Parents must be true to their responsibilities.  The family is the child’s first religious institution.  Fathers and mothers are not only the first and most potent quickeners and guides in the religious life, but they are primarily responsible for the selection of all other stimuli to that life.  Under the drag of our own indifference we must not withhold from the child the good he would get even from the church we do not particularly enjoy; neither dare we, for fear of criticism or ostracism, force the child under influences which, in the name of religion, would chill and prevent his spiritual development, would twist, dwarf, or distort it.  Responsibility to the spiritual purpose of the family is far higher than any responsibility to a church.  The churches are ordered for the souls of men.

What shall we do in the family when the sermon is always tediously dull?  Don’t try to force children to go to sleep in church; they will never get over the habit.  Insist that there shall be a service suitable for them parallel to the adult service of worship.[47] Next, try to overcome the present popular obsession regarding the sermon.  The church is more than an oratory station.  The sermon is only one incident.  Many criticisms of the sermon indicate that the critic measures the preacher by ability to entertain, that he attends church to be entertained.  If that is essentially your attitude, you cannot complain if your children are dissatisfied unless they too are entertained according to their childish appetites.  When the sermon is poor, put it where it belongs proportionately and enlarge on the many good features of church fellowship and service.

In a word, let the church be to the family that larger home where families live together their life of fellowship and service in the spirit and purpose of religion and where there is a natural place for everyone.

     I. References for Study

     H.W.  Hulbert, The Church and Her Children, chaps. i-v.  Revell,
     $1.00.

     H.F.  Cope, Efficiency in the Sunday School, chaps. xiv-xvi. 
     Doran, $1.00.

     George Hodges, Training of Children in Religion, chap. xiv. 
     Appleton, $1.50.

     II.  Further Reading

     A. Hoben, The Minister and the Boy.  The University of Chicago
     Press, $1.00.

     E.C.  Foster, The Boy and the Church.  Sunday School Times Co.,
     $0.75.

     G.A.  Coe, Education in Religion and Morals, Part II.  Revell,
     $1.35.

     III.  Topics for Discussion

     1.  What are the special common interests of church and family?

     2.  What are the fundamental relationships of the two?

     3.  What conception of the church ought to be fostered in the
     children’s minds?

     4.  When is criticism of the church unwise?