e child's power and
thought in the spiritual life. We must avoid the abstract, the
intellectually analytical. Religion should present itself concretely,
practically, and as an atmosphere and ideal in the family. We parents
must not look for theological interest in the child. A Timothy Dwight at
ten or twelve, though once found in Sunday-school library books, is a
monstrosity. The child's aspiration, his religious devotion, his love
for God will find expression in almost every other way before it will be
formulated into questions of a serious theological character. Nor ought
we to force upon him the phrases of religion to which we are accustomed.
He will live in another day and must speak its tongue. His faith must
find itself in consciousness and then be permitted to clothe itself in
appropriate garments of words. Those garments must be woven out of the
realities of actual experiences in the child's life. We cannot prepare
or make them for him. The expression of religion will be consonant with
the stage of development. If his faith is to be real he must never be
allowed or tempted to imagine that if only he can use the words, the
verbal symbol, he has the fact, the life-experience. Try then to use
words which are simple and meaningful to him and be content to wait for
life to lead him to formulate vital verbal forms for himself.

Sec. 4. PATIENCE AND COMMON-SENSE

Fourthly, we must have faith in God's laws of growth. If we be but
faithful, furnishing the soil, the seed, the nurture, we must wait for
the increase. Many factors which we cannot control will determine
whether it shall be early or late and what form it shall take. We must
wait. It is high folly that pulls up the sprouting grain to see whether
it is growing properly.

Fifthly, manifestations of the religious life will vary in children and
in families. The commonest error is to expect some one popular form
alone, to imagine that all children must pass through some standardized
experiences. Mrs. Brown's Willy may rise in prayer meeting. Do not be
downhearted. Willy is only doing that which he has seen his parents do,
and, usually, only because they do it. Your boy, or girl, is seeking
health of life, of thought, of action; is growing in character. Let them
grow, help them to grow. You know they love you even when they say
little about it; you do not expect them to climb to the housetop and
declare their affection. A flower does not sing about the sun, it gr