THE BIRTH FROM ABOVE 185 



miliar to the child before he can comprehend the 

 Biblical history from which the principles of wor- 

 ship proceed. The child is incapable of hypocrisy 

 for the very reason that he can not comprehend; 

 e. g., teaching a child the Apostles' Creed. He 

 can not know the meaning of those statements of 

 belief; is he, therefore, consciously lying in re- 

 peating them? By no manner of means. This is 

 a mere formula of sounds; but those sounds will 

 be imbedded in memory and will say themselves 

 back to him as the years go by. As the meaning 

 of the words gradually dawn they will be ac- 

 cepted or rejected in the light of all other Chris- 

 tian teaching. Below the moral consciousness im- 

 pressions and habits are being formed that will 

 deeply grip the spirit in the coming years. Our 

 own convictions of the truth of our teaching is our 

 warrant for it. He who is without deep convic- 

 tions will have no foundation to impress these 

 truths on the consciousness of his child. 



Our conception of the work of the Holy Spirit 

 is that of the near rather than the far; of the 

 normal rather than the abnormal and unusual; 

 of the gradual and developing pari passu with the 

 physical and mental nature rather than the instan- 

 taneous and the revolutionary. It fortifies the na- 

 ture before habits of sin have had the first and 

 best chance. It makes religion a thing of life 

 rather than a preparation for death. If it were 

 not a possibility, we would surely conclude that 

 the religion of the Bible were an after-thought, 



