s in the home--and develops, as the child comes
into social consciousness, into a recognition of himself as belonging to
a social organization for specific purposes.

Sec. 4. CHILD UNITY WITH THE CHURCH

At some time every child of church-attending parents will want to know
whether he "belongs to the church." One must be very careful here,
regardless of the ecclesiastical practice, to show the child that he is
essentially one with this body, this religious family. He may be too
young to subscribe his name to its roll, but he belongs at least to the
full measure of unity appreciable by his mind. He must not be permitted
to think of himself as an outsider. Indeed, no matter what our theology
may hold, every religious parent believes that his children belong to
God. Do they not also belong to the church in at least the sense that
the church is responsible for their spiritual welfare?

The sense of unity must be developed. Writing the child's name on the
"Cradle Roll" of the church school may help. Assuming, as he develops,
that he is a part of this spiritual family, naturally expecting that he
will have an increasing share in its life, will help more. Parents who
dedicate their children to God pass on to them the stimulus of that
dedication. A church service of dedication is likely to impress them
with a feeling of unity with the church; seeing other children so
dedicated they know that a similar occasion occurred in their own early
lives.

The forms of relationship must develop with the nature of the child. The
church needs not only a graded curriculum of instruction but a graded
series of relationships by which children, step by step, come into
closer conscious social unity, each step determined by their developing
needs and capacities.

It is easy to say that the responsibility lies with the church to
provide these methods of attachment. But the church we have been
sketching is a congeries of families, after all, and it will do just
what these families, particularly the parents in them, stimulate it to
do.

Sec. 5. INCIDENTAL DIFFICULTIES

But what of those instances in which parents are convinced that the
church does not furnish a normal and healthy atmosphere for the child's
spiritual life? There are churches where the Sunday school is simply a
training school in insubordination, confusion, and irreverence, or where
religion is so taught as to cultivate superstition and to lead
eventually either to a pain