Dr. Bushnell, in his lectures on Christian Nurture, has said that the
formative years of every man's life are the first three. Is he correct?
I am not sure, but there can be no doubt but what with a good
environment the consciousness of moral obligation will be very early
developed.

The soul cannot long be imprisoned. The consciousness of "ought" and
"ought not" will break all barriers as a growing seed will split a
rock; and, when that stage of growth appears, the soul knows itself.

When the soul is finally awakened, when it realizes that it is
indissolubly bound to a larger personality in the unseen sphere; when it
finds that it is tied to other souls, and that it cannot escape from its
responsibility for itself and them,--what then? Then the struggle of
life begins. The awakening is to a realization of conflict with the seen
and unseen environment, with forces within and fascinations without.
When Paul speaks of the law as the minister of death, he simply means
that law introduces an ideal, and ideals always start struggles. Law is
something to be obeyed. It is sure to antagonize the animal in man. When
our possibilities dawn upon us, in that moment there comes the feeling
that they should be our masters. Then the lower nature resists and
becomes clamorous. Duty calls in one direction and inclination impels
in another. The period of ignorance has passed. Weakness and
imperfection remain, but not ignorance. There is a conflict in the soul.
The law in the members wars against the law in the mind. We feel that we
ought to move upward, but unseen weights press heavily upon us, and to
rise seems impossible.

Between God calling from above and animalism from below the poor soul