parents is faithful), and says that they are not unclean (1 Cor. vii. 14). Even of those who have been implicated in the gravest crimes the Apostle dares to affirm: “Such were some of you; but ye were washed, but ye were sanctified, but ye were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God” (1. Cor. vi. 11). Can it therefore appear impracticable to any one, when we demand that the children of Christians (not the offspring of the old Adam but of the new, the sons of God, the little brothers and sisters of Christ) may be carefully trained, and declare that they are to receive in their hearts the seeds of eternity? We do not indeed demand fruit from a wild olive, but we come to the assistance of grafts freshly grafted on the tree of life, and help them to bear fruit.
25. We see, then, that it is more natural, and, through the grace of the Holy Spirit, easier for a man to become wise, honest, and righteous, than for his progress to be hindered by incidental depravity. For everything returns easily to its own nature, and this it is that the Scriptures say: “Truth is easily seen by those who love her, and can readily be found by those who seek her. She grants herself to the understanding, and those who wait before her door obtain her without trouble” (Wisdom vi. 13, 15). As the poet of Venusia says:
No one is so wild that he cannot be tamed,
If he patiently turn his ear to instruction and knowledge.
