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Childhood is the period in which the principles of Christianity can be the
most effectually engrafted in our nature. Its pliability at that period
insures its free assimilation to the spirit and truth of religion. "Would
to God," says St. Pierre, "I had preserved the sentiment of the existence
of the Supreme Being, and of His principal attributes, as pure as I had it
in my earliest years!" It is the heart more than the head that religion
demands; and you can fill the young heart with sentiments of God better
than if you wait till it grows hard as adamant in sin. You can elevate the
soul of your child to God, and teach it to raise its little hands and
voice in prayer to the Most High. You can teach it this from the book of
nature and of revelation,--from the daisies that spring up among the grass
upon which it frolics, by the mellow fruits after which it longs, by the
stars that shine in unclouded luster above it, and by the breezes which
ruffle its silken curls, and bring perfume to its smiling face.
To the mother especially, is committed the religious education of the child
at home. She is eminently adapted, if herself a Christian, for such a work.
Her love, her piety, which breathes in every word, in every look, makes her
instructions effectual and pleasing.
"'Tis pleasing to be schooled by female lips and eyes,
They smile so when one's right, and when one's wrong,
They smile still more; and then there
Comes encouragement in the soft hand
Over the brow, perhaps even a chaste kiss--
I learned the little that I know by this.
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