, in one sense,
I do put it. There can be no greater safeguard to purity of life than
vital religion. I do not go so far as some evangelical mothers who have
told me that nothing less than the conversion of their boys would be of
the least avail to keep them morally straight; on the contrary, I have
known men who have never come under any strong religious influence, but
have grown up sceptical scientific men, yet who have led lives as pure
as any woman's. Common manhood, with the "Light that lighteth every man
that cometh into the world"; common love for mother and sister, which
for their sakes maketh it impossible to wrong their womanhood, even when
fallen into the dust; common self-respect, which is so strong in some
men, and makes them shrink from anything in the nature of mud, is often
sufficient to accomplish this end. But still, when all is said, if in
answer to your mother's prayers you can implant in your boy a sense of
the Divine Presence and the cry of the quickened conscience, "How can I
do this great sin and wickedness against God?" you have doubtless given
him the best panoply against the fiery darts of temptation. Only I would
again warn you that there must be no forcing of the religious emotions,
no effort to gather the fruits of the spirit before the root, in the
shape of the great cardinal virtues everywhere presupposed in Christian
ethics, has been nourished, and strengthened, and watered into strong,
healthy growth. We have to bear in mind our Lord's words, which it seems
to me religious parents sometimes forget, that there is an order of
growth in spiritual things as in natural--first the blade, then the ear,
and then the full corn in the ear; and we are not to try to force the
full corn in the ear before the stalk and the blade have grown. For the
want of laying to heart these words of the great Teacher, I have known
much pulpy, emotional religion engrafted on young souls--admirably
adapted to exhaust the soil, but with the smallest possible bearing upon
right conduct; a religion perfectly at its ease with much scamping of
lessons and hard work in general; indulgent of occasional cribbing, and
of skilful manipulation of awkward truth, of betting and small
extravagances; and innocent of all sense of dishonesty in allowing a
struggling parent to pay large sums for education while the school-time
so purchased, often at the cost of home comforts and pleasant outings,
is squandered in idleness.

What a b