The child should be saved the comfortable assumption so tragically prevalent that religion is chiefly a matter for Sundays; that it consists largely in belonging to the church and attending its services; that it finds its complete and most effective expression in the observance of certain rites and ceremonials; that we can serve God without serving our fellow men; that creeds are more important than deeds; that saying “Lord, Lord,” can take the place of a ministry of service.

Religion defined in noble living.—­There is only one way to save the child from such crippling concepts as these:  that is to hold up to him the challenge of life at its best and noblest, to show him the effects of religion at work.  What are the qualities we most admire in others?  What are the secrets of the influence, power, and success of the great men and women whose names rule the pages of history?  What are the attributes that will draw people to us as friends and followers and give us power to lead them to better ways?  What are the things that will yield the most satisfaction, and that are most worth while to seek and achieve as the outcome of our own lives?  What is true success, and how shall we know when we have achieved it? Why does the Christ, living his brief, modest, and uneventful life and dying an obscure and tragic death, stand out as the supreme model and example for men to pattern their lives by?

These are questions that the child needs to have answered, not in formal statements, of course, but in terms that will reach his understanding and appreciation.  These are truths that he needs to have lodged in his mind, so that they may stir his imagination, fire his ambition, and harden his will for endeavor.  These are the goals that the child needs to have set before him as the measure of success in life, the pathways into which his feet should be directed.

The qualities religion puts into the life.—­What, then, are the things men live by?  What are the great qualities which have ruled the finest lives the world has known?  How does religion express itself in the run of the day’s experience?  What are some of the objective standards by which religion is to be measured in our own lives or in the lives of others, in the lives of children or in the lives of adults?  What are the characterizing features in the life and personality of Jesus?  What did he put first in practice as well as in precept?

Joyousness. No word was oftener on the lips of Jesus than the word “joy,” and the world has never seen such another apostle of joyousness.  The life that lacks joy is flat for him who lives it, and exerts little appeal to others.

Good will. The good will of Jesus embraces all manner and conditions of people.  His magnanimity and generosity under all conditions were one of the charms of his personality and one of the chief sources of his strength.

Service. Jesus’s life was, if possible, more wonderful than his death, and nothing in his life was more wonderful than his passion for serving others.  The men and women whom the world has remembered and honored in all generations and among all peoples are the men and women who found their greatness in service.