His isolation grows defined.
Then, as in teaching science or language we first awaken the powers of observation, and lead the child to reflect, so here, in the case of the self-conscious subject, we help the child to interpret the facts of the inner life as well as the outer.
Whilst recognising the danger of forcing the subjective in children, we ought in this, as in other things, to follow the guidance of nature, and surely our own experience, and that of most children, will show how much they are occupied with their own feelings, with the struggles of the higher to subdue the animal nature, and how through contest they are developing the will-power, which is the only safeguard of later life.
It is especially important early to correlate the subjective with the objective in early teaching. Surely much irreligion results in later life from the divorce of the two. As we guide the observing powers in the outward life, so as the power of reflection develops we should do with the inward life: the child is conscious of the pang which comes to all of us, when we act against conscience: that pang which makes our blood run cold, as we feel we have done wrong, is as much a fact of experience, as real, as the sensation of heat, when we touch hot iron. Would people grow up to deny the existence of the spiritual consciousness, if they had been led to question their own experience? A beautiful story is told by Parker and quoted by Armstrong.[22]
[22] Man’s Knowledge of God. Swift.
Conscience.“When a little boy in my fourth year, my father took me to the farm and sent me home alone. I had to pass a pond. A rhodora attracted my attention. I saw a spotted tortoise sunning himself in the shallow water at the root of the flaming shrub. I lifted the stick I had, to strike; though I had never killed any creature, I had seen boys destroy birds, squirrels and the like, and felt a disposition to follow their wicked example. All at once something checked my little arm, and a voice within said clear and loud, ‘It is wrong’. I held my uplifted stick in wonder at the new emotion, the consciousness of an involuntary but inward check upon my action, till the tortoise and rhodora both vanished from my sight. I hastened home to mother and asked what it was that told me it was wrong. Taking me in her arms, she said: ‘Some men call it conscience, but I prefer to call it the voice of God. If you listen and obey it, it will speak clearer and clearer, but if you turn a deaf ear, it will at last leave you in the dark without a guide: your life depends on your obedience to its voice.’ No event in my life has made so deep and lasting an impression.”
A witness for the spiritual, the universal.The fact that we cannot get rid of the consciousness of wrong, shows that there is a higher Self condemning the self, one other than ourselves; we must not force answers on the child, but we can bring into his consciousness the presence of the holy and righteous God. We may help to make clear and permanent in his consciousness the facts, which he will only later interpret—the conflict of the merely individual, the selfish life, with the larger, the all-embracing life of unselfish love.
We may appeal too to the experience of each child, who suffers punishment rather than disobey conscience. Such victories establish faith, convince us that we are more than creatures of time, that we are sons of God. Every true and self-denying act that a child is able to do is a ground of confidence; “I write unto you, young men, because ye have overcome the wicked one”. Each time that the mere animal desires are subdued by the love of truth and righteousness, we prove that we transcend the things of time and space. These are the eternal things, which eye sees not and thought cannot conceive, and yet for the sake of these unseen and eternal things men live and die, and count all earthly things as nought. Do not the hearts of all children “burn within them” as we expound to them the Scriptures which tell of heroes who have done battle, who laid down their lives for righteousness’ sake, of Him who triumphed from the Cross? We can appeal too to the inward experience of those who are naughty; they do not in their inmost heart wish to be so, but they try and fail; nothing is more touching than the penitence of children, when they find that we have seen the good which is hidden, and not only the evil that comes forth—that we know, not only what is done, but what is resisted. We can, as in the old myths, show that their deliberate choice is not for selfish pleasure; they would if offered the things most delightful to the mere animal, refuse all, if they could have it only on condition of becoming wicked and cruel and deceitful. Hauff’s Cold Heart is a beautiful story on the subject. Thus should we base healthy religious experiences upon facts, and foster habits of attention and obedience to the inward voice.
Right ambitions too should be fostered, the desire to enter into the Divine purposes in thought and word and deed, to be a fellow-worker with God. This will take more definite form in the later idealising period of life; still there will be developed sometimes at an early age earnest desires to become wise and good and to do some special work.
Order of teaching.For objective formal teaching the little ones would begin with the stories of the world’s childhood. The lessons first given in a simple form will be expanded in the higher classes. The child who has learned to trust his father, will learn from Abraham’s sacrifice that we can trust God; the higher classes will see how by the frustration of his purpose Abraham learned the true meaning of sacrifice; the Psalms and Prophets will carry on the subjective teaching, and the words of the old prophets will become a fact of experience; “the word of the Lord came unto me”.