capable of receiving 
 the whole truth on any subject, but only that 
 he should receive all that he really demands 
 and in a form adapted to his powers of assim- 
 ilation. This plan will involve many an "I 
 do not know, ' ' and ' ' I am not absolutely sure, 
 but I believe," and it will forbid all evasion 
 and deception. To deceive or evade is not 
 merely to put away a troublesome question; 
 it is to put away the child's personality also; 
 it is to begin cutting away the surest and 
 most natural bond between the child and his 
 elders. On the other hand, an honest, pains- 
 taking answer to a question gives much more 
 than information ; it gives a self. It is an act 
 
238 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 in which a mature soul goes out and encloses 
 within its own warm life the dependent soul 
 of the child. 
 
 Doubtless this requires a high type of 
 courage. To reveal one's self thus to a child 
 is like standing before the judgment-bar of 
 God. Indeed, is not childhood in reality a 
 divine bar of judgment? In its presence we 
 are forced to consider what we really are, and 
 whether our ideas, our ideals, and our prac- 
 tices are worthy to be perpetuated through 
 the new generation. Here* we have to cast 
 aside all insincerity, all conceit. We must 
 confess the limitations of our knowledge and 
 of our moral attainments, and discriminate 
 between what we know, what we believe, and 
 what we hope for. It is also necessary to 
 become simple, to appreciate the child's point 
 of view, and to adapt information to his 
 powers. Blessed is the child who receives 
 such answers to his questions that he never 
 ceases during all his developing years to bring 
 his problems directly to his parents ! ^ 
 
 1 There is a special reason why questions relating to 
 sex, generation, and birth should receive this Itind of 
 response, namely, that the desired information is sure 
 to be acquired, and that, if it is not acquired from its 
 natural, pure source — the parents — it is almost certain 
 to come from sources that mix error with truth, pollute 
 the imagination, and often corrupt the conduct. Even 
 the air of mystery that surrounds this subject when it is 
 not frankly treated is a source of danger. For it stlm- 
 
PERIODS OF DEVELOPMENT 239 
 
 132. Traits of Between early childhood 
 
 Later Childhood. , . , ■ ^ , ■ s j 
 
 (six to eight or nine) and 
 
 later childhood (eight or nine to twelve or 
 
 thirteen) there is no obvious break, but yet 
 
 a real transition. Imagination now comes 
 
 closer to real life. Tales of adventure and 
 
 true stories from biographical and historical 
 
 sources come into demand. This means that 
 
 the child's own personality is growing definite 
 
 to himself, and so also the personality of 
 
 others.^ Consequently a higher form of social 
 
 organisation is possible. Heretofore, games 
 
 ulates the imagination, drives to clandestine sources of 
 information, and tends to precocious stimulation of the 
 sexual organism. As fast as real interest in this sub- 
 ject grows, correct and literal knowledge should be im- 
 parted, though it may well be clothed in the garments 
 of poetic feeling. The most approved plan is to explain 
 the processes of reproduction among the flowers, and 
 then among animals of different grades. The knowl- 
 edge thus imparted is at once scientific and yet capable 
 of poetic treatment. Students of this subject believe 
 that parents should impart such knowledge viva voce, 
 and not by giving their children books containing it. A 
 gentleman who has had large experience in the instruc- 
 tion of boys in the facts of sex speaks of Mary Wood 
 Allen's Almost a Mem (Ann Arbor, Mich. : Wood-Allen 
 Publishing Co.) and Dr. Stall's books (Philadelphia: Vir 
 Publishing Co.) as suggestive to parents and less open 
 to objection than many books that have the same end in 
 view. When later adolescence is reached the youth 
 may with greater safety read for himself the right kind 
 of books on this subject. 
 
 * If persistence in memory is proof of an originally 
 deep impression, most of the Sunday-school books that 
 I read during this period made little impression upon 
 me, and were therefore ill-adapted to my spontaneous 
 Interests. Of the entire number 1 can now recall the 
 contents of only one, a life of Charles Goodyear. One 
 passage In it is especially distinct — the scene in which 
 his zeal in pursuing his experiments in the vulcanisation 
 of rubber led him. in order to keep his furnace hot, to 
 cast in even the furniture of his home. 
 
240 EDUCATION IN UELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 have been chiefly those in which, like running, 
 wrestling, marbles, top-spinning, and the like, 
 the individual competes with other individ- 
 uals. But in the present period team games 
 begin. At first even the team games are 
 played for individual success or glory, but by 
 the age of ten or eleven there develops true 
 team play, that is, play in which the individ- 
 ual works disinterestedly for the success of the 
 team. Parallel with this is the tendency for 
 boys, from the age of ten, to form groups or 
 ''gangs" of a more or less secret kind. 
 Finally, interest grows in matters that involve 
 skill or specialised ability, especially of a 
 physical kind. Hence the efforts of girls to 
 acquire skill in jackstones, beadwork, doll- 
 housekeeping; of boys in various athletic ex- 
 ercises, and of both boys and girls in puzzles. 
 Connected with this, no doubt, is the readiness 
 of children in the latter part of the period to 
 apply themselves to the task of committing 
 things to memory. Tricks and sleight-of-hand 
 become fascinating. For a considerable period 
 one of my little friends scarcely ever met me 
 without asking, ' ' Have you any more tricks ? ' ' 
 Interest in constructive activities is also con- 
 siderable. Wooden swords, weather-vanes, 
 wind-mills, toy boats, home-made wagons and 
 
PERIODS OF DEVELOPMENT 241 
 
 home-made bob-sleds, bows and arrows, traps, 
 kites— all testify to it. Finally, boys show 
 extraordinary interest (which does not end 
 with this period) in athletics. I have seen 
 boys at this age show astonishing endurance in 
 running around a city block as many times as 
 possible without stopping, or in striving to 
 increase the height of their high jump. The 
 page of sporting news in the daily paper is 
 read with the greatest eagerness. Especially 
 interesting is the person of any champion, 
 whether prize-fighter, heavy-weight lifter, 
 pole-vaulter, or what not. 
 
 133. Its Religious In this period, as always, 
 
 Training: (1) . j i- i 
 
 Through the the primary educational 
 
 Social Order. fact is the contact of the 
 
 child with the life of the 
 family. In the sharing of life that constitutes 
 the bond of the true family, the child absorbs 
 religion by suggestion and imitation. But the 
 process changes from stage to stage, particu- 
 larly because the child increasingly realises 
 his own individuality. In later childhood the 
 personal realisation of right and wrong, what 
 we call conscience, begins in a somewhat large 
 and definite way to take the place that was 
 occupied in early childhood by mere rules im- 
 posed by external authority. This does not 
 
242 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 imply that now that the child has a conscience 
 of his own he is to be left to himself, but only 
 that his intimate relation to the family is to 
 be advanced to a higher plane. Increasing 
 sense of responsibility is to be met by actually 
 increasing the responsibilities, that is, by en- 
 larging the functions of the child in the 
 family or other social group. Further, the 
 growing sense of self is to be fed by increased, 
 not diminished, fellowship with the parents. 
 In this period, particularly toward the end of 
 it, the parents can easily weaken or lose the 
 confidential relationship upon which the 
 surest influence depends. Consequently, this 
 is a time when the sharing of the children in 
 adult interests, and of adults in the children 's 
 interests becomes of especial significance. 
 Working together, reading together, playing 
 together, form the natural background for 
 advice, instruction, and common worship. 
 Here is the clue, also, to sound discipline. 
 The child is to learn the meaning of law 
 chiefly through his personal fellowship with 
 parents who are law-abiding. A parent who 
 tramples upon a child's sense of justice, or 
 who in the administration of even a just rule 
 lays aside his fellowship with the child, or 
 who in his own person exhibits caprice, arbi- 
 
PERIODS OF DEVELOPMENT 243 
 
 trariness, or selfishness, is training the child 
 in lawlessness. The most impressive exhibi- 
 tion of the mightiness of law for any child is 
 a parent who obeys law. In short, the will of 
 the child, now coming to itself, is to be trained 
 chiefly through the fellowship of obedience, 
 the fellowship of labor, the fellowship of 
 play, and the fellowship of worship. 
 
 134. (2) Through In the next place, the in- 
 
 Personal ity. terest in human life that 
 
 springs up in this period, 
 especially the interest in adventures and 
 stirring action, can be directly utilised for 
 evoking high ideals of strength and courage. 
 The child now begins to sit in judgment upon 
 persons as he has not done before. He esti- 
 mates and weighs, condemns and admires. It 
 is at least as natural for him to admire 
 strength, skill, or prowess in the service of 
 high ends as in the service of low ends. Pos- 
 sibly it is still too early for him to realise that 
 real strength lies in the intellectual and moral 
 sphere, and that real heroism is heroism of 
 conscience, but it is never too early to fill the 
 mind with interesting images of power rightly 
 employed. Such images are to be found in 
 abundance in Biblical and other biographical 
 material. Under the mere law of association 
 
244 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 of ideas these images will reinforce the child 's 
 own conscience. They will help him to feel 
 the naturalness of right conduct, and to feel 
 this is to win half the battle for character. 
 
 135. (3) Through A third means of relig- 
 
 Spontaneous . ,. . ^ i • j.i. 
 
 Activities. lous culture IS tound m the 
 
 characteristic activities of 
 the period. They cover a wide range, from 
 exercises of the muscles to exercises of the 
 memory. Manual training, which should be 
 a part of the curriculum at every stage, now 
 begins to show some of its moral fruit. Neat- 
 ness, accuracy, patience, submission to law — 
 all these virtues grow directly out of properly 
 guided manual training. Further, it is in- 
 volved in manual training that the pupil shall 
 habitually look at material in the light of 
 some ideal to be realised in and through it. 
 Thus, controlling one's self and one's ma- 
 terial in the building of matter into ideal 
 forms, even though the ideal be the humble 
 one of a useful stool or table, the child actu- 
 ally exercises the powers and qualities that 
 make a good life. The impulse toward works 
 of skill can be further employed in the way 
 of expressive activities for the illustration and 
 full in-working of the Biblical or other ma- 
 terial of instruction. Examples will be given 
 
PERIODS OF DEVELOPMENT 245 
 
 in our discussion of the Sunday school. Sim- 
 ilarly, the readiness to undertake feats of 
 memory can now be utilised for storing the 
 mind with the best things in the Bible and in 
 general literature.^ 
 
 136. (4) Through Finally, the impulse to 
 
 the Group- 
 
 Impulse. form groups and to engage 
 
 in team games, especially 
 toward the end of this period, furnishes an 
 opportunity for developing the social sense. 
 Two apparently opposite, yet complementary, 
 facts can now be observed, the fighting tend- 
 ency and the grouping tendency. Both rep- 
 resent a heightened sense of personality, and 
 both represent a tendency to socialisation. 
 For the fighting is commonly done in the in- 
 terest of a group, and in any case it repre- 
 sents a new sense of justice, or honor, or social 
 approbation. Here is opportunity to help the 
 child to learn what real justice and honor are 
 — not by rebuking and repressing fighting 
 altogether, but rather by directing the impulse 
 into socialised channels, such as the defense 
 of the weak against oppression, the righting 
 of social wrongs, and so on. In similar ways, 
 the spirit of team games or of other group- 
 activities can be made to realise itself as self- 
 
 1 See Chapter X, § 89. 
 
246 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 sacrifice, fidelity, loyalty. This implies, of 
 course, that adults should not hold themselves 
 aloof from these child's interests, but enter 
 into them with sympathy and appreciation. 
 Merely giving advice is not enough; merely 
 restraining excesses is not truly educative. 
 Here, as everywhere, the essential educative 
 force is the genuine mingling of a developed 
 life in the interests and occupations of unde- 
 veloped lives. 
 
CHAPTER XV 
 
 PERIODS OP DEVELOPMENT : ADOLESCENCE 
 
 137. Our Limited The study of the inner 
 
 Adolescence^ ^^^^ of adolescents has been 
 
 limited almost exclusively 
 to children of families connected with, or 
 under the influence of, the evangelical Prot- 
 estant churches. Even of these children the 
 ones chiefly studied are those who have varied 
 least from customary types of piety. Of the 
 inner life of adolescents brought up under 
 Catholicism, or under non-Christian religions, 
 or without religious influences, we know next 
 to nothing except by inference. Adolescent 
 religious psychology is therefore far from 
 being complete. Yet three claims may be 
 made for it. In the first place, the analysis 
 of cases has been sufficiently careful to estab- 
 lish results that are true at least for the par- 
 ticular classes examined. In the next place, 
 these results have been brought into relation 
 to the physical and mental traits that are 
 characteristic of the period in general. 
 Finally the results have been brought into re- 
 lation also with a large body of religious cus- 
 
248 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 toms and rites in the Christian churches and 
 in other religions. From all this, it is safe to 
 conclude that the cases already examined have 
 important significance as revealing the gen- 
 eral nature of adolescence, though the special 
 form in which they present it is determined 
 by a special environment and type of training. 
 
 138. The Central The central point of view 
 
 for understanding adoles- 
 cence is the psycho-physical one, particularly 
 as it concerns the change from childhood to 
 adult life. This transformation is as fully 
 mental as physical. In both realms it is a 
 change in the relation of the individual to the 
 species, specifically a change in which the 
 individual acquires new power, yet power the 
 meaning of which has reference to society. 
 Here stand individualising and socialising 
 processes over against each other, yet united 
 into one. The child becomes independent of 
 parental control, begins to think and act for 
 himself, has a larger individual life, yet, at 
 the same time, he acquires a heightened social 
 sense, forms more and deeper connections 
 with his fellows, and actually becomes more 
 fully subordinated to social custom than be- 
 fore. Thus, both self-consciousness and social 
 consciousness come to the blossom. Intellec- 
 
PERIODS OF DEVELOPMENT : ADOLESCENCE 249 
 
 tual capacity is heightened, emotion grows 
 deeper, ethical and aesthetic sensibility grows 
 acute. Defective training or environment 
 may, of course, provide inadequate opportu- 
 nity for the growth of these tendencies. They 
 appear in varying mixtures according to tem- 
 perament, health and disease, rest and fa- 
 tigue, and suggestion arising from the imme- 
 diate environment. But now for the first 
 time the individual acquires these higher ca- 
 pacities which, under proper conditions, be- 
 come actualities. 
 
 139. Direction of If the rcligious life is to 
 
 Growth"^ ^0 on developing through 
 
 this period, it must undergo 
 a parallel transformation. On the one hand, 
 one's religion must become more clearly one's J 
 own, a value personally realised, an idea that 
 brings personal conviction ; on the other hand, 
 it must become socialised, idealised, and ex- 
 panded until it is all-inclusive. Into the 
 thought of God should now be poured all the 
 wealth of new sentiments and ideals. The in- 
 tellect, becoming independent, and aspiring 
 toward ultimate truth, is feeling after an ideal 
 mind that shall contain all the riches of truth. 
 Conscience seeks an absolute standard. The 
 social impulse reaches out beyond all visible 
 
250 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 persons to the thought of an ideal and inde- 
 structible fellowship. A new eye for beauty 
 now adds to all this a sense of an inner side 
 to the glories of nature. An all 'round reli- 
 gious development, in which idea, sentiment, 
 and action become an harmonious unit, per- 
 sonally realised, yet all-encompassing, is not 
 the rule, but it represents the possibilities of 
 the period and the direction that religious 
 culture should take. 
 
 140. Sub -Periods These qualities of adoles- 
 
 of Adolescence. i , n j. 
 
 cence do not all appear at 
 
 once, but progressively in three sub-periods. 
 ,The first, or early adolescence (twelve or thir- 
 teen to sixteen), is marked by a strong tend- 
 ency to self-assertion, yet to incipient social 
 organisations, particularly with persons of 
 the same sex. It is the awkward age when, 
 being rather more than a child and yet less 
 than a man, one has no customary grooves in 
 which to move. Hence its apparent contra- 
 dictions of boisterousness, yet secretiveness ; 
 of timidity, yet over-boldness; of self-assert- 
 iveness, yet dependence upon a group or 
 "gang." There is abounding physical activ- 
 ity, and a correspondingly keen appreciation 
 of action, strength, and heroism. 
 
 The second sub-period, or middle ado- 
 
PERIODS OF DEVELOPMENT: ADOLESCENCE 251 
 
 lescenee (sixteen to eighteen) brings more 
 of sentiment, more attraction toward per- 
 sons of the opposite sex, more romanticism, 
 and more sense of the depth of life. Self- 
 consciousness takes on a social coloring, as 
 in early adolescence it was largely given 
 to self-assertion. Because of its increased 
 emotional capacity, this is the period when 
 the largest proportion of conversions, as 
 this term is commonly used in the evan- 
 gelical Protestant churches, occurs.^ This fact 
 does not prove that the emotional stresses fre- 
 quently connoted by the term conversion, or 
 indeed that conversion in any sense, is normal 
 to just this period, but only that influences 
 that touch the sentiments are more effective 
 now than at any other period of life." 
 
 The third sub-period, or later adolescence 
 (eighteen to twenty-four or even later) tends 
 
 1 Edwin D. Starbuck : The Psychology of Religion 
 (London, 1899); George A. Coe : The Spiritual Life 
 (New York, 1900), Chapter I. 
 
 * The age of 16 Is the most favorable for emotional 
 conversions. But it Is a misinterpretation of this fact 
 to assume that therefore conversions of this type should 
 be looked for in all persons, or that entrance upon a per- 
 sonal religious life should be postponed to this particu- 
 lar age. On the contrary, the general trend of the psy- 
 chology of adolescent religion is to the effect that re- 
 ligious growth and religious conversion are simply two 
 forms of the same thing, and, further, that the abrupt 
 form of this process is often due to neglect of training 
 In earlier life, to defective training, and to a large 
 mass of circumstances that are not essential to personal 
 religion. As to tlie age for joining the church, see $ 143. 
 
252 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 more toward reflectiveness, the construction 
 of one's thought-system, the recognition of 
 one's practical relations to society, the con- 
 sideration of one 's calling in life, the assump- 
 tion of full responsibility as a citizen. 
 
 141. Religious Every characteristic of 
 
 Culture in Early ., , , , „ 
 
 Adolescence: adolescence here named lur- 
 
 5.V 1®.'*°" nishes a point of contact for 
 
 Worship. ^ 
 
 religious education. To 
 begin with early adolescence (twelve or thir- 
 teen to sixteen) its admiration for strength, 
 individuality, heroism, offers a direct means 
 of approaching the problem. What is it to be 
 a strong man? Every one who is familiar 
 v^ith athletics knows that it is mind not less 
 than muscle that wins athletic contests. A 
 strong man must have a strong mind. But a 
 mind is weak that does not devote itself to 
 worthy ends. Moral courage is more 
 heroic than so-called physical courage. In 
 fact, a series of steps can here be taken from 
 admiration of strength as such to admiration 
 for strong Christian character. The means 
 for making such impressions are first of all 
 true stories and biographies from the Bible 
 and from general history. Such a study, in- 
 teresting in itself, will lead up to the truth 
 
PERIODS OF DEVELOPMENT: ADOLESCENCE 1253 
 
 that Jesus is really the strongest man in all 
 history. 
 
 142. (2) The The impulse of young 
 
 "Gang" Impulse. , , . . p i 
 
 adolescents to rorm close, 
 
 more or less secret groups, commonly called 
 ''gangs", of persons of their own sex is a 
 preliminary manifestation of the social con- 
 sciousness.^ The impulse that underlies these 
 gangs is essentially good, because it is social. 
 Yet the self-assertive spirit of boys at this 
 period, coupled with the secrecy of the gang, 
 easily leads to small violations of established 
 order, then to larger ones. Any boy who is 
 neglected by his parents at this time is likely, 
 through his gang (the existence of which his 
 parents may not be aware of), to read per- 
 nicious literature, to form vicious sexual ideas 
 and habits, to pilfer and lie, and thus to be- 
 come, even through the social impulse, un- 
 social toward the world at large. The gangs 
 of young criminals in our cities are simply 
 groups of fellows whose natural appetite for 
 sociability, activity, and freedom has had in- 
 sufficient or improper food.' The gang impulse 
 
 * Our knowledge of adolescent girls is far less than 
 that of adolescent boys. What is here said of gangs 
 applies, primarily, to boys, though the principle involved 
 is not limited to them. 
 
 ^ One of Chicago's gang of "car-barn murderers," just 
 before attempting suicide as a means of escaping the gal- 
 lows, scrawled a defence of his life, or rather a (florifl- 
 
254 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 is as capable of being an instrument of weal 
 as of woe. It may develop in moral and reli- 
 gious directions as well as any other. The 
 part of wisdom is not to attempt to suppress 
 it (the attempt is pretty sure to fail), but to 
 get religion into the gang, or the gang into re- 
 ligion. Experience at settlements and some 
 churches shows that young adolescents will- 
 ingly accept the leadership of a mature man 
 who understands them. 
 
 143. Age of If there is a normal age 
 
 Joining the „ ... ,, . i •. 
 
 Church. for joinmg the church, it 
 
 appears to be just this age, 
 
 with its new demand for social existence. 
 
 Among 512 officers of Young Men 's Christian 
 
 Associations the average age of the first deep 
 
 religious impression appears to have been 
 
 13.7 years.^ Among 99 men who were studied 
 
 with reference to all their periods of special 
 
 religious interest, as many awakenings of the 
 
 religious sense occurred at twelve and thirteen 
 
 as at sixteen and seventeen.^ A recent study, 
 
 cation of It, that showed arrest of moral development 
 at just the period when early adolescence is carried away 
 with admiration of power and courage and with the 
 spirit of the gang. The poor fellow prided himself on 
 his fidelity to his companions, his daring but lawless 
 acts, his ability to elude the police, and his several ex- 
 periences of being shot. 
 
 1 Association Outlook for December, 1897. Article by 
 Luther H. Gulick. 
 
 =! Oeorse A. Coe : The Spiritual Life (New York, 
 1900), Chapter I. 
 
PERIODS OF DEVELOPMENT: ADOLESCENCE 255 
 
 not yet published, shows that in a group of 
 "growth cases" reaching into the hundreds, 
 the most distinctive period of spontaneous in- 
 terest falls at the age of twelve. At about this 
 age many children desire to join the church, 
 make public confession, or be baptized, but 
 are prevented on the ground that they are too 
 young. There commonly follows indifference 
 that is in many cases never overcome. This 
 is about the age, too, that liturgical churches 
 have fixed upon, by long custom, for confirma- 
 tion or first communion. From all these facts, 
 it appears that the age of the gang impulse is 
 the one most natural for a step in social reli- 
 gion, and for recognition by the church.^ 
 144. (3) Personal Que of the most effective 
 
 Friendship. /. i i • i, 
 
 means of developing char- 
 acter in this period is the confidential friend- 
 ship of a mature person of the highest Chris- 
 
 1 Contrary to my former view and to the view of 
 Starbucli, I am convinced tliat early ratlier than middle 
 adolescence is the more important turning point. Con- 
 versions that occur at sixteen and seventeen seem to 
 me to represent cases in which development of the re- 
 ligious sense did not proceed normally during the pre- 
 ceding four or five years ; they are essentially an effort 
 to "catch up." 
 
 If the age for joining the church is either early or 
 middle adolescence, the conditions of church membership 
 should be exceedingly simple — little if anything more 
 than an acknowledgment of the leadership of Jesus. 
 Subscription to a creed is entirely out of place before 
 later adolescence at least. Whether it is ever in place 
 as a condition of admission to church membership need 
 not here be discussed. 
 
256 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 tian character. Such friendship is the inesti- 
 mable privilege of parents. If the adolescent 
 only carries his real problems and interests to 
 his parents the contest against evil associations 
 and groupings is already won. Here in early 
 adolescence is the foundation laid for the 
 good or evil that appears in middle and later 
 adolescence. ' ' The best safeguard of a young 
 man in college — better even than being in love 
 with the right kind of girl — is a perfectly 
 open and affectionate relation to both parents. 
 . . One of the surprises in the adminis- 
 trative life at college is the underhand deal- 
 ing of parents, not merely with college officers, 
 but with their own sons."^ 
 
 There is absolutely no substitute for the 
 giving of one's self in a personal friendship 
 to unformed youths. No other form of i^ind- 
 ness, no other act of affection, however in- 
 tense the affection may be, will suffice. A 
 head master was obliged to inform a father 
 that his boy was failing in his studies, and 
 that he had been "playing the races." "I 
 don't understand it at all," said the father, 
 
 1 LeBaron Russell Briggs : School, College and Char- 
 acter (Boston. 1902), Chapter I. Dean Briggs calls es- 
 pecial attention to the fact that, as the young man's 
 chief temptation grows out of his newly acquired in- 
 terest in sex, this is a point at which the lack of con- 
 fidential relations between parents and children is most 
 destructive. 
 
PERIODS OF DEVELOPMENT: ADOLESCENCE 2o7 
 
 * ' for I have given my son everything he could 
 wish for." Yes, everything except the one 
 thing that alone could make the son safe. In 
 contrast to this, a mother in one of our west- 
 ern states, fearing that her boy, when he 
 began his college studies, would no longer find 
 her a companion of his mind, (since she had 
 not had college advantages), actually pro- 
 cured college text-books and studied them year 
 by year so as to keep abreast of her son's in- 
 tellectual interests.^ It is, perhaps, needless to 
 add that, in some degree, teachers may share 
 the privilege of parents in respect to friend- 
 ship with young adolescents. A teacher who 
 establishes such relations with his pupils that 
 they freely express themselves to him multi- 
 plies his moral and religious influence over 
 them many fold. 
 
 145. Religious AH that has just been 
 
 Culture in -in i i i 
 
 iviiddie said 01 early adolescence 
 
 Adolescence. applies also to middle ado- 
 
 lescence (sixteen to eight- 
 een). But in general these personal relations 
 must be established in the earlier period or 
 
 1 Would that all who read this paragraph might have 
 witnessed the pride with which the son told me these 
 facts, adding that simple, intimate companionship with 
 his mother had continued from boyhood all through his 
 college days. Here is a hint as to the value of higher 
 education for women. 
 
258 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 the opportunity for starting them fades away. 
 In addition, leverage for religious culture in 
 middle adolescence is found in the larger part 
 played by sentiment, particularly the social 
 sentiment. Worship now acquires new mean- 
 ings and influence, and it should be admin- 
 istered in that beauty of holiness that the 
 youth is now ready to feel. Again, the inner 
 life of heroes and saints, and the inner springs 
 of history, acquire interest. In both early and 
 middle adolescence missionary biography and 
 adventure offer rich material. Now, too, the 
 inner side of the life of Christ will touch the 
 heart. Further, the growing social sense 
 makes possible the use of social influences in 
 a new way ; the young people 's society or the 
 organised Sunday-school class will tie the in- 
 dividual to the church, offer means of per- 
 sonal religious culture, and introduce him to 
 simple forms of service for the church and 
 for his fellows. 
 
 146. Training the How shall we treat the 
 tendencies to sentiment that 
 now appear? Some persons simply smile at 
 the crudities that come to the surface, and 
 pass them by as insignificant. Others play 
 upon the emotions, sometimes stimulating 
 them to excess under the delusion that emo- 
 
PERIODS OF DEVELOPMENT: ADOLESCENCE 250 
 
 tional upheavals indicate the transformation 
 or sudden maturing of character. Still 
 others discourage active emotion as a sign of 
 weakness. But in all these attitudes the ed- 
 ucational idea of development through the 
 guidance of spontaneous interests is over- 
 looked. The correct attitude toward adoles- 
 cent sentiment is this : 
 
 (1) The developmental principle holds at 
 this period as fully as at any earlier one. 
 There is no "short-cut" to maturity. If emo- 
 tional crises occur, as they are likely to do 
 even without forcing, they should be treated 
 simply as facts belonging in a long series of 
 other facts reaching from infancy to man- 
 hood. But emotional crises are not to be 
 worked for or "worked up." Development 
 may, indeed, be more rapid at one time than 
 another. Even in intellectual growth there 
 are sometimes sudden startings and equally 
 sudden checkings. Yet we cannot rely upon 
 any sudden start to bring the pupil to his 
 intellectual or his spiritual goal. These starts 
 must be co-ordinated with what goes before 
 and with what comes after, and especial care 
 must be taken to prevent a reaction into in- 
 ditference when the emotional outburst has 
 spent itself. 
 
260 EDUCATION IX RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 (2) The fact that sentiment begins to blos- 
 som in this period indicates that it should 
 have a place in onr scheme of education. 
 What is needed is culture of the sentiments. 
 This differs from over-stimulation, as it does 
 from neglect and from repression. It implies 
 feeding this side of the nature. The church 
 services should have such a content, setting, 
 and manner as to produce the awe, the eleva- 
 tion, and the joy of worship. The upspring- 
 ing thirst for a personal realisation of God 
 should be met in our teaching by some in- 
 struction regarding the experiences of the 
 heart and the conscience that certify to us the 
 immediate presence of God. The ethical sen- 
 timents, particularly, should be deepened, yet 
 made free and joyous. The idea of the broth- 
 erhood of man, and of service to men as con- 
 taining and revealing something of the mean- 
 ing of our mysterious existence will be wel- 
 comed by the growing social instinct. 
 
 (3) Yet it is easy, by over-stimulation of 
 the sense of right and wrong, or by too great 
 emphasis upon the inner evidence of divine 
 things, to produce morbidness. Other fre- 
 quent contributing causes of morbidness are 
 abnormal states of the physical system, par- 
 ticularly nerve-fatigue induced by neglect of 
 
PERIODS OF DEVELOPMENT: ADOLESCENCE 261 
 
 physical hygiene (improper diet, late hours, 
 indoor living, etc.), excessive excitements 
 (social and other), overloading the school cur- 
 riculum, evil habits, unhappy personal rela- 
 tionships in the family, and so on.^ On the 
 other hand, too much publicity in prayer 
 meeting or young people's society is likely to 
 result in habits of shallow spirituality and 
 (under the pressure to say something) in un- 
 derestimation of the seriousness of speech 
 and the importance of exact truthfulness. 
 
 (4) Finally, the normal growth of senti- 
 ment may be missed at this its golden oppor- 
 tunity. While many adolescents suffer from 
 excessive or misdirected sentiment, others 
 suffer for the want of sentiment. They are 
 repressed, or made ashamed, or kept from 
 such teachings and associations as awaken 
 noble sentiment, or they are victims of some 
 abnormal physical condition that deadens the 
 nerves. To set free the imprisoned emotional 
 powers of such an adolescent is a great service 
 to him, for unless these powers are now given 
 exercise he is likely to remain through life 
 cold, colorless, incapable of the warmth of 
 appreciation in which so much of life's wealth 
 consists. 
 
 ' I have spoken somewhat fuUv on this point in 
 Chapter II of The Spiritual Life (New Yorls, 1900). 
 
262 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 147. Religious In later adolescence 
 
 Culture in Later / • i . , . . j? 
 
 Adolescence. (eighteen to twenty-four 
 
 or later) the special means 
 of religious culture are determined by the 
 broader, more rational, more ethical out- 
 look upon life, and by the great fact that 
 now the youth begins to assume the full 
 responsibilities of manhood. (1) Broader 
 and more critical studies of life and its 
 problems can be entered upon through the 
 history of Israel and of the Christian church, 
 the general history of religion, the study of 
 Christian missions, of Christian ethics, of 
 Christian doctrine, or of current problems of 
 practical sociology and of church life. (2) 
 Such studies should be accompanied by plen- 
 tiful means of self-expression, such as discus- 
 sions, debates, essays, worship, and especially 
 church work and practical philanthropy. 
 Many of the young people at this age should 
 enter normal classes in order to prepare 
 themselves to teach in the Sunday school, and 
 all should study the immediate problems of 
 their own local church. The world now lays 
 upon the adolescent the responsibilities of 
 manhood and womanhood, and the closing 
 part of his formal education is to be had 
 largely through actual service, under proper 
 
PERIODS OF DEVELOPMENT : ADOLESCENCE 263 
 
 direction, in Sunday school, missions, settle- 
 ments, hospitals, and the various other activ- 
 ities of the church. Further, the duties of 
 citizenship are now to be fully assumed. The 
 laws of the state and the ordinances of the 
 municipality might well be studied in the 
 parts that relate more directly to the ethical 
 aspects of government. Public sanitation and 
 cleanliness, enforcement of the laws relating 
 to liquor-selling, gambling, and the social evil, 
 the problems of honest government— all these 
 interests of the kingdom of God are to be 
 studied and also actively entered upon. 
 
 148. Adolescent This is the period when 
 
 intellectual doubts are 
 likely to appear rather formidable. While it 
 is not probable that a very large proportion 
 of the young people of the churches expe- 
 riences difficulty at this point, a few always 
 do so, and these few will generally be found 
 to include some of the strongest minds in any 
 group. The doubt may or may not be accom- 
 panied by emotional disturbance and sense 
 of personal loss or danger. The emotional 
 doubt must often be treated by the methods 
 of general emotional hygiene, that is, by 
 restoring the nerves to equilibrium, and turn- 
 ing the attention to other interests. But what 
 
204 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 shall be done with the sincere and persistent 
 intellectual doubt? Now is the time when 
 real statesmanship in education is needed— 
 the statesmanship that believes in freedom of 
 thought; that believes in the capacity of 
 young persons of serious mind to attain a 
 personal conviction on all points that are 
 essential to their character; that conceals 
 nothing, and resorts to no indirection or sub- 
 terfuge; that has sympathy, good humor, 
 patience; that refuses to permit any young 
 person to excommunicate himself in act or in 
 feeling because of his doubts; that has a 
 strong grip upon the fundamental verities, 
 especially the practical faiths upon which 
 our real life depends; finally, that engages 
 young persons in active service of humanity 
 even in the midst of the severest doubts. The 
 intellectual tactics most likely to be helpful in 
 such cases consist less in the direct refutation 
 of the doubt than in a wider opening out of 
 the problem through which the doubt arises. 
 A larger horizon is often sufiEicient. A doubt 
 as to the inspiration of the Scriptures can 
 best be met by exhibiting the growth of the 
 self-revelation of God of which the Scriptures 
 are a record. One who appreciates the 
 growth of the religious consciousness in 
 
PERIODS OP DEVELOPMENT: ADOLESCENCE 265 
 
 Israel is not likely to be troubled with the 
 question of inspiration. Similarly, doubts as 
 to the person of Christ may well be met by 
 intensive study of his life as a whole, and a 
 broad study of the place that he occupies in 
 the general religious history of humanity. 
 
 149. The Spiritual The capacity for love be- 
 Value of £ -J. 
 
 Human Love. tween persons 01 opposite 
 
 sex, the beginning of which 
 is the central fact of adolescent psychology, 
 is usually treated as a matter of indifference 
 to religion or else as a positive hindrance to 
 spiritual development. In view of the diffi- 
 culty of controlling this most powerful in- 
 stinct, it is not strange that ascetic notions 
 with regard to it should have so largely pre- 
 vailed. Yet the worst evils are always per- 
 versions of the best goods. Social immorality 
 is the most deadly of human vices just because 
 human love stands in the closest positive rela- 
 tion to the growth of spiritual qualities. In 
 fact, the higher sentiments that cluster about 
 the relations of the sexes are, in their normal 
 development, precisely the ones that consti- 
 tute a spiritual as distinguished from an un- 
 spiritual life. This is true whether we fmd 
 the mark of unspirituality in grossness or in 
 selfishness. The great unselfishness that 
 
200 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 knows no life except through losing its life is 
 not an experience of childhood ; it awaits 
 adolescence, and it is an iipshoot of our 
 capacity for devoted love to a person of the 
 opposite sex. So, also, it is love that refines 
 away the grossness that lurks within our 
 nature. The lover's reverence for the loved 
 object, of which Plato speaks; the idealising 
 in which every lover indulges; the quickened 
 sense of beauty which gives an "opaline, 
 dove's-neck lustre" to the lover's world- 
 all this helps to refine life in general. It 
 spreads through the whole life of lovers and 
 is communicated to the whole of society. As 
 a result, religion is in general promoted by a 
 normal development of human love, and is 
 hindered by whatever prevents or degrades 
 it. There can easily be too great separation 
 of the sexes in all the sub-periods of ado- 
 lescence. Simple, free, unrebuked association 
 between boys and girls, and between young 
 men and young women has proved itself in 
 our American life and education to be whole- 
 some. The reason therefor is the profound 
 psychological relation between love human 
 and love divine. A social life of which the 
 family, with its unity of adults and children, 
 and of both sexes, is a type, is one of the 
 
PERIODS OF DEVELOPMENT: ADOLESCENCE 267 
 
 surest safeguards of adolescence, one of the 
 surest nurseries of the spiritual sensibilities.* 
 
 ^ What a fearful moral problem is presented by the 
 fact that hundreds of thousands of young persons, at 
 or near the close of middle adolescence, leave the free 
 social life of the family and the neighborhood to go 
 away to college or to seek their living among strangers 
 In the cities. We shall not solve the problem of reli- 
 gious education for later adolescence until we discover 
 ways and means of providing social life for such young 
 persons. Here is a hint of the opportunity of the insti- 
 tutional church, and of the need for more sociability 
 everywhere. 
 
PART III 
 INSTITUTIONS 
 
CHAPTER XVI 
 
 THE FAMILY 
 
 150. The Family A father who felt con- 
 
 as a Moral and . ■ t . • -< n 
 
 Religious strained to punish a small 
 
 Community. son for infraction of a com- 
 
 mand prefaced his act with 
 the following explanation: "My boy, I do 
 not like to punish you, but it is my duty to 
 do so, for God has delegated to me the author- 
 ity and the responsibility of governing this 
 family. ' ' The small boy was at first awed by 
 the thought that his father represented God, 
 and thereby his observation of his father's 
 conduct was quickened. The result was a 
 conviction that the father was mistaken con- 
 cerning his prerogative, for all the facts went 
 to show that in family government, as in other 
 affairs, he employed his own judgment and 
 sometimes yielded to his own impulses. 
 
 As a matter of fact, the conception of the 
 parent as one who simply commands, and of 
 the child as one who simply obeys, belongs 
 with the medieval conception of church 
 authority and the Augustinian doctrine of 
 divine decrees. Assuming that the child 
 is simply to conform, through compulsion 
 or otherwise, to the will of a superior 
 
272 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 being, it forfeits the real educational op- 
 portunity of the home. The opportunity 
 of the home is the chance to share life. 
 The superiority of the home to every other 
 educational institution grows not merely out 
 of the length of time that the child is in con- 
 tact with the parent, but also out of the 
 intimacy of that contact, and out of the com- 
 pleteness with which the family is able to 
 realise the idea of a moral and religious com- 
 munity. Not through mere conformity, but 
 through exercising the functions of a member 
 of the family community, does the character' 
 of the child grow. The obverse side of this 
 truth is that the parent educates, just as the 
 child is educated, simply by filling his place 
 as a member of the family community, that 
 is, by submitting his whole conduct to the law 
 of the sharing of life. A part of what this 
 sharing implies has already been shown 
 at various places in our discussion. It implies 
 that children share in the work of parents, 
 that parents share in the occupations of chil- 
 dren, that the joys and sorrows of each are 
 shared by all. We need now to carry forward 
 this idea of the sharing of life until we see 
 its bearing upon law and obedience, and upon 
 family religion. 
 
THE FAMILY 273 
 
 151. Law and It is often said, and with 
 
 Obedience in the , . ..1-^.1^^.1- 
 
 Pa^ily, obvious truth, that there is 
 
 need of more effective 
 teaching of obedience and of respect for law 
 as such. Yet few parents have the heart to 
 go back to the mechanical rigidity of the fam- 
 ily government of other days. The pity of it 
 is that so few parents go forward to a 
 realisation of law as the necessary method of 
 love, of obedience as a necessary factor in 
 freedom.^ The starting point for solving this 
 whole problem of uniting gentleness with 
 firmness, joyousness with obedience, is the 
 conception of the family as a community 
 rather than a mere collection of individuals. 
 Community life implies mutual giving and 
 receiving, helping and being helped, and also 
 the submission of every member to the neces- 
 sary conditions of a common life. Law is 
 involved in the very idea of the family as a 
 community. It is not necessary to introduce 
 any legalistic or juridical notions of author- 
 ity; the authority of family law lies open to 
 the sight in the family itself. It simply 
 expresses the concrete facts and conditions 
 of family existence. It is simply mutual help- 
 fulness so organised Ss to execute itself with 
 
 1 See § § 40-42, 
 
274 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 efficiency. Hence the parents take their place 
 within the family, not as the source of its 
 law, but as subjects of it. Sharing the life 
 of obedience with their children, they teach 
 most effectively the lesson of respect for law. 
 The fact that children must obey before they 
 understand the reasons for obedience need 
 not produce any sense of being arbitrarily 
 dealt with, for their suggestibility enables 
 them to assume, both externally and inter- 
 nally, the attitudes of those who surround 
 them. The essential requirement is that they 
 should feel themselves to be members of a 
 group that is really governed by the spirit of 
 obedience. When punishment becomes neces- 
 sary, it should be made to appear as an 
 expression of law, not of caprice, and the 
 whole family should enter into the woe of it. 
 The only kind of punishment that can teach 
 real obedience is punishment that is itself 
 obedient and that does not separate the child 
 from the family, but rather binds him to it 
 through mutual sympathy.^ If a parent 
 should himself transgress, what better can he 
 do than humble himself and become as a little 
 
 ^ Much of this has been insisted upon by Herbert 
 Spencer In his "Education : Intellectual, Moral, and 
 Physical" (New York, 1872), Chapter III. But It is 
 doubtful whether the "coldness" that he recommends 
 toward offenders is as good as warm sympathy with them 
 even at the moment of their punishment. 
 
THE FAMILY 275 
 
 child by making open reparation? The key 
 to the whole teaching of obedience, then, is 
 the establishment of true community life in 
 the family, a life that is free from all arbi- 
 trariness, all artificial requirements, but 
 faithful in its administration of the natural 
 and necessary laws of its existence, and insis- 
 tent upon obedience from the parents as well 
 as the children. 
 152. Family In the idea of the family 
 
 Religion. .^ , 
 
 as a community we have 
 
 the clue to the proper organisation of family 
 religion also. Wherever the children really 
 share the parents' life, and the parents the 
 children's life, in the manner already indi- 
 cated, participation of the children in the 
 religion of the parents is free and spon- 
 taneous. Parents who do not share with their 
 children the life of work, play, and obedience, 
 should not be surprised if they find their 
 children unresponsive to parental religion. 
 We should drop once for all the fatal notion 
 that training in religion can be made to thrive 
 in a compartment by itself, away from the 
 sunlight and atmosphere of life as a whole. 
 With children, as with us adults, religion is 
 either pervasive of life or it is next to noth- 
 ing. Now, children who participate in the 
 
276 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 real life of their elders in other respects, will 
 easily and naturally feel the reality of reli- 
 gion also. They will find family prayer 
 natural and unconstrained.^ They will listen 
 to instruction. They will accompany their 
 parents to church without forcing, and in due 
 season they will take upon themselves as a 
 matter of course the responsibilities of full 
 membership in the church.^ 
 
 But all this presupposes that the religion of 
 the parents is made constantly visible and 
 audible to the children. Between parent and 
 child there is no known telepathic connection 
 whereby unexpressed principles are com- 
 municated. A merely internal religion, which 
 has no outward modes of expression, cannot 
 be a strong educational power. Therefore, if 
 God is to become a living power in the 
 consciousness and the conduct of children, 
 parents must habitually speak of him as an 
 actual, present reality in their own lives. 
 
 » See § 121. 
 
 ' Would it not he well, on the other hand, for every 
 pastor to see to it that the church service invariably 
 offers something to children that is specifically adapted 
 to their apprehension? I sympathise with children who 
 object to attending a service that is wholly meaningless 
 to them. On the other hand, services can often be made 
 meaningful by stimulating an active attitude of children 
 toward them. All parts of the worship in which the 
 people take part audibly, or by rising or kneeling, can be 
 participated in by children, who can also be encouraged 
 to remember the text, and to look for some idea that can 
 be reported to the parents after home laas been reached. 
 
THE FAMILY 277 
 
 Nothing can possibly take the place of free 
 conversation with children about divine 
 things. Our extreme reticence on such sub- 
 jects is not due solely to our reverence ; it 
 contains also an element of cowardice, and it 
 results in weakening ourselves as well as the 
 young. Religious conversation needs to be 
 reinforced, of course, by specific religious 
 exercises in which children can join. 
 
 153. Why Family Before discussing any 
 
 Declined: (1) further the specific methods 
 
 Transitional of family training in reli- 
 
 State of Culture. . . •„ , „ 
 
 gion, it will be well to 
 notice the fact that such training, according 
 to universal opinion, has suffered a general 
 decline within the last generatiod. The causes 
 therefor are complex. First of all, we are in 
 a transitional stage of culture. Within this 
 period the educational ideas of freedom and 
 spontaneity have filtered into the home, and 
 the result has been dissatisfaction with the 
 mechanical and repressive methods whereby 
 religion was once taught. Again, conscious- 
 ness of the transitional state of religious be- 
 lief has made parents uncertain as to just 
 what to teach their children. Then, too, im- 
 provements in public education, and the ex- 
 traordinary extension and multiplication of 
 
278 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 the means of culture through books, maga- 
 zines and newspapers have swamped the 
 homely efforts of plain parents. The children 
 have been, as it were, snatched away from the 
 parents, to be educated by the great world. 
 
 154. (2) New Meantime, new industrial 
 
 Conditions. conditions have also tended 
 
 to create a gap between 
 parent and child, and to prevent the sharing 
 of life. First, the occupation of most fathers 
 has ceased to be carried on at or close to the 
 home. Not only does this prevent the chil- 
 dren from securing a share in the father's 
 work, or even a sympathetic acquaintance 
 with it, but the father 's early start from home 
 and his late return day by day render diffi- 
 cult any intimate acquaintance with his 
 children, and of course it tends to prevent 
 daily family devotions. Second, under the 
 modern conditions of division of labor and 
 specialisation of effort, the family performs 
 fewer kinds of service for itself, and so pro- 
 vides less occupation for children's hands, 
 and less opportunity for co-operation with 
 parents. What was once made in the home is 
 now purchased ready to use. This is true of 
 clothing, of food, of house furnishings and 
 decorations, of the supply of light, heat, and 
 
THE FAMILY 279 
 
 water. Under the old conditions, each child 
 at an early age assumed regular duties in the 
 way of family service. Thereby were devel- 
 oped habits of industry, thrift, obedience, 
 regularity, a sense of responsibility, and a 
 realisation of mutual rights and obligations. 
 Under present conditions, except in the coun- 
 try, this character-forming participation of 
 the child in the life of his elders is reduced to 
 a minimum. Third, because money has be- 
 come the almost exclusive means of securing 
 the satisfaction of wants it has acquired exag- 
 gerated significance. At the same time few 
 children receive any proper training with 
 respect to its acquisition and use. For the 
 most part, the children of to-day are simply 
 spenders of that of which they cannot under- 
 stand the value or the proper use. 
 155. (3) Life in Add to this the enormous 
 
 increase in city populations, 
 with all that this entails, and it will be evi- 
 dent how seriously the relation of the child 
 to the means of education in the home has 
 been altered. For the city child has less con- 
 tact with nature, less opportunity for whole- 
 some play, less of the simple life that befits 
 childhood. The multiplicity of interests and 
 distractions incident to modern life, particu- 
 
280 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 larly in cities, is also of moment to the prob- 
 lem of maintaining normal family life. For 
 not only are the various members of the fam- 
 ily carried apart from one another by the 
 manifold currents of business, social, and rec- 
 reational interests and opportunities, but the 
 sensitive brain of the child is fairly bom- 
 barded by the excitements of the city. More 
 than that, the modern city, by massing the 
 forces of evil, gives them a standing and an 
 opportunity which they have nowhere else. 
 The young behold evil constantly ; they see it 
 tolerated and taken for granted ; they cannot 
 help knowing how their lower propensities 
 can be indulged with the least chance of dis- 
 covery and reproach. This is true, not only 
 of evil in its grosser forms, such as drinking, 
 gambling, and licentiousness, but also of all 
 those frivolities that enervate character. In 
 such a situation, the problem of preserving 
 nervous balance, wholesome simplicity, and 
 close family fellowship becomes very serious. 
 
 156. (4) Tendency Another set of causcs for 
 
 to Luxury. , t t , ^ 
 
 the decline m parental 
 training may be found in the rapid increase 
 of material possessions. We live in a period 
 of increasing incomes for the masses as well 
 as increasing fortunes for the wealthy. The 
 
THE FAMILY 281 
 
 effect upon the family is direct and im- 
 mediate. The spirit of self-indulgence is 
 encouraged, and the homely virtues of Poor 
 Richard's Almanac are forgotten if not^ 
 despised. Luxury is not definable in any 
 numerical way, but the spirit of it is this : If 
 you want a thing, and have the means of get- 
 ting it, get it, of course. The result is soft- 
 ness, the decay of active human sympathies, 
 fondness for display, the creation of artificial 
 tastes, the regarding of luxuries as necessities, 
 the acceptance of artificial standards with 
 respect to persons and society, and a tendency 
 to relax wholesome moral restraints. These 
 things are happening, not only among the 
 wealthy, but also among the masses. The 
 scale of expenditure and of display tends 
 everywhere to be the measure of men. In- 
 stead of keeping ahead of their expenses by 
 economy of outgo, men think only of increas- 
 ing their income, and so they involve them- 
 selves in an unending chase which constantly 
 increases in rapidity. Upon children the 
 effect of all this is to prevent the development 
 of the sturdy virtues. Home becomes a col- 
 lection of things instead of a community of 
 persons. The parents become dispensers of 
 cash instead of confidential friends. And 
 
282 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 how quickly does a child learn to think, "I 
 may because I can." Money then becomes a 
 curse. Liberty becomes license, and the 
 impersonal goods that the parents have pro- 
 vided become a mere paint to conceal a de- 
 caying moral structure. 
 
 157. How Improve To enumerate these weak- 
 
 Home T J 1 j: 
 
 Training? nesses and the causes oi 
 
 them in the light of our 
 general principle of the sharing of life is al- 
 ready to indicate the directions in which ef- 
 forts for improvement should be made. It 
 •will be sufficient, therefore, merely to name 
 these directions. First, parents should recog- 
 nise that the family is, by primary intent, an 
 educational institution, and that its work can- 
 not possibly be done by the Sunday school, the 
 week-day school, or any agencies other than 
 the parents or those who, because of the death 
 or disability of parents, stand in their place. 
 Second, life should be simplified by reducing 
 the number of its interests so that time can be 
 secured for family companionship. If a choice 
 must be made between living with one's chil- 
 dren and any competing interest, whether the 
 increase of wealth, social enjoyments, even 
 philanthrogic and religious activities, there 
 should be no hesitation in choosing in favor of 
 
THE FAMILY 283^ 
 
 one's own children. Third, if necessary, let 
 some ingenuity and expense be devoted to de- 
 vising home occupations for the children, es- 
 pecially occupations in which parents and 
 children share. No house is too good to be a 
 workshop for boys and girls. On the other 
 hand, no boy or girl should be above perform- 
 ing simple household services. To be " above ' ' 
 this is really to remain below it. In order to 
 have his boy near him as much as possible, a 
 professional gentleman, at considerable trou- 
 ble to himself, provided in his own office 
 steady occupation for specific days and 
 hours of each week. Other parents specify 
 simple daily tasks about the house for each 
 child. In other cases, gardening, or carpen- 
 try and cabinet work, or training in cookery 
 and household care, are provided. Some par- 
 ents, in order to cultivate a sense of the value 
 of money, give no spending money to their 
 children except in pay for definite labor. It 
 need hardly be added that these physical 
 means of training should be accompanied by 
 fellowship in the reading of good literature. 
 Reading aloud around the family hearth is an 
 excellent means of cementing children and 
 their parents. Fourth, let regular family de- 
 votions be re-established. If daily devotions 
 
284 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 cannot be gotten into the day's routine, then 
 let weekly devotions be held. It will almost 
 always be found possible, however, to have at 
 least short daily devotions. Grace before 
 meat, could, if necessary, be expanded into the 
 reading of a short passage of Scripture and 
 the offering of a short prayer. The method 
 of family devotions may well be varied, so as 
 to avoid staleness and routine. To this end, 
 printed prayers and responses will be found 
 useful, either regularly or occasionally. 
 Fifth, there must be specific home instruction 
 in the truths of religion. But it will come 
 most naturally in the form of conversation, 
 rather than in the stereotyped mode of the 
 catechism. The oftener it comes in response to 
 the child's own questions, the better. It can 
 easily be attached to the passages of Scripture 
 that are dear to children as well as to adults. 
 In this part of home training, of course, all 
 the principles of instruction already unfolded 
 in earlier chapters are applicable. Sixth, let 
 the family, not the individual, be the unit of 
 church membership. It is dangerous, often 
 fatal, for the children to think of themselves 
 as outside the religious fellowship which their 
 parents enjoy. Some churches do already re- 
 gard the children of members as likewise 
 
THE FAMILY 285 
 
 within the church fellowship. This should 
 be the case in all churches, and the fact should 
 be made known to the children, so that they 
 may always think of themselves as growing up 
 within the church. 
 
CHAPTER XVII 
 
 THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 
 
 158. Aim of the jn accordance with the 
 
 Sunday School. ,. ^. „ i- 
 
 entire conception oi reli- 
 gious education thus far presented, the aim 
 of the Sunday school may be defined as the 
 normal development of the spiritual life of its 
 pupils. This aim makes of the Sunday 
 school, not a Bible school, but a school of re- 
 ligion. The test of its efficiency at every 
 point will be, not how much of the Bible the 
 child has learned, but what the child has be- 
 come.^ This aim will not exclude, but in- 
 clude, moral training. To relegate moral 
 training to the home and the public school, 
 reserving the Sunday school for specifically 
 spiritual culture,^ is to run some risk of not 
 effecting the unification of religion and mor- 
 als.^ It is true, as urged, that the Sunday 
 
 ^ See quotation from Munroe in § 8, note 1 ; also Burton 
 and Mathews : Principles and Ideals for the Sunday 
 School (Chicago, 1903), Part I, Chapter I ; Cf. The Sun- 
 day-School Outlook (New York, 1901), page 56: "The 
 purpose of the church in her teaching is not to educate 
 a mind but to develop a life." 
 
 * M. C. Brown : Sunday-School Movements In America 
 (New York, 1901), page 178. 
 
 ' See the Preface of the present work. 
 
THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 287 
 
 school, with its one hour a week, gives little 
 opportunity for the practice of virtue, out of 
 which alone sound moral training can be re- 
 ceived. But the inference from this is that 
 the active, all-the-week side of Sunday-school 
 work should be further developed. 
 
 159. Making the One of the chief prob- 
 
 Sunday School a , , -, ,i o j 
 
 School. Ig'^s before the Sunday 
 
 school today is how to make 
 of it a real school. The solution consists, in 
 general, in the adoption of methods based 
 upon psychological knowledge and the princi- 
 ples of education. This statement, though it 
 implies that the Sunday school is faulty, does 
 not by any means condemn or express any 
 cold appreciation of the history of this admir- 
 able institution. It simply points out the op- 
 portunity to make its future worthy of its 
 past by developing its latent possibilities.^ 
 
 1 since the early days of the Sunday school five dis- 
 tinct advances have been made : 1. As to pupils, from 
 neglected and vicious children to all classes of children, 
 and even to adults. 2. As to teachers, from a few 
 paid teachers to a vast army of men and women who 
 give their services for Christ's sake. 3. As to scope of 
 Instruction, from general education — reading, writing, 
 etc. — to the Bible specifically. The Bible has also largely 
 superseded the catechism. 4. As to method, from mem- 
 orising texts to studying passages. 5. As to material, 
 from random choices of Biblical passages to systematic, 
 uniform lessons. 
 
 Growing out of the Sunday-school movement, or at 
 least connected with it, the following great gains have 
 \ccrued to the church : 1. The teaching function of 
 the church has received new and positive emphasis. 2. 
 Each local church has acquired a specific organ for re- 
 
288 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 160. The Church As soon as we begin to 
 
 contemplate the possibilities 
 of the Sunday school as a school of religion, 
 we discover that our problem widens out. For 
 other church agencies, as the young people's 
 society, are also attempting the religious de- 
 velopment of the young. The Sunday-school 
 problem, therefore, cannot be separated from 
 that of co-ordinating and unifying the entire 
 educational work of the local church. In- 
 deed, we now reach the conception that the 
 local church is, among other things, a school 
 of religion, of which the Sunday school is sim- 
 ply a department. The church as a school 
 needs to be organised and systematised. All 
 its work on behalf of the immature is, or 
 should be, educational ; it should proceed from 
 the developmental point of view. There 
 should be a definite plan for the child from 
 his infancy to the close of adolescence. This 
 implies, finally, the organisation of the church 
 and the family into educational unity. 
 
 llglous education. 3. An army of workers has been 
 enlisted. However defective their worl£ may be, the 
 mere fact that laymen to the number of millions are 
 regularly and systematically trying to do something for 
 the young is of great moment. 4. A great number of 
 young lives has been led to conscious discipleshlp, and 
 the Bible has been carried to many an unchurched region. 
 5. Christian union has been fostered through the- uni- 
 form lesson system, the convention system, etc. 
 
THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 289 
 
 161. Need of Siicli a scheme calls for 
 
 Leadership. expert leadership. Of 
 
 course, anyone who sees 
 how to make any improvement whatever is to 
 that extent an expert, and he should proceed 
 at once to do what he can. Yet expert leader- 
 ship in the strict sense is as necessary in the 
 educational department of a church as in a 
 public school or a steel mill. In most church- 
 es the pastor must act as superintendent of 
 education ; but in large churches this function 
 is sometimes laid upon an assistant pastor 
 who has received special training in educa- 
 tion. Who shall be principal of the Sunday 
 school is another matter. An experienced 
 teacher or principal from some public school, 
 or some intelligent business man with large ca- 
 pacity for organisation, may often be secured 
 for this position. But in any case, the head 
 of the local church is likewise the head of its 
 educational work. From him must come in 
 large measure the setting of ideals and the in- 
 spiration to work for them. Hence, one of 
 the strategic positions now to be won is that 
 all candidates for the Christian ministry 
 should be trained in the principles of educa- 
 tion.^ 
 
 1 See address by Walter L. Hervey in the Proceedings 
 of the Religious Education Association, 1903. It Is 
 
290 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 162. Training of A serious injustice is be- 
 
 ing done to teachers in the 
 Sunday school by demanding from them high- 
 grade results while we neglect to furnish 
 either proper tools for the work or proper 
 training in its technical phases. Many 
 schools have no teachers' library and no 
 training class.^ The teachers are required to 
 make bricks without straw. Even where a 
 teachers' meeting is held its work is generally 
 a mere hand-to-mouth study of the next Sun- 
 day's lesson. 2 This is not the way to get 
 sound educational principles into the Sunday 
 school, or even to secure such knowledge of 
 the Bible as every teacher should have. The 
 teachers' training class should consider the 
 following subjects: (1) The general princi- 
 
 hlghly encouraging to find many theological schools intro- 
 ducing courses in education. It foretells a time when 
 this part of a clergyman's training will be attended to 
 as carefully as his training in doctrine or church his- 
 tory. For the special training of Sunday-school experts 
 and all others who intend to malte a specialty of religious 
 education there already exists one school, the Hartford 
 School of Religious Pedagogy, at Hartford, Conn. 
 
 1 At least one state Sunday-school association, that 
 of Washington, is at work inducing the Sunday schools 
 to purchase teachers' libraries. 
 
 * Our fixed habits blind us to the seriousness of this 
 question. A recent writer advises that once in several 
 years the pastor organize a normal class, and he thinks 
 that ten or fifteen studies of one hour each will be suf- 
 ficient ! As to the art of teaching, he thinks that the 
 essentials are a knowledge of the material and "the best 
 possible way of expressing it." He then proceeds to 
 ridicule the demand for a study of child-nature. — T. H. 
 Pattison : The Ministry of the Sunday Scliool (Phila- 
 delphia, 1902), pages 174-179. 
 
THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 291 
 
 pies of education, with sufficient general psy- 
 chology to make them clear and concrete. (2) 
 The special psychology of religious develop- 
 ment. (3) Special Sunday-school methods 
 (kindergarten, primary, intermediate, etc.). 
 (4) General introduction to the Bible, special 
 introduction to its various books, and Bible 
 history. (5) Cultivation of the personal spir- 
 itual life The teachers' library should cover 
 all these subjects, and in addition it should 
 contain at least a small outfit of reference 
 works on the Bible (Bible dictionary, com- 
 mentaries, maps, etc.). 
 
 163 Graded The need of grading the 
 
 Sehools and -i i , 
 
 Graded Lessons. pupils has long been recog- 
 nised, but the principle that 
 underlies it requires gradation of the lesson 
 material also. That principle has been un- 
 folded at length in Chapters VII, XIV, and 
 XV. Mental development takes its start at 
 every point in spontaneous interests; it pro- 
 ceeds by assimilation or apperception, which 
 depends upon preceding experience; finally, 
 the spontaneous interests and the stock of ex- 
 periences change from period to period. 
 Hence, in order to adapt instruction to the 
 growing pupil, the material presented to' him 
 must be changed from time to time. This 
 
292 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 principle is already recognised in the Inter- 
 national Lesson system in its provision for 
 special lessons for the primary department. 
 It is also recognised in the lesson system of the 
 Bible Study Union, and in the "supplemental 
 lessons" that are urged as an accompaniment 
 of the International Lessons. But in none of 
 these is the principle fully adopted. Several 
 systems of fully graded lessons, however, are 
 already in use here and there,^ the number of 
 schools using such lessons is increasing, and 
 several educators of experience have been for 
 some time carefully studying the problem of 
 constructing a complete Sunday-school curric- 
 ulum that shall be adapted to the stages of 
 growth. There is little reason to doubt that, 
 gradually, with due regard to existing cus- 
 toms and usages, the International and other 
 systems will adopt fully graded curricula. 
 
 164. Methods of For the grading of pu- 
 
 Grading Pupils. ., ,. ,. ■ r. j n 
 
 pils, as distinguished irom 
 
 the grading of lesson material, either of two 
 principles may be used. One of them is based 
 directly upon the periods of mental develop- 
 ment. This basis yields at once three main 
 divisions or departments, representing respee- 
 
 ^ See address of D. S. Ullrick in the Proceedings of the 
 Religious Education Association, 1904. 
 
THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 293 
 
 tively infancy and childhood, adolescence 
 (early and middle), and adult life (later ado- 
 lescence included).^ The reason for including 
 later adolescence in the adult division is that 
 at this period youths assume adult responsibil- 
 ities and receive therefrom the closing part of 
 their general education.^ The second method 
 of grading pupils is simply to transfer to the 
 church school the set of grades now prevailing 
 in the public schools. This is a simple, prac- 
 ticable scheme, and it has the advantage of ex- 
 ternally representing to both the child and 
 the teacher the unity of education.^ In larger 
 schools, at least, it is well to have a superin- 
 
 1 See Chapters XIV and XV. 
 
 ' It Is desirable, of course, that each department ex- 
 cept the third be subdivided Into as many parts as the 
 years that it includes, so that the pupil may malce def- 
 Ipite advance from one grade to another each year. A 
 simple organisation based upon the periods of growth 
 would be as follows : I. Primary Department, to and 
 Including the age of eleven. II. Intermediate De- 
 partment, twelve to eighteen Inclusive. III. Adult De- 
 partment, nineteen onwards. A more elaborate organ- 
 isation on the same basis would be as follows : I. 
 Cradle Roll, composed of Infants not old enough to at- 
 tend Sunday school, but enrolled as members. II. 
 Kindergarten, from four to six inclusive. III. Primary 
 Department, seven to eleven Inclusive. IV. Intermediate 
 (or Junior) Department, twelve to fifteen inclusive. V. 
 Senior Department, sixteen to eighteen Inclusive. VI. 
 Graduate Department, nineteen onwards. 
 
 ' A simple organisation upon this basis would be as 
 follows : I. Cradle Roll. II. Kindergarten. III. El- 
 ementary School, seven to thirteen or fourteen. IV. 
 Secondary School, fourteen or fifteen to eighteen. V. 
 The Church College, nineteen onwards. If desired, the 
 Elementary School can easily be subdivided into a 
 Primary (seven to ten), and a Junior (eleven to thirteen 
 or fourteen) Department. 
 
294 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 tendent for each department, so that its spe- 
 cial problems may be studied, and the respon- 
 sibility of management be fixed and definite. 
 In addition to the departments named, an 
 Extension Department may be organised for 
 the promotion of Bible study at home or in 
 other places outside the Sunday-school rooms. ^ 
 
 165. structure of Whatever the method of 
 
 the Curriculum. ,. ,, ., , 
 
 grading the pupils, the 
 
 gradation of lesson material should be based 
 upon the periods of mental development, but 
 with clear recognition of the spiritual aim of 
 the school, and indeed of the possibility of 
 making it Christian from beginning to end.^ 
 The tabular view herewith presented exhibits 
 the results of a few typical attempts to con- 
 struct a curriculum upon the general basis of 
 the periods of development. 
 
 Of course a tabular view like this must omit 
 
 ^ A study of the advantages of grading pupils will be 
 found in J. L. Hurlbut : Seven Graded Sunday Schools 
 (New York: Eaton & Mains). 
 
 * See Chapter XIII, § | 120-122. It seems to be a fact 
 that interest in the New Testament, especially the Gost 
 pels and the Acts, becomes acute not far from the end 
 of early adolescence. This is the time when we should 
 expect the inner life of Christ and the apostles to be- 
 come Interesting. But it by no means follows that study 
 of the life of Christ should be postponed to adolescence. 
 The proper inference is rather that other aspects of 
 his life should be studied in the earlier periods. See 
 George B. Dawson's article on "Children's Interest in 
 the Bible," in the Pedagogical Seminary. Volume VII, 
 page 151 ; also addresses by L. T. Cole and Samuel T. 
 Dutton In The Sunday-School Outlook (New York, 1901). 
 
AGES 
 
 1 
 Burton and Mathews 
 
 First Union Presbyterian 
 Sunday-School, New York 
 
 AG 
 
 3 
 
 to 
 8 
 
 Stories— Play— Picture- Work 
 
 Stories— Texts— I^ord's Prayer 
 
 t 
 e 
 
 7 
 
 Biblical and other Stories 
 Topically Arranged— 
 Pictures— Verses 
 
 Nature and Wonder-Stories — 
 Texts— Ps. 23 
 
 m 
 
 8 
 
 O. T. Stories— Texts— Short Form 
 of Commandments 
 
 £ 
 
 9 
 
 O. T. Heroes— Ps. 1, 19— Command- 
 ments — Memory Passages 
 
 S 
 
 10 
 
 Books of the Bible 
 
 I,ife of Christ— Texts— Apostles' 
 Creed — Beatitudes 
 
 K 
 
 11 
 
 I,ife of Jesus 
 
 O. T. History, Moses to Samuel — 
 Sayings of Jesus— Missionary 
 Stories— Proverbs— Biography 
 
 1 
 
 12 
 
 Old-Testament Heroes 
 
 O. T. History, David tc Isaiah- 
 Sayings of Jesus — Proverbs — 
 Missionary Biography 
 
 1' 
 
 13 
 
 I,ives of the Apostles 
 
 O. T. History, Jeremiah to Christ- 
 Sayings of Jesus, Paul, Prophets — 
 I Cor, 13 — Missionary Biography 
 
 1 1 
 
 14 
 
 I Samuel 
 Gospel of Mark 
 
 I<ife of Christ— Readings— Ex- 
 positions — Missionary Biography 
 
 l< 
 
 15 
 
 Isaiah, Chaps. 1-12 
 Acts, Chaps. 1-12 
 
 Apostolic Historj'— Outlines 
 Church History — Missionary 
 Biograph}'— Church Heroes 
 
 M 
 
 16 
 
 The Psalms 
 
 I Peter— Acts, Chaps. 13-28 
 
 Teachings of Jesus— Outlines 
 Church History — Biography 
 
 H 
 
 17 
 
 Old Testament History Begun 
 
 Teachings of Apostles— Church 
 History — Biography 
 
 i: 
 
 18 
 
 Old Testament History Completed 
 
 Teachings of the Prophets 
 
 It 
 
 19 
 
 I<ife and Teachings of Jesus 
 
 Elective 
 Courses 
 
 l{ 
 
 20 
 
 on 
 
 Apostolic Age — 
 Elective Courses 
 
 2< 
 
 ot 
 
 1 Principles and Ideals for the Sunday School (Chi- 
 cago, 1903). 
 
 2 An outline of this course, with suggestions as to text- 
 books, may be had by sending a request therefor to the 
 
New York 
 Sunday-School Commission 
 
 3 
 Haslett 
 
 AGES 
 
 
 Biblical Stories— Myths— Nature- 
 Study^Real-I<ife Stories 
 
 3 
 
 to 
 6 
 
 Biblical Stories 
 Topically Arranged — 
 
 Studies from Nature— Bible Scenes 
 and Characters — Other I,iterature 
 
 Biographies — Realistic Studies 
 in the L,ife of Christ 
 
 7 
 8 
 
 Pictures 
 
 O. T. History (to the Return)— 
 Biography from Old and New 
 
 Testaments — 
 I,ife of Christ in Outline— 
 Nature— General Biography, His- 
 tory and lyiterature — 
 Acts (Brief Studies) 
 
 9 
 
 Catechism — Prayer-Book — 
 The Church Year 
 
 10 
 
 Old Testament Stories 
 
 1 1 
 
 Old Testament Stories 
 
 Biographies from both Testaments 
 and from Christian and other 
 History — 
 History of Israel in its Entirety — 
 Character and Teachings of Christ- 
 Studies in Acts — The Age of 
 
 Chivalry — Biblical Poetry — 
 I^iterature 
 
 12 
 
 I^ife of Christ 
 
 13 
 
 Christian Ethics 
 
 14 
 
 Christian Doctrine 
 
 Prophets, Missionaries, I,ife, 
 Times and Character of Christ — 
 
 Studies in History and Biog- 
 raphy — 
 
 History of Entire Bible — 
 
 Biblical Poetry— History of Church 
 — I<iterature— Acts and Epistles 
 
 16 
 
 Teachings of Christ or 
 Old Testament History 
 
 16 
 
 Apostolic Church 
 
 17 
 
 Church History — Missions 
 
 Normal Courses and 
 
 Elective Studies 
 
 18 
 
 Teaching Methods 
 
 19 
 20 
 
 on 
 
 Sunday School Commission, 29 Lafayette Place, New 
 York. 
 
 ' S. B. Haslett : The Pedagogical Bible School (New 
 York, 1903). 
 
THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 299 
 
 many details. Yet even this outline is won- 
 drously suggestive. First of all, it suggests 
 the wealth of material that is at the disposal 
 of the Sunday school. The whole revelation 
 of God as it is set forth in Bible history, in 
 the history of the church, in general history 
 and literature, and in nature, is proper sub- 
 ject-matter for instruction. In the next 
 place, we are here reminded of the exceeding 
 value of stories and biographies in character- 
 formation. Finally, we discern, from the 
 general agreement of curricula arising from 
 different sources, that a practical working 
 principle for the gradation of lessons has been 
 reached. The material is so abundant that 
 variations in details are to be expected. It is 
 also to be remembered that age-limits can be 
 fixed with only a general approximation to 
 accuracy. Yet the general order of studies 
 is clearly marked. Beginning with detached 
 stories and texts, it passes on to more con- 
 nected stories, history, and biographies. Sub- 
 jectively this is the passage from imagination 
 to memory and reason. Developing still fur- 
 ther in this direction, the curriculum goes on 
 fi-om history and biography as relatively ex- 
 ternal occurrence to the moral and spiritual 
 principles contained therein. At the end 
 
300 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 come normal courses and elective courses 
 which bring the pupil into immediate contact 
 with present life as viewed in the light of 
 God's revelation of himself.^ 
 
 166. The Use of a Concerning the use of a 
 
 Curriculum. , , . , 
 
 graded curriculum, two or 
 three remarks may be made. In the first 
 place, no course of study will teach itself, or 
 make up for defective methods, or for defec- 
 tive personality in the teacher. The trained 
 teacher of high and attractive personal qual- 
 ities is the key to the situation, whatever be 
 the curriculum, though, of course, he may be 
 seriously hindered or helped by ill or well 
 adapted material. In the next place, any 
 part of an outline of study may succeed or 
 fail according to the filling that is given it. 
 In particular, studies the purpose of which is 
 largely formal, as learning the names of 
 the books of the Bible, can be made most 
 
 * It is to be hoped that the next International Sunday- 
 School Convention will take at least two more steps 
 toward providing a system of graded lessons. The first 
 step has already been taken by providing special primary 
 lessons. The next step is to provide connected and sys- 
 tematic courses for older pupils, say of the age of eighteen 
 or more. A third step is to provide hero-study courses 
 (with Jesus as the central figure) for early adolescence. 
 Upon the proper content of such courses there would 
 probably be little serious difference of opinion. It is 
 not too early to provide graded work for these three 
 stages, representing the beginning, the middle, and the 
 end of the curriculum. The intermediate parts would 
 then be gradually filled in as experience shows the way. 
 
THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 301 
 
 successful only when the form is acquired 
 through an interesting content. For ex- 
 ample, the year in the books of the . Bible 
 recommended by Burton and Mathews is 
 not a year of dry drill, but of interest- 
 ing readings selected from the various 
 books so as to show what they are like. So 
 with memoriter work : it should be the active 
 expression of the pupil's interest in the con- 
 tent of the passage. Again, the success of the 
 Sunday-school curriculum will depend, in a 
 measure, upon the degree with which it is co- 
 ordinated with the week-day school curricu- 
 lum and the other occupations of the pupil. 
 The Sunday school is not an isolated and self- 
 completed whole, but a part of a larger whole. 
 Hence, biblical poetry should be brought into 
 direct connection with other poetry, biblical 
 geography and history with other geography 
 and history, and so on. In general, the teach- 
 er will do well to know what his pupils' week- 
 day occupations and interests are. Finally, as 
 the purpose of the school is that the child shall 
 grow in spiritual life, all the technical aspects 
 of teaching should be warmed and vitalised by 
 the teacher's own sense of God's presence. So, 
 also, the act of acquisition on the part of the 
 pupil should be associated with worship and 
 
302 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 with active service of one's fellows. Is it not 
 time, for instance, to cease holding opening 
 and closing "exercises" and to substitute 
 therefor opening and closing worship in name 
 and in fact? 
 
 167. Materials for "^6 havB Seen that im- 
 
 Impression. . , 
 
 pression and expression go 
 together in good teaching. We shall next in- 
 quire, therefore, into the available material, 
 other than the personality of the teacher, for 
 making vivid and correct impressions. (1) 
 First comes the school itself — its order, its 
 combination of good cheer with serious work, 
 its reverential worship.^ A disorderly, irrev- 
 erent, or scolding teacher or officer misrepre- 
 sents religion in his own person. The educa- 
 tional effect of pupils' conduct upon one an- 
 other, too, is so great that discipline of the 
 right sort must be maintained at any cost — 
 not the discipline of suppression, but of free- 
 dom in appropriate occupations. Nothing will 
 contribute more to good order than providing 
 appropriate expressive activities such as will 
 be described in the next section. A pupil 
 
 1 The influence of good and bad Sunday-school music 
 deserves more attention than it has received. See M. C. 
 Brown: Sunday-School Movements in America (New 
 York, 1901), pages 199-207; also an article by Frederica 
 Beard, "Religious Instruction by Sunday-School Hymns," 
 In the Biblical World, Volume XVI, page 18. 
 
THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 303 
 
 who will not conform to necessary order 
 should be excluded as in other schools. 
 
 (2) In the work of Bible teaching, the Bi- 
 ble itself, not a leaf or a quarterly, is the 
 prime material. Nowhere else does a pupil 
 study a body of literature by the lesson-leaf 
 system. The fragmentariness of the Bible 
 passages, the unpedagogic questions and ap- 
 plications, the gew-gaw printing, and the 
 flimsiness of the entire article, condemn the 
 present style of lesson leaf. The leaf, wheth- 
 er printed or otherwise manifolded, should 
 give simply directions for study, with (per- 
 haps) spaces for written replies to questions 
 to be hunted up at home, outline maps to be 
 filled in or colored, and space for pasting the 
 lesson picture as described in the next sec- 
 tion. 
 
 (3) The library which should contain ref- 
 erence books for Bible study, material for the 
 study of Christian history and biography, 
 particularly books of missionary experience 
 and adventure, and such wholesome literature 
 as is not otherwise provided for the pupils. 
 Any general literature that is worth reading 
 may properly have a place in the Sunday- 
 school library, but the home, the public 
 library, and the Sunday-school library will do 
 
304 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 well to co-operate with one another so as to 
 avoid waste. The old fashioned goody-goody 
 Sunday-school book should be excluded as es- 
 sentially a corrupter (because a weakener) of 
 character.^ 
 
 (4) Maps and pictures. Modern methods 
 of reproducing pictures has made it possible 
 to secure good pictorial illustrations of almost 
 any biblical scene or event at a cost ranging 
 from half a cent apiece upward. Many of 
 these pictures, being copies of the world's 
 great masterpieces, help to develop the 
 aesthetic sense and to bring it into unity with 
 religious feeling. A recent and promising de- 
 velopment in the use of pictures is the study 
 of biblical geography with the help of the 
 stereoscope. 2 
 
 168. Expressive Next comes the provision 
 
 Activities. „ . mi • • 
 
 tor expression. This in- 
 cludes : ( 1 ) The hunting up and writing out 
 of answers to significant questions. (2) Tell- 
 ing the story in one's own words, writing it 
 out, or writing simple essays and examina- 
 tion papers. (3) Coloring maps and pic- 
 
 1 See Chapter X, § 92. 
 
 ' Information with regard to pictures, maps, and other 
 aids can be obtained from the Sunday-School Commis- 
 sion, 29 Lafayette Place, New Yorlv. On the use of the 
 stereoscope, see a pamphlet by W. B. Forbush : The Il- 
 luminated Lessons on the Life of Jesus (New York: 
 Underwood & Underwood). 
 
THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 305 
 
 tures, filling in the details of outline maps, or 
 constructing maps to illustrate the lessons. 
 In addition to maps drawn on paper, relief 
 maps are made of sand, clay, and paper pulp.^ 
 (4) Pasting pictures illustrative of the lesson, 
 and preserving all one's written or picture 
 work for the year or other period in a port- 
 folio or note-book. (5) Making drawings or 
 constructing symbolic objects with which to 
 illustrate the lesson. A course in which boys 
 construct miniature tents, altars, city walls, 
 shepherds' crooks, and the like is said to have 
 been successful." (6) Participation in wor- 
 ship. (7) Giving money or other property. 
 The collection should be educational in char- 
 acter. Hence the money collected should be a 
 gift to some person or cause outside the 
 school, and the pupils should give definite 
 study to the object of the gift. (8) Service 
 of others, such as visiting sick pupils, provid- 
 ing flowers or delicacies for the sick, and 
 sharing books, toys, and other good things 
 with neglected children. (9) Elective courses 
 for the- adult department. Electing a course 
 may make the whole of it a means of self- 
 
 ^ For information apply to the Sunday-School Com- 
 mission, 29 Lafayette Place, New York. 
 
 2 Information as to this course for boys can be had 
 from the International Committee of Young Men's 
 Christian Associations, 3 West 29th Street, New York. 
 
306 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 expression. (10) Organised classes, in which 
 the pupils elect officers, adopt a constitution, 
 and carry out various self-chosen activities 
 more or less directly connected with the cen- 
 tral work of Sunday-school instruction. These 
 activities may be social, athletic, philanthrop- 
 ic, or evangelistic. Organising a class of ado- 
 lescent boys into a club is sometimes the most 
 direct way to secure their attendance and in- 
 terest.^ 
 
 169. The Sunday That attendance at Sun- 
 
 Public Worship. ^^y school should not be a 
 substitute for public wor- 
 ship is clear, for any such substitution tends 
 to prevent the child from realising his unity 
 with the whole church. But how to effect a 
 connection between the school and public 
 worship is a difficult problem. Some pastors 
 hold once a week or once a month a chil- 
 dren's Sunday service like that of the grown 
 parishioners.^ Others adapt a part of each 
 
 ^ By means of a club, with social and athletic features, 
 the whole boy may be touched. See Chapter XVIII. 
 For a description of several large adult classes, and 
 references to further information, see F. G. Cressey : 
 The Church and Young Men (Chicago, 1903), page 64. 
 It is said that the Presbyterian base-ball clubs of Chi- 
 cago are a distinct power in opposition to Sunday base- 
 balL 
 
 ' Examples : Maplewood Congregational Church, Mai- 
 den, Mass. ( boys' and girls' preaching service monthly 
 at 4 P. M.) ; Tabernacle Congregational Church, Chicago 
 ("The Children's Church" every Sunday afternoon). 
 
THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 307 
 
 service to the cliildren, apparently assum- 
 ing that the remainder of the service need 
 contain nothing for them. A third plan is to 
 make the entire service so broadly human, so 
 simple and direct, that children as well as 
 adults will find meaning in it.^ Where such 
 is the case some special methods of stimulating 
 atendance may be useful.^ 
 
 170. Decision -Day With the coming of ado- 
 lescence the Sunday school 
 should help the pupil to attain a healthy re- 
 ligious self-consciousness and to enter upon 
 deliberate devotion to the kingdom. This is 
 to be understood as including the attainment 
 of formal membership in the church.^ To 
 this end decision-day has been instituted. The 
 name is unfortunate, for it implies previous 
 indecision or even opposition. Yet it is prop- 
 er for the youth now to ratify his early train- 
 ing by deliberately acknowledging allegiance 
 to Christ and the church. Special days for 
 bringing this process to a focus are also use- 
 ful, provided proper conditions are met. (1) 
 
 ^ See W. B. Forbush : The Boy Problem (Boston, 
 1901), page 163. 
 
 ^ See G. W. Mead : Modern Methods in Sunday-School 
 Work (New York, 1903), Chapter XII. This book is 
 scarcely less than a whole museum of Sunday-school 
 methods and devices, with much sound principle in the 
 discussion of them. 
 
 » See Chapter XV, § 143. 
 
308 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 Decision-day should not stand for a mere 
 spurt of special concern on the part of teacher 
 or parent ; it should mark the focus of a con- 
 stant attitude. (2) It should not be detached 
 from the work of steady development. It 
 should be a stage of such development, like 
 promotion from one grade to another. Any- 
 thing done by pupils of twelve to fifteen un- 
 der the sudden pressure of strong emotion is 
 likely to be unimportant— if, indeed, it does 
 not ultimately discourage and repel. The pu- 
 pil should be prepared for the day by special 
 instruction as to its significance and the priv- 
 ilege for which it stands. (3) Decision-day 
 methods are unadapted to pupils below ten, 
 and they are unsafe with pupils under eleven 
 or twelve. Yet the younger pupils may be 
 taught to look forward to a day when they, 
 too, shall be ready for public commitment. 
 (4) Parents, teachers, and pastor should all 
 co-operate. This will necessitate careful in- 
 struction of parents and of teachers long in 
 advance of the day itself. ( 5 ) The day should 
 be followed by specific instruction as to 
 the nature and duties of discipleship 
 and of membership in the church. This is 
 the work of the pastor's class, which should 
 be in the closest relation to the Sunday school. 
 
THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 309 
 
 In some churches the pastor becomes for a 
 series of weeks the regular teacher of classes 
 of young adolescents. Here is where catechet- 
 ical instruction or some equivalent therefor 
 should begin. (6) Finally, it is of peculiar 
 importance that catechumens should be led to 
 the expression of their religious aspirations 
 and purposes in the form of helpful -service.^ 
 
 171. Catechetics. Catechetical instruction 
 
 has for its immediate aim 
 to acquaint the pupil with the special history, 
 doctrines, and usages of his own church. For 
 reasons already given, the old-fashioned 
 catechism is not adapted to any part of edu- 
 cational work.^ Whatever be the subject of 
 study, a set of rigidly formulated questions 
 and answers tends to interfer-e with the vital 
 
 1 See Chapter VIII, § § 68-74. 
 
 * See Chapter X, § 88. "The Church Catechism [Protes- 
 tant Episcopal] was uever intended to be a pedagogical 
 guide to the teaching of religion. It is probably the most 
 admirable plain statement of the fundamental truths of 
 the spiritual life in existence, but it is quite fragmentary 
 and disconnected in its structure, and occasional in its 
 origin." — Rev. L. T. Cole in The Sunday-School Outlook 
 (New York, 1901), page 49. "Whether they [catechisms] 
 were more beneficial than harmful may be questioned. 
 They drew the children away from the personal life and 
 teachings of the Lord Jesus "to the intellectual process of 
 committing to memory long dogmatic definitions. They 
 gave more play to the head than to the heart. And, 
 in time, as might have been expected, the catechising 
 stiffened into a mechanical round of question and an- 
 swer. The soul went out of it." — G. B. Willcox : The 
 Pastor and his Flock (New York. 1890), pages 115f. 
 See a symposium on catechisms in the Biblical World, 
 Volume XVI, page 166. 
 
310 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 process of assimilation. Nevertheless there is 
 need of accurate formute as a means of de- 
 fining and fixing ideas. The problem, there- 
 fore, concerns the material to be formulated 
 and the best means of teaching it. The gen- 
 eral principle is that the material itself, the 
 fact or the truth, should be taught rather than 
 the formula. That is, the formula enters as 
 a means of expressing something of which the 
 pupil already recognises the truth or the real- 
 ity. The technical formulas of Christian 
 faith, accordingly, should be postponed until 
 something of the depth of the Christian ex- 
 perience has revealed itself, that is, until later 
 adolesenee. In early and middle adolescence, 
 more simple and directly practical formulas 
 should be used.^ 
 
 172. The Teacher An essential condition of 
 
 Himself. , t ■ • 
 
 success m catechising, as m 
 
 all religious teaching, is that the teacher, 
 whether the pastor or some other person, 
 should be alive, and should impart his life to 
 the pupil. A living teacher is more, too, than 
 an able drill-master, though to be a really ef- 
 fective drill-master is no small thing. The 
 best teacher is one in whom the pupil feels the 
 
 ^ A short list of catechisms constructed with reference 
 to these needs will be found Chapter X, § 88, note. 
 
THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 311 
 
 presence of religion as a concrete, natural, 
 and attractive thing. The pupil should feel 
 that he is dealing with realities from begin- 
 ning to end, and that the symbols imparted to 
 him are really attained through his own ef- 
 fort. An old writer on pastoral theology re- 
 marks that catechising is undoubtedly instruc- 
 tion, "but it is more properly an initiation 
 into the sacred mystery of the Christian life." 
 It should therefore, include action, and have 
 the character of worship.^ This is equally 
 true of the best Sunday-school teaching in 
 general. It is an initiation of the pupil into 
 sacred things, and initiation is a process of 
 admitting one to a society of persons, a fel- 
 lowship. Many persons have been asked to 
 say what in their experience as Sunday-school 
 pupils most influenced them for good. The 
 reply — apparently the invariable reply — has 
 been, "The personality of the teacher rather 
 than the content of formal instruction." 
 Nothing in the way of methods or devices can 
 take the place of wholesome, winning person- 
 ality, a personality that actually lives in the 
 realities of the Christian experience and truly 
 admits pupils into the fellowship of this life. 
 
 1 A. Vinet : Pastoral Theology (New York, 1856), pages 
 230f. 
 
CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 SOCIETIES AND CLUBS 
 
 173. Significance During the last half cen- 
 
 People's tury and more there have 
 
 Movement. ^ave been few religious 
 
 movements as significant as 
 the formation of religious organisations of 
 youths and of young men and young women. 
 The movement is a general one. It includes 
 the Young Men's Christian Associations, the 
 Young Women's Christian Associations, the 
 Christian Endeavor Society and the various 
 denominational young people's societies with 
 their offshoots, the junior and intermediate 
 societies, and unnumbered local clubs and or- 
 ganised classes. For some of these organisa- 
 tions there are special reasons, as the increas- 
 ing number of young men and young women 
 who are living in cities away from their 
 homes, but underneath the whole movement 
 is the great sustaining fact of the rapid 
 growth of the social impulse during the 
 adolescent years.^ This of itself is a suf- 
 
 ^ The late coming of young people's organisations is 
 due to circumstances. Tiiey waited for favorable con- 
 ditions. In tlie latter half" of the nineteenth century 
 
SOCIETIES AND CLUBS 313 
 
 ficient reason why religion should take on 
 socialised forms in the days of youth. But 
 these societies are not merely a spontaneous 
 form in which religion clothes itself ; they are, 
 or should be, essentially and of design institu- 
 tions for the religious education of their 
 members. To succor the distressed, seek the 
 erring, support the enterprises of the church, 
 study the Bible, and cultivate spirituality is 
 good of itself, of course, yet these very activi- 
 ties can and should be so organised and di- 
 rected as to be soundly educational. 
 
 174. How these The great educational 
 
 Societies . . , . ,, , , 
 
 Educate. principle m all such volun- 
 
 tary organisations is that of 
 self-expression. Here is also opportunity for 
 making fresh impressions of many kinds, but 
 the distinctive fact is or should be self-origi- 
 nating activities in religion. Such activities 
 do not exclude mature leadership any more 
 than the self-activity of school pupils renders 
 a teacher superfluous. In fact, the movement 
 toward voluntary organisations of youth may 
 
 there was a tendency toward a vital and practical rather 
 than dogmatic conception of religious life ; there was new 
 emphasis upon the social aspects of the gospel : a milder 
 conception of authority in both education and religion 
 gave new scope to the powers of the young ; finally, there 
 was a general awakening of these powers through popu- 
 lar education, through industrial conditions, and through 
 revival movements like those of Mr. Moody and Pro- 
 fessor Drummond. 
 
314 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 be looked upon as a rough way of supplying 
 the educational factor that has been so great- 
 ly lacking in the churches. Here is effort to 
 put preaching into practice, and to supple- 
 ment the impressions of the Sunday school by 
 active expression. More specifically, here is 
 culture of social virtues, such as respect for 
 the rights and opinions of others, and the 
 habit of co-operation. Through self-govern- 
 ment there grows a habit of deliberation and 
 a sense of responsibility. Through deeds of 
 mercy and of helpfulness the heart and the 
 will acquire a permanent set toward the great 
 principle of brotherhood. Churchly activi- 
 ties of many kinds give the youth a sense of 
 being a real part of the church. Being sur- 
 rounded by persons of about his own age, he 
 acquires ability to speak with greater freedom 
 upon matters of religion. Some of these or- 
 ganisations, as we shall see, are imbued with 
 the idea of symmetrical or all 'round devel- 
 opment, and most of them extend their activ- 
 ities into several departments. The resulting 
 tendency is to give concreteness to religion 
 and to avoid the break between religion and 
 everyday life that is so deadening to many 
 efforts for religious education. It should be 
 added, perhaps, that here as everywhere ac- 
 
SOCIETIES AND CLUBS 315 
 
 tivity needs to be directed by intelligence. 
 Either in the society itself or elsewhere its 
 members must be instructed and duly im- 
 pressed with the true proportions of things. 
 For example, here is an excellent place for 
 cultivating missionary zeal, yet such zeal 
 should always rest upon definite study of mis- 
 sionary facts. 
 
 175. Neglect of In some degree the edu- 
 
 the Educational ,. . . i , .i 
 
 Idea. cational, or at least the 
 
 training, idea of young peo- 
 ple 's societies is generally recognised. Yet 
 the full scope of this idea has rarely been 
 seen. The effort to have an active society is 
 rarely accompanied by proportional effort 
 to direct activity toward truly educational 
 ends. Confining our attention for the mo- 
 ment to a single class of organisations, those 
 commonly called young people's societies, we 
 may say that they have had an undue amount 
 of immature leadership. Not seldom the 
 crude religious ideas of the readiest talker 
 among the members are proclaimed as the au- 
 thoritative voice of Ploly Scripture or of Al- 
 mighty God. In many societies there pre- 
 vails a narrow and dogmatic spirit; in some, 
 the cultivation of one-sided, or even morbid, 
 spiritual life ; here and there activity has been 
 
316 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 SO far separated from reflection that the so- 
 ciety's life is made up of a shallow pitter- 
 patter of pious sounds and acts. Sometimes 
 the opportunity for publicity or for office 
 turns the mind of a member away from the 
 really serious concerns of life. Now and 
 then, under the influence of older persons, a 
 local society, or even a number of such so- 
 cieties, thoughtlessly takes a partisan attitude 
 with respect to some question that divides the 
 sentiment of the church. Not uncommonly 
 the pastor finds that he has a church within a 
 church, a body that is not only self-governing 
 and self-taught, but also too self-sufficient for 
 young persons who are still in process of be- 
 ing educated. 
 
 Further, the proper age limits of these so- 
 cieties has not always been noted. These 
 limits are determined for us by nature her- 
 self. They coincide with the limits of adoles- 
 cence. Though the bounds of adolescence arc 
 not absolutely fixed, it is safe to say that 
 there is no sufficient reason for societies and 
 clubs much before the age of twelve or after 
 the age of thirty. Within this period there 
 will naturally be two, or possibly three 
 groups. Later adolescence will furnish the 
 members for one group, the senior society, and 
 
SOCIETIES AND CLUBS 317 
 
 early and middle adolescence the members for 
 the junior society, or for a junior and an in- 
 termediate society. In present practice, how- 
 ever, persons far beyond adolescence mingle 
 with the youth of the senior society and take 
 away from it its distinctive character and 
 function. On the other hand, little children 
 are gathered into the junior society as though 
 organisation per se were the end in view. One 
 consequence is the tendency to over-stimula- 
 tion of little children. It is difficult to dis- 
 cover any adequate reason why they should 
 be expected to participate in devotional meet- 
 ings as older persons do. When such children 
 are still further stimulated by the excitement 
 of publicity or of leadership, the effect cannot 
 be regarded as anything short of pernicious.^ 
 
 176. Unify the Reference has been made 
 
 Forces* 
 
 in the last chapter to the ne- 
 cessity of unifying the entire educational 
 work of the local church. Viewed from the 
 standpoint of system and economy of force, 
 the present condition is chaotic. Between the 
 Sunday school, the various societies, the cate- 
 chumen's class, and the public worship there 
 
 1 Not long since there was advertised in a certain city 
 a junior rally for boys and girls of which one of the 
 attractions was that a little girl of seven years was to 
 lead the devotional service ! 
 
318 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 is no clearly recognised principle of differen- 
 tiation or of co-ordination. There is over- 
 lapping in membership and in function. The 
 same young persons are carrying on Bible 
 study in their society and in the Sunday 
 school without effecting any connection be- 
 tween the two plans of study as to course, 
 method or administration. These societies are 
 also conducting prayer-meetings whose rela- 
 tion to the weekly prayer-meeting of the 
 church is not unambiguous. They are likewise 
 holding Sunday meetings that clearly compete 
 with the evening worship. This confusion re- 
 sults in large measure from the lack of a defi- 
 nite educational idea. Order will be restored, 
 whenever the church recognises itself as a 
 school, provides for itself an educational head 
 (either the pastor or someone else), and pro- 
 ceeds to plan the church school as other 
 schools are planned. One immediate result 
 of such planning will be the fusing of the 
 various systems of Bible study. One of the 
 reasons why the Sunday school has a competi- 
 tor in the societies is the lack of specific adap- 
 tation of the Sunday-school curriculum to cer- 
 tain stages of development. When this defect 
 is removed there will be no essential reason 
 for the competition. 
 
SOCIETIES AND CLUBS 319 
 
 177. The Juniors Pursuing the same prin- 
 
 and the Sunday . , i i i i i i 
 
 School. ciple, we should probably 
 
 find that the junior and 
 intermediate societies could easily attain 
 all their ends in a Sunday school prop- 
 erly organised and managed. These so- 
 cieties exist largely for the sake of direct 
 spiritual culture. But is not this the aim 
 of the Sunday school also? If the Sun- 
 day school were to broaden out into a school 
 of religion, it would provide for direct spir- 
 itual impressions and for spiritual self-expres- 
 sion appropriate to each stage of growth. It 
 would lead young adolescents to self-commit- 
 ment to Christ and to membership in the 
 church. Why, then, should not the junior 
 society become identical with the correspond- 
 ing department of the school ? Meetings other 
 than those of the general school could be held 
 whenever they were needed; officers could be 
 elected and committees appointed ; in fact, 
 everything that is now done by the society 
 as a split-off body could be done fully as well 
 by a department of the school. The result 
 would be great economy of energy on the 
 part of adults, and positive gain in the unity 
 of the pupil's consciousness. 
 
320 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 178. The Young "With the later adolescents 
 
 People and the v i! ^i 
 
 Sunday School. who form the semor young 
 people's society the case is 
 not quite the same. Though their Bible 
 classes should become a part of the adult di- 
 vision of the school, the organisation as a 
 whole could not coalesce with that division. 
 The adult classes contain persons widely vary- 
 ing in age, and in a department where elective 
 courses are offered this is to be expected. 
 Further, in later adolescence we reach a stage 
 of life in which proper education requires 
 much in the way of initiative, organisation, 
 and responsibility. Here we have young citi- 
 zens who, so to speak, are just beginning to 
 vote and to carry the other burdens of citi- 
 zenship. Their society is their practice school, 
 and it will probably remain as a permanent 
 part of our system of religious education. 
 What it needs is to become a part of a system 
 which shall embrace also the Sunday school. 
 It would then be given mature leadership. 
 This does not imply any diminution of spon- 
 taneity or of self-originating activity, but 
 rather the utilisation for educational purposes 
 of the whole principle of spontaneous self- 
 expression. As everywhere else in education, 
 so here the central need is such leadership as 
 
SO.CIETIES AND CLUBS 321 
 
 grows out of the genuine mingling of mature 
 and immature life. Until we adopt the educa- 
 tional idea and secure such leadership we may- 
 expect the young people's society to remain 
 un-eoordinated and more or less intractable. 
 179. Vows and An educational problem 
 
 ® ^^^' of some importance has 
 
 arisen through the adoption by various young 
 people's societies of a vow or pledge as a con- 
 dition of membership, or at least of active 
 membership. The problem is this: What is 
 the effect upon character of taking a vow (or 
 promising to God) to perform an act that is 
 not of essential and invariable moral author- 
 ity, or to refrain from an act that is not essen- 
 tially contrary to moral principle? Why 
 should one lay upon one's conscience what is 
 not laid upon it by Christ himself? On the 
 face of it such a vow contradicts the liberty 
 wherewith Christ has made us free from legal- 
 ism. It introduces an artificial factor where 
 Christ would give us only life. This infringe- 
 ment upon Christian liberty, and this arti- 
 ficiality, make trouble in various ways. Some 
 young persons of Christian character refuse 
 to give up their Christian liberty of judgment 
 and choice with respect to matters indifferent 
 or disputable. Many others make the promise 
 
322 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 but still assert their liberty by violating it. 
 Some obey it, but in so doing tliey are in 
 danger of forming an artificial conscience, 
 that is, a conscience that cannot be relied upon 
 to discriminate between principle and rule, 
 end and means, eternal righteousness and the 
 opinions of men. Those who promise and then 
 violate their word disorganise the moral fat- 
 uity itself, moral perception becomes dull, and 
 impulse seizes the scepter. 
 
 If the promise be understood as a pledge to 
 men rather than as a vow to God, it will still 
 educate in the wrong way unless it is en- 
 forced. The educational value of any rule, 
 whether self-imposed or not, grows out of the 
 enforcement of it. An unenforced rule not 
 only falls into disrespect ; it drags law as such 
 into the same disrespect. The simple fact is 
 that underneath any society that exacts a 
 pledge and then fails to enforce it there is a 
 static conception of life where there should bo 
 the dynamic, developmental idea. The great 
 achievement is not so much to get young per- 
 sons to do certain things and refrain from 
 others, as to develop such individual judgment 
 and conscience as will fit them for correct 
 self-guidance. 
 
SOCIETIES AXn CLUBS 323 
 
 180. Boys' and Qf the various types of 
 
 Girls' Clubs. , u r u j • i 
 
 clubs for boys and girls- 
 church clubs, settlement clubs, street-boys' 
 clubs, mass-clubs and small-group clubs— it is 
 not necessary to speak except to state their 
 central principle. In general, such clubs not 
 only furnish wholesome occupation for time 
 that might otherwise be misused, but also 
 opportunity for enlarged self-expression, es- 
 pecially under the influence and with the 
 friendship of a mature leader. It is impos- 
 sible to estimate the benefit to character that 
 comes from such clubs, even from clubs that 
 are meagrely equipped and blunderingly man- 
 aged. If there is only a really wholesome 
 mature personality around which the youth 
 gather, the essential work begins. It needs for 
 its proper growth, however, a variety of means 
 for self-expression. An instructive illustra- 
 tion of the principles involved may be found 
 in the junior departments of the Young Men's 
 Christian Associations. Here the fully 
 avowed idea is all 'round development, which 
 is properly assumed to imply development in 
 the Christian life. The center is the person- 
 ality of the leader, who is expected to work 
 with his boys, not merely for them. He takes 
 an interest in what interests them, promotes 
 
S24 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 their games and plays, assists them in con- 
 structive activities, and also leads them in 
 Bible study and religious reflection and activ- 
 ity. The gymnasium, that el dorado of every 
 live boy, is made a means of physical develop- 
 ment as well as of play. The Christian spirit 
 is assumed here, as it is also on the playground 
 and in the summer camp, as well as in the 
 religious meeting. As a result the boy gets 
 the idea that religion is life and life religion. 
 It would be extravagant to expect this rela- 
 tively new movement to solve all our boy 
 problems at once, yet it certainly sheds a 
 bright light Avhere illumination was and is 
 needed. It represents a true evangelism to 
 the young.^ The naturalness and spontaneity 
 of its methods and activities raises the ques- 
 tion whether, in other types of club, there has 
 not been needless reserve respecting religion. 
 
 ^ There is no danger of diffusing religion too much 
 provided it is brought to a focus in consciousness at 
 the right time and in the right way. There lies before 
 me a letter from one of the leaders at a summer camp 
 for boys where, the letter says, not less than two score 
 boys reached the point of personal commitment to Christ. 
 
CHAPTER XIX 
 
 CHRISTIAN ACADEMIES AND COLLEGES 
 
 181. Their Point The theoretical reason for 
 
 of Vi©w« 
 
 having Christian academies 
 and colleges is simply the major premise of 
 all religious education, namely, that true ed- 
 ucation is the development of the whole man, 
 who is essentially a religious being. Consid- 
 ered a priori, then, the truly Christian acad- 
 emy or college presents the normal type of 
 institutions for secondary and higher educa- 
 tion. Considered historically, also, institu- 
 tions of this class, to which belong all the older 
 universities, colleges, and secondary schools, 
 have rendered extraordinary service to learn- 
 ing, morals, and religion. But the recent 
 growth of public high schools and universities, 
 which do not commonly assume any distinctive 
 Christian or religious mission, has brought to 
 the front the whole question of the place and 
 value of the earlier type of establishment. 
 Not only so, but competition from state insti- 
 tutions has undoubtedly tended to modify, 
 consciously or unconsciously, the spirit and 
 methods of church schools and colleges. This 
 
326 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 is not the place for discussing all the broad 
 problems thus arising, yet our sketch of the 
 institutions for moral and religious education 
 would be incomplete without some considera- 
 tion of the general situation of a youth who 
 seeks general education of the secondary and 
 higher orders. 
 
 182. Some What constitutes the dis- 
 
 tinguishing mark of a truly 
 Christian academy or college will appear as 
 we proceed. Whatever that mark is, it can- 
 not properly be substituted for good teaching 
 or for adequate equipment in any department 
 of study. The parts of education are not like 
 commodities which, having a common measure 
 of value, can be substituted the one for the 
 other without loss. As there is no substitute 
 for the proper training of character, so also 
 there is none for good teaching of algebra, 
 or Latin, or physics. The expensiveness of 
 laboratories and of trained teachers, and the 
 apparent cheapness of piety, have led in not 
 a few cases to what amounts to a fraud upon 
 the young. This is not too severe a character- 
 isation of an institution that seeks power 
 over the young without first qualifying itself 
 to exercise that power. The very first condi- 
 tion of making any academy or college truly 
 
CHRISTIAN ACADEMIES AND COLLEGES 327 
 
 Christian is to give it adequate equipment for 
 doing everything that it professes to do. 
 
 Again, the essential mark of a Christian 
 academy or college is not partisan zeal of any 
 kind, whether the zeal of the sectarian, or that 
 of the conservative, or that of the radical. 
 True education must be as broad as human 
 nature, and it contains a radical defect when 
 it does not tend to overcome the limited views 
 of the very churches that patronise it. The 
 law of saving life by losing it applies to 
 churches as well as to individuals. The 
 church that is most certain that it has 
 the truth should be foremost in granting to 
 education the liberty that is its life's breath, 
 while dogmatism in education should be 
 looked upon as a sign of timidity rather 
 than of faith. True conservatism lies in feed- 
 ing the whole man, and in freeing him wholly, 
 just as the general principles of education de- 
 mand. If a church institution that is con- 
 ducted in this spirit tends to modify the 
 church life itself, tends to lead the church and 
 not merely to follow, let that church rejoice, 
 for it is attaining the results that are to be 
 expected from education. 
 
 That this is not the universal view of the 
 relation of a church to its educational institu- 
 tions is certain. They are sometimes expected 
 
328 EDUCATION IX RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 merely to hand down unchanged the tradi- 
 tions that they receive. They are required to 
 furnish weapons against thought-tendencies 
 of the time that are condemned before they 
 are heard. They are commonly a source of 
 anxiety as though education as such were half 
 distrusted.* This is surely a weakness. It is 
 to give and to withhold, to say yes and no at 
 the same time. It involves lack of the faith 
 in education through which alone its proper 
 ends can be realised. 
 
 183. What Makes What, then, is the posi- 
 
 an Institution ,. i r> /-n • , • 
 
 Christian? tive mark 01 a Christian in- 
 
 stitution of learning ? That 
 it really educates, that is, develops, its pupils 
 in Christian living. The mark is vital rather 
 than formal. It is not primarily the inclusion 
 of any particular study in the curriculum, or 
 the maintenance of any particular form of 
 worhip, or of any type of discipline. Here, 
 as everywhere in education, the pupil himself 
 and what he is becoming are the central fact 
 and the decisive consideration. Experience 
 shows that an institution that upholds reli- 
 
 1 It is interesting to study the prayers that are pub- 
 licly offered for colleges and college students by per- 
 sons not connected with colleges. My own observation 
 leads me to believe that such prayers are commonly 
 based upon a false antithesis between study and spirit- 
 uality which often amounts to a belief that intellectual 
 development is per se dangerous to religious life. 
 
CHRISTIAN ACADEMIES AND COLLEGES 329 
 
 gion in its teaching, its worship, and its dis- 
 cipline, may yet thwart the aspirations of its 
 pupils for religious insight, become a nursery 
 of deceit and hypocrisy, or permit its pupils 
 to sink into spiritual sleepiness and inactivity. 
 In view of the fundamental place of commun- 
 ity life in religious education, we may now 
 advance another step by saying that a Chris- 
 tian academy or college is one that maintains 
 Christian community life. In this respect it is 
 like the Christian family. This community 
 life will include the intercourse of students 
 with one another and with their instructors. 
 It will include social affairs, athletics, and the 
 other forms of student life as well as worship, 
 and the instructional element will come in as 
 an integral part of such a whole. 
 
 184. The Christian The special problem of 
 the academy grows out of 
 the period of life that it touches, namely, 
 middle adolescence, with a fringe of early and 
 of later adolescence. At this period the prob- 
 lem of discipline is peculiarly pressing. Im- 
 pulses are abundant, activity is great, the 
 sense of independence grows acute, the feel- 
 ings are tumultuous. The attempt to govern 
 a body of such students by formal rules, espi- 
 onage, and artificial penalties fails because the 
 
330 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 discipline is external to the spontaneous mo- 
 tives and impulses of the pupils. It fails 
 because it separates teacher from pupil, and 
 so disrupts the community life. It ought to 
 fail because it contradicts the Christian prin- 
 ciple of the sharing of life. On the other 
 hand, discipline that grows out of the real 
 sharing of life between teachers and pupils 
 not only secures better order, but also de- 
 velops regard for others, fidelity to social in- 
 terests, and the other virtues that constitute 
 the human side of the kingdom of God. Where 
 the mechanical system of discipline prevails 
 students feel that instruction in religion is 
 formal and unreal. But where the vital or 
 life-sharing plan is in operation students 
 much more easily find a vital meaning in Bible 
 study, worship, and all else that concerns 
 religion.^ 
 
 185. Transforma- The American college 
 
 tion of the . . , , 
 
 Religious College. Originated, as everyone 
 knows, as an institution of 
 religion, and largely for the purpose of pre- 
 paring men for the Christian ministry. But 
 great and momentous changes have taken 
 place in the curriculum, the teaching force, 
 the students, and the spirit and aim. The stu- 
 
 ^ As to relisioiis instruction appropriate to this age, 
 Bee Chapter XV, and Chapter XVII, § 165 and 166. 
 
CHRISTIAN ACADEMIES AND COLLEGES 331 
 
 dents have grown heterogeneous; they are no 
 longer a chosen religious set. The teaching 
 force has changed in the same direction, be- 
 cause more and more stress is placed upon 
 specialised attainments, and less upon denom- 
 inational or even religious standing. Com- 
 paratively few professors are now chosen 
 from the ministerial rank. Meantime the 
 range of instruction has been narrowed with 
 respect to certain religious topics, the theo- 
 logical seminaries having taken over most of 
 the Hebrew, New Testament Greek, and doc- 
 trinal studies, while the enrichment of the 
 curriculum in many directions has reduced the 
 relative prominence of all studies in religion. 
 Again, instruction has been almost completely 
 freed from dogmatic limitations. The pro- 
 fessor of history or of geology is scarcely con- 
 scious of a need of conforming his teaching 
 to a standard that exists outside the facts of 
 the subject itself. Another notable change 
 is in the amount of student initiative. Not 
 only have studies become largely elective, 
 but religious activities have also come to be 
 managed chiefly by the students themselves. 
 Finally, the college is coming closer to so- 
 called secular occupations. It is as close to 
 law and medicine, and perhaps to commerce, 
 as it is to the ministry. 
 
232 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 The denominational college appears, in fact, 
 to be losing the distinctive marks which in 
 other days set it off from all else. It seems, 
 indeed, to be losing its consciousness of having 
 a specific religious function; it seems to be 
 thinking of itself chiefly as an institution for 
 education in the so-called general sense. So 
 true is this that friends of religious education 
 have felt it incumbent upon them to start an 
 agitation for the teaching of the Bible in 
 Christian colleges ! 
 186. Its Official This does not signify 
 
 Responsibility. ^, ^, „ ,. . 
 
 that the state oi religion is 
 declining m these colleges. It did decline in 
 the eighteenth century until it reached a low- 
 point, but the nineteenth century saw a gen- 
 eral upward movement. College sentiment 
 and standards of living improved, and the 
 proportion of church members among students 
 greatly increased. But this revival has had, 
 in general, only a loose relation to distinctly 
 educational aims. It has been added to col- 
 lege life, but it has not become an integral 
 part of college education. Neither in the of- 
 ficial college consciousness nor in the unofficial 
 consciousness of students has education In re- 
 ligion received any such recognition. It is 
 true that some subjects that bear directly 
 
CHRISTIAN ACADEMIES AND COLLEGES 333 
 
 upon religion are included in the curriculum, 
 that daily worship is maintained, and that 
 Christian associations are encouraged; it is 
 true that the denominational college sincerely 
 intends, in its official capacity, to be religious ; 
 it strives to preserve religion, to defend it, to 
 guard the childhood faith of students, to win 
 the unconverted. But this is not the same as 
 education in religion. It does not occupy the 
 standpoint of religious development in any 
 such way as the college occupies the stand- 
 point of intellectual development. In a word, 
 the religious college has not, as a general rule, 
 recognised the principle of the unity of ed- 
 ucation. If it had done so we should find 
 larger provision for the religious side of stu- 
 dent development. How many boards of 
 trustees spend as much money for this pur- 
 pose as for instruction in any single depart- 
 ment ? How many faculties or administrative 
 officers study this problem as they study en- 
 trance requirements or the requirements for 
 graduation ? We may frankly admit that the 
 problem here presented involves extraordi- 
 nary practical difficulties. It is not solved 
 by adding a new department of instruction, 
 for practical religion is not a specialty like 
 bacteriology or comparative philology. Grow- 
 
S34 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 ing knowledge of religion is good, but there is 
 demanded also some means whereby the spirit 
 of religious growth shall be infused into the 
 whole community life of the college. 
 
 187. The Idea of The primary aim of the 
 
 Development. ... ,, 
 
 religious college m respect 
 
 to its students considered merely as individ- 
 uals is, then, their personal religious develop- 
 ment. The use of religion is not merely to 
 disinfect college life. The college is not to 
 provide cold storage for preserving the reli- 
 giousness that the student brings with him. 
 It is not to build a dike to protect him 
 from the ocean tides of modern thought, even 
 though they bring disturbing conceptions of 
 the world and of life. No static conception 
 of religion will now suffice; the student must 
 go forward, becoming something that he is 
 not already, or he fails of religious education. 
 Certainly the college should help him to lead 
 a true life in the midst of new temptations 
 and duties ; it should lead him to cherish more 
 tenderly than ever the religion that he re- 
 ceived from his parents; it should also pro- 
 vide him with reasonable defences against 
 untruth ; but in and through and underneath 
 all this as the essence and moving force of it 
 
CHRISTIAN ACADEMIES AND COLLEGES 335 
 
 all is to be the fact of a growing life. A vig- 
 orously growing life has inherent capacity for 
 expelling noxious germs, for assimilating 
 food, and for eliminating waste. What is 
 needed, then, is the aggressive, not the de- 
 fensive, attitude, and the working of the ag- 
 gressive spirit into the entire round of college 
 relationships. 
 
 Such growth will include the coordination 
 of religious ideas with the other ideas with 
 which the student is now occupied. In spirit, 
 method, point of view, and content, religious 
 training should not be separated from train- 
 ing in history, literature, and the sciences. To 
 put a youth into libraries and laboratories for 
 five or six days in the week and then into a 
 childish Bible class on Sunday is not likely 
 to promote his religious development. To 
 teach him manliness and the more rugged vir- 
 tues on the athletic field, and then picture 
 Christianity in the form of feminine saintli- 
 ness is to lessen his respect for his religion. 
 Somehow, the college must discover to the stu- 
 dent the inner harmony and unity of the 
 class-room, the laboratory, the athletic field, 
 the Bible class, the service of worship, and 
 one 's private devotions. The chances are that 
 heretofore his instruction has been the ex- 
 
336 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 elusive kind that sets religion apart from 
 other vital interests. Now he must succeed 
 in finding that religion is inclusive of all his 
 real interests, else he will become indifferent 
 to it or permit it to become a mere formality. 
 
 The idea of development also includes the 
 discovery of a spring of lasting inspiration. 
 One may unify the scientific and the religious 
 points of view, and adopt the inclusive view 
 of religion, without catching the fire of a 
 lasting religious zeal. The colleges are send- 
 ing out too many men who are sympathetic 
 spectators of religion rather than workers 
 therein. It is possible to find divine meaning 
 everywhere in the world without finding a 
 personal divine call anywhere. A college ex- 
 perience that does not culminate in a pro- 
 found and joyous sense of having a divine 
 mission in life and a divine inspiration for 
 fulfilling that mission is largely a failure. 
 There is in the colleges a large amount of neb- 
 ulous sentiment about progress, enlighten- 
 ment, humanity, which, though it has a sound 
 basis in truth, lacks dynamic quality. These 
 nebulous ideas must be brought to definition, 
 and the motive force that properly belongs 
 with them must be communicated. 
 
CHRISTIAN ACADEMIES AND COLLEGES 337 
 
 188. Religious But the individual is 
 
 Zaymen^ °^ ^ot a mere individual. 
 
 Christianity is a religion 
 of social relationships, and for these the 
 college should specifically prepare its stu- 
 dents. Just as the student who expects to 
 be a physician is advised to elect in col- 
 lege such subjects as biology, bacteriology 
 and chemistry; just as one who intends 
 to become an engineer is directed to 
 mathematics and physics, so every student 
 should in some way receive such training 
 as will help him to understand and to 
 practice the religious principles involved 
 in the family life, church life, community, 
 national, and world life. College studies are 
 coming into closer relationship to occupa- 
 tion, yet the most constant and important 
 occupation of practically all men— the main- 
 tenance of family life— is scarcely ever taken 
 into consideration in the colleges. The 
 churches are crying for Sunday-school teach- 
 ers and for leaders in many kinds of activity, 
 yet the colleges, even those founded and 
 supported by these very churches, are 
 doing scarcely anything that is specifically 
 directed toward supplying this need. The 
 case is slightly better with respect to prepara- 
 tion for the duties of citizenship, yet how 
 
338 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 little attention is given to the religious and 
 Christian aspect of such duties. Jesus came 
 preaching a kingdom, a state of society, and 
 that preaching has a direct bearing upon our 
 duties as members of society and of the state. 
 One of the curses of our social, economic, and 
 political condition is that Christians do not 
 realise the essentially social and even political 
 character of Christian living. They think 
 that Christianity is to bind up the wounds 
 of those who are injured by the machinery 
 of civilisation, but they have not grasped the 
 idea that Christianity contains and is the or- 
 ganising principle of civilisation itself. Now, 
 a Christian college has no more distinctive 
 mission than to develop in its students a sense 
 of having a definite constructive Christian 
 mission to perform in family, in church, in 
 society, and in the state. As the old denom- 
 inational college existed largely to train men 
 for the Christian ministry, so the newer type 
 finds its greatest opportunity in the training 
 of laymen for the true Christian ministry of 
 laymen. 
 
 189. Instruction, These, together with the 
 
 Worship, Work. ^-^^^^g ^f students who 
 
 are not committed to Christ, are the essen- 
 tially religious aims of the Christian college. 
 
CHRISTIAN ACADEMIES AND COLLEGES 339 
 
 The means thereto include (a) Instruction, 
 which should give the student a broad view 
 of the place of religion in human history, its 
 nature as a human experience, the historic 
 position of the Christian religion, and the 
 content of the Christian view of life ; ( & ) 
 Worship, which should be at once so dignified 
 yet joyous, so simple yet beautiful, so solemn 
 yet so near the problems of students, as to 
 yield rich satisfaction and exercise for the 
 life of sentiment without divorcing it from 
 the practical life; and (c) Religious and phil- 
 anthropic work, which serves to express the 
 student's religious aspiration and to prepare 
 him for further activities in later life.^ 
 
 Each of these three suggests problems that 
 cannot here be so much as touched upon. It 
 is essential to remark, however, that progress 
 in respect to religion in the college is not to 
 be made by seeking to restore the conditions 
 that existed in the colleges of an earlier gen- 
 eration. Liberty of election must be accepted 
 as an established principle, and the decrease 
 rather than the increase of required studies 
 as an inevitable tendency. Required studies 
 in the Bible, or in other topics recognised as 
 
 * To this end teaching Sunday-school classes, doing 
 settlement or charity-organisation work, etc., seem to 
 be desirable. Some college officers, however, doubt the 
 feasibility of much work of this sort for college students. 
 
340 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 having to do with religion, are appropriate 
 enough in the secondary school, but in the 
 college the mere fact that they are required 
 works to their prejudice. They tend to be 
 looked upon as formal impositions rather than 
 as privileges. The same is true as to the 
 tendency of required services of worship. 
 The problem of the compulsory chapel service 
 is not to be settled by following any abstract 
 notions of what ought to be, but by consider- 
 ing the actual effect upon the student mind 
 of compulsory as opposed to voluntary 
 methods. Institutions that pursue the com- 
 pulsory plan should at least enrich their serv- 
 ices beyond the relatively bare and formal ex- 
 ercises that are too common. Students may 
 be compelled to come, but they cannot be com- 
 pelled to respect such exercises. But when 
 the worship is sufficiently enriched to com- 
 mand respect, then, perhaps, the need of com- 
 pulsion will grow small. Not immediately, 
 perhaps, but in the end, we shall all see that 
 when religion is presented in worship and in 
 instruction in its own beauty and majesty 
 it will accomplish without formal rules the 
 very thing that our formal rules are now 
 accomplishing so imperfectly. 
 
CHRISTIAN ACADEMIES AND COLLEGES 341 
 
 190. The Chris- The best provision yet 
 
 tian Association -, p ■,- • ^ 
 
 Movement. made for religious work on 
 
 the part of students is that 
 of the student Christian associations. These 
 associations are coming to stand for sym- 
 metrical development, and so we behold the 
 same men leading prayer-meetings and fight- 
 ing foot-ball battles. There is here also a 
 nucleus for religious fellowship, and for a sort 
 of laboratory work in religion. In the name 
 of Christ, and with no motive beyond that of 
 helpfulness, new students are welcomed and 
 assisted through the bewilderments that 
 attend their new and strange life ; a student 
 labor bureau is conducted; social entertain- 
 ments are held; private devotion is stim- 
 ulated; Bible study is carried on; religious 
 meetings are held, and personal work is done 
 looking toward the conversion of students who 
 are not Christians. In addition, the volunteer 
 movement for foreign missions has brought 
 religion as a concrete fact and a world force 
 close to the student consciousness in many 
 colleges. Several colleges or universities are 
 supporting a missionary on the field. 
 
 All this is wholesome, but experience shows 
 that the association movement sometimes has 
 unwholesome elements. Not seldom a one- 
 
342 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 sided, even morbid spirituality has been cul- 
 tivated. Often the members of the association 
 form a religious set or clique, or are believed 
 to do so, and thus the large and human aspects 
 of Christianity are lost sight of. Bible study, 
 in order to be devotional, has often been un- 
 intelligent, or at least half intelligent.^ Fur- 
 ther, the conditions of membership now im- 
 posed by the Young Men 's Christian Associa- 
 tions and the Young Women 's Christian Asso- 
 ciations include a dogmatic test that excludes 
 many sincere disciples of Christ. The test is 
 more dogmatic than that imposed by some of 
 the evangelical churches. Finally, the asso- 
 ciation movement in the colleges has tended 
 toward a kind of centralisation that tends to 
 give undue influence to international secre- 
 taries who reside at a distance and are not 
 members of the college community. 
 191. The College This brings us to what is 
 
 as a Christian i, 1,1 ^.i j. ^ • 
 
 Community. probably the central issue 
 
 of all, namely, the necessity, 
 for the sake of religious education, of estab- 
 lishing distinctively Christian community 
 life. The college spirit and the Christian 
 spirit should fuse and be one. The college 
 must be a religious community, not a com- 
 
 1 See Chapter XXII, § 216. 
 
CHRISTIAN ACADEMIES AND COLLEGES 343 
 
 munity of some other sort with a religious 
 appendage; and the religious spirit must be 
 self-perpetuating and self-governing, not 
 guided from without the college itself. No 
 matter what is taught in the lecture room, no 
 matter what religious services are held, no 
 matter what organisations are maintained, 
 unless religion does thus become infused into 
 the spirit of the place, a normal development 
 of the students is not to be expected. The 
 ideal would be an utterly pervasive Christian 
 sentiment in the class-room, on the athletic 
 field, in social affairs, in all student enter- 
 prises, so that the college should be a minia- 
 ture kingdom of God. Any practicable move- 
 ment in this direction will demand that the 
 older and more experienced members of the 
 community, the members of the faculty, 
 mingle their life freely with the life of the 
 students. The human being within the official 
 must reveal himself. He must reveal himself 
 as sincerely interested in all that is human, 
 and as finding the inner reality of every 
 human interest in the human religion of 
 Christ. Such teachers can lead the students 
 to abandon cant phrases and stock expressions 
 in their prayer-meetings, and to come at the 
 religious aspects of college life in as sincere, 
 
344 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 unconstrained, matter-of-fact a way as they 
 now employ with respect to athletics or other 
 student enterprises. Such leadership can re- 
 move the prejudice that religion suffers from 
 by being regarded as a restraint upon the 
 buoyant activities and enterprises of youth. 
 Religion is, and it can be shown to be, the 
 central principle of all that is worth while in 
 college life. Thus at last we discover that 
 religious education in the college proceeds on 
 the very same principle, by the very same 
 method as in the family. Everywhere the 
 central need is the incarnation of the spirit of 
 Christ in the group of which one is a member. 
 
 192. Religion in There is no formal ob- 
 
 University. stacle to realising nearly all 
 
 the elements of religious 
 education in a state university. Here the 
 Christian association is as free as elsewhere; 
 here the members of the faculty are at liberty 
 to put as much of themselves as they will into 
 the community life; here, as a general rule, 
 there is liberty to teach the philosophical 
 truths and the historical facts of religion in 
 general and of Christianity in particular. In 
 various state universities, too, regular services 
 of worship are officially held. Hence it has 
 come about that some of these universi- 
 
CHRISTIAN ACADEMIES AND COLLEGES 345 
 
 ties are scarcely distinguishable in respect to 
 their treatment of religion from denomina- 
 tional institutions. Yet, since the religious 
 aim is here not a distinctive one, there is 
 always opportunity for indifferent or hostile 
 persons to become members of the governing 
 board or of the faculty, and this has now and 
 then actually happened. In general, too, the 
 ecclesiastical features of Christian history and 
 living cannot receive adequate treatment. It 
 is therefore incumbent upon the Christian 
 churches to surround these institutions with 
 such church services, young people's meet- 
 ings, guilds, lectures, and pastoral oversight 
 as are especially adapted to students. At two 
 of the state universities, at least/ the Dis- 
 ciples have established independent chairs of 
 Bible study which seem to be meeting with 
 some success. 
 
 193. Religious We hear a great deal 
 
 Preparation for ■■ . ,i • -j^ ^ ^ 
 
 Entering College, about the spiritual dangers 
 of college life, but scarcely 
 anyone stops to ask whether the moral 
 downfalls, the scepticism, the religious in- 
 difference that now and then occur are not 
 commonly due to lack of religious prepara- 
 tion for entering college. We seem to have 
 assumed that readiness for college consists 
 
 > Michigaa and Kansas. 
 
346 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 simply in ability to pass the entrance ex- 
 aminations. Yet it is possible to enter 
 college a young man in body, in intelligence, 
 in intellectual power, but a mere boy in 
 moral and spiritual insight and in the ap- 
 plication of Christian principle to life. Be- 
 fore a student enters college, where he is to 
 be his own master, he should have some train- 
 ing in the uses of liberty. Before he encoun- 
 ters the full force of the scientific method as 
 applied to religion, he should have learned 
 to come at religious matters frankly, nat- 
 urally, for himself, without fear of trans- 
 gressing authority. Before he reaches the 
 point where the hardest questions are asked, 
 he should be made to understand that the 
 .questioning attitude can coexist with religious 
 activity and with loyalty to Christ. Need- 
 less to add, perhaps, is the wisdom of causing 
 him to form the habit of self-sacrificing serv- 
 ice for others before he leaves home to live 
 among strangers. 
 
 On the other hand, the college cannot prop- 
 erly ignore the spiritual unripeness of the 
 incoming freshman. In the nature of the case 
 he will have some difficulty in securing the 
 points of view of his professors. He must 
 grow to them. What is already assimilated by 
 
CHRISTIAN ACADEMIES AND COLLEGES 347 
 
 a senior may daze and discourage him. It is 
 easy to create misunderstandings, to awaken 
 a half thought where the professor has a 
 whole one, to suggest a fallacious inference 
 by forgetting that the professor's experience 
 has supplied a premise that the freshman 
 lacks. Hence, while the preparatory school 
 should reach upward toward the college, the 
 college should reach downward toward the 
 secondary school. This will involve in some 
 cases special instruction for new students and 
 in all cases regard on the part of the teacher 
 for the mental ripeness or unripeness of his 
 individual pupils. 
 
CHAPTER XX 
 
 STATE SCHOOLS 
 
 194. Moral That state schools should 
 
 Training in State , i -j^- j 
 
 Schools. make good citizens, and 
 
 that good citizenship de- 
 pends upon good character, all are agreed.^ 
 The means employed for this purpose in well 
 equipped American schools are these: (1) The 
 ordinary studies which, when well taught, de- 
 velop self-control, accuracy, application, and 
 truthfulness. ( 2 ) Manual training, which de- 
 velops a sense of law, order and neatness, 
 thoroughness, patience, and faithfulness to a 
 standard, pattern, or ideal. (3) Certain 
 studies, such as noble literature, biography, 
 and history, which directly develop ideals of 
 life. (4) The school organisation, discipline, 
 and sports, which help to form social virtues. 
 The ideal school is a miniature society in 
 which each member learns by practice the 
 lesson of mutual dependence and the spirit 
 of co-operation and helpfulness. (5) The 
 personality of the teacher, and incidental in- 
 struction as to conduct and ideals. Less com- 
 
 » See Chapter 1. 
 
STATE SCHOOLS 349 
 
 monly text-books in morals are used, but 
 among teachers there is a general sentiment 
 against them. It is held that virtue must be 
 learned by practice, and that to teach about 
 it in the abstract tends to give an impression 
 that virtue itself is abstract. It does not 
 clearly appear, however, why the act and the 
 idea, the practice and the formulated prin- 
 ciple, might not go together. There is no evi- 
 dence that a consciously recognised and for- 
 mulated principle is less needful in our moral 
 life than in our use of language or of numbers. 
 A goodly portion of American teachers is 
 imbued with the idea that the school is pri- 
 marily and strictly an ethical institution, a 
 training place for character. Such teachers 
 and schools are a true bulwark of our na- 
 tional welfare. Yet some teachers, and some 
 school boards, have not yet risen to this idea 
 of what a school is for. Regarding it as an 
 institution for instruction in certain subjects, 
 they look upon its work as done when the pre- 
 scribed amount of knowledge or of power has 
 been acquired by the pupils. Sometimes, too, 
 — especially in the cities — the emphasis is 
 placed upon getting a living rather than upon 
 attaining a life that is worth living.^ On the 
 
 1 There is no necessary opposition between the ethical 
 and the vocational views of public education. For ethl- 
 
350 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 whole, however, the ethical idea seems to be 
 gaining rather than losing influence in our 
 schools. 
 
 195. state Schools As to the relation of state 
 
 and Religion. i i - t • .i. 
 
 The Present schools to religion, there IS 
 
 Confusion. confusion in both theory 
 
 and practice. The confu- 
 sion is due to, or expressed in, the fol- 
 lowing circumstances: (1) We are in the 
 midst of a contest between the religious 
 and the non-religious or secularist view 
 of life's meaning and ideals. (2) The 
 persons who accept the religious view of life 
 are divided into parties which refuse or neg- 
 lect to co-operate with one another in advanc- 
 ing ideals that are common to them all. The 
 danger that our state schools shall become 
 nurseries of secularism arises chiefly out of 
 this fact. (3) The attempt to apply the prin- 
 ciple of separating the church from the state 
 has produced varying laws and court de- 
 cisions in the different states and municipali- 
 ties, and the principle itself is in a confused 
 condition, even in the minds of educators. 
 
 cal Ideals are to be realized in and through the every- 
 day worlc and relations of men. Our danger is not that 
 the public school shall be brought too close to our in- 
 dustrial life, but that it shall not recognize the ethical 
 aspects of that and of all life. The school should not 
 accept the existing standards of industrial life, but try 
 to raise them. 
 
STATE SCHOOLS 351 
 
 (4) There is confusion, or lack of co-ordina- 
 tion, in respect to the general conception of 
 the nature and means of education. Even in 
 high places, education is still identified with 
 instruction, and education in religion with the 
 teaching of dogma, while the unity of edu- 
 cation remains as yet a rather vague ideal, 
 with little power practically to correlate the 
 functions of the family, the school, and the 
 church. 
 
 196, The Central In all this confusion, 
 
 however, the central issue 
 concerns the kind of life that we wish the 
 children to grow into. The contradiction 
 between the religious and the secularist view 
 of life is fundamental and irreconcilable. In 
 our schools, the function of which is to pre- 
 pare children to live, the aim of which is 
 identical with the aim of life, we must simply 
 choose between the two views. It is, indeed, 
 possible, to divide the labor of teaching be- 
 tween the family, the church, and the state, 
 and to assign to each some functions that are 
 not assumed by the others, but the child is 
 one and indivisible. The whole of him is 
 present in the state school. There, as well as 
 in the church, he is forming his notion and 
 
352 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 his attitude with respect to the deepest prob- 
 lems of life and destiny. 
 
 This happens, too, in spite of the silence of 
 teachers regarding such matters. Silence re- 
 garding an issue is, in fact, often the surest 
 way of throwing influence in favor of a nega- 
 tive solution of it. This is doubly true of 
 schools that have the direction of children five 
 or six hours a day for five days in the week. 
 Here, conscious of being educated for life, the 
 child judges that that which is actually 
 brought to his attention includes what is of 
 most importance. Hence, to receive no reli- 
 gious impression at all is exactly equivalent 
 to receiving an impression that religion is 
 unimportant.^ 
 
 Nor is this the end of the matter. For, 
 whether they will or no, the personal attitude 
 of teachers toward religion makes an impres- 
 sion. Religion or irreligion is present in the 
 schools just as surely as teachers are present. 
 The notion that the state school can be 
 strictly, neutral with respect to the great prob- 
 lem of life and destiny is simply illusory; it 
 has no basis in psychology or in the principles 
 of education. It is incumbent upon us, there- 
 
 1 See E. A. Pace : Address on "The Influence of Re- 
 li'gious Education on the Motives of Conduct," In Pro- 
 ceedings of the National Educational Association, 1903, 
 page 350. 
 
STATE SCHOOLS 333 
 
 fore, to talce one side or the other, either the 
 religious or the secularist, and then— not by 
 any insincerity or indirection, but frankly — 
 let our actual principle be incorporated into 
 the state school. 
 
 197. The Minimal This does not necessarily 
 
 Demand of . , . . . , 
 
 Religion. imply instruction in dogma. 
 
 Education is not identical 
 with formal instruction. Education is a com- 
 prehensive thing; it touches the whole man, 
 while instruction is primarily addressed to 
 the intellect. In every other branch of edu- 
 cation this distinction is easily made, but the 
 instant we begin to speak of religious 
 education, the evil genius of our scholastic 
 past makes us forget everything but the idea 
 of the formal teaching of dogma. Nearly 
 every objection to religious education in the 
 public schools rests upon this confusion. The 
 very same teachers who teach morals with- 
 out the use of a text-book or of any formal 
 lessons assume that religion in the public 
 schools means a text-book and formal instruc- 
 tion ! ^ As well might we assume that, be- 
 
 > The identification of education with instruction is 
 fundamental to the argument of Commissioner Harris 
 against committing to the public schools any religious 
 function. He appears unable to conceive of any way of 
 training In religion except dogmatic instruction and 
 ceremonial worship. He also exaggerates to the point of 
 distortion the contrast between the scientific and the 
 
S54 E^JUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 cause the Sunday school teaches its pupils to 
 read the Bible, therefore it teaches them to 
 read. It is just as possible for the public 
 school to build character upon the religious 
 instruction that the child receives at the 
 church as for the Sunday school to utilise the 
 instruction in reading that the child receives 
 in the public school. Without teaching 
 dogmas that are in dispute among the 
 churches, even without giving any formal 
 statement of the broad truths upon which our 
 people as a whole is agreed, the school can 
 take a stand on the issue between the religious 
 and the irreligious life. In the regulation of 
 conduct; in the study of literature, biogra- 
 phy, history, and nature ; by incidental ref- 
 erence here and there, especially as all these 
 are reinforced by the teacher's own tone and 
 manner of life, it is easy to make the child 
 realise that the school respects that which his 
 parents and his church hold most dear.^ 
 
 religious attitudes of mind. It is difficult, in fact, to 
 resist tiie conviction that his argument is based upon a 
 square contradiction of the unity of the child and the 
 unity of education. — W. T. Harris : Address on "The 
 Separation of the Church from the Tax-Supported 
 School" (Proceedings of the National Educational Asso- 
 ciation, 1903), page 351; also reprinted in the Educa- 
 tional Review, October, 1903. A different view of the 
 relation of the scientific to the religious spirit will be 
 found In George A. Coe : The Religion of a Mature 
 Mind (Chicago, 1902), Chapter II. 
 
 1 The only equipment that is necessary is teachers who 
 really hold the religious view of life and strive to put 
 
STATE SCnOOLS 355 
 
 Without at least thtis much religion in the 
 school, we cultivate a divided self in the 
 pupil. He lives in several different worlds 
 between which he experiences no unity. We 
 have heard not a little recently about the evil 
 of isolating the school from life. This evil is 
 at its maximum when the school fails to con- 
 nect its own work with that which the family, 
 the church, and our civilisation in general 
 hold of most worth. The primary necessity, 
 then, is that the school should take religion 
 for granted. This is being done already in 
 schools from which the laws exclude all reli- 
 gious exercises, and even the reading of the 
 Bible. More than this is possible in some 
 places already, and we may hope that the 
 number of such places will increase, but this 
 is the minimal demand that is consistent with 
 the unity of education. 
 
 198. Does this Does this minimal de- 
 
 Involve Union of n • i - j. u 
 
 Church and mand Violate our estab- 
 
 State? lished principle respecting 
 
 the relation of ecclesiastical 
 
 to civil authority? That principle forbids all 
 
 it Into practice. Every department and every teacher 
 stiould sound the same note. The chief difficulty is in 
 the selection of teachers. Let there be no discrimination 
 against Catholic, Protestant, or Jew, but rigid discrim- 
 ination again.st any candidate who is not likely to be a 
 positive spiritual influence. 
 
356 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 alliances with ecclesiastical bodies, all support 
 ^ of sectarian religion. But it does not require 
 the complete separation of the state from all 
 religion. To give this interpretation would be 
 both historically and logically incorrect. It 
 would be logically incorrect because it would 
 assume that all the manifestations of religion 
 are necessarily manifestations of sectarian- 
 ism. It would assume that the man is always 
 lost in the sectary, that the universal divine 
 life has lost its unity in the division of sects. 
 As Bishop Spalding remarks, there is in each 
 of us a fountain of religious impulses, the 
 welling of whose waters makes us human. "If 
 we are forbidden," he says, "to turn the 
 current into this or that channel, we are not 
 forbidden to recognise the universal truth 
 that man lives by faith, hope, and love, by 
 imagination and desire, and that it is pre- 
 cisely for this reason that he is educable. ' ' ^ 
 No sect can possibly monopolise the waters of 
 this fountain. They flow through all the 
 churches, but also round about them all. 
 Upon this, our common humanity, which is 
 religious ; upon the ideals of our people as a 
 whole, w^hich are surely religious, the state 
 has the right and the duty to build a school 
 
 1 J. L. Spalding : Means and Ends of Education, 3d 
 edition (Chicago, 1901), page 142. 
 
STATE SCHOOLS 357 
 
 that shall not ignore any essential human 
 quality or any essential feature of the ideals 
 of our people.^ 
 
 199. The Next What, then, is the next 
 
 Move: Not Fault- .- i . . t, ^ i 
 
 Finding. practical step to be taken 
 
 in order that our state 
 schools may become in truth a part of a 
 unified educational system that embraces also 
 the family and the church? Some persons 
 apparently believe that the next step is de- 
 nunciation or harsh criticism of the schools. 
 Practically all the faults of our people are 
 laid at the door of the public school. The 
 reasoning is this: Here is our system of 
 education, and modern life with all its faults 
 is its product. Yet the public school is only 
 one part of our three-fold educational system, 
 and not the most important part for the train- 
 ing of character. The character of our peo- 
 ple, moreover, is affected by economic, social, 
 and political conditions for which the public 
 
 ' This distinction is clearly made In the celebrated 
 Edgerton case, in which the Wisconsin Supreme Court 
 ruled that the reading of the Bible in a public school con- 
 stitutes sectarian instruction. The court held specifl- 
 cally that some parts of the Bible, which are not sec- 
 tarian, may be used for the purpose of moral training, 
 and tiiat the schools may even give instruction in re- 
 ligious beliefs that are held in common by all religious 
 sects, as, "the existence of a Supreme Being, of infinite 
 wisdom, power, and goodness, and that it is the highest 
 duty of all men to adore, obey, and love him." See Re- 
 port of the Commissioner of Education, 1888-1889, 
 Volume I, pages 620-631. 
 
358 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 school cannot by any possibility be held 
 responsible. It is undoubtedly true that we 
 are facing an emergency with respect to the 
 training of character, but the causes of this 
 emergency are complex, and the burden of 
 the coming reform must rest at least as much 
 upon the churches and the homes as upon the 
 public school. The burden rests very largely 
 upon the very ecclesiastical forces whose jeal- 
 ousy of one another has tended to make of the 
 public school the very thing that it is criti- 
 cised for being. This denunciation is unjust, 
 too, because it ignores the great work that the 
 schools are already doing in the training of 
 character. It is also inexpedient, for it tends 
 to alienate from the reform movement a vast 
 body of earnest, high-minded teachers whose 
 co-operation is essential to the success of the 
 movement. 
 200. Not Restoring Other agitators believe 
 
 the Bible to the ,i ^ ,, - i, i^ 
 
 Schools. that the next move should 
 
 be to reinstate the reading 
 of the Bible in the schools from which it has 
 been excluded. In some states this would 
 necessitate an amendment to the state consti- 
 tution, or else a reversal of supreme-court 
 decisions. In other states its wisdom as a 
 
STATE SCHOOLS 359 
 
 first step may be doubted. For it is not clear 
 that the reading of certain words has much 
 tendency to build up character in the absence 
 of concrete conditions that illustrate and ex- 
 press their meaning. Further, in some places 
 the effort to reinstate Bible reading would 
 stir to renewed activity the very jealousies 
 and misunderstandings that lie at the basis of 
 our trouble, and so would prevent recognition 
 of even the minimal demand that has been 
 outlined. While it is true that the Bible fur- 
 nishes the very best literary material for the 
 training of character, our first step toward 
 the improvement of present conditions is not 
 so much to choose between tools and methods 
 as to create a spirit that will demand the 
 best tools and methods. We must make the 
 people aware that the schools really have a 
 moral and spiritual aim to realise. We must 
 also call to the consciousness of the people the 
 real spiritual unity that exists among us in 
 spite of manifold differences. In a word, the 
 primary lack that is to be supplied is not 
 means of religious education, but a national 
 religious purpose in education. WTien such a 
 purpose ripens it will probably reinstate the 
 Bible where it is now excluded. 
 
360 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 201. Not Formal The same remarks apply 
 Religion. ^o the proposal to formu- 
 late a list of the religious 
 
 truths upon which we, as a people, are agreed, 
 such as the existence and goodness of God, his 
 control of nature and history, our duty to love 
 and obey him, and to love our neighbor as 
 ourself. Such a plan as this implies might 
 work in some places.^ But in other places 
 any attempt to introduce it would be of 
 doubtful value at this stage. The community 
 must first be quickened before such a plan 
 can secure general adoption. Further, it is 
 not altogether clear that any such plan would 
 be necessary if the various churches were do- 
 ing their proper share of the educational 
 work. It is a fair question whether the func- 
 tion of the state school with respect to religion 
 will not always be limited to the simple and 
 practical application of teachings, the formal 
 part of which the children obtain elsewhere. 
 
 202. But Better What, then, should be the 
 
 Education in , , ^ . 
 
 Home and next move toward improv- 
 
 es urch; ijjg lY^Q relation of the 
 
 state schools to religion? 
 Without hesitation it may be said that the 
 
 1 See J. W. Carr : Address on "Religious and Moral 
 Education through the Public Schools," in the Proceed- 
 ings of the Religious Education Association, 1903, page 
 138. 
 
STATE SCHOOLS 361 
 
 next move should be to induce the family and 
 the church consciously to assume their proper 
 share of the responsibility for the character of 
 the rising generation. Let us remove the 
 beam that is in our own eyes. If I let weeds 
 go to seed in my dooryard, they spread to my 
 neighbor's dooryard; but if I make my door- 
 yard beautiful with tiowers, I make it easier 
 for my neighbor to beautify his own premises. 
 As soon as the family and the church are suf- 
 ficiently aroused to begin to do their own 
 duty, the public-school question will grow 
 wondrously simple. Strong purpose is con- 
 tagious, and it has a remarkable way of find- 
 ing methods. Our trouble is that we have not 
 yet reached the point of giving ourselves to 
 this reform. We are giving, instead, advice 
 and criticism to the public schools, and in 
 various ways we are hoping that organisa- 
 tions, methods, and schemes will do what only 
 personal consecration can accomplish. We 
 neglect the children in our homes; we do 
 shilly-shally work in the Sunday school, and 
 then shift to the state school the blame for the 
 results! It is well, to be sure, to adopt at 
 once every feasible means for improving the 
 state school, but— depend upon it— any large 
 and thorough improvement therein will wait 
 
362 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 until, through striving to build, each over 
 against his own house, the churches and the 
 homes have developed a proper educational 
 consciousness among the people. 
 203. And Closer Then will come a sense of 
 
 Acquaintance „ „ , . . , ^. , 
 
 between all Three. lellowship m educational 
 
 aims, and a desire for closer 
 acquaintance between the home, the church, 
 and the school. Any movement that will ac- 
 complish what the National Congress of 
 Mothers and similar organisations are aiming 
 at, namely, close understanding and co-opera- 
 tion between parents and teachers, will do 
 more to tone up the public school than any 
 kind of mechanical or legal reform. A 
 teacher who feels the heart-beat of a parent 
 who is in earnest with respect to the religious 
 life of his child cannot be indifferent to the 
 religious influence of the school upon that 
 child. Our purposes are in confusion largely 
 because we isolate ourselves from one an- 
 other's deeper life. Mingle together public- 
 school teachers, parents, Sunday-school 
 teachers, pastors, Catholics, Protestants of all 
 kinds, Jews, even secularists— bring them all 
 close enough together — and there will emerge 
 a sense of unity in moral and spiritual pur- 
 
STATE SCHOOLS 363 
 
 pose that will be adequate to all our trouble- 
 some problems. 
 
 204. The Out of such Unity of 
 
 Parochial School • -j^ j^i i i i 
 
 Question. spirit there would surely 
 
 spring in time a solution of 
 the problem of the relation of the Catholic 
 parish school to the state school. A solution 
 of this problem must be found because of the 
 tendency of a divided school system to divide 
 our national consciousness. It must be found, 
 also, for the simple reason that hundreds of 
 thousands of our citizens feel themselves ag- 
 grieved by what they regard as the injustice 
 of being obliged to pay taxes for the support 
 of schools to which, for reasons of religion 
 and conscience, they cannot send their chil- 
 dren. It is scarcely conceivable that these 
 citizens bear the burden of supporting a 
 second school system out of motives so 
 peculiar or unreasonable that the state may 
 properly ignore them. There is here a touch 
 of the heroic, and it is not to be explained by 
 any superficial impulse. The Catholic view 
 has consistently maintained the central prin- 
 ciple, or major premise, of all religious educa- 
 tion, namely, that the whole child should be 
 educated. With the Catholic minor premise, 
 which concerns the means of securing such 
 
S64 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 complete education, we may differ, but on the 
 major premise Catholics and Protestants 
 ought to be so far agreed as to recognise 
 each other as fellow workers in a common 
 cause. Here Catholics and Protestants are 
 really at one against the secularist view of 
 education ; here they have a common interest 
 in protecting the public schools from secular- 
 ist encroachments. 
 
 Our immediate need is to secure a neigh- 
 borly and national religious consciousness 
 with respect to the essential aims of education. 
 When it is attained it will find means for 
 making itself effective. It will certainly not 
 surrender the principle of common schools for 
 the whole people, for the association of differ- 
 ent classes in the public school forms the most 
 certain bond of unity in a democratic state. 
 Nor will a national religious consciousness 
 with respect to education tend to violate the 
 principle of separation between church and 
 state. Indeed, the Catholic Church thrives so 
 much better where it is free from political 
 entanglements that its American adherents 
 are reaching agreement with the Protestants 
 as to the proper relation between the eccle- 
 siastical and the civil power.^ 
 
 ^ "In the ever-widening domain of tlie Britisli Empire, 
 in the ever-growing territory of the American Republic, 
 
STATE SCHOOLS 
 
 If we are to have common schools for the 
 whole people, complete separation of church 
 and state, and yet thorough religious educa- 
 tion for Catholic and Protestant children 
 alike, it follows that the religious function of 
 the state schools should he permanently re- 
 stricted to friendly recognition of the teach- 
 ing function of the family and of the church, 
 and sympathetic co-operation with them by 
 assuming as true and good whatever is com- 
 mon to the various religious communions. 
 But this implies that these communions volun- 
 tarily furnish, at their own expense, definite 
 and systematic religious training for -their 
 children and for all children who can be 
 reached. 
 
 democracy is triumphant ; and in all these vast regions, 
 with the exception of the Anglican Establishment, which 
 is an anomaly, confined to England, there is a separa- 
 tion of church and state, a separation which those who 
 are competent to judge recognise as permanent. There 
 is everywhere freedom to write, to publish, to discuss, 
 to organise ; and there is no subject of thought, no sphere 
 of action, no interest which it is possible to fence about 
 and shut in from the all-searching breath of liberty. 
 This condition of things exists : every influence main- 
 tains and strengthens it ; so far as we are able to see, 
 it does not appear that any earthly power can change or 
 destroy it. It is a state of things English-speaking 
 Catholics accept without mental reservations, without 
 misgivings, without regrets, which are always idle ; and 
 the common rights which are ours in the midst of a 
 general freedom have stirred in us an energy of tliought 
 and action which have led to triumphs and conquests 
 that have not been achieved by Catholics elsewhere in 
 the wonderful century that is now closing."— Rt. Rev. 
 J. L. Spalding : Education and the Future of Religion : 
 A Sermon Preached in Rome, March 21, 1900 (The Ave 
 Maria, Notre Dame, Indiana). 
 
3G6 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 As far as organisation is concerned, the ker- 
 nel of the difficulty lies in the necessity of ad- 
 justing public functions and private func- 
 tions to each other so as to make a system of 
 the whole. To appropriate public funds for 
 education not under the specific direction of 
 the state would aggravate rather than allevi- 
 ate the present situation, besides involving an 
 obvious encroachment upon the established re- 
 lation of church and state. Again, for the 
 state to pay for the use of a parish-school 
 building certain hours in the day, leaving its 
 owners free to employ it for the remainder of 
 the day for religious instruction by a single 
 sect to the exclusion of all others would con- 
 stitute practical favoritism to a particular 
 sect. It would take the pupils of the state 
 into a situation in which, by official act, the 
 opportunities of the different sects to influ- 
 ence them are unequal. But the state school 
 may properly adjust its hours so as to provide 
 time for specific religious training by all the 
 sects. The state might also permit the use of 
 public-school rooms by the different religious 
 bodies, either with or without compensation, 
 for the purpose of religious education, pro- 
 vided that the same opportunities are ex- 
 tended to all. In any case, the only practica- 
 
STATE SCHOOLS 367 
 
 ble solution of the problem is this : A public 
 school for all children, having its setting, in 
 one way or another, in a group of schools or 
 their equivalent maintained by the churches 
 for the purpose of specific religious education, 
 the whole being inspired by a set of common 
 ideals, a recognition of a common view of life^ 
 but each church school being controlled by 
 further ideals that are peculiar to the sect 
 that supports it.^ 
 
 The effect of such an arrangement would be 
 threefold, and all for the good. (1) The en- 
 tire body of children in attendance upon the 
 state school would recognise religion as a real 
 and serious interest, and religious training 
 and instruction as included in education. 
 (2) The present movement among Catholics for 
 improvement in the methods of Catholic edu- 
 cation would receive wholesome impetus. This 
 movement, which is parallel to what is going 
 on among Protestants, calls upon the church 
 schools to avail themselves of the principles 
 
 ^ For various propositions put forth by Catholic writ- 
 ers, see Archbishop Ireland's address on "State Schools 
 and Parish Schools," in the Proceedings of the National 
 Educational Association, 1890, page 119 : also the pam- 
 phlet (price, five cents) entitled. "Catholic Citizens and 
 Public Education" (Catholic Book Exchange, 120 West 
 60th Street, New York). What the different states 
 actually do with respect to parish schools is shown in 
 the Report of the Commissioner of Education, 1888-89, 
 Volume I, page 429. The relation of state universities 
 to religion is touched upon in the present work, Chapter 
 XIX. § 192. 
 
368 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 of modern education by making instruction 
 less formal, less memoriter, more free and 
 self-expressive, more appreciative of freedom 
 of thought and modern learning.^ These ends 
 would be well conserved by closer contact 
 with the modern educational world, from 
 which the parish school is now relatively iso- 
 lated. (3) Protestants would be stimulated 
 to throw off their shameful lethargy with re- 
 spect to education in religion. They would 
 learn from their Catholic fellow workers 
 something of the persistent devotion to a cen- 
 tral educational principle to which the parish 
 school bears witness. Under the influence of 
 public-school methods Protestant teaching 
 would also secure definite organisation and 
 method where they are now sorely needed. 
 
 Would the element of competition that 
 would be involved in bringing the educational 
 work of different churches into this close con- 
 
 1 "There is a large consensus of opinion on two im- 
 portant facts — the difficulty, irksomeness, and generally 
 unsatisfactory character of our catechetical systems, and 
 the enormous losses from the ranks of those who have 
 gone through that training No merely ex- 
 trinsic causes would, I think, be able to neutralize so 
 largely the efforts of Christian education unless there 
 were some vital deficiency in the system itself." — Rt. 
 Rev. James Bellord : Religious Education and its Fail- 
 ures (The Ave Maria, Notre Dame, Indiana, 1901), page 
 17. See, also, Rt. Rev. J. L. Spalding : Education and 
 the Future of Religion (The Ave Maria, Notre Dame. 
 Indiana) ; likewise L. Laberthonniere : The Ideal 
 Teacher, or the Catholic Notion of Authority in Educa- 
 tion (New York: The Cathedral Library Association, 
 1902). 
 
STATE SCHOOLS 369 
 
 tact tend to the disadvantage of any of the 
 churches ? If it would, we may be reasonably 
 hopeful that the spiritually fittest would sur- 
 vive. Protestants of various creeds would be 
 forced to unite in educational work, and then 
 Catholic education and Protestant education 
 would each work out its own inner principle 
 to its legitimate conclusion. Religion could 
 scarcely fail to be the gainer thereby. 
 
PART IV 
 THE PERSPECTIVE 
 
CHAPTER XXI 
 
 THE CHURCH AND THE CHILD— A GLANCE BACK- 
 WARD 
 
 205. How Can the We have seen that eduea- 
 
 Church Keep in .. . ^ ■ ^ 
 
 Touch with tion IS DO mechanical pro- 
 
 Childhood? cess whereby a plastic child 
 
 is molded upon fixed, un- 
 yielding forms, but that it is a vital and per- 
 sonal process in which the teacher must be 
 plastic as well as the child. This is just as 
 true of the church as educator as it is of the 
 individual teacher. To keep in truly educa- 
 tional touch with humanity, the church must 
 be greatly different from any rigid, completed 
 thing, which merely imposes itself upon grow- 
 ing life. It must look to something more than 
 mere "method." The possibilities of the 
 church as educator depend upon her inmost 
 relation to the basal forces of human life. Is 
 the church's life inclusive of life? Is she 
 herself a realisation of the vital forces of a 
 growing soul, or is she abstract, removed from 
 life, incapable of the plasticity that is de- 
 manded of every teacher? In a word, the 
 church's relation to education is inseparable 
 
374 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 from her relation to life in the largest sense. 
 206. The Child in This truth is well illus- 
 
 Church. trated in the remarkable 
 
 educational work of the 
 Jewish church. Here education blended into 
 one with the national and the family life. 
 The ethnic sense, the family sense, and the 
 religious sense were inseparable, and the 
 child knew no life apart therefrom. As soon 
 as he was old enough to ask questions about 
 the meaning of family religious observances, 
 the parents told him— not a creed, but— a 
 story. It was a story, too, in which he had a 
 part, for it told about his ancestors and their 
 deeds, and about his very own land and home 
 and the things that he could see with his own 
 eyes. Through it he learned of a covenant 
 existing between himself and God, and how 
 certain privileges, rights and duties came to 
 him with the very blood that flowed within his 
 arteries. Here was true religious education, 
 even in the most modern sense, for it was life 
 propagating itself directly and concretely. 
 
 207- J^^ Child in We have already seen 
 
 Christian Church. (Chapter IV) that Jesus 
 provides for Christian edu- 
 cation the same kind of foundation, for he 
 recognises the child as alreadv living within 
 
THE CHURCH AND THE CHILD 375 
 
 the kingdom of God. The position of the 
 child in the early Christian church must have 
 been very like that of the Jewish child in the 
 Jewish church. For the Christians, too, were 
 a people apart, and they were compacted to- 
 gether by pressure from without. As a con- 
 sequence, each Christian family, parents and 
 children alike, must have identified itself with 
 the religion of Christ. The entire life of the 
 child was within the atmosphere of Christian- 
 ity. He could not help being conscious of the 
 vital power of Christ in the everyday conduct 
 of the family and of the Christian community. 
 He was in constant contact with those who 
 were talking about Christ, working for aim, 
 suffering for pirn, and with them Jle was 
 sharply set off from the heathen world. Thus 
 life itself was a school of religion. Life, re- 
 ligion, and education were all one.^ 
 208. How the But these conditions did 
 
 away from ^Ot last. The SUCCesS of 
 
 Childhood. Christianity in its struggle 
 
 Ecclesiasticism •,! i ii • t j 
 
 and Dogma. With heathenism produced 
 
 as profound a change in the 
 
 status of the child as it did in that of adults. 
 
 The Jewish church was kept close to the child 
 
 ^ Bulwer-Lytton's Last Days of Pompeii gives a pretty 
 picture of thie attitude of tlie early Christians toward 
 tlieir diildren. See Book III, Cliapter III. 
 
376 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 by the fact of blood ; the early Christian 
 church by the pressure of environment as 
 well as by the enthusiasm of the new faith. 
 In both cases religion was a life in which the 
 child shared from the start. But Christian- 
 ity as a universal religion had to forego all 
 the educational power of the tribal and na- 
 tional sense, and as a conquering religion it 
 lost the cohesive influence of persecution. 
 Furthermore, its transformation into ecclesi- 
 asticism and into dogma wrought radical 
 changes in the conditions of Christian educa- 
 tion. For it withdrew the church from the 
 child. The practical effect of ecclesiasticism 
 is that spiritual life ceases to be a homespun, 
 everyday matter; it is something centered 
 yonder in the church or the priest. Perhaps 
 it is not necessarily true that the more we 
 have of the priest the less we have of the 
 home, yet this is a real danger of ecclesias- 
 ticism. There comes in a sharp separation 
 between the sacred and the secular, and Christ 
 is supposed to speak through the lips of a 
 particular set of men, in particular places, at 
 particular times. The church no longer lives 
 by the side of the child ; but the child has to 
 go to the church. 
 
 The identification of Christianity with dog- 
 
THE CHURCH AND THE CHILD 377 
 
 ma worked in the same direction. For the 
 dogmas that became the test of Christian 
 standing are far removed from the sponta- 
 neous interests of children. A dogmatic reli- 
 gion is essentially a religion for adults only. 
 It cannot attach childhood and youth to itself 
 in any except an external way. It makes 
 them mere candidates for religion, and if it 
 strives to educate them, it comes to them as 
 instruction externally imposed. 
 
 From the standpoint of religious education, 
 then, the hardening of Christianity into a 
 dogmatic and ecclesiastical system cannot be 
 regarded otherwise than as a backward step. 
 Or, if it be thought that this hardening pro- 
 cess was, after all, an essential preliminary to 
 securing control of a disorganised and largely 
 barbaric world, it still remains true that child- 
 hood paid a fearful price therefor. No doubt 
 scholastic education performed a real service 
 in the training of the people. Yet it was fa- 
 tally infected with these faults: Instead of 
 seeking to develop the individual from within 
 through free self-expression, it presented a 
 rigid, authoritative system to which he was 
 required to conform; it put undue emphasis 
 upon the intellectual apprehension of dogma; 
 inasmuch as the dogma was taught before the 
 
378 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 child could assimilate it, undue emphasis was 
 placed upon the memory as distinguished 
 from the understanding; as a consequence, 
 symbol was elevated above reality and experi- 
 ence, the form above the content, grammar 
 above literature, logic above truth, theory 
 above observation. In a word, the church 
 had grown away from the child. 
 
 209. Influence of This general difficulty 
 
 Augustinianism. -; xi. x i. j 
 
 became further accentuated 
 by the specific content of Christian dogma, 
 particularly as regards its conception of sal- 
 vation. This we may call, after the name of 
 its greatest representative, Augustinianism. 
 It approached humanity, childhood included, 
 through a theory of sin, penalty, and judicial 
 procedure. Life was not a nurserv of the 
 spirit, but a judicial trial. The young, as 
 well as the old, were thought of under two 
 rigid categories, the saved and the unsaved, 
 the elect and the non-elect. These categories 
 furnish no basis for religious education. They 
 hold us to a rigid "either-or", which leaves 
 no space for "becoming" or development. 
 They hinge everything upon what is done for 
 the soul, and nothing upon its inner develop- 
 ment. The full significance of this fact will 
 
THE CHURCH AND THE CHILD 379 
 
 appear when we realise that Augustinianism 
 permeated the whole church, Roman, Luth- 
 eran, Anglican, Calvinistic, even Arminian. 
 In every one of the churches a central thought 
 has been that the individual belongs within 
 one of the two classes, the saved and the un- 
 saved. Everywhere the third alternative, a 
 spiritual life in process of becoming, has been 
 neglected.^ 
 
 It was thus that the Puritan attitude to- 
 ward children became a by-word and a warn- 
 ing. It was so filled with Augustinianism 
 that it had no gospel for childhood. The 
 parent stood still in fear and trembling, won- 
 dering whether his child was elected to life or 
 to death, whether he would ever be converted 
 or not. Puritanism fixed its eyes so stead- 
 fastly upon the ideas of sin, redemption, de- 
 crees, conversion, that it could not see chil- 
 dren as children, or grasp the notion of devel- 
 opment. Horace E. Scudder says: "The tend- 
 ency of the system was to ignore childhood, 
 to get rid of it as soon as possible. . . . 
 There was, unwittingly, a reversal of the di- 
 vine message, and it was said in effect to chil- 
 dren, 'Except ye become as grown men and 
 
 * But see Chapter IV, Appendix, 
 
380 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 be converted, ye cannot enter the kingdom of 
 heaven.' "^ 
 
 210. The It is clear that the Refor- 
 
 Reformation and ,. ,. , , , • .1 
 
 the Child. mation did not bring the 
 
 church back to childhood. 
 Yet herein lies a paradox. For the inner 
 principle of the Reformation — direct access 
 of the soul to truth and to God — is in the 
 highest degree favorable to education. A soul 
 so endowed demands development. Here is 
 the kind of individualism that does, as a mat- 
 ter of fact, underlie our modern universal ed- 
 ucation. Luther himself demanded universal 
 education; he would even make it com- 
 pulsory; and he favored special provision 
 for the education of the laboring classes. Un- 
 der the impulse of Protestantism, Comenius 
 sought to discover the natural order of growth 
 of the mind, and to organise education accord- 
 ingly. Davidson says that "all modern edu- 
 cation has been built up upon the foundation 
 which he laid. "^ Nevertheless, modern edu- 
 cation,' in order to come to its own, has had to 
 free itself from Protestantism as well as Ca- 
 tholicism. Moreover, the Protestant churches, 
 
 1 Childhood in Literature and Art, page 128, as quoted 
 in Munger's Life of Bushnell, page 66. 
 
 2 Thomas Davidson: History of Education (New 
 York, 1901), page 193. 
 
THE CHURCH AND TFIE CHILD 381 
 
 though they cherish in their bosoms an edu- 
 cational principle of the first class, have failed 
 to apply it thoroughly in their own specific 
 task of religious education. There is a sense 
 in which the schools of to-day are more Prot- 
 estant than the Protestant churches them- 
 selves. 
 
 The explanation is that the Reformation 
 came only very, very gradually to a recogni- 
 tion of the meaning of its own principle. It 
 would emancipate the soul from dogmatism, 
 external authority, and ecclesiasticism, yet it 
 set up a new dogmatism, a new infallibility, a 
 new ecclesiasticism, and it snared itself in 
 new political entaglements. It stood for nat- 
 ural education, yet the village schools of the 
 period, Munroe says, ''became battle-grounds 
 of dogma. "^ The defects in the religious ed- 
 ucation of to-day are due largely to our only 
 partial trust in the true Reformation princi- 
 ple. We have said that the soul can come 
 directly to truth, to life, to God, but we do not 
 give it the freedom, the stimulus to self- 
 expression, the concrete as distinguished from 
 the dogmatic material, through which alone it 
 can fully realise its capacity for divine fel- 
 lowship and co-operation. 
 
 ^ J. p. Mimroe : The Educational Ideal (Boston, 
 1896), page 50. 
 
382 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 211. Influence of The Wesleyan revival was 
 
 Revival. another outburst of fresh 
 
 life, and for that reason it 
 contained a germ of the profoundest educa- 
 tional truth. It invited spontaneity, individ- 
 ual access to God, and it was not over-solici- 
 tous about dogma. It turned attention not 
 so much to what goes on in the mind of God 
 as to what goes on in our own minds; not so 
 much to what is done for us as to what occurs 
 in us and through us. It elevated the soul 
 and its experiences to a dominant place in 
 Christian thinking. To this extent Wesleyan- 
 ism and the evangelical revival in general 
 moved toward a standpoint from which a phi- 
 losophy of religious education might easily 
 have been discovered. All that was necessary 
 was to widen the notion of religious experi- 
 ence so as to take in the whole developing life 
 of the child as well as the peculiar experi- 
 ences of adults. The conception of religion 
 as experience is, in fact, entirely capable of 
 embracing all stages of life. But the stress 
 was laid on certain special experiences of 
 adults, and the wide range of the operations 
 of the Divine Spirit in the soul of man was 
 forgotten. Sudden and dramatic conversions 
 fcecame the goal of the churches, and round 
 
THE CHURCH AND THE CHILD 383 
 
 about these gathered at last the vast para- 
 phernalia of modern evangelism. Thus, once 
 more, a really vital movement in religion, be- 
 cause it failed to work its own inner princi- 
 ple, sacrificed an opportunity to become a 
 first-class educational force.^ 
 
 212. Bushnell's Horace Bushnell, that 
 
 true prophet of the soul, 
 demonstrated the greatness of his mind no- 
 where more clearly than in his independent 
 discovery of the true principles of religious 
 education. Apparently without being ac- 
 quainted with the work of Froebel, he 
 wrought out for himself the essential doc- 
 trines of modern education, and he applied 
 them to the problems of religious nurture with 
 a degree of firmness and insight that makes 
 him one of our most notable educational au- 
 thorities. He escaped the mechanical "either- 
 or" of Augustinianism by laying hold upon 
 the notion of development. He escaped the 
 intellectualism that Protestantism inherited 
 from scholasticism by seeing clearly that 
 Christian life and character can come other- 
 wise than through deliberate volition conse- 
 
 ^ It is only fair to say. however, that the theology, as 
 diBtinguished from the practice, of the Wesleyan churches 
 provides a practical basis for religious education. See 
 Chapter IV, Appendix. 
 
384 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 quent upon the acceptance of a dogma. He 
 saw the psychological falsity of the notion of 
 an "age of discretion," at which a child, here- 
 tofore irresponsible, suddenly assumes the 
 burden of his own destiny. He broke through 
 the false individualism that isolated the 
 child's moral and spiritual life from his en- 
 vironment, and, with extraordinary insight, 
 he demonstrated the organic unity of the fam- 
 ily. The principles of development, assimila- 
 tion, self-expression, freedom, concreteness — 
 all these were present in Bushnell's mind, 
 though he did not completely formulate them 
 all. In a word, the very principles for which 
 we are now struggling to secure recognition 
 were discovered by Bushnell and applied to 
 our problems as early as 1847. 
 
 Why, then, did his reform meet with such 
 scanty success ? Why has it been necessary to 
 wait a whole half century for the recognition, 
 not to say fruition, of his prophetic insight? 
 Partly because the old dogmatic conceptions 
 of religious life were still too strong; partly 
 because evangelism was over-valued. The re- 
 vival was, indeed, the one point at which the 
 current theology provided for spontaneity 
 and freedom; this was the one channel 
 through which the vital flood could pour it- 
 
THE CHURCH AND THE CHILD 385 
 
 self. No wonder that it seemed so very im- 
 portant, or that educative processes should be 
 belittled in comparison. There was lacking, 
 too, in Bushnell's time, the biological mode 
 of thought which has so helped us to take in 
 the notion of development. Finally, there 
 was lacking the background of modern 
 schools. The educational reform had not yet 
 won its way to the popular consciousness. 
 The common schools were still narrow, tradi- 
 tional, repressive. Any thorough reform of 
 religious education would have seemed revolu- 
 tionary and fantastic. But now that a better 
 understanding has come, simple justice re- 
 quires us to confess that any advance we may 
 make at the present time will necessarily pro- 
 ceed upon the principles that Bushnell enun- 
 ciated two generations ago. 
 
 213. The Sunday- There are some who be- 
 
 School 
 
 Movement. lieve that the Sunday 
 
 school has substantially 
 solved the problem of religious education. It 
 certainly marks, as Ave have seen in Chapter 
 XVII, an enormous advance. But after we 
 have acknowledged the virtues of this mag- 
 nificent movement, the fact remains that it 
 has not yet solved the essential problems in- 
 
386 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MOIIALS 
 
 volved in its own work. For the Sunday 
 school has made instruction, rather than edu- 
 cation, its chosen work, and not even instruc- 
 tion in religion as such, but instruction in the 
 Bible. Its point of departure, too, has been 
 essentially dogmatic. It has commonly sought, 
 not so much to develop the religious germ in 
 the soul of the pupil, as to fortify him with a 
 set of dogmatic ideas supported by Bible 
 texts. Again, missing the educational aim, 
 the Sunday school has naturally neglected 
 to employ the means and methods of edu- 
 cation, even in its own chosen work of 
 biblical instruction. To say that every 
 principle of teaching is commonly violated 
 is bad enough, but the whole truth is 
 worse, and that is that, with the exception of 
 a few schools, and of the primary department 
 in many schools, there has been until recently 
 scarcely any consciousness that teaching has 
 any principles. Hence, the Sunday school has 
 largely failed to teach the Bible even from the 
 chosen point of view. The information that 
 is imparted is scrappy and inaccurate, in 
 many cases the merest hodge-podge of names, 
 places, and stories, without connection, or per- 
 spective, or correct sense of spiritual values. 
 
THE CnURCn and the child 387 
 
 214. The Church's The aim of this sketch 
 
 Success, and the , , . , , ,, 
 
 Church's Failure, "as been to show, not the 
 
 amount of the church's 
 success or failure as educator, but only the 
 essential conditions of success. The church 
 has always been succeeding, yet never suc- 
 ceeding enough. Her failures have resulted 
 from the substitution of some sort of mechan- 
 ism for life— the mechanism of a hierarchy 
 exercising external authority, the mechanism 
 of a fixed system of dogmas, the mechanism of 
 a particular type of religious experience, the 
 mechanism of a book. Her greatest successes 
 have come, in large part, independently of 
 specific theory, or plan, or machinery. Life 
 has propagated itself from generation to gen- 
 eration through the influence of personality 
 in home, in school, in church, and this has 
 been a genuine educational work. The church 
 has succeeded in Christian education because 
 she has had within her a life that lies deeper 
 than all her formulas and all her forms of or- 
 ganisation and work. A part of the educa- 
 tional problem that is now before her is to 
 give this life free course in relation to the 
 young. But this implies that it have free 
 course within her own consciousness. A 
 church fettered by its own forms, whether 
 
388 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 of organisation, or method, or doctrine, 
 inevitably fails to do its best as educa- 
 tor. The fundamental condition of success is 
 that we live, and that we live abundantly, 
 freely, and broadly enough to take in all gen- 
 uine life. 
 
CHAPTER XXII 
 
 EDUCATION AND PRESENT RELIGIOUS PROBLEMS 
 
 215. Education The last chapter tended 
 
 to show that only a vital, as 
 distinguished from a dogmatic or formal, 
 grasp of Christianity furnishes the proper 
 background for Christian education. The 
 further question may now be asked whether 
 Christian education is not the chief support 
 of vital piety. Three sets of contrasting no- 
 tions are here involved. First comes the dog- 
 matic as contrasted with the vital conception 
 of discipleship. The dogmatic view makes 
 the acceptance of a creed a preliminary to 
 Christian living, the vital view puts living 
 first, and makes the creed a product and ex- 
 pression of life. The one identifies education 
 with instruction, while the other identifies it 
 with development of the personality. Un- 
 derneath this opposition lies, in the second 
 place, the problem of authority. Here the 
 opposing ideas are those of truth external to 
 one 's being and imposed upon one from with- 
 out, and truth involved in one's being and 
 realised in an inner experience. The one 
 
390 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 - 
 
 would make of education a bestowal upon the 
 child, the other an unfolding of the child. 
 But deeper still lies, in the third place, an 
 opposition between two conceptions of God's 
 relation to the world— God as existing in only 
 external relations to creation, and God as im- 
 manent in the whole of it. The former con- 
 ception, representing him as coming into our 
 lives chiefly in special experiences, is well able 
 to provide for religious crises, but not for con- 
 tinuous religious development. The doctrine 
 of divine immanence, however, provides a 
 basis for continuous development, or educa- 
 tion proper. 
 
 The Christian thought of our time has al- 
 ready made choice between these alternative 
 views. The immanent God, whose authority 
 is internal and identical with the laws of self- 
 realisation, and with whom we come into rela- 
 tions not primarily through belief but rather 
 through the whole circle of impulses and as- 
 pirations that make us men— this is the stand- 
 point that we have won. Here we find not 
 only a basis for a theory of religious educa- 
 tion, but also a practical condition of vital 
 piety. We perceive that Christian education, 
 which promotes the growing sense of God, 
 must always be the chief means of maintain- 
 
PRESENT RELIGIOUS PROBLEMS 391 
 
 ing such piety. The inspiration to spiritual 
 living is not a set of beliefs, or even occasional 
 intimacy with God, but our realisation of him 
 as the ground of our whole life and of all the 
 things with which we have to do. Now, edu- 
 cation is the means by which the immature 
 human being is made acquainted with his 
 world and with himself; it is the process by 
 which we reveal to him what constitutes real' 
 living. It is therefore the primary means of 
 maintaining in the individual and in the 
 world at large the comforting, joy-giving, all- 
 conquering piety that realises God as the ever- 
 present basis, law, and end of our life. 
 216. Education This point of view also 
 
 reveals the relation of edu- 
 cation to the newer, or historical method of 
 studying the Bible. The Scriptures are an 
 outgrowth of life. They are a product of ex- 
 perience, chiefly of religious experiences that 
 arose through the continuous, life-giving touch 
 of the divine hand upon men and peoples 
 through a long history. To study the Scrip- 
 tures by historical methods is simply to get as 
 near to these experiences as possible. To ask 
 when, by whom, under what circumstances, 
 and for what primary purpose each book was 
 written implies nothing more than common 
 
892 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 honesty as to facts and a just valuation of 
 God's presence in actual events. Yet many 
 persons have supposed that to study the Bible 
 just as we study other history and other lit- 
 erature robs it of its spiritual glow and so 
 lessens its value for spiritual culture. Hence, 
 "devotional" study has been set apart by 
 itself as though it were independent of the 
 methods by which alone historical truth can be 
 ascertained. Yet surely the truth of Bible 
 history and the truth about its documents 
 must be good for the spiritual nature. 
 
 It is easy to understand, however, why the 
 historical point of view comes as a shock to 
 many persons who were reared in relatively 
 theoretical and abstract views of the Bible. 
 Under these views, Biblical characters and 
 events were not as much plain facts as sym- 
 bols of spiritual truth. The story of the 
 exodus and the wanderings in the desert, for 
 instance, was taught as if every incident 
 thereof had a personal reference to each pupil. 
 As a result, the historic facts tended to sink 
 into a hazy background, and the Bible itself 
 hovered in sacred mistiness between heaven 
 and earth. When the air grows transparent, 
 and we behold the book and all its contents 
 resting upon the very same earth whereon we 
 
PRESENT RELIGIOUS PROBLEMS 393 
 
 stand, our first impulse is to think that it is 
 less a divine book and its contents less a di- 
 vine revelation. Yet in reality, losing the 
 Bible as a collection of symbols, we have 
 gained the Bible as a record of real life. Giv- 
 ing up the abstract, we receive the concrete in 
 return. Finding Biblical persons and events 
 nearer ourselves, we find the God who was 
 moving within them also nearer. 
 
 Here lies the positive educational signifi- 
 cance of the historical method. It helps us to 
 meet the pedagogic rule of putting the con- 
 crete before the abstract. It brings us also 
 closer to the prime means of spiritual educa- 
 tion, personality, and it endows biblical per- 
 sonages with human interest. Making us real- 
 ise how much we have in common with the 
 biblical characters, it has made vivid the spir- 
 itual laws that pervade all life, ours as well as 
 theirs. We have, in fact, only begun to guess 
 the possible value of the Bible as an instru- 
 ment of religious education. What is now 
 needed is a large body of intelligent middle- 
 men who will carry to the whole people the 
 practical fruits of technical biblical learning.^ 
 
 ' Not, of course, the technical paraphernalia of such 
 learning, or the disputations of scholars, but the assured 
 results. For a discussion of the relation of the historical 
 method to practical religion, see an address by Thomas 
 C. Hall in the Proceedings of the Religions Education As- 
 sociation, 1904. 
 
394 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 217. Education As never before, perhaps, 
 
 and the Revival. ,, , ,. p r-i-, • ,• 
 
 the relation oi Christian 
 
 nurture to the revival is coming into the 
 foreground. There is discernible an unfortu- 
 nate tendency to look upon these two methods 
 or processes as somehow opposed to each 
 other, whereas both are necessary. There is 
 no reason to suppose that the oral presenta- 
 tion of truth through preaching, or the strong 
 stirring of men's emotions through appeals to 
 conscience, or the influence of social conta- 
 gion in turning men's minds to the problems 
 of duty and destiny, or sudden awakenings 
 from indifference and sin are to cease in the 
 life of the church. What may be looked for, 
 however, is first, clearer recognition of the 
 developmental and social elements in the re- 
 claiming of adult sinners, and especially, sec- 
 ond, a recovery from our pernicious habit of 
 trying to save the young through the abrupt 
 processes of the revival instead of the gradual 
 processes of education.^ "The sublime vital 
 fact in conversion," says President King, 
 "surely is that we have now entered upon a 
 voluntary, life-long, personal relation to God, 
 and so thrown ourselves open to the presence 
 
 1 See Chapter X of George A Coe : The Religion of a 
 Mature Mind (Chicago, 1902). 
 
PRESENT RELIGIOUS PROBLEMS 395 
 
 and power in our lives of the personal Spirit 
 of the loving, mighty God."^ "Whether we 
 call this conversion, or decision, or commit- 
 ment, it is certainly a normal outcome of wise 
 and continuous religious training. What 
 does, or can the revival do beyond restoring to 
 men some meagre part of what they have 
 missed through imperfect education, or 
 through their own neglect of their education ? 
 The revival is primarily remedial, while edu- 
 cation is primarily constructive. For this 
 reason education in religion must be the chief 
 means of saving the world. After the plastic 
 years of youth few men are converted, and 
 even during the plastic years the revival never 
 succeeds in making up for the awful waste of 
 young life through our neglect of education 
 from the cradle up. Our one first-class chance 
 at men is during their years of growth. The 
 progress of the kingdom depends primarily 
 upon our securing control of more and more 
 children and educating them right. Failing 
 to do this, we can never, by any possible 
 means, "catch up" with our task. 
 
 1 Henry Churchill King : Christian Training and the 
 Revival as Methods of Converting Men (Pamphlet pub- 
 lished by the Secretarial Institute. 153 La Salle Street, 
 Chicago, 1903), page 29. One of the best balanced dis- 
 cussions of this topic known to me. 
 
396 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 218. Education Those who think upon 
 
 and the Social 
 
 Problem. (1) the problems of human 
 
 The Situation. progress are coming to see 
 
 that perhaps the greatest 
 practical problem for education at the present 
 day grows out of the social situation, particu- 
 larly the struggle between individualistic and 
 social tendencies. On the one hand, the in- 
 dividual is more than ever. He has greater 
 liberty of thought and action, greater political 
 rights, greater opportunity for acquiring 
 knowledge, more complete control of the con- 
 ditions of life. The economic prizes for the 
 very able were never so large. Yet, on the 
 other hand, the individual has never been as 
 dependent upon others as at present. One 
 cannot obtain the simplest article of food or 
 of information without the co-operation of a 
 long series of men. Trace the course of a 
 beefsteak or a loaf of bread backward from 
 your home to the point of its production, and 
 you will see how complicated society is be- 
 coming. One cannot buy or sell, hire or be 
 hired, or cast a vote, without being hemmed 
 in, limited, controlled, by a vast network of 
 human relations. The tendency is toward the 
 increase of these relations, and this gives op- 
 
PRESENT RELIGIOUS PROBLEMS 397 
 
 portunity for increasing organisation of men 
 and of capital. 
 
 Our social situation is largely determined 
 by the clashing of these two tendencies, the 
 organising and the individualising, and by 
 the odd way in which one passes into the 
 other. For instance, the labor union repre- 
 sents the principle of solidarity, of co-opera- 
 tion as against unlimited competition. Yet 
 as against the employer and the non-union 
 man it is largely individualistic, and it does 
 not always with sufficient clearness show a 
 sense of subordination to law. On the other 
 hand, capitalists, moved by the organising 
 principle of solidarity, combine among them- 
 selves, the individual submitting to the will 
 of the group. But the group, in turn, is fre- 
 quently individualistic in its effort to crush 
 labor unions, and anarchistic in its evasions 
 of law and its corruption of public officials. 
 With both laboring men and capitalists, too, 
 the organisation itself now and th^n becomes 
 a tool in the hands of some strong but un- 
 scrupulous individual. 
 
 What is to come out of this clashing and 
 crushing, this blowing hot and blowing cold? 
 Certainly no truce based upon self-interest 
 can solve the problem. Such a truce is simply 
 
398 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 an effort to cure the ills of selfishness by 
 means of organised and armed selfishness! 
 We shall not pluck figs from thistles. As 
 long as selfishness is the motive to peace, there 
 will be evasion and violation of agreements, 
 and the war will be simply disguised where 
 before it was open. Neither legislation nor 
 combination, though they can do something, 
 can change the leopard's spots. 
 
 219. (2) The Any permanent solution 
 
 interVetation. of the difficulty must in- 
 
 clude a change in the gen- 
 eral current of motive, a reversal of the 
 accepted presupposition. Society must have 
 a new heart. The whole industrial body is 
 sick for the want of it. The modern world 
 revolves about the ideas of individualism and 
 social unity without realising their inner 
 principle. True individualism, which is the 
 only practical kind, is simply the Christian 
 principle of the final worth of the individual ; 
 as, on the other hand, the tendency to organ- 
 isation, as far as it is or can be sound, is 
 nothing more or less than the Christian prin- 
 ciple of losing our merely individual will in 
 regard for others. In Christianity and no- 
 where else do these apparently opposing tend- 
 encies find their unity and also a motive 
 
PRESENT RELIGIOUS PROBLEMS 399 
 
 power for their mutual realisation. The in- 
 dividual is of final worth because the Eternal 
 is in him, because God communicates himself 
 to his creature and bestows upon him im- 
 mortal possibilities. But the individualism 
 herein implied cannot be identified with self- 
 seeking, for the God and Father of each is the 
 God and Father of all, and all we are breth- 
 ren. Thus the foundation of self-reverence 
 is equally a foundation of reverence for 
 others. The individualistic and the social- 
 ising motives here blend into one through the 
 Christian thought of God. Here liberty and 
 law, the interest of the individual and the in- 
 terest of society, become identical. 
 
 220. How The purpose of Christ to 
 
 Shall Society Get , . i . t j.- c 
 
 a New Heart? bring about a realisation or 
 
 this unity of men under the 
 fatherhood of God is expressed in the term, 
 the kingdom of God. This kingdom is the 
 actual reality of life, however much we choose 
 other fancied goods, however much we 
 violate the laws of our own being. The king- 
 dom is present as well as future, visible as 
 well as invisible. It has begun to secure con- 
 trol of the world's resources, and it will not 
 rest until its control is universal. Every 
 shop, factory, railroad, farm, mine; every 
 
400 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 profession and trade; all branches of gov- 
 ernment, all learning and art— all are to come 
 under the control of Christ. This cannot be 
 accomplished by an external or machine-made 
 reform ; it requires inner regeneration issuing 
 in love to God and man. Nor can it be ac- 
 complished by merely rescuing here and there 
 a man who is sinking in the waves of world- 
 liness. To regenerate society implies more 
 than the healing of its sick members; it im- 
 plies the prevention of sickness. Society can 
 be regenerated only by bringing the young to 
 a realisation of the true meaning of life be- 
 fore they are subjected to the full stress of the 
 two warring tendencies. Undoubtedly some- 
 thing can be done by persuading men who are 
 in the thick of the fight. They can be induced 
 to soften the conflict ; they will consent to ar- 
 bitration, or they will give of their wealth to 
 alleviate the condition of those who are 
 wounded in the struggle. But preaching to 
 men who are in the midst of a battle will not 
 stop the battle. It will not give a new heart 
 to the opposing armies. The war can be 
 stopped only by stopping the supply of fight- 
 ing men, and this can be done only by de- 
 veloping the social sense through the Chris- 
 tian education of the young. Children, the 
 
PRESENT RELIGIOUS PROBLEMS 401 
 
 generality of them, must be brought to realise 
 that their personality is holy ground, and 
 that, for the same reason, the personality of 
 their fellows is holy. God in me, and God 
 in my fellows ; God the Father of us all — this, 
 brought to clear consciousness and developed 
 into its practical consequences, is the solution, 
 and the only solution, of our social problem. 
 It is the kingdom of God on earth. 
 
 221. (4) A New But existing modes of 
 
 Religious ,. . j ^- i 
 
 Education religious education are only 
 
 Needed. partly adapted to this work. 
 
 Not only are present meth- 
 ods defective ; their point of view also is only 
 partially correct. Their view of the indi- 
 vidual and of society is unconsciously per- 
 meated with presuppositions that have come 
 down from scholastic theology and from the 
 older forms of monarchical government. A 
 good citizen, as measured by the standards of 
 monarchical society, may be a very bad one as 
 measured by the needs of democratic society. 
 When a people is governed from above, the 
 virtuous citizen is assumed to be the submis- 
 sive one. He is diligent in business, peace- 
 able, honest, charitable, ready to defend his 
 country against its enemies, but he is not 
 supposed to interfere with the course of 
 
402 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALtS 
 
 events or to meddle with the powers that con- 
 trol society. But in a democracy the merely 
 submissive citizen is a public danger. Here 
 the only safety lies in the aggressiveness that 
 springs from a keen sense of individual re- 
 sponsibility for political and social conditions. 
 Again, under the scholastic conception of 
 Christianity, faith also is an act of submission 
 to external authority. It involves a certain 
 abnegation of individuality, with no adequate 
 offset in the increase of sociality. Doubtless 
 Protestantism has in principle overcome this 
 notion. When we stop to think seriously 
 about faith we discover that it is properly the 
 self-assertion of the deepest things of the in- 
 dividual heart and mind. Though it involves 
 the renunciation of self-will, it is nevertheless 
 an aggressive act. It is the taking of sides 
 in the mightiest conflict of ideals, and the 
 active devotion of one's energy to the chosen 
 cause. Yet our religious education still 
 interprets faith as submission to external 
 authority, still fails clearly to recognise the 
 aggressive element in the social teachings of 
 Jesus. Faith is therefore placed in an apolo- 
 getic attitude toward the modern mind, and 
 religion remains rather a refuge from social 
 ills than a rebuker and rectifier of them. 
 
PRESENT RELIGIOUS PROBLEMS 403 
 
 "VMiat is wanted in our religious education 
 is more openness toward modern knowledge, 
 more boldness to take advantage of its help 
 in the interpretation of life, and, in respect 
 to social and political conditions, more of the 
 fighting spirit. Christ sends into the world 
 not peace but a sword. Christianity has a 
 definite practical propaganda which involves 
 both the individual and society. It fulfils its 
 mission to either one only as it fulfils its mis- 
 sion to the other also. The child and the 
 youth should therefore be imbued with the 
 sense of having a positive mission, of being 
 enlisted in a great cause, and of participating 
 in a great conflict. Not until this spirit is 
 somehow infused into our religious education 
 can it even approximately fulfil its mission 
 toward society.^ 
 
 222. Education "VV^e are hearing in these 
 
 and the Historic , ,, ^^ -r, ^ . 
 
 Christ. clays the call, Back to 
 
 Christ! Weary of labor 
 
 over creeds and formulas, over theories and 
 
 speculations, we are finding rest and also in- 
 
 1 Cf. George E. Dawson : Science and Religious Edu- 
 cation. — Biblical World, March, 1904, page 200. In this 
 article Professor Dawson strongly Insists that religious 
 education must be broad enough to Include a religious 
 use of the sciences of nature. Religious education must 
 really adjust men to the world in which they are placed. 
 This Includes the laws of their own bodies and minds, 
 and the industrial, economic, and political processes of 
 society. 
 
404 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 spiration in the Christ considered as an his- 
 torical person. What significance has this 
 movement for education? It is clear, in the 
 first place, that in our habitual thought of 
 Christ as Savior, Revealer, Prophet, Priest, or 
 King, we have had in mind chiefly his relation 
 to adults. Almost always his mission has been 
 looked upon as the making over of men rather 
 than the making of men. But he is also Ed- 
 ucator. He enters into the whole develop- 
 mental process of humanity as a positive, 
 formative principle— an organic principle, if 
 you will. This is not a new thought, yet we 
 have scarcely realised that an organic prin- 
 ciple in humanity becomes effective chiefly 
 through its influence upon men in their im- 
 mature, plastic years. The making over of 
 men can never be anything more than a neces- 
 sary addendum or necessary preliminary to 
 the central process of making men. The 
 world is to be saved chiefly through Christ's 
 influence upon children and youth. 
 
 Here appears the educational significance 
 of the new emphasis upon the historic Christ. 
 Adults may appreciate something of the 
 Christ of dogma or the Christ of mystical 
 experiences; but children and youth must 
 meet him as a historical person, essentially 
 
PRESENT RELIGIOUS PROBLEMS 405 
 
 like other persons, or they will not feel or 
 appreciate his power. Now, appreciation of 
 the historic Christ puts into its proper place 
 the supreme force in education, personality. 
 With how many of us was the first glimpse 
 of the Master a distant one, like our knowl- 
 edge of the atoms or of the luminiferous 
 ether. He was in every sense unearthly. But 
 with what refreshment of soul did we after- 
 yard discover the utter concreteness of his 
 person, and the fact of our fellowship with 
 him through the ordinary processes of his- 
 tory ! As thinkers we may well believe in the 
 metaphysical union of God and man in 
 Christ; as mystics we may well recognise the 
 presence of the real Christ in the heart; but 
 as men, rather than metaphysicians or mys- 
 tics, it is of inestimable value to find that, 
 just as we are related to Washington and 
 Lincoln in the unity of life that constitutes 
 our Republic, so we are historically one with 
 Jesus in the unity of the kingdom of God. 
 Religious education may culminate in a grasp 
 of the metaphysical or mystical Christ, but 
 it must begin with a sense of membership in 
 a community of persons of whom Christ is one 
 in exactly the same way as other persons. 
 Thus it is that the historic Christ is the 
 
406 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 supreme Educator. But this is not all. Even 
 when we advance to the notions of incarna- 
 tion and atonement, we are not outside the 
 circle of educational ideas. For incarnation 
 is the supreme instance of the sharing of life 
 through which an incomplete life attains- un- 
 foldment or education. As to atonement, 
 whatever tragedy of the divine heart is sug- 
 gested by this term, the working out of the 
 fact in the world, the historical at-one-ment 
 of man and God, is accomplished by the essen- 
 tially educational method of revelation 
 through personality in the sharing of life. 
 The process of redemption is at root all one 
 with the process of education. A parent who 
 is true to his parenthood, or a teacher -v^ho 
 is true to his calling, not less than a priest 
 who ministers at the altar, distributes the 
 bread of life to hungry souls; he drinks the 
 cup that Jesus drank, is baptised with the 
 baptism wherewith he was baptised, becomes 
 a part of the great process of incarnation 
 whereby God reconciles the world to him- 
 self 1^ 
 
 > See John 17 : 20-23. 
 
A SELECTED AND CLASSIFIED 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
 Note. — This Bibliography Is not intended to be ex- 
 haustive in any part. It includes no publications in 
 foreign languages, and it omits many important publi- 
 cations in English. It is sufficiently extensive, how- 
 ever, to show where some of the important material on 
 all the topics discussed in this book may be found. 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHIES 
 
 General Bibliographies of Education: 
 
 G. Stanley Hall and John M. Mansfield: 
 
 Hints Toward a Select and Descriptive 
 
 Bibliography of Education (Boston, 
 
 1893). 
 W. S. Monroe: Bibliography of Education 
 
 (New York, 1897). 
 Bibliographies of Religious and Moral 
 
 Education: 
 A general list is given in S. B. Haslett: 
 
 The Pedagogical Bible School (New 
 
 York, 1903), page 349. 
 On the General History of the Sunday 
 
 School and Its Predecessors, H. Clay 
 
 Trumbull: The Sunday School (The 
 
 "Yale Lectures," Philadelphia, 1896), 
 
 page 381. 
 On the history and statistics of the Sunday 
 
408 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 school in America, M. C. Brown: Sun- 
 day-School Movements in America (New 
 York, 1901), page 246. 
 
 On Sunday-school pedagogy in general, A. 
 C. Ellis in Pedagogical Seminary, Vol- 
 ume III., page 402. 
 
 Books for boys and books about boys, Vol- 
 ume III, Number 2 of How to Help Boys 
 (see list of periodicals in the next divi- 
 sion of this Bibliography). 
 
 PERIODICALS AND PROCEEDINGS 
 
 Proceedings of the Religious Education Asso- 
 ciation (published annually at 153 La Salle 
 Street, Chicago). Indispensable collections 
 of addresses and papers covering every 
 phase of religious education. 
 
 Proceedings of the National Educational As- 
 sociation (published annually by the Secre- 
 tary, Winona, Minn.). 
 
 The Biblical World (monthly, Chicago). 
 Publishes many valuable articles on reli- 
 gious education. 
 
 The American Journal of Religious Psychol- 
 ogy and Education (Worcester, Mass.). 
 
 Work with Boys.— Formerly called How to 
 Help Boys (quarterly, 14 Beacon Street, 
 Boston). 
 
SELECTED AND CLASSIFIED BIBLIOGRAPHY 409 
 
 Association Boys (bi-monthly, 3 West 29th 
 Street, New York). 
 
 The Catholic Review of Reviews (monthly, 
 Chicago). Formerly the Review of Catho- 
 lic Pedagogy. Gives considerable space to 
 educational topics. 
 
 The Pedagogical Seminary (quarterly, 
 Worcester, Mass.). Prints many articles 
 on religious and moral training. 
 
 Studies in Education (4401 Sansom Street, 
 Philadelphia). Devoted largely to child- 
 study. 
 
 The Educational Review (monthly, New 
 York). Discusses the broader phases of ed- 
 ucation. 
 
 HISTORIES OF EDUCATION AND OF 
 EDUCATIONAL THEORIES 
 
 Thomas Davidson: A History of Education 
 (New York, 1901). 
 
 R, H. Quick: Educational Reformers (New 
 York, 1890). 
 
 J. P. Munroe: The Educational Ideal (Bos- 
 ton, 1896). 
 
 S. S. Laurie : Historical Survey of Pre-Chris- 
 tian Education (London, 1895). 
 
 H. Clay Trumbull: The Sunday School: Its 
 
410 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 Origin, Mission, Methods, and Auxiliaries 
 (Philadelphia, 1896). 
 Marianna C. BroAvn: Sunday-School Move- 
 ments in America (New York, 1901). 
 
 THE RELATION OF EDUCATION TO 
 MORALS AND RELIGION 
 
 Nicholas Murray Butler: The Meaning of 
 Education (New York, 1898), Chapter I.; 
 also Lecture I in Principles of Religious 
 Education (New York, 1900). 
 
 Charles A. McMurry: The Elements of Gen- 
 eral Method (New York, 1903), Chapter I 
 —''The Chief Aim of Education." 
 
 John Dewey: My Pedagogic Creed (New 
 York: E. L. Kellogg & Co.). A small pam- 
 phlet, but it contains the gist of a whole 
 theory of education. 
 
 H. H. Home: The Philosophy of Education 
 (New York, 1904), especially Chapter 
 VIII. 
 
 George A. Coe and Edwin D. Starbuck: Ad- 
 dresses on "Religious Education as a Part 
 of General Education," in Proceedings of 
 the Religious Education Association, 1903 
 (Chicago). 
 
 J. L. Spalding: Means and Ends of Educa- 
 tion (Chicago, 1901). Also Education and 
 
SELECTED AND CLASSIFIED BIBLIOGRAPHY 411 
 
 the Future of Religion (pamphlet, The Ave 
 
 Maria, Notre Dame, Indiana). 
 Principles of Religious Education (New York, 
 
 1900). 
 George A. Coe: The Religion of a Mature 
 
 Mind (Chicago, 1902), Chapter X.-" Sal- 
 vation by Education." 
 Third Year-Book of the National Herbart 
 
 Society (Chicago, 1897). The entire volume 
 
 is devoted to- moral education. 
 
 THE PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING, 
 
 ESPECIALLY AS APPLIED TO 
 
 CHARACTER-FORMATION 
 
 J. L. Hughes: Froebel's Educational Laws 
 for all Teachers (New York, 1899). 
 
 Friedrich Froebel: The Education of Man 
 (English translation, New York, 1888). 
 The Student's Froebel (Boston, 1894) is a 
 small volume of extracts from The Educa- 
 tion of Man. 
 
 Thomas Davidson: A History of Education 
 (New York, 1901), Division III. 
 
 Patterson DuBois: The Point of Contact in 
 Teaching (New York, 1901). Also The 
 Natural Way in Moral Training (New 
 York, 1903). 
 
412 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 William James: Talks to Teachers on Psy- 
 chology (New York, 1899). 
 
 Charles A, McMurry: The Elements of Gen- 
 eral Method (New York, 1903). Also 
 Charles A. and Frank M. McMurry: The 
 Method of the Kecitation (New York, 
 1903). Chapter XII gives a summary of 
 the laws that underlie the process of 
 teaching. 
 
 R. N. Roark: Method in Education (New 
 York: American Book Co.). The first 95 
 pages give a brief discussion of method, the 
 recitation, drills, reviews, examinations, 
 etc. 
 
 EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 
 
 General Principles: 
 
 William James : Talks to Teachers on Psy- 
 chology (New York, 1899). 
 
 James Sully: Teacher's Hand-Book of Psy- 
 chology, 4th edition (New York, 1900). 
 
 Dexter and Garlick: Psychology in the 
 School-Room (New York, 1900). 
 The Child-Mind and Its Development: 
 
 James Sully: Studies of Childhood (New 
 York, 1900). Children's Ways (New 
 York, 1902) by the same author, is made 
 
SELECTED AND CLASSIFIED BIBLIOGRAPHY 41£ 
 
 up of selections from Studies of Child- 
 hood, with some additional matter. 
 
 J. G. Compayre: The Intellectual and 
 Moral Development of the Child,. 2 vol- 
 
 • umes (New York, 1896-1902). 
 
 Frederick Tracy: The Psychology of 
 Childhood (Boston, 1901). 
 
 A. K Taylor: The Study of the Child 
 (New York, 1899). 
 
 E. A. Kirkpatrick : Fundamentals of Child- 
 Study (New York; 1903). 
 
 Irving King: The Psychology of Child De- 
 velopment (Chicago, 1903).. 
 
 J. M. Baldwin : Social and Ethical Inter- 
 pretations of Mental Development (New 
 York, 1897). 
 
 S. B. Haslett: The Pedagogical Bible 
 School (New York,* 1903), Part II. 
 
 Earl Barnes: Studies in Education (See 
 Periodical List). 
 
 G. Stanley Hall: Adolescence, 2 volumes 
 (New York, 1904). 
 
 First and Second Year-Books of the Na- 
 tional Herbart Society (Chicago). Con- 
 tain the pros and cons of the theory of 
 "recapitulation" and its educational ap- 
 plications. 
 
414 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 The Psychology of Eeligion: 
 
 Edwin D. Starbuck : The Psychology of Re- 
 ligion (London, 1899). 
 
 George A. Coe: The Spiritual Life (New- 
 York, 1900). 
 
 Gr. Stanley Hall : Address on The Religious 
 Content of the Child-Mind, in Principles 
 of Religious Education (New York, 
 1900). Also Chapter XIV of Adoles- 
 cence, 2 volumes (New York, 1904). 
 
 George E. Dawson: Article on Children's 
 Interest in the Bible, in the Pedagogical 
 Seminary, Volume VII, page 151. 
 
 William Byron Forbush : The Boy Problem 
 (Boston, 1901). 
 
 Earl Barnes: Article on Children's Atti- 
 tude Toward Theology, in Studies in Ed- 
 ucation, Volume II, page 283. 
 
 Rufus M. Jones: A Boy's Religion from 
 Memory (Philadelphia, 1902). 
 
 John Dewey and Henry Churchill King: 
 Addresses on "Religious Education as 
 Conditioned by Modern Psychology and 
 Pedagogy," in Proceedings of the Re- 
 ligious Education Association, 1903 
 (Chicago), 
 
SELECTED AND CLASSIFIED BIBLIOGRAPHY 415 
 
 THE CHRISTIAN VIEW OF CHILD- 
 DEVELOPMENT 
 
 Horace Bushnell : Christian Nurture (New 
 York: Scribners), 
 
 Henry Churchill King: Christian Training 
 and the Revival as Means of Converting 
 Men (Pamphlet published by the Secre- 
 tarial Institute, 153 LaSalle St., Chicago). 
 
 Henry Van Dyke : God and Little Children 
 (New York, 1890). 
 
 F. G. Hibbard: The Religion of Childhood 
 (Cincinnati: Poe & Hitchcock, 1866). 
 
 R. J. Cooke : Christianity and Childhood 
 (New York, 1891). 
 
 George A. Coe: The Religion of a Mature 
 Mind (Chicago, 1902), Chapter X. 
 
 James Sully: Studies in Childhood (New 
 York, 1900), Chapter VII. This chapter 
 analyses the good and evil impulses of chil- 
 dren. 
 
 THE FAMILY AS AN EDUCATIONAL 
 INSTITUTION 
 
 Horace Bushnell: Christian Nurture (New 
 York: Scribners). 
 
 George B. Stewart and Jean F. Loba: Ad- 
 dresses on "Religious and Moral Education 
 Through the Home, ' ' in Proceedings of the 
 
416 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 Religious Education Associatioii, 1903 
 (Chicago). 
 
 How to Help Boys, January, 1902 (see list of 
 Periodicals under "Work with Boys"). 
 This number is devoted to "The Boy and 
 the Home." 
 
 Patterson DuBois: Fireside Child-Study 
 (New York, 1903). Also Beckonings from 
 Little Hands (New York, 1900). 
 
 Jacob A. Riis: The Peril and the Preserva- 
 tion of the Home (Philadelphia, 1903). 
 
 Franklin Carter: Address on "The College 
 and the Home, ' ' in The Message of the Col- 
 lege to the Church (Boston, 1901). 
 
 Samuel T. Dutton: Social Phases of Educa- 
 tion in the School and the Home (New 
 York, 1900). 
 
 Herbert Spencer: Education, Intellectual, 
 Moral, and Physical (New York, 1872). 
 
 THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 
 
 The Graded Bible School (For sale by W. F. 
 McMillen, 153 La Salle St., Chicago). Four 
 valuable little pamphlets published by the 
 Association of Congregational Churches of 
 Illinois. One of the simplest, most prac- 
 tical introductions to modern methods. 
 
SELECTED AND CLASSIFIED BIBLIOGRAPHY 417 
 
 Burton and Mathews: Principles and Ideals 
 for the Sunday School (Chicago, 1903). 
 
 Principles of Religious Education (New- 
 York, 1900), and The Sunday-School Out- 
 look (New York, 1901), Two series of lec- 
 tures on various problems. 
 
 Proceedings of the Religious Education As- 
 sociation, 1903 and 1904 (Chicago). 
 
 S. B. Haslett : The Pedagogical Bible School 
 (New York, 1903). 
 
 George Whitefield ]\Iead : Modern Methods in 
 Sunday-School Work (New York, 1903). 
 Contains a large amount of information as 
 to successful devices of all sorts 
 
 John Adams : Primer on Teaching, with Spe- 
 cial Reference to Sunday-School Work 
 (Edinburgh, 1903). Short, simple, and 
 practical. 
 
 Walter L. Hervey : Picture- Work (New York : 
 Revell). A capital little book on how to 
 make truth vivid by story-telling, by the 
 use of pictures, by good teaching, etc. 
 
 W. W. Smith : Sunday-school Teaching (Mil- 
 waukee: Young Churchman Co., 1903). 
 Good but fragmentary treatment of the 
 principles of teaching. 
 
 A. H. McKinney: Bible-School Pedagogy 
 
418 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 (New York, 1900). A scrappy book, but it 
 contains many useful hints. 
 
 Mary J. C. Foster: The Kindergarten of the 
 Church (New York, 1894). 
 
 Joshua Fitch: Educational Aims and Meth- 
 ods (Cambridge, 1900). Lecture I is on 
 "Methods of Instruction as Illustrated in 
 the Bible'"'; Lecture XII, "The Sunday 
 School of the Future," has special refer- 
 ence to conditions in Great Britain. 
 
 George W. Pease: Articles on "A Course of 
 Study in Outline for the Kindergarten 
 Grades of the Bible School," in the Biblical 
 World, November and December, 1903. 
 Also article on "A Suggestion Toward a 
 Rational Bible-School Curriculum," in the 
 Biblical World, Volume XVI., page 98. 
 
 H. Clay Trumbull: The Sunday School: Its 
 Origin, Mission, Methods, and Auxiliaries 
 (Philadelphia, 1896). 
 
 Marianna C. Brown: Sunday-School Move- 
 ments in America (New York, 1901). 
 
 SOCIETIES AND CLUBS 
 
 William Byron Forbush : The Boy Problem 
 
 (Boston, 1901). 
 Work with Boys (magazine). See list of 
 
 Periodicals and Proceedings. 
 
SELECTED AND CLASSIFIED BIBLIOGRAPHY 419 
 
 Association Boys (magTzine). See list of 
 Periodicals and Proceedings. 
 
 Francis E. Clark: Training the Church of 
 the Future (New York, 1902). 
 
 Winifred Buck: Boys' Self-Governing Clubs 
 (New York, 1903). Treats chiefly of clubs 
 for street boys. 
 
 F. G. Cressey: The Church and Young Men 
 (Chicago, 1903). 
 
 Proceedings of the Religious Education 
 Association, 1903 and 1904 (Chicago) 
 
 George A. Dawson and others: A Boy's Re- 
 ligion (pamphlet, published by the Inter- 
 national Committee of the Young Men's 
 Christian Associations, 3 West 29th St., 
 New York). 
 
 George A. Coe: The Young Men's Christian 
 Association and the Boy (pamphlet, pub- 
 lished by the Secretarial Institute, 153 La 
 Salle St., Chicago). 
 
 ACADEMIES AND COLLEGES 
 
 LeBaron Russell Briggs: School, College and 
 Character (Boston, 1902). 
 
 Francis G. Peabody: The Religion of an Ed- 
 ucated Man (New York, 1903). Also an 
 article in the Forum for July, 1901. 
 
 The Message of the College to the Church 
 
420 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 (Boston, 1901). Addresses by six eminent 
 educators. 
 
 Charles F. Thwing: The American College 
 in American Life (New York, 1897). 
 
 "Waitman Barbe: Going to College (New 
 York, 1899). 
 
 J. TI. Canfield: The College Student and His 
 Problems (New York, 1902). 
 
 J. H. Crooker: Religious Freedom in Amer- 
 ican Education (Boston, 1903). 
 
 H. Thistleton Mark: Individuality and the 
 Moral Aim in American Education (Lon- 
 don, 1901), Chapter XIL 
 
 H. M. Stanley: Article, "Remarks on Reli- 
 gious Education," in Educational Review, 
 Volume XV, page 392. Contains some 
 pointed remarks concerning the college 
 chapel service. 
 
 National Conference of Secondary Educa- 
 tion (Chicago: Northwestern University). 
 
 H. D. Sheldon: Student Life and Customs 
 (New York, 1901). Chapter V, Section 6 
 has the title, "Religious Organisations 
 Among Students." A bibliography of the 
 subject is given at page 346. 
 
 THE RELATION OF STATE SCHOOLS 
 TO MORALS AND RELIGION. 
 
 Charles H. Thurber and John W. Carr: Ad- 
 
SELECTED AND CLASSIFIED BIBLIOGRAPHY 421 
 
 dresses on "Religious and Moral Education 
 Through the Public Schools," in Proceed- 
 ings of the Religious Education Association 
 for 1903 (Chicago). Also discussion on 
 pages 164-172. 
 
 Edward A. Pace and William T. Harris: 
 Addresses in Proceedings of the National 
 Educational Association for 1903 ; also the 
 discussion that follows these addresses. 
 
 Report of United States Commissioner of Ed- 
 ucation for 1896-97, p. 2171. Statistics on 
 the reading of Bible, etc., in public schools. 
 
 Report of United States Commissioner of Ed- 
 ucation, 1888-89, Volume I, page 629. The 
 celebrated decision of the Wisconsin Su- 
 preme Court as to the use of the Bible in 
 schools. 
 
 John Ireland (Archbishop) : Address on 
 "State Schools and Parish Schools," in 
 Proceedings of the National Educational 
 Association, 1890, page 119. 
 
 Levi Seeley: Article on "Religious Instruc- 
 tion in American Schools," in Educational 
 Review, Volume XV., page 121. 
 
 E. E. White: Address on "Religion ia the 
 School," in Proceedings of the Interna- 
 tional Congress of Education of the 
 
422 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 
 
 World's Columbian Exposition (New York, 
 1894), page 295. 
 
 John T. Prince: Article on "The Bible in 
 Education," in Educational Review, No- 
 vember, 1898, page 353. 
 
 Felix Adler: The Moral Instruction of Chil- 
 dren (New York, 1895). 
 
 Ella Flagg Young: Ethics in the School (Chi- 
 cago, 1902). 
 
 R. E. Hughes : The Making of Citizens (Lon- 
 don, 1902). For the relation of state schools 
 to religion in Great Britain, France, Ger- 
 many, and America, consult the Index 
 under "Religion in the School." 
 
 H. Thistleton Mark: Individuality and the 
 Moral Aim in American Education (Lon- 
 don, 1901), especially Chapters V. and X. 
 
 J. H. Crooker: Religious Freedom in Amer- 
 ican Education (Boston, 1903). A plea for 
 a purely secular state and for purely sec- 
 ular schools 
 
INDEX 
 
 Academies, Christian, 325- 
 330. 
 
 Activity. See Expressive 
 Activities. 
 
 Adams, J., 417. 
 
 Adaptation to the Pupil, 
 107, 174, 176, 291. 
 
 Adjustment to Divine En- 
 vironment, 24. 
 
 Adier. F., 422. 
 
 Adolescence, 187 f., 173 f., 
 247 fif.. 316 f., 329 f. 
 
 Adult Point of View, Over- 
 Emphasis of, 12. 
 
 Aim of Education, 11-20. 
 
 Aim of Sunday School, 
 286 f. 
 
 Alcuin, 142. 
 
 American Journal of Re- 
 ligious Psychology and 
 Education, 408. 
 
 Anger of Children, 57 f. 
 
 Animism, 197 f., 218 ff. 
 
 Anthropomorphism, 204. 
 
 Apperception. 115 ff., 291, 
 384. 
 
 Application, Maliing the, 
 163 ff. 
 
 Assimilation, Mental. See 
 Apperception. 
 
 Association Boys (Maga- 
 zine), 409. 
 
 Association Outlook (Maga- 
 zine), 254 (note 1). 
 
 Attention. Securing and 
 
 Holding, 112 ft. 
 Augustlnianism, 378 ff., 
 
 383. 
 Authority In Education, 
 
 72-79, 92 ff., 208 ff., 271- 
 
 275, 312 (note). 
 Authority in Religion, 312 
 
 (note), 389-391, 401-403. 
 
 Baldwin, J. M., 224 (note), 
 
 413. 
 Baptist View of Childhood, 
 
 69. 
 Barbe, W., 420. 
 Barnes, Earl, 413, 414. 
 Bellord. J., 368 (note). 
 Bible, The, 
 
 Adaptation of, to Pupils, 
 
 160 flf., 294 ff. 
 and Education, 391 ff. 
 and State Schools, 355, 
 
 357 (note), 358 f. 
 and the Sunday School, 
 287 (note), 291, 303, 
 386. 
 Authority of. 79 
 
 (note 1). 
 Historical Study of, 6, 
 
 391 S. 
 Ignorance of, 5, 386. 
 Inspiration of, 264 f. 
 In the Colleges, 331 f., 
 
 335, 339, 341. 
 Introduction to, 291. 
 
424 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Making the Application 
 In Teaching, 163 fif. 
 
 Memorising of, 160 ff. 
 Bible-Study Union. 292. 
 Biblical World (Magazine), 
 
 408. 
 Bibliography of Religious 
 
 and Moral Education, 
 
 407. 
 Body and Mind, 43, 100 f., 
 
 72. 138 f., 323 f. 
 Boys, 408. See also Ado- 
 lescence. 
 Boys' Camps 324. 324 
 
 (note). 
 Briggs, L.B.B.,256 (note), 
 
 419. 
 Brown. E. G., 101 (note 3). 
 Brown, M. C, 286 (note 
 
 2), 302 (note), 408, 410, 
 
 418. 
 Buck, W., 419. 
 Buddhism, 202 f. 
 Bulwer-Lytton, E., 375 
 
 (note). 
 Burton, E. D., and Ma- 
 thews, S.. 286 (note 1), 
 
 301, 417. 
 Bushnell, H., 54, 146, 
 
 383 ff., 415 (Us). 
 Butler, N. M., 18 (note), 
 
 23 f., 29 (note), 42 
 
 (note), 410. 
 
 Canfleld, J. H., 420. 
 Carr, J. W., 360 (note), 
 
 420. 
 Carter, P., 416. 
 Catechetics, 158 flC., 309 f. 
 Catholics and Education, 
 
 86, 354 (note). 362, 
 
 363 ff. 
 
 Catholic Review of Re- 
 views (Magazine), 409. 
 Chamberlain, A. F., 229 
 
 (note). 
 Chapel Service In Colleges, 
 
 340 f., 420. 
 Character and Education, 
 
 lift., 348 ff., 410-412. 
 Character, Attainment of, 
 58 S.. 103 f., 119 ff.. 166- 
 168. 
 Child, The, 
 
 and the Adult, 104 f., 
 
 248 f.. 169 f 
 and Depravity, 44, 49- 
 
 60, 65-69, 378 ff. 
 and the Church. See 
 Church, The, and the 
 Child, 
 and the Race. 211 f., 
 
 218 ff. 
 in Modern Education, 
 
 12, 13 f., 82, 102 f. 
 Jewish, 46 f.. 374. 
 Mind of, 115 ff., 131, 
 195, 204* ff.. 212 f., 
 351, 412 f. 
 Natural, 216 f. 
 Childhood, 
 
 Christian View of, 44 ff., 
 
 65 ff., 415. 
 Early, 230 ff. 
 Later, 239 ff. 
 Our Deficient Knowledge 
 of, 226 f. 
 Christ, 44 ff.. 63 f., 66 ff., 
 87. 88, 121, 145-150, 
 265, 374. 403 ff. 
 Christian Academies and 
 
 Colleges, 325 ff. 
 Christian Education, 63 f., 
 209. 
 
INDEX 
 
 425 
 
 Christianity and Modern 
 
 Education. 85 ff. 
 Christianity and Play, 
 
 145 ff. 
 Christianity, Social Aspects 
 
 of, 312 (note), 337 f., 
 
 396-403. 
 Church Schools. See Chris- 
 tian Academies and Col- 
 leges, and Parochial 
 
 Schools. 
 Church, The, 
 
 Age of Joining, 254 f., 
 276. 307 ff. 
 
 and Education, 70 ff., 83, 
 85 f. 
 
 and the Child, 65 ff., 
 373 ff. 
 
 and the Family, 284 f. 
 
 and the State. 194 ff. 
 
 as a School, 288, 317 f. 
 
 Institutional, 267 (note). 
 
 its Teaching Function, 
 287 (note). 
 Cities, Modem. 5, 16, 267 
 
 (note), 278 f. 
 Citizenship, Training for, 
 
 337 f., 348. 401 f. 
 Clark. F. E., 419. 
 Clarke, Adam, 68. 
 Clubs, 306 (note 1), 
 
 173 ff, 232 f.. 418 f. 
 Coe, G. A., 23 (note), 66, 
 
 79 (note 2), 251 (note 
 
 1), 254 (note 2), 261 
 
 (note), 353 (note), 394 
 
 (note), 410, 4.11. 414, 
 
 415, 419. 
 Cole,_L. T., 294 (note 2), 
 
 309 (note 2). 
 Colleges, Christian, 325 ff., 
 
 419 f. 
 Comenius, J. A., 80, 380. 
 
 Community Life, Education 
 through. See Social Ad- 
 justment as Means of 
 Education. 
 
 Compayre, J. G., 18 (note), 
 80 (note), 221 (note), 
 413. 
 
 Compulsion, 103 f., 112, 
 188 f. 
 
 Concrete Material in Edu- 
 cation, 81, 83, 91 f., 
 151 f.. 384, 393. 
 
 Congregational View of 
 Childhood. 67. 
 
 Conscience, 223 f., 341 f. 
 
 Conversation on Religion, 
 276 f. 
 
 Conversion, 65 ff.. 187 f., 
 251, 302 ff., 394 f. 
 
 Cooke, R. J.. 68. 415. 
 
 Cressey, F. G.. 306 (note 
 1) 419. 
 
 Crooker, J. H., 420. 422. 
 
 Cruelty of Children, 57. 
 
 Curiosity of Children, 223, 
 236 ff. 
 
 Curriculum of the Sunday 
 School. See Lesson Sys- 
 tems. 
 
 Davidson, T., 21 (note), 
 42 (note), 80 (note), 
 380 (note 2), 409, 411. 
 
 Dawson, G. E., 294 (note 
 2), 403 (note), 414,419. 
 
 Decision-Day, 307 ff. 
 
 Defects in Religious Edu- 
 cation, 103 f.. 128 ff., 
 144 f.. 158 ff., 401 ff. 
 
 Democracy, 5, 401 f. 
 
 Dependence. Sense of, 202, 
 219. 
 
426 
 
 INDE^ 
 
 Denominational Schools. 
 
 See Christian Academies 
 and Colleges. 
 Depravity, 44, 49-60, 65-69, 
 
 378 £f. 
 Development, 
 
 and Growth, 150 f. 
 
 Education as, 12. 88, 89, 
 98 £f., 119 £f., 239, 286, 
 328. 334 ff., 378 flf., 
 389 f. 
 
 Normal. 221 f. 
 
 Periods of, 226£f., 
 247 ff., 294 ff. 
 Devotional Study of the 
 
 Bible, 392. 
 Devrey. J., 14 (note 2), 18 
 
 (note). 19 (note), 36 
 
 (note), 112 (note), 125 
 
 (note), 410, 414. 
 Dexter and Garlicls, 412. 
 Discipline, 
 
 in Academies, 329 f. 
 
 in the Home, 136-142. 
 
 in the Sunday School, 
 302 f. 
 
 in State Schools, 348. 
 Doctrine, Teaching of, 168- 
 
 170. 
 Dogma, 70, 353 f. 
 Dogmatic View of Chris- 
 tianity, 312 (note), 315, 
 
 342. 375 ff., 386. 389 ff. 
 Dogmatism in Teaching, 
 
 327. 
 Doubts, Adolescent, 263 ff., 
 
 346. 
 Drummond. H., 312 (note). 
 DuBois, Patterson, 114 
 
 (note), 115 (note), 411, 
 
 416. 
 Dutton, S. T.. 294 (note 
 
 2), 416. 
 
 Earle, A. M., 52 (note). 
 Ecclesiasticism, Influence 
 of, upon Education, 
 375 ff. 
 Edgerton Case, The, 357 
 
 (note). 
 Education, 
 
 and Authority. See Au- 
 thority in Education, 
 and Depravity, 44, 49- 
 
 60, 65-69, 378 ff. 
 and Environment, 109, 
 
 181 ff. 
 and Man's Destiny, 19- 
 
 22. 
 as Development. See De- 
 velopment, Education 
 as. 
 Christian. 44 ff., 47 ff., 
 
 63 f. 
 Definitions of, 19, 33, 
 
 120. 
 General, 27-29. 
 Histories of, 409 f. 
 in Relation to Morals 
 and Religion (Bibliog- 
 raphy). 410 f. 
 in Relation to the Body, 
 
 100 f. 
 its Aim, 11, 12 f., 14-19, 
 
 22-25. 
 its Factors, 11. 
 Mediaeval, 70 f., 73. 
 Modern, 12, 13, 70 ff., 
 
 85 ff. 
 of Israel, 34. 
 of the Individual, 36 f. 
 of the Race. 35 f. 
 of Women, 257 (note). 
 Religious, 
 
 and Authority. 8eo 
 Authority in Educa- 
 tion. 
 
INDEX 
 
 427 
 
 and Pedagogical Prin- 
 ciples, 86flf. 
 and Religious Impulse. 
 See Religious Im- 
 pulse, The. 
 Necessity of, 21 ff. 
 Theory of. Summar- 
 ised, 195 f. 
 When it Should Begin, 
 
 206 f. 
 Why Neglected, 85 f. 
 Educational Reformers, 80- 
 
 82. 
 Educational Review, The 
 
 (Magazine), 409. 
 Egoism of Children, oj. 
 Ellis, A. C, 408. 
 Emergency, the Present, in 
 Moral and Religious Ed- 
 ucation, 6, 358. 
 Emotions, Training of, 258- 
 
 261, 263. 
 Emotional Conversions, 
 251 (note 2), 308, 394 f. 
 Ethical End of Education, 
 
 17 ff.. 30 f., 348-350. 
 Ethics, Study of, 262, 
 
 348 f. 
 Evangelism. See Revivals. 
 Evolution, 42, 59. 
 Expressive Activities, 83, 
 90. 121-132, 139, 232 f., 
 244 f., 262 f., 304 f.. 309^ 
 313. 323. 377, 384. 
 
 Faculty Psychology, The, 
 30. 
 
 Faith, 402. 
 
 Family. Education in the, 
 5, 26, 137 ff., 217 f., 
 241 ff.. 267 (note), 271 ff., 
 255 f ., 360 fif.. 384, 415 f. 
 
 Family Life, Education 
 
 for, 337 f. 
 Fatigue of the Nerves, 
 
 260 f. 
 Fellowship. See Sharing 
 
 of Life as Means of Edu- 
 cation. 
 Fights of Children. See 
 
 Quarrels of Children. 
 Fiske, John, 219. 
 Fitch, J., 418, 
 Fletcher, 68, 
 Forbush, W. B., 304 (note 
 
 2), 307 (note 1), 414, 
 
 418. 
 Foster, M. J. C, 418. 
 Freedom in Education, 83, 
 
 92 ff., 121 f., 130-135, 
 
 136 f., 187-191, 277, 
 
 339 f., 384. 
 Froebel, F., 14, 82, 85, 131, 
 
 212, 221 (note), 383, 
 
 411. 
 
 Games, 239 f. See also 
 
 Play. 
 Gang Impulse, The, 213, 
 
 245 f., 250, 253 f., 255. 
 Giving, 305. 
 God, 
 
 Anthropomorphism, 204. 
 
 as Educator, 33 ff., 42, 
 151 ff., 201 (note). 
 
 as Environment of Man, 
 25. 
 
 Belief In, 203 f. 
 
 Immanence of, 78, 390. 
 Good and Evil Impulses in 
 
 Children, 56 ff. 
 Grace of God given to Chil' 
 
 dren, 53 ff., 65 ff. 
 
428 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Gradation of Pupils, 291- 
 294. 
 
 Graded Bible School, The 
 (Pamphlets), 416. 
 
 Graded Lessons. See Les- 
 son Systems. 
 
 Greed of Children, 57. 
 
 Habit, 26 f., 121, 188. 
 Hall, G. S., 221 (note), 
 
 407, 413, 414. 
 Hall, Thomas C, 303 
 
 (note). 
 Harris, W. T., 353 (note.), 
 
 421. 
 Harrison, E., 142 (note).. 
 Hartford School of Reli- 
 gious Pedagogy, 289 
 
 (note). 
 Haslett, S. B., 229 (note), 
 
 234 (note), 407, 413, 
 
 417. 
 Herbart, J. F., 81. 
 Herbart Society Year-Booli, 
 
 411, 413. 
 Hero-Worship, 252 f. 
 Hervey, W. L.. 289 (note), 
 
 417. 
 nibbard, F. G., 55 (note), 
 
 68. 415. 
 History as Study-Material, 
 
 262. 
 Holy Spirit, The, 55. 
 Home, The. See Family, 
 
 The. 
 Home, H. H., 25 (note), 
 
 410. 
 Hughes. J. L., 131 (note), 
 
 411. 
 Hughes, R. E., 422. 
 
 Ideal World, Formation of, 
 200-206, 221-225. 
 
 Imagination, 231 f., 2?3 ff. 
 
 Imitation, 108, 171 ff., 
 217 f. 
 
 Impression and Expression, 
 69 fC., 302-306, 313 t£. ; 
 See also Expressive Ac- 
 tivities. 
 
 Impulse, Religious. See Re- 
 ligious Impulse. 
 
 Impulses, Good and Evil, 
 in Children, 56-60. 
 
 Individualism, 396 ff. 
 
 Individual, Education and 
 the, 16 f., 121. 
 
 Infancy, 226 ff. 
 
 Industrial Conditions, 
 Influence of, upon Edu- 
 catlon, 15 f., 312 
 (note), 349, 396 flf. 
 upon the Home, 278 f. 
 
 Instruction and Education, 
 83, 106 f., 225, 351, 353, 
 375 flf., 386, 389 ; See 
 also Intellectual Element 
 in Religion, The. 
 
 Intellectualist View of 
 Man, 15. 
 
 Intellectualist View of 
 Education, 108. 
 
 Interest, 109-114, 291 f. 
 
 Internal and External Fac- 
 tors in Education, 115 f.„ 
 213 f. 
 
 International Lessons, 292, 
 300. 
 
 Ireland, J., 367 (note), 
 421. 
 
 Israel, Education of. 34. 
 
INDEX 
 
 429 
 
 James, W., 18 (note), 114 
 
 (note), 412 (Ms). 
 Jastrow, M., 38 (note). 
 Jesus. See Christ. 
 Jewish Church, 374, 375. 
 Jews, The, 354 (note). 
 Jones, R. M., 414. 
 Junior Societies, 317-319. 
 
 Kansas, University of, 345 
 
 (note). 
 Kindergarten, The, 133, 
 
 229. 
 King, H. C, 394, 414, 415. 
 King I., 112 (note), 227 
 
 (note), 413. 
 Kingdom of God, The, 45 f., 
 
 399 f. 
 Kirljpatriclj, E. A., 413. 
 Knowledge as an End of 
 
 Education, 14 f. 
 
 Laberthonniere, L., 79 
 (note 2), 368 (note). 
 
 Laboratory, The, in Edu- 
 cation, 154 ff. 
 
 Laurie. S. S., 409. 
 
 Law, Training in Respect 
 for, 221 f., 230 f., 241 flC., 
 263, 273 ff. 
 
 Laymen and Education, 
 70, 287 (note). 
 
 Laymen, The Religious 
 Education of, 337 f. 
 
 "Learn by Doing," 124 ft. 
 
 Lessing, 35. 
 
 Lesson-Systems, 
 
 Graded, 291 f., 294-300, 
 
 300 (note). 
 Uniform, 287 (note). 
 
 Liberty. See Freedom Iq 
 Education. 
 
 Library, 
 
 for S u n d a y-S c h o o 1 
 
 Teachers, 290 f. 
 for the Sunday School, 
 303 f. 
 Lies of Children, 56 f. 
 Life, Religion as, 200 f., 
 312 (note), 334 ff., 
 373 f., 387-391, 
 Loba, J. F., 415. 
 Logos, The, 201 (note). 
 Love and Law, 221 f., 273 ff. 
 Love, Divine and Human, 
 
 221 f., 265 ff. 
 Luther, M., 80. 
 Luxury, Influence of, upon 
 
 Children, 280 ff. 
 Mackenzie, J. S., 120 
 
 (note). 
 Man, 
 
 as Educator, 33 ff., 39 f. 
 Body and Mind. See 
 
 Body and Mind. 
 His Religious Nature, 
 22 f., 37 ff., 195 ff., 
 208 ff., 390. 
 Intellectualist View of, 
 15. 
 Manual Training, 154 ff., 
 
 244, 348. 
 Maplewood Church, Mai- 
 den, Mass., 306 (note 2). 
 Maps in the Sunday 
 
 School, 303, 304. 
 Mark, H. T., 420, 422. 
 Mather, Cotton, 51 f. 
 McKinney, A. H., 417. 
 McMurry, C. A., 410, 412. 
 McMurry, F. M., 412. 
 Mead, G. M., 307 (note), 
 417. 
 
430 
 
 INDEX 
 
 ) 
 
 Mediaeval Education, 12 f., 
 
 TOfif. 
 Memory Work, 160 ff., 240, 
 
 287 (note). 
 Menzies, A., 198. 
 Message of the College to 
 
 the Church (book), 419. 
 Method in Education in 
 
 General, 6, 96 f., 174. 
 Method in Religious Edu- 
 cation, 26, 96, 373. 
 Methodist View of Child- 
 hood, 67 f. 
 Ministers, Training of, 289. 
 Missions and Missionary 
 
 Biography, 258, 262, 341. 
 Modern Education. See 
 
 Education, Modern. 
 Money, Influence of, upon 
 
 Children, 279, 283, 305. 
 Monroe, W. S., 407. 
 Moody, D. L., 312 (note). 
 Moral Health of Society, 5. 
 Moral Law. See Law, 
 
 Training in Respect for. 
 Morals and Religion, 7, 
 
 286. 
 Morbidness, 260 f., 315, 
 
 342. 
 Munroe, J. P., 18 (note), 
 
 80 (note), 287 (note 1), 
 
 381, 409. 
 Music in the Sunday 
 
 School, 302 (note). 
 
 National Educational Asso- 
 ciation, 408. 
 
 National Herbart Society 
 Year-Book, 411, 413. 
 
 Natural Impulses, 58 ff. 
 
 Nature as Educator, 33 f., 
 40-43. 
 
 Nature-Study, 83, 117. 
 
 Nerve-Fatigue, 260 f. 
 
 New Birth, 65 ff. 
 
 New Education, The. See 
 Modern Education. 
 
 Normal Class. See Teacher- 
 Training. 
 
 Normal Religious Develop- 
 ment, 47 fiE., 221-225. 
 
 Obedience, 92 ff. See also 
 Law, Training in Re- 
 spect for. 
 
 Object-Teaching, 156 ff. 
 
 Organised Classes, 306. 
 
 race, E. A., 352 (note), 
 421. 
 
 Parent and Child, 221, 242, 
 255-257, 271 ff., 308. 
 
 Parents, Vocation of, 39 f. 
 
 Parochial Schools, 363- 
 369. 
 
 Pastor, The, 289, 306 f., 
 308, 318. 
 
 Pattison, T. H., 290 (note 
 2). 
 
 Paul, 35, 101. 
 
 Pease, G. W., 418. 
 
 Peabody, F. G., 419. 
 
 Pedagogical Seminary 
 (Magazine), 409. 
 
 Periodicals and Proceed- 
 ings, 408. 
 
 Periods of Development, 
 226 fif., 247 fif. 
 
 Personal Influence in Edu- 
 cation, 171 ff., 218-225, 
 255 fif., 300, 310 f., 348, 
 352, 354, 387. 
 
 Personality, 98, 119 f., 
 243 f. 
 
INDEX 
 
 431 
 
 Personal Religion, 249. 
 Pestalozzi, 81, 85, 131. 
 Physical Training. See 
 
 Body and Mind. 
 Pictures in the Sunday 
 
 School, 304, 305. 
 Piety and Education, 389 ff. 
 Pike, J. G., 52. 
 Plato, 100. 
 Play, 136, 142-150, 229, 
 
 239-241, 348. 
 Pledges in Young People's 
 
 Societies, 321 f. 
 Popular Education, 82 f., 
 
 87 f., 312 (note) ; See 
 
 also State, The, and 
 
 Education. 
 Popular Government and 
 
 Religion, 5. 
 Power as an End of Edu- 
 cation, 15 f. 
 Practical Education, 21. 
 Prayer, Family, 217 f., 
 
 283 f. 
 Presbyterian View of the 
 
 Child, 66 f. 
 Press, The, as Educator, 
 
 183 ff. 
 Prince, J. T., 422. 
 Principles of Religious Ed- 
 ucation (booli), 411, 414, 
 
 417. 
 Protestantism, 367-369, 
 
 380 f., 402. 
 Psychology and Education, 
 
 6, 29 f., 100 f., 127 f., 
 
 287, 291, 412 ff. 
 Psychology of Adolescence, 
 
 247 f. 
 Psycho-Physical Organism. 
 
 See Body and Mind. 
 
 Publicity, Effect of upon 
 
 the Young, 185, 261, 
 
 316 f. 
 Public Schools, 5f., 348 ff. 
 
 See also State, The, and 
 
 Education. 
 Punishment, 136-142, 230, 
 
 271 ff. 
 Puritan Attitude toward 
 
 Children, 51 f., 379 f. 
 Pythagoras, 100. 
 
 Quarrels of Children, 
 
 149 f., 213, 245. 
 Questions, Children's. See 
 
 Curiosity of Children. 
 Quick, B. H., 80 (note), 
 
 409, 
 
 Race, The Human, 
 
 Education of, 35 f., 126, 
 
 151-153. 
 Religious Heritage of, 
 23 f. 
 Reading In the Home, 283. 
 Reason and Imagination, 
 
 233-236. 
 Recapitulation, Theory of, 
 
 211-215. I. 
 Reformation,' The, 380 f. 
 Regeneration. See New 
 
 Birth. 
 Religion, 
 
 and Life, 200 f., 275, 
 334-336, 341-344, 373 f., 
 387-391. 
 and Modern Education, 
 
 70 ff., 85 ff., 334. 
 and Morals, 7, 286. 
 and Sectarianism, 356. 
 Intellectual Element In, 
 
432 
 
 INDEX 
 
 168-170, 262-265, 284, 
 308, 338 ff., 375 ff. 
 
 Psychology of, 414 ; See 
 
 also Religious Impulse, 
 
 The ; Psychology of 
 
 Adolescence, etc. 
 
 Religious Education. See 
 
 Education, Religious. 
 Religious Education Asso- 
 ciation, The, 408, 417. 
 
 419. 
 Religious Authority. See 
 
 Authority in Religion. 
 Religious Impulse, The, 
 
 22 f., 37 ff., 60-63, 195 ff., 
 
 208 ff., 390. 
 Religious Preparation for 
 
 Entering College, 345- 
 
 347. 
 Revivals, 312 (note), 382 f., 
 
 384, 394 f. 
 Riis, J., 416. 
 Rishell, C. W., 68. 
 Roark, R. N., 412. 
 Rosenkranz, J. K. F., 33 
 
 (note). 
 Rousseau, J. J., 81. 
 
 Scholasticism, 70 ff., 77 ff., 
 
 375 flf. 
 School, The Sunday School 
 
 as a, 26, 287. 
 
 The Church as a, 288. 
 Science, Modern, 15, 71, 86. 
 Scientific Spirit, 71 (note). 
 Scriptures. See Bible, The. 
 Scudder, H. E., 379. 
 Sectarianism, 327, 350, 
 
 354, 356. 
 Secularisation of the 
 
 Schools, 70-74, 85 f., 351. 
 
 Seeley, L., 421. 
 
 Self-Assertion, 250, 402. 
 
 Self-Consciousness, 248. 
 
 Self-Expression. See Ex- 
 pressive Activities. 
 
 Self, Man's Real, 99, 119 f., 
 203. 
 
 Self-Real isation, 119 ff., 
 79 flf., 204 flf. 
 
 Sensori-Motor Arc, The, 
 127 f. 
 
 Sentiments, Training The, 
 258-261. 
 
 Service, The, of Man as 
 Means of Education, 258, 
 260, 262 f., 278, 283, 
 305, 309, 339, 341, 346. 
 
 Sex, Teaching Regarding, 
 237, 238 (note), 256 
 (note). 
 
 Sharing of Life as Means 
 of Education, 174-183, 
 255 flf., 271-277, 329. 
 
 Sheldon, H. D., 420. 
 
 Smith, W. W., 417. 
 
 Smyth, N., 43 (note). 
 
 Social Adjustment as Aim 
 of Education, 16 f., 19 f., 
 21 f., 83 f., 94 f., 396- 
 403. 
 
 Social Adjustment as 
 Means of Education, 
 167 f., 171 ff., 230 f., 239- 
 243, 245 f ., 205-267, 328 f., 
 342-344, 348. 
 
 Social Aspects of Chris- 
 tianity, 312 (note), 394, 
 398-401. 
 
 Social Instinct, The, 224, 
 248 f., 253 f.. 258. 
 
INDEX 
 
 433 
 
 Social Problem, The, and 
 
 Education, 396-403. 
 Social Service. See Service 
 
 of Man as Means of Edu- 
 cation. 
 Society, Moral Health of, 
 
 5. 
 Sociology, 262. 
 Spalding, J. L., 42 (note), 
 
 356, 364 (note). 368 
 
 (note). 
 Spencer, H., 18 (note), 142, 
 
 274 (note), 416. 
 Spiritual Life of Sunday- 
 School Teachers, 21)1, 
 
 300, 310 f. 
 Stanley, H. M., 420. 
 Starbuck, E. D., 23 (note), 
 
 251 (notel), 255 (note), 
 
 410, 414. 
 State, The, 
 
 and the Church, 194 ff. 
 
 and Education, 70 f., 
 
 82 f., 85 f., 326, 344 f., 
 
 348 £E., 420. 
 State Universities, 344 f. 
 Stewart, G. B., 415. 
 Stories and Story Telling, 
 
 229, 231 f., 233-236, 299, 
 
 304, 374. 
 Studies in Education 
 
 (Magazine), 409. 
 Suggestion, 171-173. 
 Sully, J., 58 (note), 163 
 
 (note), 219 (note), 222 
 
 (note 2). 
 Sunday School, The, 
 
 Aim, etc., 286 f. 
 
 and Junior Society, 310. 
 
 and State Schools, 301, 
 354. 360 ff. 
 
 and Young People's So- 
 cieties, 320 f. 
 
 Movement, 385 f. 
 
 Superintendent, 289, 
 293 f. 
 
 Teachers, 362, 290 f., 
 300, 310 f. 
 Sunday-School Outlook, 
 
 The (book), 417. 
 
 Tabernacle Church, The, 
 
 Chicago, 306 (note 2). 
 Taylor, A. R., 413. 
 Teacher, The, 
 
 and the Child, 102. 
 310 f., 329, 342 £C., 348. 
 
 Vocation of, 39 f. 
 Teachers' Meeting, The, 
 
 290. 
 Teacher-Training for the 
 
 Sunday School, 262, 
 
 290 f., 337 f. 
 Text-Books. Function of, 
 
 154. 
 Theological Schools, 289. 
 Thurber, C. H., 420. 
 Thwing, C. F., 420. 
 Tompkins, A., 18 (note). 
 Tracy, F., 413. 
 Trumbull, H. C. 407, 409, 
 
 418. 
 
 UUrick, D. S., 292 (note). 
 
 Unconscious Element, 
 The, in Education, 171- 
 174, 180 f., 310 f. 
 
 Uniform Lessons. See Les- 
 son Systems. Uniform. 
 
 United States Commission- 
 er of Education, Reports 
 of, 421. 
 
 Universal Education. See 
 Popular Education, 
 
INDEX 
 
 VanDyke, H.. 415. 
 
 VanLiew.C. C.,212 (note). 
 
 Vinet. A., 311 (note). 
 
 Virtue Learned by Prac- 
 tice. 349. 
 
 Voluntaristic View of 
 Man. See Intellectualist 
 View of Man. 
 
 Volunteer Movement for 
 Foreign Missions, 341. 
 
 Vows and Pledges in 
 Young People's Societies, 
 321 f. 
 
 Watson, 68. 
 Wesley, J.. 68. 
 Wesleyan Revival, 382 f. 
 Wliedon, D. D., 68. 
 White, E. E., 421. 
 Will, Enlisting the, 187- 
 
 191. 
 Willcox. G, B., 309, 
 
 Wisconsin Supreme Court 
 Decision regarding the 
 Bible in the Schools, 357. 
 
 Women, Higher Education 
 of, 257 (note). 
 
 Wonder-Stories, 233-236. 
 
 Work with Boys (Maga- 
 zine), 408, 416, 418. 
 
 Worship, 258, 260, 276 
 (note), 301. 302, 305, 
 306 f., 399 f. 
 
 Young, E. F., 422. 
 
 Young Men's Christian As- 
 sociations, The, 254. 312, 
 323, 341 f. 
 
 Young People's Societies, 
 258, 261, 288. 312 ff., 
 320 f. 
 
 Young Women's Christian 
 Associations. The, 312, 
 341 f. 
 
 l&Nly3Q