Chapter I: Introduction

TEN years have completed their course since one of the associate authors of these volumes published his first edition of "THE CATECHISM TESTED BY THE BIBLE." It was sold in a few weeks. That work, in two 18mo. volumes, was revised and stereotyped the same year; and two corresponding volumes, with the same title, but more simple and explanatory, and therefore better adapted to young children, were prepared and published with them.

Of these four books, recently revised, put into two, one for children, the other for adults, and issued in a new stereotype edition, more than two hundred thousand impressions have been printed. They have been translated into several foreign languages; as into the Arabic by Rev. H. M. Calhoun in Syria, where, by the blessing of God, they contribute to the fulfilment of prophecy, and are helping to "turn Lebanon into a fruitful field." In the Sandwich Islands, we are informed, they are used by government authority as national text books, assisting to confirm those who were so lately idolaters in "the faith which was once delivered to the saints." They are "helps" at various missionary stations, and have been widely circulated in the United States, the British Provinces, and several transatlantic countries.

From highly respectable sources, the author of that work has received applications for other volumes, in illustration of the doctrines and duties of Christianity, as set forth in the admirable compend thereof, drawn up by the Westminster Assembly, and entitled "The Shorter Catechism." The first suggestion of this kind was received years ago in an interview with Rev. T. H. Gallaudet, of Hartford, Conn., whose numerous and popular works for the young demanded for his judgment grave consideration. It was then that his rare gifts as a writer awakened the hope of his future aid in the preparation of these volumes—a hope the realization of which his death has precluded.

But Providence has kindly enabled the author of the former treatise on the Catechism to avail himself of the efficient aid of his wife, whose "Home Life," consisting at present of "Cora and the Doctor," "The Courtesies of Wedded Life," and "The Household Angel," and whose "Juvenile Series," of which four volumes, "The Motherless Children," "Play and Study," "Howard and his Teacher," and "Trying to be Useful," have been very favorably noticed by the press and received by the public. Two other volumes of the same series, "Striving and Thriving," and "I'll Try," are in press, and will shortly be issued.

The explanations and illustrations contained in the present volumes exhibit the method, and in part the results, of her weekly catechising of her own children, and of her instruction in Sabbath schools, also of her husband's catechetical exercises with the children and youth of his pastoral charge, for a long course of years.

They comprise the sum of their united experience, reading, and observation, together with such anecdotes and fables as they have found interesting and useful in this department of Christian nurture.

Each catechetical answer has been analyzed, and the subjects it contains carefully studied by us individually. Then we have unitedly agreed upon the method of explaining, illustrating, and enforcing its truths. For the theology and ethics of these little volumes the author is mainly responsible; but the background, drapery, and shading of the picture, on which much of the interest and utility of the work depends, is to be ascribed mainly to the authoress, whose nom de plume is associated with his name upon the title page.

After a careful revision and preparation for the press, the work is given to the public in the hope that it may aid parents, Sabbath school teachers, and pastors in the religious education of the dear children committed to their care, and may enable the rising generation better to understand these subjects of divine knowledge, and more tenaciously to "hold fast the form of sound words."

CONTENTS OF VOLUME I.

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CHAPTER I. MAN'S CHIEF END; OR, LITTLE LOTTY

CHAPTER II. THE BIBLE; OR, THE SAILOR BOY

CHAPTER III. THE DIVINE RULE; OR, AOLA

CHAPTER IV. THE CHARACTER OF GOD; OR, PRAYER IN THE ASSEMBLY

CHAPTER V. THE UNITY OF GOD; OR, THE MISSION HOUSE

CHAPTER VI. THE GODHEAD; OR, THE SILENCED INFIDEL

CHAPTER VII. THE PURPOSE OF GOD; OR, THE NEW HOUSE

CHAPTER VIII. EXECUTION OF GOD'S PURPOSE; OR, THE POOR MINISTER

CHAPTER IX. THE CREATION OF THE WORLD; OR, THE PATENT OFFICE

CHAPTER X. THE CREATION OF MAN; OR, THE WAX DOLL

CHAPTER XI. PROVIDENCE; OR, THE ILL-FATED BOAT

CHAPTER XII. THE COVENANT OF WORKS; OR, THE FIRST WEDDING

CHAPTER XIII. THE FALL OF MAN; OR, THE MYSTERIOUS BOX

CHAPTER XIV. THE NATURE OF SIN; OR, THE CONVICT

CHAPTER XV. THE FORBIDDEN FRUIT; OR, THE BROKEN RULE

CHAPTER XVI. THE BROKEN COVENANT; OR, THE FAMILY OF THIEVES

CHAPTER XVII. MAN'S FALLEN STATE; OR, THE DEPOSED MINISTER

CHAPTER XVIII. MAN'S SINFULNESS; OR, THE DISEASED FAMILY

CHAPTER XIX. MAN'S MISERY; OR, THE BATTLE FIELD

CHAPTER XX. ELECTION AND REDEMPTION; OR, THE NEW HOME

CHAPTER XXI. CHRIST, THE REDEEMER; OR, THE PARDONED REBELS

THEOLOGY IN ROMANCE.