ever be without a
kind and wise guide at this period; that which in itself descends
to evil, for the want of a moral guide, may be turned to good. The
faculties mentioned, cannot be extinguished, but can be regulated.
This is the office of the teacher. Too frequently we try to crush the
powers that early want training and regulating. The same powers which
run to vice, may be trained to virtue, but the activities cannot, and
ought not, to be kept too much in abeyance.

Children are not naturally cruel, although they differ much in the
propensity to annoy and reduce animals and each other under their
individual control; the passive submit at once, but the energetic will
not; it is then that the active assailant learns an important lesson,
which can only be learned in society, and which to him, is of great
importance. The difficulty on the part of the teacher, is to know
when to interfere, and when to let alone. I have often erred by
interference, of this I am quite satisfied; the anxiety to prevent
evil, has caused me to interfere too soon, by not giving time to the
pupil fully to develops his act. I hope others will profit from this;
it requires much practice and long study of different temperaments, in
children, to know when to let alone and when to interfere; but certain
it is, that the moral faculties can and must be developed, in any
system worthy of the name of education. Other vices beside cruelty are
to be found in children. Moral training applies to these, and none are
left to run their own course. Why should they? What are schools for?
but to form the virtuous character--the being who can command self
control--the orderly character, the good citizen, and, the being who
fears and loves God. Ends less than these, cannot be worthy of the
efforts of the philanthropist and the truly religious man.

There is another idea which has long been in my mind, and which I
hope some day to see carried into practice, viz., a Religious Service
adapted for children, in our various places of worship. No accurate
observer of the young in churches during divine service, can have
failed to witness the inattention of the numbers of children who are
assembled on such occasions. The service is too long and inappropriate
for them, as is also the sermon. It is addressed to adults, and
sometimes the terms used by the preacher, is Greek to half the adults,
in agricultural districts. Men cannot be too simple with the young and
illiterate;