If you love your children, says Ryle, do all that lies in your power to train them to a habit of prayer. Show them how to begin. Tell them what to say. Encourage them to persevere. Remind them if they become careless and slack about it. Let it not be your fault if they never call on the name of the Lord. This is the first step in religion which a child is to take. Long before he can read you can teach him to kneel by his mother's side, and repeat the simple words of prayer and praise which she puts in his mouth. If there is any habit which your own hand and eyes should help in forming, it is the habit of prayer. Many a gray haired man could tell you how his mother used to teach him to pray, where he knelt, and what he was taught to say. It will come up as fresh before him as if it were but yesterday.