SUMMAEY 207 



but its non-attainment is a disgrace to every child 

 of God. That victory may be attained while the 

 flesh is exerting its everlasting impulsion toward 

 gratification. "The fruit of the Spirit is self- 

 control, ' ' says Paul. The demand for this control 

 is ever insistent, and, thank God! its possibility 

 is within our reach ! 



3. The third link in our chain is the vitality 

 of the family-life. We would, if power sufficient 

 is given us, leave the impression upon every par- 

 ent that infancy and childhood are as full of des- 

 tiny to the child spiritually as the prenatal con- 

 dition is physically. There are certain laws which 

 the parent may use, as vital in sustaining and di- 

 recting the moral quality of the life, as the laws 

 of food and clothing are in directing and sus- 

 taining the physical life. Two of these factors 

 are known as Imitation and Authority. The 

 child is so made that he will imitate us ; thus God 

 has put him within the absolute control of ex- 

 ample. He can not help imitating us, and he has 

 no action of the will during his early years which 

 he may direct against this law of his nature. 

 But as he does, so he is. To start with, he is an 

 empty vessel, intellectually and morally. Every 

 time he acts he is dropping a little grain of self- 

 hood down into this vessel, and this all before he 

 has come to the place of moral choice. 



In the years a little later, and on up to thir- 

 teen and fourteen years of age, he is so made 

 that direction by another is to him normal. He 



