m. I had
been read some stories from the Bible and some of the psalms, and from
these I had doubtless gained attitudes of reverence. But I am thinking
of the worship that spontaneously arose as I beheld the wonders of the
world which God created. Young eyes are new eyes, and to new eyes all
things are fresh, vivid, original.

It is sometimes asked if children and young people are capable of the
religious life. Certainly they are not capable of sustained effort
towards an unswerving aim. Certainly they cannot hold themselves to a
consistent discipline. They cannot engage in the religious life as a
conscious way of living. These abilities come only as we grow up and
subject ourselves to training. But, just as certainly, young people do
have religious experiences, and these often are more vivid and glowing
than those of the elders. That is it--children can glow. They can light
up. This capacity to glow is at the very heart of what we are talking
about.

To be sure, people young and old need instruction. We need instruction
in the Bible, in poetry, in all literature that contains truth and
beauty. We need to be helped to struggle against our faults, to overcome
our imperfections. And we need to be curbed on occasion, as the only way
in which we may eventually become able to curb ourselves. But it should
not be forgotten that all people, especially young people, have poetry
in them. And, more than that, according to the faith of the Friends all
people have within them something of the very spirit that created the
scriptures.

Religious education, it seems to me, is on the wrong track if it assumes
that religion is something that must be drilled into people. It is on
the right track if it recognizes that the source of religion is within
us as a native endowment, and that the function of education is to call
this endowment forth, supply it with the nourishment it needs in order
to grow, and guide it in ways that promote maturing. People should have
reason to be assured that formal religion is not contrary to the springs
of innate religious experience and longing, but is in accord with the
life and light within, and simply seeks to direct and develop this
spiritual life.

Had a Friend approached me in those days with some such understanding
and assurance, and had I been able to understand what he said, I would
have had still another reason, and this a compelling one, for attending
a meeting for worship. And so I would have