Lay stress on the simple moral teaching of the New Testament, and avoid cranky creeds, cross references, or Higher Criticism. Teach them to practise the moral precepts, not to quote them by the page.
Without this practical bent, a "Revival" meeting is apt to result in a transient but harmful "conversion"; a form of religious sentiment which finds outlet, not so much in works as in morbid excitement. In these people, as in the insane, there is often a weird mixing-up of religious and sexual emotion.
Teach these children that the greatest good is not to sob over their fancied sins at "salvation" meetings, but to love the just and good, to hate the unjust and evil, and to do unto others as they would others should do unto them.
It is better for them to join one of the great churches, than become members of those small sects which maintain peculiar tenets.
A word of special warning must be given against Spiritualism. There may or may not be a foundation for this belief, but it is highly abnormal, and has led thousands into asylums.
The medium and the majority of her audience are highly neurotic, and a more unwholesome environment for an actual or potential neuropath could not be imagined.
The educated neuropath often peruses certain agnostic works, the result usually being deplorable, for this class are dependent on some stable base outside themselves, such as is found in a calm religion manifested
in a steadfast attempt to overcome the weakness of the flesh, by ordering life in accordance with the teachings of the New Testament.
So long as abnormalities of character do not become too pronounced, friends must be content.
Such children must be trained to express themselves in a practical manner, not in weaving gorgeous phantasies in which they march to imaginary victory. Day dreams form one of those unlatched doors of the madhouse that swing open at a touch, the phantasy of to-day being written "emotional dementia" on a lunacy certificate to-morrow.