s,
draw out--what is in the child already; its own native instincts and
native conscience. Therefore it makes the child speak for itself. It
makes each child feel that he or she is an I; a person, a responsible
soul. It begins--What is your name? It makes the child confess that it
has a name, as a sign that it is a person, a self, a soul, different from
all other persons in earth or heaven; and that its name was given it at
baptism, for a sign that God made it a person, and wishes it to know that
it is a person, and will teach it how to be a true person, and a good
person. It teaches the child to say--I, and me, not in fear and dread,
like those heathen of whom I spoke just now, but with manly confidence,
and self-respect, and gratitude to God who has made it a person, and an
immortal soul.

To say--I am a person; and in order that I might be a right kind of
person, and not a wrong kind, I was made a member of Christ, a child of
God, and an inheritor of the kingdom of heaven.

To say--I am a person; and that I may be a right kind of person, I must
know and believe certain things concerning God Himself, Father, Son, and
Holy Ghost. I am a person; and that I may be a right kind of person, I
must keep certain commandments and do certain duties toward God, and my
parents, and my Queen, and my country, and my neighbour, and all toward
whom I am responsible for right behaviour.

And then, and only then, after it has made the child say all this for
itself and about itself, the Catechism does begin to teach; and in a few
very short words, tell the child about that which is not itself--

"My good child, know this, that thou art not able to do these things of
thyself, nor to walk in the Commandments of God, and to serve Him,
without His special grace; which thou must learn at all times to call for
by diligent prayer."

Now consider these words. There is comfort and strength in them; comfort
for the child; comfort for you, and me, and every human being who has
awakened to the sense of his own personal responsibility, and finds it
too often a burden heavier than he--and, alas, often, she--can bear.

The Catechism tells the child that it must not merely know doctrines
about God, or do duties to God; but more: that it is alone with God
Himself, face to face with God Himself day and night. But that therefore
it is to dread God, and look up to God as a taskmaster and tyrant, and
try to hide from God's awful eye, and forge