Chapter VII: Part VI: The Will--The Conscience--The Divine Life in the Child

I. THE WILL

Government of Mansoul--Executive power vested in the will--What
is the will?--Persons may go through life without a deliberate
act of will--Character the result of conduct regulated by will--
Three functions of the will--A limitation of the will
disregarded by some novelists--Parents fall into this
metaphysical blunder--Wilfulness indicates want of will-power--
What is wilfulness?--The will has superior and inferior
functions--The will not a moral faculty--A disciplined will
necessary to heroic Christian character--The sole practical
faculty of man--How the will operates--The way of the will;
Incentives--Diversion--Change of thought--The way of the will
should be taught to children--Power of will implies power of
attention--Habit may frustrate the will--Reasonable use of so
effective an instrument--How to strengthen the will--Habit of
self-management--Education of the will more important than of
the intellect 317

II. THE CONSCIENCE

Conscience is judge and law-giver--I am, I ought, I can, I
will--Inertness of parents not supplemented by Divine grace--
Conscience not an infallible guide--But a real power--That
spiritual sense whereby we know good and evil--A child’s
conscience an undeveloped capability rather than a supreme
authority--The uninstructed conscience--The processes implied
in a ‘conscientious’ decision--The _instructed_ conscience
nearly always right--The good conscience of a child--Children
play with moral questions--The Bible the chief source of moral
ideas--Tales fix attention upon conduct--Ignorance of a child’s
conscience--Instructing the conscience--Kindness--The
conscience made effective by discipline 329

III. THE DIVINE LIFE IN THE CHILD

The ‘very pulse of the machine’--Parents have some power to
enthrone the King--The functions and life of the soul--What
is the life of the soul?--The parent must present the idea of
God to the soul of the child--Must not make blundering
efforts--God presented to the children as an exactor and
punisher--Parents must select inspiring ideas--We must
teach only what we know--Fitting and vital ideas--The
knowledge of God distinct from morality--The times and
the manner of religious instruction--The reading of the
Bible--Father and Giver--The essence of Christianity is
loyalty to a Person 341

APPENDICES

A. LIST OF BOOKS 353

B. QUESTIONS FOR THE USE OF STUDENTS 357

C. THE EXAMINATION OF A CHILD OF SEVEN UPON A TERM’S WORK
ON THE LINES INDICATED IN THIS VOLUME 387

D. THE EXAMINATION OF A CHILD OF NINE UPON A TERM’S WORK 398

INDEX 420

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