[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."' SIR,—In our eager
championship of our own conceptions of the truths of religion, are we not in danger of forgetting the nature of the minds of the children with whom we have to deal ? Why this strenuous attempt to evolve a Catechism which shall offend no one ? What does a teacher worth his salt want with a Catechism at all ? Ask him, and see if be does not say that the method of Christ Himself, the method of teaching by examples, by parables, by the concrete, is the method best fitted for children. Let them read and study the Gospel narratives, and out of them they will gather for them- selves the moral and spiritual truths which Catechisms attempt to formulate. Is it not an altogether unscientific method of pro- cedure to present conclusions and require children to accept them and repeat them parrot-wise ? Is not the Bible itself, reverently and intelligently used, incomparably better fitted to convey living truth than the most ancient or modern
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