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they may think of God with pleasure , be cause their own hearts tell them that he views them with " ¦ - " 5 ' approbation . It will iu > t he necessary for me to be equally minute in shelving the formation of the fear of God ,
Nearly the same means ot culture must be adopted ; but our success will bv . more sure . Pain affects the mind more powerfully than pleasure ; and fear , which springs from pain , is , therefore , more active yn < l easily formed than love , ¦
which springs from pleasure . It is , perhaps , impossible that the fear ot God should n > t spring up inXhe mind , where tolerably correct ideas respecting him have
been communicated . Everything which is attentively heard or read , respecting the greatness , majesty , power and justice of Ged tends to produce the awe and fear of
him ; and this is heightened by the declarations of the scriptures respecting the dreadful consequences of disobedience to the will of God . While we endeavour eariy to cultivate reverence and awe of the Supreme Being in the
minds of our children , we must , however , be careful nut to heighten it into-terror . A due proportion of the fear of God * , is , in general , necessary to render the love of God a steady actuating principle of the conduct ; and when duly blended with it , and moderated j
by frequent recurrence , ( as all feelings are , unless otherwise enlivened , ) it in reality increases it ; but often has the excessive culti .
* Hartley ' s Observations , vol . ii . p . 3 ^ 1 . In this invaluable work is contained a fund of information , respecting the formation and cultivation of the affeetions , which cannot be too much studied by those parents who . possess the requisite rftentiu culturo .
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tivation of fear been the ferrij «* source of superstition ^ a nd ofd . grading ideas respecting the God of love ; and still more frequently has " it contr ibuted to destroy the influence of-religion " , by inakjnothe thoughts of ¦ God painful to the minds of the young , and there . by destroying all disposition to cherish , them * I remember
hearing a person of great piety , bene . volepce and amiableness of dispo . sition , express the idea , that in all her endeaveurs to cultivate the love of God , she continually felt the ill-effects of the terrific views of ihe
Supreme Being , which had been early impressed upon her mind , almost to the exclusion of those representations which would have excited love . She was fully con .
vinced of the goodness oi God , but fear seemed to overpower her cod . victions , at least to prevent their exciting their due proportion of love ; and the lovely and paternal attributes of the Supreme
Being , were seldom a source of delight and consolation to her mind . On a heart less pure , and a judgment less enlightened , either superstition or practical atheism , would , probably , have exercised absolute sway .
I have more than once stated , that the religious affections may exist , even with a considerable degree of vividness , without having much power in regulating the heart and lifewithout becoming
, religious principles , i . e . habitually actuating motives . Our object throughout , in the endeavour to bring up our children in the nurture of the Lord , must be to give the affections which we cultivate
in their minds towards God , as mtich power as possible as actuating motives ; to give them a *
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536 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 536, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2420/page/24/
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