dren the school becomes an amusement, they will make progress with rapidity and delight.
6. Since, however, “all wisdom is from the Lord, as it is with Him from eternity, He moreover is the leader and the ruler of wisdom, and in His hands are we, and our words; likewise all providence and knowledge,” the present matter necessarily requires that parents should in devout prayer, again commend their children to God, begging Him to grant His blessing on their scholastic instruction, and to make out of them vessels of grace, nay, if it please His wisdom, the instruments of His glory. So Hannah with prayer delivered her Samuel to Eli; so David delivered Solomon to the prophet Nathan; so the mother of John Huss,[1] the Bohemian martyr, as she was taking him to school, occasionally during the journey falling on her knees with him, poured out her prayers. And how well God heard and blessed these prayers, all Christians know. For how can God thrust away from Him that which is dedicated to Him with a full and warm heart, with prayers and tears: first, before birth; afterwards in faithful dedication; and now a third time? It is impossible for Him not to receive so holy an offering.
7. Therefore the father or mother may use the following prayer: “Almighty God, Creator of spirits and of all flesh, from whom all paternity upon earth is named, supreme governor of angels and of men, who, in virtue of Thine eternal right over all creatures, didst ordain by the word of Thy law that all first-fruits of the produce of the earth, of cattle and of men, should be presented as offerings to Thee, our God and Creator, or be redeemed according to Thy will with other victims; behold, I, Thy unworthy servant, having
- ↑ For a full account of John Huss, the first bishop of the Moravian Church, see De Schweinitz’s History of the Unitas Fratrum (Bethlehem, 1885).
