APRIL 17
Sufferings are the gift of God to you. And they are all intended for your profit, that you may be a partaker of His holiness.
Letter, 26th February, 1780
What can parents do, and mothers more especially, with regard to the atheism that is natural to all the children of men? How is this fed by the generality of parents, even those that love, or, at least, fear God, while in spending hours, perhaps days with their children, they hardly hear the Name of God?
Do not parents feed the atheism of their children further by ascribing the works of creation to nature? Does not the common way of talking about nature leave God quite out of the question?
From the first dawn of reason continually inculcate: God is in this and every place. God made you and me, and the earth, and the sun, and the moon, and everything. And everything is His: heaven and earth and all that is therein. God orders all things. He makes the sun shine, and the wind blow, and the trees bear fruit. Nothing comes by chance: that is a silly word; there is no such thing as chance.
The Education of Children
