2.--We may easily overestimate the value of perfunctory religious exercises, as we may also overestimate the capacity of children to understand formulated religious truth. The child’s perceptions are duller in this than in other branches of knowledge, where his senses are engaged, hence the necessity of grading it more carefully and watching its effects more closely. 3.--Schools are not chiefly, nor primarily, to teach religion, i. e., to instruct in creeds. Considered in its relation to courses of study, religious instruction is a _means_ for the development of character and for giving a sure foundation for moral training; but, in its relation to the pupil, it is an absolute _end_; giving to him, as he can comprehend it, the saving truths of Christianity. The first is directly related to courses of study and from it definite results may be expected; the other depends upon the subtle and immeasurable spiritual power of the Christian teacher, and no definite results can be demanded. The first has a recognizable, educational value and its correlates are easily found; the other has no appreciable relation to hours of recitation or quantity of matter and cannot enter into any plan of correlation of studies. It touches all studies and permeates all methods, the greatest result often coming from the least matter; its educational value, therefore, cannot be measured. 4.--We may not safely assume that the child has received from parents or church proper religious instruction, but we may suppose, in nominally Christian lands, that it has some ideas, however vague and erroneous, of God. It is the duty of the teacher to adjust these ideas to the truth, and so relate them to the child that he may _feel sure_ that _there is a God_,--though he cannot see Him,--Who is All-wise, All-seeing, All-powerful: who is everywhere and who loves him, the child, personally; that God is his Heavenly Father; that the Bible is God’s Word, sent to him, the child, and to everybody else; that God sent His Son to save the world; that Christ is God and God is Christ; that God made everything,--even we ourselves are the work of His hand. These are fundamentals, and must precede all other instruction. The clearness with which the children perceive these truths will depend largely upon the skill and spiritual power of the teacher.