rom
them. Indeed, we come to life through their ways. We must become as
little children. Before we settle the question of play on Sunday we do
well to be sure that we know what play means to children, that we really
grasp something of its educational value and its religious potency. Then
we can proceed to a family policy in Sunday play.

Sec. 4. A POLICY ON PLAY

_Keep the day as one of family unity._ Help the child to think of it as
a day protected for the sake of family togetherness. You can play that
for this day the ideal is already realized of a family life
uninterrupted by the demands of labor and business.

_Maintain the unity by doing the ideal things together._ Go to the place
of worship together, provided it is the place where the child can find
expression for spiritual ideals. If the Sunday school does not really
lift the child-life and really teach the child, if it is not honest with
him and makes no suitable provision for his developing nature, he will
be better off in a quiet hour of family conversation and reading at
home. That means the application of parents to this hour.[33] It
banishes the monstrous Sunday supplement with its hideous, debasing
pictures. It substitutes conversation in the whole group, reading aloud
of stories and poems, biblical and otherwise, and songs, hymns, or at
times the walk in the fields or parks. Fortunately the better type of
Sunday school is more and more to be found; children are more and more
receiving a ministry actually determined by their needs. So far as the
church service is concerned the ideal situation is found when a parallel
service is provided for children, based on their needs and capacities.
As to attendance, under other circumstances, in the family pew, that
depends on whether the child is gaining an aversion to the church by the
torture and tedium often involved. Without doubt many adults acquired
the settled habit of sleeping in church because that was the only
possible relief in childhood.[34]

_Maintain the family unity by stepping into the child's ideal life.
Expect activity and use it._ Why should we assume that because the adult
finds a Sunday nap enjoyable the child will be blessed by enforced
silence? I would rather see a father playing catch with his boys on
Sunday than see the boys cowed into silence while he slept a Sabbath
sleep. Children will play. Their play is innocent; more, it may be
helpful and educative; we can insure these values in