But life at its best and noblest does involve some hardship.  Much that is best in human experience has come to us through hardship, toil, and suffering cheerfully endured by heroic souls who counted their own lives as naught so that the cause to which they gave themselves might win.  The comforts, freedom, and opportunities we enjoy some one paid for, bought with endless effort and sacrifice.  Our very religion, the symbol of life, gladness, and salvation, has as its background tragedy, suffering, death, the cross.

The quality that makes us willing to endure and resist for the sake of a cause or an ideal we call loyalty.  The high value set upon it is seen in the fact that loyalty is the first test of citizenship required; it is a quality admired and praised among all peoples in all relations of life; it is the quality we demand and prize in our friends and associates.  On the other hand, disloyalty to country, friends, or trust is universally looked upon as despicable, and punished with contempt, scorn, and hatred.

The appeal to the heroic.—­One of the ends of religious teaching is to cultivate in our youth the spirit of loyalty to worthy ideals and causes.  Loyalty rests on a stratum of heroism, which is to be found deep down in every normal human being.  We must stimulate and appeal to the heroic in the child’s nature.  We must make him see that the strong and fine men and women are willing to meet much that is hard and disagreeable, so that they may be loyal to their task.  We must make him realize that the greatest and most worthy thing one can do is to “endure hardship” for a cause; that to be willing to suffer for an ideal is a mark of strength and courage; and that “having done all to stand” is often the best test of character.

Nor must the thought of loyalty be presented to the child only in the abstract.  Concrete examples are worth much general explanation and laudation.  The loyalties of the great characters of biblical and other times can be made the source of great inspiration; the supreme loyalty of Jesus to his mission will exert a powerful appeal.  But loyalty must be made immediate, definite and concrete to the child in his own life; he must not simply admire it afar off.  Loyalty must be to him not something to learn about and praise in others, but something he can make use of himself each day without waiting to grow up or become famous.  So we will teach the child the loyalties due parents and the home; loyalties to friends and comrades; loyalties to school, community, and country; loyalties to Sunday school, church, and the cause of religion; loyalties to self; loyalties to duty wherever found; and, above all, loyalties to the Christ and his ideals.