192 MORAL CONDITION OF THE CHILD 



tained. The spontaneous faith, the free and un- 

 mediated approach of the soul to its Creator, the 

 faculties as yet uncrippled by the blows of sin, the 

 warm and fragrant affection, the touching depend- 

 ence on superior strength, all are hallmarks which 

 are visible in the first years of this pilgrimage. 

 And none can achieve a better fate than to turn 

 back at eventide to the radiance that escorted his 

 spirit into consciousness. How, then, do we deal 

 with these morning flowers when they display 

 their sweets, their gay and silken leaves unfold? 

 Their spiritual experiences do not need the instill- 

 ing of adult beliefs so much as the fostering of 

 infant intuition. For these experiences precede 

 statements of religious truth. They live in heaven 

 before they conceive of heaven. 



So glorious is their nature, so august 

 Man's inborn uninstructed impulses, 

 His naked spirit so majestical. 



. . . There is no powerful resistance in him 

 which piety must overcome to obtain a lodgment. 

 . . . James Martineau says that ' if we place be- 

 fore our children the clear objects of faith, of truth 

 in its beauty, and God in His holiness, they will 

 respond. When we speak to them of the high 

 deeds and splendid characters of the past, of the 

 universe in which God lives and rules, of Jesus 

 and His words and works, we may be assured the 

 fruit will appear in due season. . . . Fasten his 

 alert attention on the love and justice that per- 

 meate the universal frame and fill the activities 



