Righteousness, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, as long as
I see His providence preserving for us this old Church Catechism, to
teach our children what we forget to teach them, or what we have not
faith enough to teach them.

Yes, I can have hope for England; and hope for those mighty nations
across the seas, whose earthly mother God has ordained that she
should be, as long as the Catechism is taught to her children.

For see. This Catechism does not begin with telling children that
they are sinners: they will find that out soon enough for
themselves, poor little things, from their own wayward and self-
willed hearts. Nor by telling them that man is fallen and corrupt:
they will find out that also soon enough, from the way in which they
see people go on around them. It does not even begin by telling
them that they ought to be good, or what goodness and righteousness
is; because it takes for granted that they know that already; it
takes for granted that The Light who lights every man who comes into
the world is in them; even the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, stirring
up in their hearts, as He does in the heart of every child, the
knowledge of good and the love of good. But it begins at once by
teaching the child the name of God. It goes at once to the root of
the matter; to the fountain of goodness itself; even to God, the
Father of lights. It is so careful of God's honour, so careful that
the child should learn from the first to look up to God with love
and trust, that it dare not tell the child that God can destroy and
punish, before it has told him that God is a Father and a Maker; the
Father of spirits, who has made him and all the world. It dare not
tell him that mankind is fallen, before it has told him that all the
world is redeemed. It dare not talk to him of unholiness, before it