THE RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION 161 



on the walls and the billboards, portray a world 

 that he is not fitted to enter. Evil persons of 

 adult years will try to engage his attention and 

 his interest in their evil world. Children of his 

 own years from the homes and slums of vice en- 

 act a life on the street that is very suggestive to 

 his open mind. What comes to him from the 

 newspaper that enters every home? Certainly 

 very little that is fitted for his eyes and thought- 

 pictures and stories of crime and sin. The comic 

 supplement to the Sunday newspaper is his espe- 

 cial enemy. It is gotten up to catch his eye and 

 engage his attention, but under the guidance of 

 no moral purpose. One writer has recently said 

 of it: "It glorifies the smart child, proficient 

 in monkey tricks; the cheeky, disrespectful, and 

 irreverent child, who * guys' his elders and bet- 

 ters; the libertine child, of silly, humoring 

 parents." From the moral and religious point 

 of view our modern world is very unfriendly 

 to the child. He has no defenses in himself. 

 He knows not his danger. Ofttimes parents do 

 not comprehend that they are purposed to be his 

 defense against moral invasion as really as they 

 are against the invasion of physical danger and 

 want. Many who pride themselves on the physical 

 provision which they make for their children, 

 allow them to suffer the merciless moral treatment 

 of all the sin-traps of the street and public life 

 that surges around our homes, seeking for en- 

 trance. In how many instances are tender chil- 

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