by a premature condemnation of unsuspected forms of evil; you may bring on a systemic revolt through the attempt to force down the indigestible abstractions of the catechism and theological nomenclature, utterly unpictorial and prohibitive of anything like self-expression or the exercise of initiative; you may endear sin by dignifying it with too incessant mention; you may destroy the Bible by chopping every good story in it into bits of petty homily and "impertinent moralizing" instead of presenting those stories in their fullness of outline and color. Says Horace Bushnell, "We certainly know that much of what is called Christian nurture only serves to make the subject of religion odious, and that, as nearly as we can discover, in exact proportion to the amount of religious te. hing received." The remedy, humanly speaking, as it is the aim of this book to demonstrate, lies in the true conception of nurture and its practice, as a hygiene of four interrelated modes. There is a physiology and a hygiene of the soul as well as of the body and the one, up to a certain point, parallels the other. It is true that the body grows upon what it receives, while the spirit grows by what it gives as well as by what it receives. Yet after all, this is but a lofty form of exercise, a high altitude of self-expression. All education must come back to the muster test of values-to this idea of nourishment or response to nature's need, whether it be in the home, the church, the school. True nurture, then, makes for the whole man. Christianity makes for the whole man. Education makes for the whole man. There is therefore no true nurture out of Christ, and no complete education that is not Christian. As discipline, how many educational questions can you see in your daily life with the children and without them? So far as the Church is concerned a few such questions are given in our first chapter. Can you state your problem and strike your balances in terms of nutritional values? What emotion will be stimulated or repressed? In either case what kind of activity will result or fail to result? What mental image is likely to persist and to call for yielding or for resistance? Will this atmosphere engender moroseness or cheerfulness? What is the educational value of this story, this memoriter exercise, this picture, this song, this prize competition,-stated in terms of nurture? Are you giving stones when nature asks for bread ? Are you working to gather grapes of thorns or figs of thistles? This is not the way of nature and therefore not the way of nurture, and of course not the way of the Master. What is the "admonition of the Lord' ? According to Paul it is something with a nurturing power. Here is the first test: Will my admonition to this child respond to the hunger of his needy nature? Not if it stifles with an atmosphere putrid with discord or heavy with adult intellectualism, not if it is without form and void of visibility, not if it is indigestible, not if it presumes to order the individuality, or suppresses self-expression, or denies the initiative of choice and so paralyzes the will. We dare not call everything nurture that happens to sound piously like admonition. In common sense, if in nothing else, we are bound to obey nature if we would command her soul or body. Nurture calls for no miracle to accommodate us. It is dishonorable to God to dishonor the natural resources which he has put into our hands. To give stones for bread is a mode of infidelity under cover of piety. Where natural processes are concerned we must bring our methods to the test of nature. Education is a question of growth, of development; this becomes a question of the values of times and seasons, of ways and means. Let Nature answer in terms of nurture. Why should we so strain to avoid the natural way? Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God naturally as a little child he shall in nowise enter therein. The earth beareth fruit of herself; first the blade, then the ear, then the full corn in the ear;-a matter of order, a dictate of life; the way of the Master, the Natural Way. We are to train up a child in the way he should go; this is the natural way. For this we have been given natural resources and powers. From Nature we learn how to use them-how to honor our responsibility for them. We stand committed to the natural way. Say not therefore that the hand of God has no part in this discussion; there is no nurture without it. Say not that the Spirit is forgotten; there is no true life but that of the Spirit. Say not that prayer is unnoticed; there is no faith, no hope in God, no working with God without prayer. And love? there is no motive to nurture but in love. Index ABBOTT, JACOB, as story-teller, Bible stories, 249-258; Hall 234; on advice to children, church weakness and strength, 49 on silence, 118 Admiration, Descartes on, 92 Allen, James Lane, on memory, Andersen, Hans Christian, his method, 230, 233 20 Art, power for nurture, 132f.; BAILEY, HENRY T., on memory Beauty, usefulness of, 134 on, 274ff.; Rein on, 226 Blow, Susan E., defines soul manity by helping children, Brumbaugh, M. G., on feeling CALVIN, on education, 39 Child, objection of, 15; Brooks cetious attitude towards, 103ff. 329 |