The Manawatu Herald. SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 1907. RELIGIOUS TRAINING.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXIX, Issue 3777, 9 November 1907, Page 2

The Manawatu Herald. SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 1907. RELIGIOUS TRAINING.

Mr Wm. Gray, M.A., principal of the Wellington Training College, speaking at the Presbyterian Assembly at Wellington on Thursday, said the religious impressions formed in childhood lasted right through after life. He regarded the influence and work of the home as fundamental. He did not think they could ever go behind that. He need only ask the question, how many persons in that assembly were there ltecau.se of the spirit imbued into their lives in their homes ? How far the piety of their mothers and fathers had entered into their lives ? We took our spiritual as well as physical chacteristics more from the environment of our earlier lives than we imagined. All the. elements that go to make up the ideal spiritual and religious life were essentially founded in the atmosphere of the home, and the spirit that breathed there influenced our after lives. The school also contributed a very strong element to the religious upbringing of children. It was the duty ot the Church to go forward and pursue a hold and aggressive policy in the matter of religious instruction of the young. A great deal of time and force was spent in elaborate services for the grown up people, and not enough time on the religions education of the young. He advocated the establishment of a home department in connection with Sunday school work, the allocation of a certain sum every year to the publication of suitable literature for the guidance of parents in their duties towards their children in regard to religious instruction at the various ages of childhood and youth, the appointment of a superintendant in each of the cities, whose special duty it would be to exercise general supervision over the youth of the Church, in addition to ministers and members of the congregation, and for the country districts specially-trained Sunday school missionaries were needed. Newer methods were wanted. The strategic point for any colony or dominion was the minds and hearts of the young people.