First, we must be content to wait for the child to open his heart.  We must not force the door.  But we can invite him to open, and the one form of invitation that scarcely ever fails is for you to give him your confidence.  Talk honestly, simply to him of the aspects of your religious life that he can understand.  If he knows that you confide in him, he will confide in you.  Here beware of sentimentality.  Religion to the child will find expression in everyday experiences.  Your philosophy of religion he cannot comprehend, and with your mature emotions he has no point of contact.  Perhaps the best method of approach is to relate your memories of those experiences which you now see to have had religious significance to you.  At the time they may have had no such special meaning.  You did not then analyze them.  Your child will not and must not analyze them, either; he must simply feel them.

Secondly, rid your mind of the “times and seasons” notion.  There is no more reason why you should talk religion on Sunday than on Monday, unless the day’s interests have quickened the child’s questioning.  There can be no set period; no times when you say, “This is the forty-five minutes of spiritual instruction and conversation.”  The time available may be very short, only a sentence may be possible, or it may be lengthened; everything will depend on the interest.  It must be natural, a real part of the everyday thought and talk, lifted by its character and subject to its own level.  Its value depends on its natural reality.

Sec. 3.  RELIGIOUS REALITY

Thirdly, avoid the mistake of confounding conversation on “religion” with religious conversation, of thinking that the desired end has been attained when you have discussed the terminology of theology.  To illustrate, in the family one hardly ever hears the word hygiene, but well-trained children learn much about the care of their bodies in health, and the family economy is directed consciously to that end.  A good, nourishing meal always contributes more to health than many lectures on dietetics.  Yet back, hidden away in the manager’s mind, is the science of dietetics.  So is it with quickening the child’s power and thought in the spiritual life.  We must avoid the abstract, the intellectually analytical.  Religion should present itself concretely, practically, and as an atmosphere and ideal in the family.  We parents must not look for theological interest in the child.  A Timothy Dwight at ten or twelve, though once found in Sunday-school library books, is a monstrosity.  The child’s aspiration, his religious devotion, his love for God will find expression in almost every other way before it will be formulated into questions of a serious theological character.  Nor ought we to force upon him the phrases of religion to which we are accustomed.  He will live in another day and must speak its tongue.  His faith must find itself in consciousness and then