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Religious Instruction 299
Jesus as profoundly as other great personalities
of whom I read. But during the confirmation
period, I received explanations of the Bible;
in them every point, every name in the Gospel
was explained, every sentence made the basis
of hair-splitting distinctions, to show the ful-
filment of prophecies and the edifying hidden
meaning of every word, that formerly seemed
so simple. The dogma of the Trinity for ex-
ample was shown to be contained in the second
verse of Genesis. This was a terribly sad dis-
covery for me, that the living book of my
childish heart and my childish imagination
could be so stone dead. That religious indif-
ference is a frequent result of religious in-
struction, that spiritual maladies come from
the desire to convert the souls of children, num-
erous proofs can be given. I have heard child-
ren of six years speak with holy horror of
their four-year-old brother who dug with a
spade on Sunday. On the other hand I have
heard a six-year-old child who was dragged in
one day to three church services ask after re-
flection whether it was not more tolerable to
go to hell immediately.
The Judaic Christian conception of a crea-
tive and sustaining providence, which gives the
fullest perfection to all things, is so absolutely
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