and actions will please the
other. Now, that a child can be taught and trained to do all this with
respect to his parents, is matter of daily experience. As soon as he can
understand any thing, and long before he can speak, he may be enabled to
distinguish between right and wrong, as well as to do that which is
good, and to avoid that which is evil; and in every case of this kind,
Nature sanctions the moral instruction communicated, by invariably
following it up with the practical operation of the executive powers of
conscience, which always approve that which the child thinks is good,
and reprove that which he supposes to be wrong. The triumphant gleam of
satisfaction which brightens the countenance of a child, and the
laughing look and pause for approval when he has done something that he
knows to be right, are abundant proofs of the truth of this observation;
while his cowering scowl, and fear of reproof or punishment, when he
has done that which is wrong, are equal indications of the same thing.
Nature, therefore, that has given the capacity of distinguishing between
good and evil when thus communicated, and that invariably approves of
the operation, and assists in it, has most certainly intended that it
should be exercised. This consideration, taken in connection with its
advantages to the family, to the child, to the future man, and to
society, plainly points out the value and the importance of early
religious instruction and moral training.

6. Another circumstance, in connection with the application of knowledge
by means of the conscience, should not be overlooked. It is the
remarkable fact, that Nature has implanted in the mind of the young a
principle, by which they unhesitatingly believe whatever they are
told.--A child who has not been abused by frequent deceptions, is a
perfect picture of docility. He never for a moment doubts either his
parent or his teacher when he tells him what is right and what is wrong.
If he be taught that it is a sin to eat flesh on Fridays, he never
questions the truth of it; and if told that he may kill spiders, but
should not hurl flies, he may wonder at the difference, but he never
doubts the correctness of the statement. This disposition in children is
applicable to every kind of instruction offered to them;--but the
superior importance of moral, to every other kind of truth, and the
beneficial effects of the principle when applied to moral and religious
training, shew that it