old enough to follow the right path of his own accord, to ground him in
the motives and habits that tend to right living, and so to turn his
mind, heart, and will to God that his whole being seeks accord with the
Infinite.

Religious conservation.--If our leading of the child is wise, and his
response is ready, there will be no falling away from a normal Christian
life and a growing consciousness of God. This does not mean that the
child will never do wrong, nor commit sin. It does not mean that the
youth will not, when the age of choice has come, make a personal
decision for Christ and consecrate his life anew to Christ's service. It
means, rather, that the whole attitude of mind, and the complete trend
of life of the child will be religious. It means that the original
purity of innocence will grow into a conscious and joyful acceptance of
the Christ-standard. It means that the child need never know a time when
he is not within the Kingdom, and growing to fuller stature therein. It
means that we should set our aim at _conservation_ instead of
reclamation as the end of our religious training.

Yet what a proportion of the energy of the church is to-day required for
the reclaiming of those who should never have been allowed to go astray!
Evangelistic campaigns, much of the preaching, "personal work,"
Salvation Army programs, and many other agencies are of necessity
organized for the reclaiming of men and women who but yesterday were
children in our homes and church schools, and plastic to our training.
What a tragic waste of energy!--and then those who never return! Should
we not be able more successfully to carry out the Master's injunction,
"_Feed my lambs_"?

The child-Christian.--All of these considerations point to the