stands by His side in the child's thought and love, and if he love not
the teacher whom he has seen, he can not love God whom he has not seen.
Even the physical charm of the teacher will make his picture of the
Christ more beautiful. Nurture demands above all else that the teacher
of a Beginners' Class suggest "One altogether lovely," to the sensitive,
imaginative and imitative soul of the child, for her message to him is
ever silently, but irresistibly, "Be ye imitators of me as I am of
Christ."

The Place.--The place of meeting must fulfill certain conditions to give
proper nurture.

Because of the restlessness of these years, it ought to afford
opportunity for physical movement. Even if a separate room is not
available, screens or curtains should make it possible for the children
to change their position frequently. The separation will also remove the
temptation for curiosity to obtain satisfaction through roving eyes. The
place should provide comfortable seating arrangements, for impressions
carried within from strained muscles and tired limbs are far stronger
than from ideas that the teacher gives, and these will consequently
receive the attention.

But it is not sufficient to plan for seclusion and comfort. Nurture
thinks beyond and deeper than this. The child is gaining his first
impressions of religious things during these years, and his ideas will
be derived from what his senses give him. There is no way to give him
the thought of the beauty of holiness, and the joy that the religion of
Jesus Christ brings, except to make every thing associated with it as
glad and beautiful as may be. Choice pictures, flowers, sunshine, order,
all mysteriously transmit their beauty to the child's thought of God.