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Religious Instruction 305
answered, was the great turning point in their
spiritual life. I can authenticate from my own
experience and the experiences of others the
ethical revolt which the cases of injustice in
the Old Testament—for example God’s pre-
ference of Jacob over Esau—occasion in a
healthy child. The explanations offered in this
case and in others like it fill the child with
silent contempt. When the child ends in find-
ing that adults themselves do not believe the re-
ligion they teach, the childish instinct for belief
and for reverence, that capacity which is the
real ground for all religious feeling, is injured
for life.
I will say nothing of the heroes and heroines
of the pious literature written for children,
with their stories of conversion and holiness.
Parents are able to protect their children from
them. I speak here only of that way of look-
ing at the world, which is forced on children
with or against the will of their parents. This
degrades their conceptions of God, of Jesus,
of nature. These conceptions, the child if
left to himself can develop simply or power-
fully. It is this way of looking at the world
that causes unnecessary suffering and danger-
ous prejudices. The inclination of the child
to deep religious feeling, sound faith, and
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