er of development. The consideration for others will
follow later, but even now the child may be led into loving, unselfish
acts through imitation and personal influence.

(6) _Faith._ Perhaps the better term in the beginning would be
credulity, for faith is confidence which has a basis in knowledge, and
knowledge does not necessarily enter into a child's belief. Anything
an older person tells him is accepted unquestioningly, no matter of
what sort it may be.

This means a great responsibility and an unequaled opportunity in the
matter of religious instruction. The stories of God's power and the
love of Jesus Christ are absorbed into the life, neither proof nor
explanation being necessary nor indeed comprehensible. As the stories
multiply in the home and the Sunday-school that which was credulity at
first becomes genuine faith. The child does not reason that God will
do because he has done, but a feeling of the Divine strength and love
grips him and out of this feeling grows loving confidence in the One
who first loved him. If a child passes through the Beginners
department without this response, his teacher has been out of touch
with her Lord.

Test Questions

1. What are the age limits of the Beginners period?

2. What are the general characteristics of the Beginners Age?

3. What are some of the characteristics of these years of absorption?

4. What is meant by rounded development?

5. Name six special characteristics of the Beginners Age.

6. What is the purpose of a child's abounding activity?

7. What is gained by a child when he imitates an action?

8. What two points about a child's curiosity is it important for a
teacher to know?

9. Who is the center of the little child's world?

10. By what means is true faith developed in a child?

Lesson 3

Beginners Age (Concluded)

#7. Opportunities of the Beginners Age.#--(1) _Shaping character
through influence._ There are two ways of touching a life--the one
through definite instruction, which must be understood to avail
anything; the other through unconscious influence which is felt, not
necessarily comprehended. The mind of the beginner is awake and
active, but he can grasp little instruction beyond simplest facts
about concrete things. Right and wrong, unselfishness, love, all the
abstract standards and principles of life, he cannot comprehend
intellectually, but he absorbs the influences that go out from them,
and what is felt is alwa