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Untitled Article
bave been formed towards the earthly parent , they will easily be transferred to our Hettventy Father . Where these frotn any cause are wanting , they can < ml §* be gradually supplied * as the understanding and conscience open , by t&e same impressions with respect to God , by wbicti they are pi-oduced with respect to « £ he parent . The religious affections will
often be found to be&r a gfeat resemblance , in their peculiarities , to those of the filial affection- ; and this is particularly the case with respect ltd the disposition to obedience . Miave no hesitation
in pi'Orto ^ ncing subrnissiveness to parents to be , ^ e ry generally , almost an indispensable requisite to the early formation of that disposition to obey God , which is the 4 > bject of all religious culture , and without which the most lively affections are worthless . If a child
love his parents , if he even fear them , it does not necessarily fol - low , and the contrary too often happens , that he has the habitual disposition to obey them : and if lore and fear exist towards his
parents , without that disposition , they will not , in all probability , arly produce it towards God ; and if they do not early do it , they too seldom will at any future period .
If parents sufficiently considered how much their influence over the minds of their children , and consequently their power to do them good , —how much their own happiness in the parental
relation , and the happiness and welfare of their children , depend upon their habitual submissiveness , and how difficult that is to acquire , when not cultivated « erly , they would not so often barter the
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future for the present grajiiicitioa of parental tenderness , th ^ ^ iflj not , by fals ^ indulgence , culfivat £ thdt $ el £ wal ! ednfess , ^ hidh ^ wiu hereafter be corft ^ t ^ tf cKi 4 ect&l at ail , only ^ by great Itegreeb of bodi ly and itientak suffering . I wisti cot to see slavish submission in & child ; I wish : ' not that the
period of childhood should tt made the period of privation or of pain : but surely it is earnestl y to be desired , that parents should habitually look beyond the pt . sent moment * though their
childdren cannot ; and never tuin their pleasures into pains by excessive gratification , or lose that power over their conduct , which mild firmness will usually obtain , but which otherwise must be
obtained by making bodily or mental pain the consequence of disobe . dience . Where filial love has been produced in the mind of a child , love
towards God will go hand in hand with an acquaintance with hii goodness in its various forms . Before the understanding of a child is sufficiently unfolded , to form some notion of the inspectioa and
agency of an unseen being , ( which appears to be the proper period for the commencement of religious instruction , ) there will be feelings in his mind , connected with the expressions good , Ainrf ,
doing good , taking care ofy &c . Suppose a mother , when first communicating some knowledge vi God , speaks to her child o £ the good God . who is very kind
and good to us , is always doing us good&nd talcing caref of us , &c . it is obvious that the feelings already connected with those wards , will become connected with thft word God , and with whatever no-
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53 4 On Early Religious Education .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1811, page 534, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2420/page/22/
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