THE RELIGIOUS TRAINING OF CHILDREN
To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.]
Sin,—Reading your letters on the choice of hymns suitable for children brings back some old memories.
One is liable at first to think it does not matter very much what hymns we should choose, any lines repeated sufficiently often and in a sufficiently serious manner are all that is necessary, as, for instance, " Pity my simplicity," repeated thousands of times by thousands of children, not one knowing the meaning—or, as was the case to-day, when a man asked me the meaning of "Hallelujah !" a word he had been singing for the last thirty years and had only just come to the conclusion that it really had a meaning.
But to come to my own experience many years ago, when my mother, who had a very sweet voice, used to sing hymns to us. One of her favourites commenced, " There is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins," and this, indeed, caused more interest to me than all others. In one's very young days, blood was generally connected with a wound of some sort and was rather terrifying, a whole fountain filled with it was a bOrrible picture for a child, to say nothing about his feelings for Emmanuel, whoever he might be, whether man or possibly an animal.
In those days, riding to town in the family barouche, we passed a fountain, and I well remember looking out to see if by any chance it was filled with blood, and for many years after I never saw a fountain without remembering this hymn.
This particular hymn is one which I think might be forgotten.
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