Читать книгу The Religious Training of Children - Abby Morton Diaz - Страница 4

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Truth should be the ground of all teachings, and surely of religious teachings. In the first place, then, since "God" is the declared standard of perfection, and "Heaven" the supreme object of human attainment, let us free both from the falsities now so widely taught; for while these are accepted as truth, how can the true get recognition?

Mark how man has manufactured a God out of himself, and a Heaven from his own earthly ambitions, values, and ideas of enjoyment. The classic gods and goddesses, in their home above the sky, were simply human beings with human characteristics, good and bad, but with superhuman activities in either direction. As the word "heaven" means the high, or what is raised—from the Anglo-Saxon verb hebben, to raise—and as the sky is raised high above the earth, it is used to represent our earthly idea of utmost height. In more primitive times, when this was supposed to be a flat world with a substantial arch overhead, it was natural that superhuman creatures should be assigned that high location.

We call those more primitive people pagans, but their paganism still marks our religious teachings. In these it has been represented that above the sky is a fixed locality called Heaven, having a crowned King seated on a throne with a Son on his right, and a court, so to speak, and an angel population distinct in kind from mortals, yet having mortal shape and qualities. Wings have been added as being mortally thought needful for locomotion "up there," the monstrosity of arms and wings giving way to this requirement. Shape, qualities, and powers are necessarily limited to mankind's conceptions, since no created object can form ideas absolutely outside of its own nature. A pebble, for instance, could not conceive of growth upward, and branching and blooming; the aster could have no understanding of locomotion, and surely not of flight and song; nor could a bird comprehend the varied possibilities of the human being.

This same limitation shows in conceptions of God and heaven as humanly portrayed. Thus in representations of God we find a magnified human wrath, cruelty, partiality, vengeance, injustice, and an extremely human delight in personal dominion and glorification, and in an adoration rendered with all the earthly accessories of pomp and subserviency, as waving of palm-branches, prostration, instrumental music, and noisy acclamation.

The science of astronomy and a progressive intelligence, together with the more Christlike, or spiritual, conceptions of heaven, have shown the falsity of such representations; yet it is not long since a preacher stated that the future occupation of the righteous would be "casting down their crowns before the great white throne," and that a mother knew her deceased daughter was "up in heaven, walking the golden streets." Aboundingness of gold quite naturally comes into our highest earthly conceptions; also opportunity for that idleness, or "rest," so longed for in this workaday world.

Magnitude predominates in human ideals. Rev. Jonathan Edwards could scarcely find words strong enough to depict the horrors and the everlastingness of the agonies of "sinners in the hands of an angry God," and the exultant jubilations of the "saints in heaven" in witnessing these sufferings. "God will get himself honor upon you, will magnify himself in your ruin." "When the saints in heaven look upon the damned in hell, with how much enlargement of the heart will they praise Jesus who was pleased so to distinguish them," "who deserved no better than they." [1] Hymns of like character were extensively used in churches and committed to memory by children in homes and elsewhere.

John Milton, our standard religious (?) poet, exerted his mighty genius to materialize spiritual things, and thus keep from us the true import of the Master's teachings, and all they mean for us here and now; and in our modern times Spurgeon has equalled Edwards in depicting the Heavenly Father as a monster of cruelty: "In fire exactly like that we have on earth thy body will lie, asbestos-like, forever unconsumed; all thy veins roads for the feet of pain to travel on; every nerve a string on which the devil shall forever play his diabolical tune of hell's unutterable lament." Spurgeon preached twenty years to immense audiences, and more than twenty million copies of his sermons have been circulated in the various languages of Christendom. His death was mourned as causing "a great loss to the Christian world."

But sadder than mortal death is the fact that as yet no one has been able to find a "Christian world!" And how can there be one when the Christly teachings of love and spirituality are set aside to suit our earthly methods, and when to assert that they can be lived is to incur the stigma of being "visionary," "Utopian," "a crank," or "a little off," and when the loving Heavenly Father of Jesus has been held up in church and in Sunday-schools as unlovely and unjust.

But why say "has been?" That these traditional beliefs still prevail is shown by the ecclesiastical attitude toward certain of those who venture to doubt them in their entirety, it being declared by high authority that such doubt would "cut the sinews of the missionary enterprise."

It is plain that to Jesus the heavens, or the high, signified an inward condition, not a place. "The kingdom of God is within you." Now, as the King would be in his kingdom, and "God is Love," this would imply an exalted condition of love and divine communion as Jesus' conception of heaven. When a listener to his sayings came to perceive that "love is more than all whole burnt-offerings and sacrifices," and so declared, Jesus gave him the assurance, "Thou art not far from the kingdom of God." Yet this man was not supposed to be going away from earth. Heaven is a heavenly state; a heavenly state must express itself in action; and as heavenliness overcomes worldliness, earth will become the kingdom of heaven.

But for this there must come a great change in much of our Sunday-school and pulpit teaching, and of the home talk about God and heaven. When a woman was recently asked, "How dare you become a Sunday-school teacher? what can you answer should a child question you about God?" she replied: "Oh, I don't have any trouble about that. If a little boy in my class behaves badly, I tell him that if he is naughty God will not love him." "But, my dear friend," was the rejoinder, "how can you say that? You depict God as being worse than a human parent. Don't you love your children when they are naughty?" "Oh, I never thought of that," was the reply.

Surely more thought is needed, wiser and more careful thought, in our talks with children; for this matter has vital concern with all the problems of life, and we should beware of speaking without knowledge. "But we must tell little children something about God," say many parents; and with this conviction they proceed to "tell" what they themselves do not comprehend, and to give as facts mere earthly imaginings.

Now, why must we "tell" little children about God? In regard to abstract geometrical problems we should defer explanations. Why not do the same in regard to this which "who by searching can find out?" and of which we all feel our ignorance? Surely silence for a while is better than falsities and unproved statements, based upon materialism and causing agonizing and groundless fears. Many a little child has trembled before the ever-present "Eye," which they have been told is watching them from above and before which their every inmost thought stands revealed. Suppose this fear does cause them to refrain from certain objectionable conduct. Are they thereby made good? Is there any goodness in good actions done through fear? Is a compelled goodness in any respect good?

A most discouraging fact is that even those denominations which declare themselves freed from certain materialistic ideas still persist in presenting them. A recent publication for Kindergarten use in their Sunday-schools teaches—

"Remember though God is in heaven, my love,

He sees you within and without.

He always looks down from his glory above,

To notice what you are about."

Think of the picture sure to be imagined by a little child while listening to this! The picture of some huge form seated on a throne which is supported by the sky, watching little children!

"I long to be an angel, and with the angels stand;

A crown upon my forehead, a harp within my hand.

There, right before my Saviour * * *"

—has been sung by thousands of children in Sunday-schools and elsewhere. Another common "religious" song states that—

"In the sky above us, where the angels dwell,

God will surely love us, if we serve him well."

Thus the idea of separateness—God up there, we down here—gets firm hold; and it will cling fast in spite of any after-recognition of the Divine Omnipresence and Immanence, and will hinder a full realization of all this implies of ever-present help and strength. Surely protest should be made against this cruelty to children, as shown in making them suppose their very innermost Life and Friend so far away from them! Even in church they hear this Divine Omnipresence besought to "look down," and to "draw near." But, "Am I not a God at hand and not afar off?" "Do I not fill all?" "There is none beside." When, oh when, will preaching make its hearers to know—not merely believe, but to know—that they are the temples of the living God, the "habitation," "heirs," "offspring;" and that they are "saved" every moment by recognizing and depending upon this Divine Inmost, not by either creeds or ceremonies; and to know that "whosoever will" has such salvation merely by claiming it?

When all this shall be set forth with the simplicity and joyfulness its nature demands, then we shall see congregations held together, not by intellectual beliefs but from heart and soul enthusiasm, which after all is the only sure holding. A divine enthusiasm, or ardor, comes from this inmost religion, as inevitably as warmth from fire; and it will melt away that cold indifference which resists the strivings of our present too largely intellectual and formalistic church. That very worldly methods—mammon's methods—are now so generally depended upon to "support religion," is of itself proof that the compelling power of a spiritual understanding and a spiritual enthusiasm is greatly lacking in our so-called religious observances.

Now as to the religious instruction given our children. This is avowedly based on the teachings of Jesus. And right here comes a question in regard to the teachers themselves: What is their understanding of these teachings? Surely, the all-important question, for this understanding, whatever it may be, is taught as truth and so accepted.

To illustrate, we will suppose the Sunday Bible Lesson to include some of the "Blesseds." Blessed are they who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, or for Jesus' sake, "for great is their reward in heaven." We will suppose the teacher has the common understanding of this, namely, that it refers to a future existence in a location somewhere above the sky, where "God" is to be seen in personal shape, where he receives constant praise and adoration, where there is a great deal of singing and of playing on instruments, and everlasting repose.

Such a teacher would impress upon her class the great personal benefit to come to them in the future life from being good and doing good in this one. She would explain to them that all those who had thus been good and done good would enter after death, into the kingdom of heaven, and that any who suffered persecution here for the sake of doing right would there have a specially large share of heavenly blessedness. That such is a common interpretation is shown by a printed verse brought home by a pupil of one of our most liberal Sunday-schools. This verse states to the children in plain words that all they will have to recommend them to favor when they go to heaven will be the record they will present of the good deeds done in this present life. This suggests a provincial going up to court, and it will be observed here that the primitive king and court idea is still preserved. Now mark the low motive—"and you will get a reward!"

One of this kind of believers said to a friend who differed in belief: "You have no motive in doing right; you don't believe in any hell!" This reminds us of the old handed-down story of the woman who was met bearing in one hand a torch and in the other a vessel of water. In answer to inquiries she replied that her purpose was to burn up heaven with the torch and put out hell with the water, that people might be good neither for hope of reward nor fear of punishment, but just for goodness' sake.

A truer interpretation of these texts would show them to be, not promissory notes for value received, not promises at all, but assurances of a present blessedness. According to the teachings of Jesus, heaven is a state of mind and heart; a spiritual exaltation; a feeling of nearness, yes, of oneness with the Divine; in fact, a "kingdom of God within you;" and as "God is Love," all this would imply a most blessed condition. This is the "Kingdom." Kingdom signifies dominion. Those coming into the Kingdom, if recognizing their power, would have dominion over every manner of evil, "even to the outermost." They would become centres of life and light and joy, and—may we not say?—would radiate heaven as they go. Consecrated by Love to a life of service, with selfhood cast out, living in the realities, ever in conscious oneness with the Divine, they would be "blessed" in being far, far above the touch of persecution—superior to it; and great would be their recompense in that exalted condition which is itself its own reward; as a traveller who has climbed the mountain-top has reward in being able to look serenely down upon the storm raging below—so far below as to have for him no terrors.

Imagine an entire Sunday-school of children getting such understanding of these texts; imagine the teachings here briefly suggested carried out in detail; imagine all Sunday-school children and home children receiving them and living them, and think what would be the influence of this on human affairs here and now! It should be observed that the texts themselves do not refer to a future blessedness. "Great is your reward;" "Yours is the kingdom," etc.

Earth signifies the low, heaven the high. "Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven." These latter are commonly supposed to be enjoyed in a future state called "eternity." Now as eternity has neither beginning nor end, it follows that we are now in eternal life, and as God is Spirit, of whom we are children, heirs, offspring, and likeness, it must be that we are now spiritual beings. Created from and of Spirit, Intelligence, Love, Wisdom, Strength, Power, Mind—all these together make us what we are. They constitute our high or heavenly plane. On a lower one we have fleshly gratifications, worldly power and position, display of wealth, deference, praise, landed properties, mansions, costly apparel, and rare possessions in well-guarded treasure-boxes.

There would be some hope of a Christian world, could children be taught to underrate all such and to set their affections on things above, and to find their most precious enjoyment in the pleasures of mind and heart, in spiritual delights, in loving service, in promoting harmony, in renouncing selfhood, in all that is high and pure and noble and godly, in more and more nearness to the great Omnipresent Life which is back of all that is manifested. If created spiritual beings, why not now live in the spirit, walk in the spirit—that is, in conscious touch with the Divine Indwelling—and thus bring forth the fruits of the spirit, as scripturally described?

If wisely presented, much of this kind of teaching would be comprehended by children; and how greatly it would raise the character of our civilization if we could bring about an undervaluing of what is now most sought after, and a general desire for those "treasures above," the heavenly "treasures" of mind and heart, which cannot be taken from us!

Multitudes of children sing the "Gospel Hymns." Here the constant theme is the heaven we are to go to, and the joys which will be ours then and there. How is all this so surely known? No one has ever reported an experience of these joys. What a living inspiration would be the singing of these hymns, were they supposed to mean what is attainable in this present life!—Our Eden Above; Our Heavenly Home; Our Sweet Beulah Land; Our Christian's Home in Glory; Our Land of Pure Delight; Our Blessed Home-land; Our Beautiful World;—all these and many others would mean a high (heavenly) condition to be entered into here; a state, or "home," or "land," of Peace and Love and Trust, of self-renunciation and spiritual exaltation. Surely the home of the soul is with the God whose habitation is within you—not you as body, however: for, truly, as Jesus declared, "The flesh profiteth nothing." It is "the Spirit that quickeneth," or maketh to live.