er into the
kingdom of heaven.' Deep and blessed words, which are the root-rule
of all true righteousness; which so few really believe at heart, any
more than the Pharisees, and Sadducees, and Herodians of old did.
Up and down, all over England, I hear men of all denominations
saying, not, 'Except we grown people be converted and become as
little children;' but, 'except the little children be converted, and
become like us, grown people.' God grant that the little children
may not become like too many grown people! God grant it, I say.
God grant that our children may not become like us! God grant that
they may keep through youth and manhood, and through the grave, and
through all worlds to come, the tender and childlike heart, which we
too often have hardened in ourselves by bigotry and superstition,
and dead faith, and lip-worship! And I can have good hope that God
will grant it. I can have hope that God will teach our children and
our children's children truly to know Him whose name is Love and
Righteousness, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, as long as
I see His providence preserving for us this old Church Catechism, to
teach our children what we forget to teach them, or what we have not
faith enough to teach them.

Yes, I can have hope for England; and hope for those mighty nations
across the seas, whose earthly mother God has ordained that she
should be, as long as the Catechism is taught to her children.

For see. This Catechism does not begin with telling children that
they are sinners: they will find that out soon enough for
themselves, poor little things, from their own wayward and self-
willed hearts. Nor by telling them that man is fallen and corrupt:
they will find out that also soon enough, from the way in which they
see people go on around them. It does not even begin by telling
them that they ought to be good, or what goodness and righteousness
is; because it takes for granted that they know that already; it
takes for granted that The Light who lights every man who comes into
the world is in them; even the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, stirring
up in their hearts, as He does in the heart of every child, the
knowledge of good and the love of good. But it begins at once by
teaching the child the name of God. It goes at once to the root of
the matter; to the fountain of goodness itself; even to God, the
Father of lights. It is so careful of God's honour, so careful that
the child should l