publish articles setting forth the idea that it is the object of the
Sunday-school to _Christianize_ the children. As though the baptized
children of the Church, the children of devout Christian parents, had
been heathen, until Christianized by the Sunday-school! Many of our
Sunday-school constitutions also set it down as the object of the
school to "lead the children to Christ," or to "labor for their
conversion."

Now we believe that this idea is un-Scriptural and therefore
un-Lutheran. If what we have written in the preceding chapters on
baptismal Grace, the baptismal covenant, and the possibility of
keeping that covenant, is true, then this popular idea, set forth
above, is false. And _vice versa_, if this popular view is
correct, then the whole Lutheran system of baptism, baptismal Grace,
and the baptismal covenant, falls to the ground.

But notwithstanding the immense array of opposition, we still
believe that the Lutheran doctrine is nothing else than the pure
teaching of God's word. Where we have the "_Church in the House_,"
there we have lambs of Christ's flock. Ah, how many more we could
have, how many more we would have, if the fathers and mothers in the
Church understood this precious article of our faith, and prayerfully
built their home life thereon! Then would there be a more regular and
healthful growth of the Church, and the necessity for fitful,
spasmodic revival efforts would cease. But we digress.

From our Christian homes the baptized children of the Church come
to the Sunday-school. How is the school to treat them?--We speak now
of the baptized children from Christian homes; we will speak of the
unbaptized and untrained further on.