OF BIBLE SELECTIONS AND D RESPONSIVE EXERCISES FOR PUBLIC AND PRIVATE SCHOOLS OF ALL GRADES, SABBATH, MISSION, AND REFORM SCHOOLS, AND FAMILY WORSHIP. BY MRS. S. B. PERRY. "Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path."- Ps. cxix. 105. "The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever."- Isa. xl. 8. BOSTON: LEE AND SHEPARD, PUBLISHERS. LEE, SHEPARD, AND DILLINGHAM. 1871. 1893 From the Library of Plot, A. P. PEABODY 82 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1870, BY S. B. PERRY, in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. UNIVERSITY PRESS: WELCH, BIGELOW, & Co., CAMBRIDGE. INTRODUCTION. HON. SCHUYLER COLFAX, giving an account of the early Washingtonian Temperance Reform, quotes the fifth article of their organization thus : 66 No creed in Religion and no party in Politics to be recognized, and no political or religious action to be introduced into their operations." He says: "This last point was carried even farther than this, some objecting to prayer at the opening of their meetings; but this prejudice rapidly disappeared, and the distinction was made thereafter between Sectarianism and a Reverential Acknowledgment of the Divine." It is just this distinction, so well expressed, that we need to make in our use of the Bible and Devotion in our Public Schools. In the work of Education, as in the Temperance work, all forms of faith and no faith meet, and must mingle harmoniously. Let Sectarianism disappear, but Reverential Acknowledgment of the Divine - never! As Parents and Teachers, Boards of Education and State Authorities, as a Republican nation, we cannot afford to dispense with this acknowledgment of God as a purifying, invigorating element in the education of the young. "When the people that are to be the children of to-day-are assembled for the profound purposes of education; when, from all these various beliefs and no beliefs, they come together to prepare for perpetuating the Republic which secures these very rights, and for that was every free school throughout our borders founded, then must these differences be forgotten, and only the great fact borne in mind, that we are to perpetuate a Christian Republic; that Reverence to God is our corner-stone, and that constant recognition of Him, as such, is both a duty and a necessity."MISS SEYMOUR, in Old and New. Certain truths are common to all Christian believers. Certain portions of the Bible most clearly present those truths. And such selections of Scripture are proved by experience to be best adapted to the use of the young in school. They are indicated by the aim we have in view, namely, to impress the great elementary truths admitted by all, whether Roman Catholic or Protestant; to inculcate those Bible precepts which lie at the foundation of all religious teaching. This "Bible Manual" is an attempt to select and arrange these fundamental truths in a convenient form for the use of schools. Every Exercise or Selection has been subjected to at least two test questions. First, Does this passage convey the same truth, — not exactness of mere words, but exactness of meaning,—whether read from Catholic or from Protestant versions of the Bible? Secondly, Does this passage, by a simple and natural reading of it, convey truth accepted by all Christian believers? In making the Selections, leading representatives of all denominations have been consulted; and we trust the book has been so carefully and candidly prepared that it may prove acceptable to all, and that it may help to solve the great question now so widely discussed, "Shall the Bible be banished from our Public Schools?" - by showing how the Bible may be retained in a true spirit and practice of Christian reciprocity. - As Teachers, have we not felt the need of such a guide-book? If we attempt simply the reading of the Scriptures as a matter of daily routine, we find that a wise selection is of the utmost importance. But many of us have been obliged to own that this method has often proved weak and ineffectual. It is next to impossible, unless the reader has something new, something exciting, in this age of excitements, to hold the attention of any considerable number of children, listening to that in which they take no part. And there is danger lest by a listless, inattentive reading of |