ill rapid in all parts of
the body, the brain reaching almost full size by the ninth year.
Parallel with this vigorous physical growth is a mental growth and
development equally rapid and many sided. Curiosity is as hungry as
ever, still more eager concerning things than abstract ideas, and still
a goad to active senses. The mind has increased power to retain what is
given it, and about the ninth year enters upon its "Golden Memory
Period." The ability to reason is gradually increasing, though it is
used more upon relationships between things than between ideas.

The child's feelings are still self-centered, yet development of the
social and altruistic feelings is apparent. Children enjoy companionship
more than in earlier years, but the longing for others does not reach
the intensity which demands the club and gang until later. A feeling of
sympathy and desire to help must still be awakened by definite cases of
need, plus the influence of parent or teacher, as the child does not yet
know life's hard experiences well enough to read their meaning and give
response to them of himself.

If nurture has met its opportunity in the preceding period, the child's
love for God and confidence in Him have grown stronger. The Heavenly
Father will be as real to him as an earthly friend, and His help a
living experience. "How is it that you always have a perfect spelling
lesson at school?" a primary teacher asked of one of her boys. "Why,
don't you know that Jesus sits in the seat with me every day and helps
me?" he replied. The teacher's face betokened her surprise, and the
child emphatically reiterated, "He truly does sit with me and help me."
Would that God's older children could live as actually in the Presence
that was promised for "all the days."

Actions continue to be largely impulsive, carried out according to the
strongest present desire, and though right and wrong are more clearly
understood than formerly, they do not often determine an act unsupported
by other considerations. This is evident in the matter of obedience,
whose strengthening into a habit is one of the most imperative tasks of
nurture during childhood. Abstract laws and principles of right, so
weighty in middle adolescence, have but slight influence over the child,
unless joined with them is a strong personality whom the child loves or
fears, and whose favor he desires to win through obeying.

There are certain modifications of earlier characteristics, whic