draw out these graces of the new life in the child, who is not himself
imbued with a spirit of living faith and fervent love to Christ. In
the beautiful words of Luthardt: "Religion must first approach the
child in the form of life, and afterward in the form of instruction.
Let religion be the atmosphere by which the child is surrounded, the
air which it breathes. The whole spirit of the home, its order, its
practice--that world in which the child finds himself so soon as he
knows himself--this it is which must make religion appear to him a
thing natural and self-evident."

And this is especially important for the mother. It is while
resting on the mother's bosom and playing at the mother's knee, that
the child is receiving impressions that are stones for character
building. The father, of course, is not released from responsibility.
He too is to set a holy example, to make impressions for good and to
use all his influence to direct the thoughts and inclinations of the
child upward. The man who does not help in the religious training of
his own children is not fit to be a father. But it is after all with
the mother that the little child spends most of its time and receives
most of its impressions. Oh, that every mother were a Hannah, an
Elizabeth, an Eunice. Then would there be more Samuels, Johns and
Timothys. Let us have more of the spirit of Christ in the heart of the
mother and father, and in the home. Let the child learn, with the
first dawnings of self-consciousness, that Jesus is known and loved
and honored in the home, and there will be no trouble about the
future.

But the child must be instructed. Begin early. Let it learn to
pray as soon as it can speak. Let it use its first lispings and
stammerings in speaking words of prayer. We quote again from Luthardt: