It is a grand desideratum in all the affairs of life, to hold fast
what we get. The business of evangelizing the world, is like the stone
of Sisyphus, continually recoiling upon each successive generation. We
want something like what the sailors call a Paul to the Capstan,--a
sort of Ratchet. This is the business of Christian Education, and the
problem is to devise such a system of religious training and
instruction, as shall be best adapted to that end.
It must be admitted that hitherto but little has been done,
notwithstanding that the blessings of the gospel are promised to
believers and to their children also. It is not found that the care of
pious parents, to infuse religious sentiments into the hearts of their
children, is attended with any remarkable success. Indeed, there is
often found a prejudice against religion, which seems to have grown up
with them, and is eradicated with the more difficulty, because it has
sprung up and rooted itself in a soil cleared from the rank weeds of
vicious indulgence, and prepared to receive the seed of the spirit of
God. This seed the enemy snatches away, and scatters the tares of
enmity and rebellion in the place of it. They spring up in the night.
They grow in darkness, shaded by the pall of a staid demeanor and
assumed sobriety of deportment.
The promise is nevertheless often fulfilled in a remarkable manner,
long after the anxious parent has gone to his rest, and the child,
grown up to manhood, has taken his station among his fellows, in the
affairs of life. Then it is, that the recollections of his youth, of
the discipline and habits of his childhood come upon him, like a
confused and troubled dream. Softened by time, as by distance, objects
lose their asperities; any harshness which had once estranged him is
forgotten, and he now comes to dwell, with sad and self-reproachful
feelings, on his departure from the example of strictness, sobriety
and gravity, which he had once renounced:--
"How gladly would the _man_ recall to life
The _boy's_ neglected sire, whose sternest frown
Was but the graver countenance of love."
Under the influence of such feelings, he often turns back into the
path from which he strayed. But how much better never to have left it!
How many sorrows has he in the mean time brought upon himself, by
vicious self-indulgence! How much matter of repentance has he provided
for his future life! How many has he led astray by evil counsels and
evil example, who are still wandering in the mazy wilderness of sin,
and may never recover the way that leads to heaven!
It is surely well to consider, whether there is no remedy for these
evils. Every man is a priest in his own house, and is not only charged
with the care of the souls of his children; but is bound also, as far
as possible, to make them instruments of good to others. What should
we say to him who should make his house a menagerie of ravenous and
destructive beasts, to be turned out as they grow up to prey upon the
flocks and herds of his neighbors? And what better is he who carefully
adorns and accomplishes the persons and minds of his children, with
all the graces of manners, intelligence and address, which give them
so much power over the principles and conduct, and happiness, of their
associates, without guarding against the abuse of this power, by
impressing their hearts with the love of religion and virtue, and a
sense of the value of the souls of others? They go forth as fiends of
darkness, in the garb of angels of light, and contamination, and
misery, and death, are the fruits of their intercourse with the
children of men.
Of this fault, it is not pretended that christian parents are
willingly guilty. They are not even careful in many instances, to
impart the ornamental parts of education, which so much enhance the
power of seduction, but they innocently supply an instrument hardly
less powerful, in the familiarity with the language of the Bible,
which is often acquired by those who have no taste for its doctrines.
When the devil cannot robe himself in the rainbow garment of Ithuriel,
he can, at least, "quote scripture for his purpose," and many a heart
has been corrupted, and many a mind confounded by scraps and ends of
texts, torn from their connexion, and uttered in derision by those who
have been taught to get verses by rote--but not, as the good old
phrase is, _by heart_. O! ever while we live, let us make our children
learn the Bible BY HEART, or not at all, that when they speak its
language, they may speak as one whose "mouth speaketh out of the
fulness of his own HEART."
This is the great point to be accomplished. How is it to be effected?
The answer is plain. By addressing the gospel to the HEART. By the
same means which a judicious and affectionate parent uses to infuse
into the bosom of his child, the spirit of cheerful and willing
obedience to himself. Let him carefully show both himself and his
Maker to the infant's mind, as the personification of love. While he
anxiously contrives to make him feel that to the love of his earthly
parent, he owes all the benefits that he receives, let him point his
attention also to that Father who is in heaven, and from whom he
himself derives all the means of ministering to the wants and
pleasures of the child. When he gives a bit of bread to the hungry
urchin, and asking if it is good, receives an answer which shows that
the little fellow's heart is full of grateful love, let him tell him
what it is made of, and while he shews him the green blade from which,
by a wonderful and mysterious contrivance, the grain is to be
elaborated, and marks the half-incredulous wonder with which the
information is received, let him tell him that this is the work of
God, who causes the rain to fall, and the sun to shine, and matures
the fruits of the earth for the benefit of his children. Such
occasions of calling the attention of a child to the goodness, and
bounty, and love of God, are continually recurring. He is never too
young to receive impressions of love. Before he knows the meaning of
the word, he takes them from his experience of the care and fondness
of his mother; and long after he has begun to prattle, this feeling
thus early implanted, continues to flourish alone, and affords the
only sanction of parental authority. How happy is he, and how sweet to
behold his happiness, while in the pursuit of his little foolish joys,
the "todlin wee thing" needs no restraint from mischief, but the
playful look, half-smile, half-frown, and the admonishing voice which
warns without alarming. Well might our Saviour say, "that of such is
the kingdom of heaven," where love is the only law, and love the only
duty, and love the only sanction. Under this sweet engaging
discipline, love becomes the habit of his mind, and long before he is
capable of comprehending any but the simplest ideas, the foundation is
laid in his heart, of those affections, by means of which he is to be
formed to virtue, honor and happiness. What idea (next after those
derived from things present, to the senses,)--what idea is more
simple, more easily apprehended, than this; that while he receives all
good things from the hands of his parents, they are sent to him by a
friend he has never seen, whose name is God. What occasion for telling
him who God is, or where he dwells, or any thing more than that he is
good, and loves good boys, and will continue to love him and send him
good things as long as he is good? Is it not easy to impress his mind
with the same feeling which is cherished towards his dear Aunt or kind
Grandmama, of whom he is reminded every morning, when he drinks his
milk out of a pretty cup, on which he is taught to read, "a present
for my dear boy?" There is no time lost. The idea of the spiritual
nature of God cannot be communicated until the mind is ready to
receive it, and then it is uttered in one word, and comprehended in
one moment. The vanity of a parent may be mortified, that his child
does not know any thing of these high mysteries, at an age when other
children of whom we read in good books, have been found disputing with
the doctors about the trinity and the compound nature of the Redeemer.
But this vanity, like many other human errors, needs the restraint of
reason. For if it be asked, how long should this state of things be
kept up? I would answer, as long as possible. If man is never to enter
into the kingdom of heaven but as a little child, I would gladly keep
him as a little child to the day of his death. But as this is not
possible, I would apply my answer to the actual state of facts, and
say that the discipline of love should be continued as long as love
continues to supply the necessary motives to necessary restraint.
I would therefore venture to recommend the imposition of no
restraints, and no tasks, but such as are necessary; and if possible,
I would impose only such upon an infant as are obviously necessary,
and, on an older child, such as he can be clearly made to see the
necessity of. Such a system not only prolongs the reign, and confirms
the habit of love, but prepares the mind to acquiesce with entire
confidence in the wisdom and discretion of the parent. Let care
therefore supply, as much as possible, the place of authority. Let the
mother's eye be on her child, and then, instead of turning him loose
with a code of unexplained laws upon his back, she will have it in her
power to draw his attention from unlawful to lawful objects, and to
lead him away unconsciously from forbidden places. The beautiful story
of the mother who bared her bosom to draw away her child from the edge
of the cliff, illustrates this idea.
I would say then to christian parents, prolong as much as possible the
season of childhood--the empire of endearment and love; prolong that
season when the hearts of your children are all your own, and divide
them with God. Let their heads alone. No one ever teaches a child to
talk. He learns it of himself more readily and more perfectly, than he
can ever afterwards acquire a new language under the most skilful
instructor. He has enough to do in acquiring those ideas which are
necessary to him, and are suggested by the objects around him. He
learns a great deal, and it is easy to help him to learn, without
giving him lessons. He may have nothing of what we would dignify by
the names of _knowledge_ and _wisdom_, but he will acquire a great
deal of _sense_, and may have very just notions of what it is to be a
good boy, without having his mind perplexed with definitions of sin.
The spirit of imitation will keep him busy. Teach him to love you, and
he will need no command to make him try to do what he sees you do. Let
him crawl. He will not long be content to go on all fours, when he
sees his beloved and honored father walking erect. Curiosity will make
him eager enough to know the meaning of letters, and he will esteem it
a privilege to be allowed to look at round O, and crooked S, and to be
taught to read for himself in the pretty picture books, out of which
his dear mother is in the habit of reading entertaining stories to
him. Keep bad examples from before his eyes, and the opportunities of
mischief out of his way, and keep his heart alive to a sense of the
love of his parents and the love of God, until his mind has time to
settle into a HABIT of love, obedience and virtue.
For reasons of the same sort, I would refrain from presenting in the
second stage of education, any views of religion that to the literal
and unpractised mind of a child, _might seem_ at variance with his
earlier conceptions of the divine character. I am very sure that any
doctrines _actually_ at variance with them must be false; and though I
believe that none such may be entertained by any sincere and
intelligent christian, yet it has somehow so happened, that many modes
of expression have obtained currency in the world, which a novice
would be startled at. I should therefore be careful, not to go beyond
the plain letter of scripture in explaining to him religious truth.
The well digested form of sound doctrine as it is there set forth,
would be almost my sole reliance. I would be careful to accompany this
with appeals to his own experience and observation for the truth,
that, as a general rule, it is our own fault if we are not happy. That
occasionally, indeed, we receive injury at the hands of others, and
that therefore it is that we are so often led to fall into pits of our
own digging, that we may be not so fond of digging them in future. I
would endeavor thus to familiarize him with a sense of the necessity
of punishment, as the preventive of evil, and to enable him to
comprehend to what lengths of mischief the simple principle of
self-love would impel the best imaginable finite being, if he could
feel perfectly sure that no manner of harm to himself could possibly
arise from the indulgence of any desire. This idea, as it seems to me,
is capable of being placed in plain colloquial language, in so clear a
light, that any ingenuous mind would be readily brought to acquiesce
in the necessity of God's moral government of the moral universe, in
the necessity of punishing sin in order to prevent it, and the true
benevolence of resolutely inflicting the necessary punishment, as the
preventive of the far greater sum of suffering which the impurity of
sin would produce. I should not fear that a mind habituated throughout
to cherish the sentiments of gratitude and love, would be slow to
understand, or reluctant to believe a plan of comprehensive and
_general utility_ devised by the spirit of universal benevolence for
the _greatest possible good_ of the whole, or impatient to endure such
portion of evil, as, in the execution of such a plan, it might be
called to bear.
I should anxiously endeavor to make my pupil sensible, that a plan of
coercion, intended to procure a cheerful, affectionate and happy
obedience, (and no other obedience can be happy,) must be understood
by those who are made subject to it, to be so intended, and to explain
to him the decisive proof of such intention which is afforded, when
the ruler himself condescends to endure a portion of the punishment
due to the sins of his people, and graciously pardons all whom this
exhibition of his goodness brings to sincere repentance.
With these suggestions, gently insinuated from time to time, and
containing as I verily believe the pure milk of the word, the best
aliment for youthful minds, I should content myself, and leave him to
seek the confirmation of these ideas in the Bible; nor would I suffer
him, until on the verge of manhood, to puzzle his understanding and
_afflict his spirit_ with the perusal of works of theology.
In confirmation of the ideas I have suggested, let me beg the reader
to observe how much more readily, and more frequently, the principles
of religion take root in female minds, than in those of men. How many
examples do we see among them of the most tender and fervent piety,
and how seldom do we find it incumbered with the heavy lumber of
theological learning, or frittered down into nice and shadowy
distinctions. Yet are they wise unto salvation, possessing that faith
by which the _heart_ believeth unto righteousness, though perhaps
unable to give any other reason for their faith, than that God is
love, and in proof of his love gave himself to die for the sins of the
world. Whence comes this tendency among them to imbibe this simple and
saving faith, unless it be from the peculiarities of their education?
The discipline of infancy is prolonged with them. They are kept under
the eye of the mother, whose unsuspected vigilance supplies the place
of commands, imposes an unperceived restraint, and renders the habits
of decorum, propriety, meekness and obedience, a sort of second
nature. Restrained only by the silken cord of love, whose weight they
feel not, they never strain against it, nor try to throw it off. Their
minds and tempers are formed rather by habit than precept, and their
obedience is secured, not by punishment or the fear of it, but by
prevention. They are accustomed to do right, because they have no
opportunities of doing wrong, without violating that instinct of
propriety, which makes it painful to do what we feel to be wrong in
the presence of those we love. When left to themselves, they do what
is right, because they have been long accustomed to do it; and they
know it to be right, because thus acting, they have always lived in
the enjoyment of those peaceable fruits which an upright conduct can
alone produce.
It will be seen that many of my remarks on the subject of instruction,
apply also to that of discipline. I have already shown that the
discipline, whose purpose is to prepare the child for his duties to
his parents, should be modified by a proper regard to his duties to
God. In like manner, that which may be called religious discipline,
should be so regulated as not to counteract what has been already
done. _Parental_ training, if I may so distinguish it, should be so
managed as to cultivate the love of the child for his parents;
_religious_ training, so as to cultivate his love for God. It would be
strangely inconsistent, that we should be careful not to offend and
estrange a child by imposing on him, of our own authority, any harsh,
unexplained and inexplicable commands, and at the same time load him,
by the alleged command of God, with burthens grievous to be borne.
Duties which he is not old enough to understand the nature of, are not
his duties. There is no more violation of God's law in a child of a
certain age playing on the Sabbath, than in the sports of a puppy. Yet
long before he is old enough to be capable of a violation of this law,
it is a matter of great importance that he should be gradually and
carefully trained, and prepared to obey it. In this training, I would
carefully avoid any thing like austerity. I would familiarize his
infant ear to the name of _Sunday_, and accustom him to regard it as a
day of privileges. Put on his best clothes, caress him, praise him,
warn him to keep himself sweet and clean, make him take notice that
every body else is so, and that nobody is made to do any work, and all
because it is Sunday; make him observe the staid and quiet behavior of
every body about the house, and see how soon he will get his little
stool, and set up with his hands before him, and try to _behave
pretty_ too. When this is done, enough is done for the beginning. When
he is tired of imitating the grave demeanor of others, let him go. The
spirit of imitation will return again and again; the habits it induces
will make a deeper and deeper impression, and if he is carefully
imbued with a love for his parents, and a love for God, without being
taught to dread and hate the Sabbath, he will be thus well prepared to
submit cheerfully to its restraints, by the time he is old enough to
know the reason of them. Let him see that you too, submit to them
cheerfully. Let him miss nothing of your accustomed kindness or
amenity of manner on that day. Do not let him learn to think of it as
"a day for a man to afflict his soul, and hang down his head like a
bull-rush," a day of fault-finding, and formal observance, and
Judaical austerity. In short, let him see that you esteem the Sabbath
as a day of privilege, and leave the rest as much as possible to the
spirit of affectionate imitation.
I would say the same of other religious duties. Do not force the
little drowsy urchin to sit up to family prayers. When he happens to
do so, let him hear you thank God in simple terms for the privilege of
being permitted to pray to him, and implore of him blessings whose
value he feels and knows. If you find occasion to preach in your
prayers, (a bad practice by the way,) do not preach about matters
which none but a Doctor of Divinity can be expected to understand.
On the interesting subject of fashionable amusements, as they are
called, I own I feel more difficulty. It chiefly arises from the
consideration that the youth who is old enough to take an interest in
such amusements, is at a more unmanageable age than formerly. It is
not so easy to restrain him, without letting him be conscious of the
restraint. It is not so easy to draw him off from a pernicious
pursuit, to one less dangerous. He is no longer to be satisfied with
those cheap equivalents for forbidden gratifications, which made it
easy to command his obedience, without estranging his affections. The
whole business of education at this stage, is a difficult and delicate
operation. I cannot imagine any general rule for a class of cases as
various as all the infinite varieties of the human character. Let us
suppose some of them.
If, in spite of all the care that had been taken to soften and subdue
his heart, and beguile him from self-love to the love of his friends,
and of God his best friend, if in spite of all this he continued
obdurate, wilful and rebellious, I am conscious that I should be at my
wit's end. I do not know but that in such a case, it would be the part
of wisdom to yield to those feelings which a parent would naturally
experience, and, acting as in obedience to the unerring instincts of
nature, to resort to severity instead of tenderness, and endeavor to
bring down his heart with sorrow. As a part of such a system, it would
be a matter of course, to deny him this indulgence.
A different case would be that of a youth of mercurial temper, and
warm feelings, who had grown up in habitual love and reverence for his
parents and his Maker, and whose buoyant spirit and restless temper,
and keen appetite for enjoyment, might render him impatient of such
restraint. Even in this case I should not too readily relax it. I
should endeavor if possible to ascertain whether it might be enforced
without impairing those tender and reverential sentiments. If so, I
should enforce it. If not, I would yield with undissembled reluctance,
but without reproach. I should endeavor to draw him into a contest of
generosity, with a hope that he would not long consent to be outdone.
But in no case would I surrender the end for the means, and do
violence to the best, and kindliest, and holiest affections of the
human heart, and run the risk of destroying them, by restraining a
youth from things not evil in themselves, but only evil in their
tendencies. The only antidote to the love of pleasure, is the love of
God. In truth the great evil of the love of pleasure, is that it is an
antidote to the love of God, and when the authority of God is used to
force one away from a much coveted enjoyment, there is danger that it
may but make him love God less, and pleasure more. But it is the
saying of a wise man, that where an appetite for any thing actually
exists, the best security against excess, is in a regulated
indulgence; and to this indulgence I would resort with an humble hope
that my pupil might find wisdom to add this too to the list of
blessings experienced at the hands of his Maker, until the victory
should at last result to him to whom it belongs.
For the remaining case of a young man having no taste for such
pleasures, and content to spend his time in reading and meditation, I
would prescribe nothing more than this; that he should not be
encouraged to bless God that he was not as other men, but be kept on
the alert by a warning that sin enters into the heart by more avenues
than one.
For the Southern Literary Messenger.