CIVIL SOCIETY AND CllKlSTlANirV. 'M 



ma(os it is kiiuUt'd from hims'll'; and as tlicy wero wout 

 to say in Israel, it is his spark, his himp, which is to go 

 sliining on Avhcn lie is dead, and i)e'rp.'tuatc liis name 

 and r-lorv in tlie midst of liis pi-oj-dc. 'Vhc latlx-r is 

 then, indeed, the proprietor of this sacred .natnre ; to 

 liim alone it belongs to impress iii)on it its controlling 

 momentum and direction t<,)ward the future. Conse- 

 quently the school, the sanctuary of education, has its 

 l)roper place beneath or near the parental roof. 



"We are proud of France, and with good reason ; but 

 it is not right for us to despise other countries. There 

 are countries of Europe which are of value to us in 

 many relations, and may well serve us as models. Let 

 me cite a touching example of primary instruction as 

 it is given at the family tireside in certain parts of 

 Norway. In those mountainous regions, so sombre and 

 sad in their gentle beauty, but so rugged in climate 

 during the cold season, the summer is devoted to the 

 culture of the fields, the winter to the household. It 

 gathers, then, about the fireside, the radiant centre of 

 light and heat both for body and for soul, and there the 

 education of the children is taken in hand. The most 

 aged of the family overlook the task ; the mother and 

 the elder sisters are the teachers, aided, commonly, by 

 the travelling schoolmaster, a household pilgrim, whose 

 business takes him about through the snow-paths, 

 Avith his little baggage of Christian science and na- 

 tional history and poetry. Beside the schoolmaster, 

 and sometimes in his vacant chair, sits the minister of 

 religion — a Protestant minister, I know, but ordina- 

 rily a man who has kept the vital principle of Chris- 

 tianity, with the faith of Christ and the morality of the 

 gospel. At this house-school is forming, day by day, 

 the character of generations in whom the religious and 



