rayers, a trick that seems to amuse many people. To have little
children say grace at the table when no adult in the room has any faith
is again only a pretty trick. But to send them to church and Sunday
School when the parents stay away is far worse; it is culpable. Then the
children regard church-going, praying, and religion as one of the
innumerable burdens and penalties of childhood, from which they will
escape as soon as they reach independence.

When Overton, the great Yale athlete, who was killed in the war, left
his Tennessee home to go to college, his father told him that he would
not give him any advice as to morals or behavior; "but, Johnny, will you
promise me that you will never go to sleep at night until you have said
your prayers?" John promised, and afterward told his father he had kept
his word.

If both young husband and wife share a similar religious belief, it is
an enormous asset; and immense help to permanence in married happiness.
Now, one cannot believe in God and in Our Lord merely by wishing to do
so. Yet I often think that many who do not believe do not really wish to
with passionate earnestness; with as strong a wish as they have for
money or good looks or popularity.

There are many who say and more who think without saying: "If I only had
the faith I had as a child! Then I believed in God and in Jesus Christ
and in Heaven." One might almost as well say, "If I only had the
knowledge of algebra I had as a child!" Why do small boys and girls know
algebra and why in later years do they not know it? Because when they
were at school, they gave their attention to it; they studied it; they
thought about it. But after leaving school they may never have opened an
algebra book or considered the subject again.

What does one expect? If one expresses regret for the lost faith of
childhood, it is proper to ask: "How long is it since you read the
Gospels? How long is it since you prayed?"

Since religious faith is such an asset to happiness, such a foundation
for character and for married life and bringing up children, one might
make an effort to recover it, or at least to consider it.

I believe Sunday should be a day of joy and happiness. Sunday afternoon
games and recreation are fine, but one enjoys them more if one has been
to church in the morning or spent part of the day in either solitary or
community worship. Those parents who selfishly seek only their own
pleasures every weekend, who do not