in The Ideal of Christian Education. 31 



subjects to be like little children. It is altogether 

 contrary to fact, to teach that every true child of 

 God not only is at peace with Him, but consciously 

 possesses and enjoys such peace. 1 She came out of 

 the trial, so far as her Memoirs show, without the smell 

 of fire on her garments ; but it is not so with all 

 it was not so with the mother of Professor Maurice, 

 who is described in her son's Life as an admirable and 

 deeply religious woman, who yet endured long and 

 deep mental suffering from doubts as to her own 

 "personal election." 



The doctrine here insisted on, as to the rightful 

 position of the children of Christians, is that im- 

 plied in the phrase Baptismal Regeneration. I do 

 not altogether like the phrase, but perhaps this is 

 only because it has been fought over in the Church 

 of Ireland until it has become to most persons a mere 

 catchword. The principle implied in it is, however, 

 the truth that every child of Christian parents who 

 is placed in possession of Christian privileges is 

 "holy" and "grafted into the body of Christ's 

 Church " ; and that the ideal and the aim of Christian 

 education ought to be, not that this purity shall be 

 regained in future years after being lost, but that it 

 may never be lost at all. And we may thankfully 



1 " Being justified by faith, we have (xA tfI/ ) peace with 

 God," says St. Paul (Rom. v. i.) So in the Authorised 

 Version ; but the Revised adopts the reading 'xojyuei/, and 

 translates "let us have peace." The Apostle does not assert 

 that all sincere believers actually enjoy such peace ; what he 

 means is, " Let us enter into that peace which is our right." 



