ssimilation 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."

They can better reach and train the heart. Religion is heart-wisdom. "My
son, give me thy heart!" We may use the head as an avenue to the heart, yet
nothing is done in the religion of our children until the heart be carried.
It is only in that inner shrine that there can be deposited the wisdom that
is from above, and only then will they be made wise unto salvation. And who
is better able to storm and carry that inner citadel, and lead its subdued
inmates to the Cross, than the pious, tender-hearted, soliciting mother!

Some parents object to the religious training of their children,
"because," say they, "there is danger of having their minds biased by some
particular creed; they should be left, therefore, to themselves till they
are capable of making a choice, and then let them choose their creed." This
is all a miserable subterfuge, and in direct opposition to the explicit
command of God and the whole tenor of the gospel plan of salvation. It goes
upon the assumption that religion is but an opinion--a subscription to a
certain creed, learni