The aids to an intelligent interest in the Bible-books are now so plentiful, and the human charm of them is so great, that it ought to be an easy thing for a parent to awaken a real fondness for these immortal writings.  The best safeguard against bad taste in literature or life is the formation of a good taste.  These are books, to learn to love which is the making of a man.  Our children may not grow into the genius, but they will grow into somewhat of the goodness of the illustrious and saintly John Henry Newman, if, in after years, they can write the first lines of their autobiographies in the words which open the biographical part of the Apologia Pro Vita Sua: 

   I was brought up from a child to take great delight in reading the
   Bible.

(d.) Train the children to commit to memory the choicest passages of the Bible.

John Ruskin doubtless, at the time, rebelled against the strict rule of his good aunt, which kept him busy on the Sundays memorizing the Scriptures; but he is thankful now, as he has owned, for the discipline which stored his mind with their creative words.  What a treasury of holy thoughts and influences does he carry within him who has written on his mind such passages as the nineteenth, twenty-third, ninety-first, one hundred and third, and one hundred and thirty-ninth Psalms; the third and eighth chapters of Proverbs; the fortieth chapter of Isaiah; the sermon on the mount, the parable of the prodigal son, and the thirteenth chapter of first Corinthians.  Happy he who, like the palm tree in the desert, can strike his roots below the arid surface of the world into fresh and living waters, and thus keep life green amid the droughts of earth.  The parable of the temptation of Christ should teach us how to arm our children against the wiles of the Evil One, whom they must surely meet:  “And he said, It is written.”  In the stress and strain of conflict, when the air is dimmed with the dust of the contending forces and the vision grows confused, it is a saving sound to hear the ringing call of Duty, from the hills where One watcheth over the battlefield.  When sore pressed by the foe, it may prove our victory to fall back against the strong stone wall of an external authority, that can hold our lines unbroken.  It is no wonder that the tempting sailors could do nothing with the cabin-boy who was “chock full of the Bible.”

(e.) Teach your children, as you teach yourselves, to hearken through these voices of the human writers to the voice of God.

Bother then with no theories of inspiration.  Never deny nor conceal the true human voices of these men who spake of old, but never fail to affirm the true Divine breath in these men who spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.  And, since this is the power of the Bible, emphasize the Divine speaking; make every God-breathed word sound to the children’s souls as the very voice of God; until, in simple faith and reverent docility, they shall each answer—­Speak, Lord:  Thy servant heareth!