God's command
to nurture the children "In the chastening and admonition of the Lord,"
with all that means, the next generation would see the kingdoms of this
world given to Christ and the advent of the King.

III. The Third Principle defines the work of nurture.

"Nurture must care for both nourishment and activity."

1. The Watch Care over Nourishment.

Nourishment is the general term for all that upon which the life feeds.
It is given both consciously and unconsciously and is absorbed in like
manner, but in its effect upon the life, the unconscious nourishment has
greater power.

(1) Unconscious Nourishment.

(a) The first factor in unconscious nourishment is personality.

Just as truly as the physical life is nourished by life, so is the
mental and the spiritual. Standards of living, ideas, a sense of values,
opinions, do not come from text-books but fathers and mothers. The
lesson from the printed page may fail to gain entrance, but the lesson
from the teacher's life, never. This explains the success of many a
humble mother and the failure of many an intellectual teacher. It is at
the very heart of all work for another.

Its first message is a personal one. It tells the worker that his life
is more compelling than his voice; that the Word must again become flesh
to give it authority. It tells him further that if he is to be the bread
of life to growing souls, his own pasturage must not be things, but in
reality, the living Christ.

The other message applies to his work. While every life that touches his
will always carry away something from the contact, the most helpful
human life can never suffice for another's nourishment. Each soul needs
the complete Christ for itself. The amazing thing among parents and
teachers is their unconcern over His absence from the lives of the
children. Years pass, and precept, lesson and admonition are given,
while Christ, the Life, is not definitely and personally offered.
"According to their pasture so were they filled." Is not this the
explanation of so many meagre lives?

(b) The second factor of unconscious nourishment is environment with
its subtle atmosphere.

The importance of environment is found in this great law, that life
tends to become like that which is around it. So strong is the tendency
that the only escape from conformity lies in real struggle. This a
little child rarely puts forth, and an adult not always, for it is far
easier to follow the line of le