Page:The Great Didactic of John Amos Comenius (1896).pdf/390

 save those who hold themselves at a distance.” He continues, “Would that it were translated into all languages, that it might be known by the Turks and the Saracens, and by the Scotch and the Irish as well. Many would mock, it is true, but some would be won over. Would that the ploughman might sing it at his plough, that the weaver might repeat it at his loom, that the traveller might beguile the tedium of the journey by its sacred story, and that the conversations of Christians were taken from its pages; for our daily conversation represents our true character. Let each one get and read as much of Holy Writ as he can. Let him who is behind not envy him who is in front. Let him who is in front beckon forward him who is behind, and despise him not. Why do we confine to a few the book that contains the faith of all?” And near the end, “May all whom we have dedicated to Christ in baptism be imbued with His teaching while in the arms of their parents and among the caresses of their nurses. For that which the mind first drinks in, sinks deepest and remains longest. Let our first babbling be of Christ, and let our infancy be modelled upon His Evangelists, which should be set before boys in such a way that they may like them. In these studies they should be trained, until by a silent increase they develope into men, whose strength is in Christ. Happy is he whom death snatches away while engaged on this study. Let us all, therefore, drink in God’s Word with our whole hearts, let us embrace it, let us die while occupied with it, let us be converted into it, since our morals are so intimately connected with our studies.” In his Compendium of Theology also he says: “In my opinion, it would not be a waste of time to learn the Holy Book off by heart, even though we did not understand it, as says St. Augustine.”

Christian schools, therefore, should resound not with Plautus, not with Terence, not with Ovid, not with Aristotle, but with Moses, David, and Christ, and methods should be devised by which the Bible may be given to children dedicated to God (for all the children of Christians