Stereotyped and printed by A. Wilson, Duke-street, Lincoln's-Inn Fields AND J. HATCHARD, PICCADILLY. ADVERTISEMENT. IT is the usual practice in schools, to let children read the New Testament before the Old, on account of the great nuin ́ber of difficult words which occur in the latter. This is surely a very erroneous plan: for Christian knowledge, to have a solid foundation, must be built on Faith in GOD as the CREATOR and GOVERNOR of the Universe; and no method for obtaining this end can be equal to that of letting the scholar read, in the very words of divine inspiration, the account which is given in the Old Testament of the wonderful display of GOD's power and wisdom, in his works of Creation and Providence, in the first ages of the world. The mind, thoroughly convinced, by this means, of the greatness and majesty of GOD, will be well prepared for the contemplation of his mercy and goodness, exemplified in the great work of Man's REDEMPTION, and for all the other important truths which the Gospel teaches. 1 In composing this Abridgment, endeavours have been used to obviate every objection usually made to the previous reading of the Old Testament, by omitting every hard chapter (as they are commonly called), and every other passage unintelligible or uninteresting to young minds. But the utility of this SELECTION cannot fully appear without its intended Companion, the SCRIPTURE CATECHISM, in which the lessons are explained in the form of familiar conversation; and in so easy a way, it is presumed, that any person ADVERTISEMENT. who can read, may, by means of it, instruct their scholars, not only in the general outline of SCRIPTURE HISTORY, but in the principles of CHRISTIANITY; and one book will be suf ficient for one teacher, as the explanation is not designed to be read by the scholars, but to them. The first part of this Catechism explains the lessons taken from the Old Testament ; the second part explains the lessons from the New Testament. The Author hopes, that in schools and families where her INTRODUCTION TO THE KNOWLEDGE OF NATURE, and her larger work, entitled SACRED HISTORY, with Annotations and Reflections, are used, the SCRIPTURE LESSONS, together with the SCRIPTURE CATECHISM, will be found useful as an intermediate step, leading the young mind gradually on to the knowledge of divine truths as the reasoning powers expand. SCRIPTURE LESSONS. LESSON I. GENESIS, CHAP. I. IN the beginning God created the Heaven and the Earth, And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. : : 3 And God said, Let there be light and there was light. 4 And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day. 6 And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. 7 And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so. And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day. 9 And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear : and it was so. And God called the dry land Earth, and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas and God saw that it was good. : 11 And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit-tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so. 12 And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind and God saw that it was good. And the evening and the morning were the third day. 14 And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven, to divide the day from the night: and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days and years. : 15 And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven, to give light upon the earth and it was so. And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also. |