among pagan nations, the parent is required to "bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord." These are some of the great truths of Christianity which have changed the character both of civilization and of education.

2. THE FOUNDER OF CHRISTIANITY.

The life of Christ, apart from its religious significance in the world's redemption, is well worth a careful study. It is now nearly nineteen centuries since his birth. During this vast period, the world has moved forward in its gigantic process of development. The sum of human knowledge has been immeasurably increased, new arts and sciences have arisen, yet the life of Christ stands forth in unapproachable beauty. The greatest minds of modern times, with the docility of the Galilean fishermen, have paid him the tribute of reverent admiration. The brilliant and skeptical Rousseau acknowledged that "the life and death of Jesus Christ are those of a God." The great German, Herder, said, "Jesus Christ is in the noblest and most perfect sense the realized ideal of humanity." No one will deny the intellectual greatness of Napoleon, yet he has said of Christ: "His birth and the story of his life, the profoundness of his doctrine, which overturns all difficulties, and is their most complete solution; his gospel, the singularity of his mysterious being, his appearance, his empire, his progress through all centuries and kingdoms-all this is to me a prodigy, an unfathomable mystery. I defy you to cite another life like that of Christ."

Human life is an unbroken unity, and our early

years, like the infant oak, contain the elements of our future being. As childhood is a peculiarly susceptible and imitative period, the influences and training belonging to it are largely determinative of our destiny. Leaving out of account Christ's divine nature, before which we bow as a mystery, we may trace, as in the case of other men, those influences which contributed to his intellectual and spiritual development.

Nazareth, his native town, is surrounded by an amphitheatre of hills. Flowers grow upon the slopes and in the hollows; birds fill the air with songs; refreshing breezes blow from the sea, and a bright canopy of blue is stretched over the landscape. In the midst of these favorable surroundings, Christ grew up in sympathy with Nature; and, in after-years, he was able to draw wonderful lessons from "the birds of the air and the flowers of the field." As the Jewish system of education had changed but little, the domestic circle at Nazareth was probably his only school. From Joseph he received formal instruction in the Jewish law, while the gentleness and piety of Mary were not without influence in molding his character. He profited, no doubt, by the weekly synagogue service, and, on his annual visits to the holy city, dwelt fondly upon its wondrous associations.

The results of this training, with its deep religious significance, are apparent throughout Christ's subsequent career. At twelve years of age, he confounded the doctors in the temple; afterward he repulsed the repeated assaults of Satan in the wilderness; he vindicated his Messiahship by the testimony of the prophets; he baffled the cunning of the Pharisees by his profound

acquaintance with Scripture. When he taught the people, he called forth the testimony that "never man spake as this man." He announced new and profound spiritual truths. In a word, he raised himself above all others whom millions yet to-day regard as their grandest teachers. Buddha, Confucius, Mohammed-to say nothing of Greek and Roman sages are not worthy to be compared with Christ.

In his manner of instructing his disciples and the multitudes that gathered around him, Christ has given us valuable lessons in method. His heart goes out toward his hearers in the tenderest sympathy; he "was moved with compassion toward them, because they were as sheep not having a shepherd." His teaching is adapted to the capacity of his hearers, and is usually connected with some outward circumstance that renders it more impressive. He observes the order of Nature, and seeks only a gradual development—“ first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear." With his disciples, he insists chiefly upon the practical and fundamental truths of religion, building, as it were, a substantial framework in the beginning, which the Holy Spirit was to conduct afterward to a harmonious and beautiful completion. "One finds in his programme," says a French writer, "neither literary studies nor course of theology. And yet, strange as it may seem, when the moment of action arrives, the disciples-those unlettered fishermen have become orators that move the multitudes and confound the doctors; profound thinkers that have sounded the Scriptures and the human heart; writers that give to the world immortal books in a language not their mother-tongue."

The teachings of Christ which affect education have already been considered. It is true, as Paroz has said, that "Jesus Christ, in founding a new religion, has laid the foundations of a new education in the bosom of humanity. He has exhibited in his own person the perfect moral development toward which we are to tend-a development which the wisdom of the ancients scarcely caught glimpses of—and he has opened to us, by his death and resurrection, by his word and the Holy Spirit, the way toward this ideal. toward this ideal. He is indeed 'the way, the truth, and the life,' and we can say of those who would banish him from education and the school what St. Paul said of the Jews hostile to Christ, that 'they are the enemies of the human race.'"

The testimony of Karl Schmidt is no less striking and emphatic: "By word and deed," he says, "in and with his whole life Christ is the teacher and educator of mankind. Henceforth there is no higher wisdom than that exhibited by Christ, that God is a spirit, and that they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth; no greater truth than this, that God dwells essentially in man, that God is the true, divine being of man; no diviner duty than this: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.' That is absolute truth, doctrine for all time, in the appropriation and realization of which lies the task of mankind, while in the person of Christ himself the absolute example is given as to whither this truth leads, what it accomplishes, and how it appears in taking form."

This is the first and

3. BRIEF SURVEY OF THE PERIOD.

The first period of Christian education extends to the Reformation of the sixteenth century. During this long period Christianity did not completely control society and education. Always encountering determined opposition, and having weak and fallible men as its representatives, it has never achieved faultless results. At first its violent contrast with existing customs and morals, and afterward its union with the state, gave it one-sided tendencies and crippled its efficiency. At a later period, its contact with the uncultured masses of Northern Europe, and its perversion by a self-seeking, political, and often corrupt priesthood, tainted it with superstition and tyranny.

Notwithstanding unfortunate tendencies in the Church during the first period of Christian education, indispensable work was accomplished. The greatest political power of the earth was brought under the influence of Christianity. The young and vigorous nations of the north of Europe, which at a later time were to be the representatives and bearers of Christian culture, were converted to Christianity. The relics of ancient literature, which were to perform an important office in quickening and forming modern Christian culture, were preserved in the monasteries, and multiplied by tireless copyists. The beginnings of popular education were made. A thirst for knowledge was disseminated among the higher classes, and universities were founded as centers of intellectual culture. In part, the course of study, both for primary and secondary