from the rich and ripe experience of one of the best students of
childhood and teachers of children in our land.

3. THE BOOK IS WELL TIMED. Teachers are seeking now as never before to
understand the soil in which the living seed of God's Word is to be
cast. Nothing can be more important than this. The author deals largely
with the every day problems of the average home and Sunday School, thus
rendering the highest service to the great army of ordinary teachers and
mothers. While this book will be hailed with joy by all such, it will
nevertheless command a place by the side of the highest grade books on
the subject. There never was a time when any book on any subject was
more greatly needed than this book is needed now. It would be a boon
indeed to every home, and to every Sunday School as well, if all
teachers, mothers, yes, and fathers too, would read and re-read "THE
UNFOLDING LIFE."

MARION LAWRANCE.

Chicago, March, 1908.

FOREWORD

The greatest thing in the world is a human life. The greatest work in
the world is the helpful touch upon that life. Here and there an artist
in soul culture is found at the task, but the many are unskilled and the
product of the labor is far from a manhood "perfect in Christ."

In dealing with things, the vessel marred in the making can be set aside
or fashioned anew, but a life is for eternity. The faulty work can not
be undone. The mistake can never be wholly rectified, for life never
yields up what is given it. The look, the word, the invisible atmosphere
of the home and church, the sights and sounds of all the busy days enter
the super-sensitive and retentive soul of the child and are woven into
life tissue. Character has no other from which to fashion itself.
Therefore its final beauty and worth will be determined in large
measure by the quality of the material which entered in.

It is with earnest desire to help some parent or teacher in the divine
work of soul nurture, that this volume is offered. There is no attempt
to add to knowledge in Child Study or Psychology, but rather to
interpret certain of their fundamental facts and principles with
reference to Religious Training.

CHAPTER I

FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES OF DEVELOPMENT.

Row upon row they stretched, fifteen acres of regal chrysanthemums,
roses pink, yellow, white and red, fragile lilies of the valley,
carnations and vivid orchids, no two alike, yet all expressions of plant
life. Skilled garde