Faith and Duty: Sermons on Free Texts, with Reference to the Church-YearBuchheimer, L. B. (Louis Balthaser)
Religion
Faith and Duty: Sermons on Free Texts, with Reference to the Church-Year
Buchheimer, L. B. (Louis Balthaser)
Church year sermons; Lutheran Church -- Sermons; Sermons, American
way he should go," noticing that this is done, _I. By instruction_,
_II. by example_, _III. by discipline_.
First in order to a proper training of the young belongs
instruction, and by that we mean religious instruction, education
not of the mind only, but of the heart. We have no quarrel with
education of the mind, the culture of our children in all the
accomplishments and acquisitions of facts and sciences; on the
contrary, we regard intellectual knowledge, to speak with King
Solomon, as more precious than rubies and more to be chosen than
fine gold; we hail with delight every facility and agency that would
make our children just as bright as possible, and commend the spirit
that makes our schools among the most elegant and conspicuous of
public buildings. And yet, education of the mind alone will not
do; we might point in evidence of that to the refined nations of
antiquity. Is not ancient Greece with its music, painting, poetry,
and the arts the model of modern states? And who has not heard
and read of the Romans and the ancient Egyptians and Persians? Go
to your public libraries and see the books on its shelves and the
mutilated statues of Apollo, Juno, and the like that tell of their
genius. Why did these nations not last? Why did the fabric of their
grandeur crumble to pieces? Because it was not combined with the
unperishable principle of virtue, and their want of virtue resulted
from their want of religion.
Far more simple, however, is the consideration that man is not only
mind, but soul, and that this soul is preeminently what makes the
man, here and hereafter; that it is upon the attention given to
that soul that man's happiness, or the reverse, depends. Hence, the
importance and duty of educating the soul. And that duty--where does
it begin? Most assuredly where God first put the children--that
is the home. At as early a period as possible, as soon as the
little ones begin to think and to reason, it is for us to bring
them into uninterrupted contact with the sublime and simple truths
of God's Word. You cannot begin too early. From veriest infancy
let them breathe the air of a religious atmosphere. The names of
God, Jesus, heavenly Father, words like heaven, angels, Bible,
church, and others of this kind, let them be used over and over,
constantly in the hearing of the child. At first they convey but
little meaning to it. But the brain retains even what it at first
does not understand, and day by day the impression deepens and the
understanding grows. Moreover, parents cannot begin too early to
teach the child to abhor sin. Mothers should give especial attention
to their little daughters and train them in maidenly modesty and
chastity, reticence and reserve. And this home education does not
cease when the children at tender age are sent to the Sunday-school
and the parochial school. What great things are expected from that
short lesson on a Sunday morning! How unreasonable to look for
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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