190 MORAL CONDITION OF THE CHILD 



says : * ' The child is in a spiritual condition which 

 is the equivalent of the regenerated state." 

 ("The Christian Faith," 437.) 



Stanley Hall says : * ' The Lutheran children do 

 not look forward to conversion. If they have been 

 baptized in infancy and daily nurtured, they must 

 not be assumed to be unregenerate but as already 

 in a state of grace. The germs of a spiritual life 

 were early planted and have grown with their 

 growth, and they need no violent change or drastic 

 religious experience. Religion is a growth, not a 

 conquest; but adolescence is the critical season of 

 development, during which special care is need- 

 ful. ' ' The above practice, it may be conceded, has 

 not produced satisfactory results, and the spir- 

 itual condition of the Lutheran Church in Ger- 

 many is one of the most discouraging facts in the 

 world. To assign the reason we do not think it 

 necessary to assume the doctrine of original sin 

 in infants; but rather call attention to the fact 

 that the spiritual tests are all perfunctory and 

 mechanical. They should be spiritual and vital. 

 The theory that we maintain is by no means a 

 lazy theory of religion ; a theory that assumes that 

 all is well, and that, therefore, we need give our- 

 selves no trouble, or that we may be satisfied with 

 a few formal observances. It is just the contrary. 

 It assumes the necessity of immediate and con- 

 tinuous religious instruction and care. This on 

 the basis that the child is already in the Kingdom 

 of God and needs Christian culture all the way to 



