Evening star., 1935-07-05
Taking Child
TOChurch Is
Best Solution
Youth Needs Religion,
but Parents Should
Cooperate.
BY ANGELO PATRI.
A RENT you going to send that boy
to Sunday school, Mary?"

"A RENT you going to send that boy
to Sunday school, Mary?"
st did, but he doesn't want to go
and 1 don't want to force him. If
did that he might get to dislike the
idea altogether"
II think he ought to be made to
60. My mother made us go to Sunday
school whether we liked it or not"
Eyes, and now what? How long is
It since you went to church,"
I'm a grown man. He is child.
had my religious education and 1t
means something to me even If I don't
60 to church.
well, Dick doesn't know that. Any
way, he hates it,
You make him go. Tell him he
has to CO. That's all there is to it,
Unfortunately that is not all there
Is to it. One may take small boy
and set him firmly on the chair in
the Sunday school class room. One
can force him to sit there. His body
is controlled by force. That at least
assures his presence. But the child Is
still in control of his mind, and as
that is the part of him that you want
TO reach you have to go bit farther
along the way with him.
Granted that many Sunday schools
are dreary wastes as far as the chill
dren are concerned. Accept the worst.
The fact that the children need and
must have religious instruction re-
mains. The Sunday school must
function in their lives. 1t Is the first
stage on the way to church, the ,nsti-
tuition that is to foster and maintain
the spiritual life of the community. 1t Is
not enough for parent to say that the
church fails to do so, that it fails
to hold the young people, that it fails
to battle successfully for the rights
Of men on earth as in heaven. The
church is human organization and
depends upon the intelligence Of its
members for its health and vitality.
Staying home, withdrawing from its
activities in critical mood is doing less
than duty demands.
Two facts stand out in this situation.
Children need spiritual stimulation
toward good life. Parents must do
the greater part of the stimulating
through their daily example. Sending
the children to church and Sunday
school while staying at home yourself
does not work. Children obey the
force of the attitudes of those about
them, not their commands. Physical
obedience is useless for the growth Of
spiritual attitudes. Say what you will
in your heart, you know that unless
these spiritual attitudes are stimu-
lated, fed, encouraged to full flower
the life of the individual is blighted.
You would not toss out the Golden
Rule. You would not discard the
Ten Commandments. You dare not
forget the law about loving your neigh
Dor as yourself. How are the children
to gather such ideas? They are not
born with them in full development.
1t takes years of teaching and example
to instill them to the degree where
they take hold and grow into fixed
behavior.
Everybody agrees that children must
have standards of living. Reverence
for all that is good and true and
lovely is as essential to human life
and human happiness on this earth as
food and shelter. Then let us set
to work to enrich the children's lives
with these qualities of the spirit.
Don't send them to Sunday school
and church. Take them. There is
all the difference in the world between
those two ideas. One will succeed be-
yond your expectations. The other
will fail.
Copyright 1850