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of its severe aspect, and of commending itself therefore more readily to the mind and the heart of childhood.

Moreover, our course of language will have another merit, that of frequently attaching to what is right in its examples, the epithets fine, noble, great, honourable; and to what is wrong those of low, mean, sordid, base, &c. This may appear a trifle; but little causes often produce great effects. And see how much the mother gains by such terms judiciously applied. She sets us the example, and we shall readily follow it, because we have undertaken to continue and to complete her work in education.

CHAPTER V.

Cultivation of the Religious Tendency by means of our
Course of Language.

As we receive young Christians to our course of language, we shall connect our lessons with those of the mother. Our task is to consolidate and develope their religious convictions, in order to give to their infant piety that degree of strength and perfection of which their age is susceptible, without encroaching on the duties of the ministry, which will complete what we have begun.

Our sketch will present a systematic plan, which will not and cannot be found in our elementary books; but what has been said of the natural association of ideas, in regard to moral cultivation, is equally applicable here.

To cultivate Piety towards our Heavenly Father.

Belief in God is, as it were, the root of piety. Thence emanate respect, gratitude, and confidence, those affections which first bind the child to the mother, and thence ascending towards the Heavenly Father revealed in the Gospel, raise man above the dust of the earth, make him the citizen of another and a better world, and stamp him with the seal of the dignity of his nature.

There is action and reaction between piety and morality, and the teacher must not overlook this mutual influence. Conscience imposes upon us a holy law, and leads us to a Holy God, who is its Author and Administrator. Then piety, in its turn, comes in aid of conscience, by sanctioning its decrees, and commending them to the heart, as the decrees of that Father whom it reveals to us. Thus, to cultivate conscience is to cultivate piety, and vice versa. Everything is mutually connected in the mind, which is one, and this education must take account of. Let us now separately consider the religious feelings in their order.

To animate Belief in God.

As maternal tenderness, though invisible, manifests itself to the child by its watchful care, so God reveals Himself to us by His works, which are the visible impress of His invisible goodness, administered by a wisdom and power which are inscrutable. And we, on our part, go forth to meet Him, urged by the tendencies and the wants of our nature, unless degraded by vice, or blinded by error.

We would fain derive our origin from God, the Great Spirit, and not from the vile dust; and to Him we would offer the homage of our admiration and gratitude for all the wonders and benefits which encompass us. Under the eye of His Providence we would live with our friends; and He alone can guarantee to us that eternal life beyond the grave, which our hearts long after, both for ourselves and for our fellow-men. He alone also can dispense that perfect justice of which we feel the want, and which our conscience demands.

Thus belief in God is produced by combination; God manifests Himself to us in nature, and we go forth to meet Him through the best affections of our heart. This combination is the idea on which our course of language will work, in order to animate and strengthen the faith of its pupils.

We have already said that our educative course, with a view to intellectual developement, will endeavour to

impart to its pupils the knowledge of nature, and for the better accomplishment of its task, we have recommended that to our lessons should be added consecutive reading on this vast and important subject. In all this, religious cultivation was our object; and our course of language will carefully qualify the pupils for discovering more and more clearly the impress of the Deity on His grand and beautiful works, and will make them live, as it were, in His presence. With this view it will cultivate a religious train of reasoning, and will familiarize the mind with it.

On the other hand, it will not neglect, as we have already said, to direct towards God all the natural tendencies of the human heart. The testimony of the heart, added to that of the mind, which traces the work to its Author, produces a firm and full conviction; and this is the conviction we desire for our pupils, that it may issue in a vigorous, enlightened, and active piety, such as the Gospel and the exigencies of life require.

I shall now annex a few examples of exercises on this subject, which, however important, is but little attended to in education. "My origin is noble, for I proceed from the Author and Maker of the Universe. The world which I inhabit is the work of God, and He it is who watches over me. I shall live for ever; for God is not the God of the dead, but of the living. Let innocence be of good cheer; for there is a just God above, who will reward it. Some day or other I must lose my best friends; but God will restore them, in a better world, where there will be no more parting. My lot is in the hands of the Lord of the Universe, therefore I am safe."

To animate Reverence towards God.

Our pupils, on first coming to us, are not devoid of reverence for the Deity, but our task is to complete what has been begun at home. We must lead them to contrast the greatness of God with their own littleness, and hus awaken in them the Christian desire which is thus expressed in the Lord's Prayer, hallowed be Thy name;

that is to say, may every soul, under a due sense of Thy Majesty, bow down before Thee, and exclaim, "To God alone be the glory."

In order to enhance this reverence, our course of language will represent Him as the Contriver of the Universe, as its Creator, as the Preserver of all things, and as the Sovereign Master whose Providence regulates the world.

1. As Contriver of the Universe.

If we were only to advert to the physical world, we should overlook half, and more than half, of what is needful to inspire children with due reverence for the Great Spirit, whose ineffable Majesty is revealed to us by the whole order of nature. The material world exists but for the service of the world of spirits. The latter is the object, the former the means. And again, in the former there is subordination; for man, the only free and moral being, is the common centre towards which all animate and inanimate nature tends directly or indirectly; and in this we trace the finger of the Holy God.

Our course of language will say then, "Would you know the greatness of God? Try to measure the greatness of His works. All living beings are dependent on God, and He is independent of all. All beings, animate or inanimate, have been given for the service of man, who was created after the image of God. The Holy God has ordered all things to make us good and happy; and it only remains for us to desire heartily to be so.'

2. As Creator of the Universe.

To create is to give existence to beings which previously had none. We cannot create; we can only transform what already exists. Creation exceeds our powers; but although beyond our comprehension, it is not impossible, and when we seek out the origin of things, we are obliged to refer to it.

We have but to look into ourselves, who are beings

but of yesterday, not merely into our organs, which were mysteriously fashioned in the womb, but into the soul which animates these organs. Our life is composed of thoughts, of desires, of volitions, of divers actions; and this life we know is of recent date. We know also that we live a borrowed life: for we only feel and think, and will and act, inasmuch as the objects of our feelings, thoughts, desires, and actions are presented to us from without; so that if they had not existed, the spark of our life would never have been kindled.

From these incontrovertible facts, it necessarily follows that we are the creatures of the sovereign power which has called us out of nothing, and has placed us in His Universe when and where He saw fit. If our existence proceeded from ourselves, it would have had no beginning, and we should be utterly independent of others. In a word, we should be deities; whereas, we are poor indigent creatures, the offspring of yesterday, and subject, moreover, to a law which we ourselves have not made. This law commands us authoritatively to submit to the order of the Universe, and enforces its commands by promises and threats which extend beyond the grave, and throughout eternity. The minds of brutes know not this law of order, but they are in subjection to it, as well as to man, by the instincts which animate and control them. They, too, have had a beginning of life, and consequently of being so they, too, are creatures.

If mind and spirit, then, have but a borrowed existence, can we doubt that the same is true of the material world? As to organic bodies, whether animate or inanimate, they are now propagated by generation, but the first in each chain of sequences, must have had a different origin. They could not have been formed bit by bit out of pre-existing materials, and then put together like the parts of a clock. An organic body is essentially one and indivisible, in which all the parts are mutually dependent. It exists altogether, or not at all; and the first organs of plants, of animals, and of men, must have been produced all at once: that is to say, they must have been created.

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