h be grounded, but these must be made
_intelligent_. Not only must the spirit of worship be cultivated, but
the child must know Whom and why he worships. Not only must loyalties be
secured, but these must grow out of a _realization of the cost and
worth_ of the cause or object to which loyalty attaches. Religious
teaching must therefore appeal to the _whole_ mind. Besides appealing to
the emotions and will it must make use of and train the power of
_thought_, of _imagination_, of _memory_; it must through their agency
make truth vivid, real, and lasting, and so lay the foundation for
spiritual feeling and devotion.

LEARNING TO THINK IN RELIGION

Much has been gained in teaching religion when we have brought the
child to see that _understanding_, _reason_, and _common sense_ are as
necessary and as possible here as in other fields of learning. This does
not mean that there are not many things in religion that are beyond the
grasp and comprehension of even the greatest minds, to say nothing of
the undeveloped mind of the child. It means, rather, that where we fail
to grasp or understand it is because of the bigness of the problem, or
because of its unknowableness, and not because its solution violates the
laws of thought and reason.

The reign of law, the inexorable working of cause and effect, and the
application of reason to religious matters should be conveyed to the
child in his earliest impressions of religion. For example, the child
has learned a valuable lesson when he has comprehended that God asks
obedience of his children, not just for the sake of compelling
obedience, but because obedience to God's law is the only way to happy
and successful living. The youth has grasped a great truth when it
becomes clear to his understanding that Jesus said, "To him that hath
shall be given," not from any failure to sympathize with the one who
might be short in his share, but _because this is the great and
fundamental law of being_ to which even Jesus himself was subject; and
that when Paul said, "Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap,"
he was not exacting an arbitrary penalty, but expressing the inevitable
working of a great law. The boy who defined faith as "believing
something you know can't be true" had been badly taught concerning
faith.

Religious truth does not contradict reason.--To begin with, while all
of us come to believe many things that we cannot fully understand, not
even the child should be