CHAPTER IV

RELIGIOUS KNOWLEDGE OF MOST WORTH


The child comes into the world devoid of all knowledge and
understanding. His mind, though at the beginning a blank, is a potential
seedbed in which we may plant what teachings we will. The babe born into
our home to-day can with equal ease be made into a Christian, a
Buddhist, or a Mohammedan. He brings with him the instinct to respond to
the appeal religion makes to his life, but the kind and quality of his
religion will depend largely on the religious atmosphere he breathes and
the religious ideas and concepts placed in his mind through instruction
and training.

What, then, shall we teach our children, in religion? If fruitful
knowledge is to be one of the chief aims of our teaching, _what_
knowledge shall we call fruitful? What are the great foundations on
which a Christian life must rest? Years ago Spencer wrote a brilliant
essay on _knowledge of most worth_ in the field of general education.
What knowledge is of most worth in the field of religious education? For
not all knowledge, as we have seen, is of equal value. Some religious
knowledge is fruitful because it _can be set at work_ to shape our
attitudes and guide our acts; other religious knowledge is relatively
fruitless because it _finds no point of contact_ with experience.

To answer our question we must therefore ask: "What knowledge will serve
to guide the child's foot-steps aright from day to day as he passes
through his childhood? What truths will even now, while he is still a