FROM very early on in her child’s life, a godly mother will try to teach her child about our Creator and the Lord Jesus Christ, who came to be the Redeemer. And in due time she will make that instruction more systematic. This little work aims to convey systematic instruction to the child as soon as the child’s mind is capable of receiving it. It may be at three years of age—it may not be till five—that the child is prepared to listen to these little lessons. But, sooner or later, he will give evidence of his immortality by willingly listening to teaching concerning the invisible, the eternal, the infinite.
The simplicity of the language may seem unworthy of the sublimity of the subject discussed in these pages and some may smile at the contrast, but the little one will not smile, for little children are capable of tasting higher pleasures than toys can afford. Happy is the community where the parents lead their little ones to the house of God, and lead them home again to read with them their little books and, verse by verse, the Book of Books!
It will be found that children can understand religious truths at a very early age; although the exact period is of course very different in different individuals. The child easily perceives that there must be a God, and acknowledges His power to be great; the only objections he raises to any doctrine are such, in general, as have never been solved by man, while the child finds no difficulty in believing that God’s understanding is infinitely superior to his own.
And will it be deemed undesirable to instruct the child in religion when it is remembered that impressions made on the mind in early life are the most vivid and the most durable, that the readiest access is obtained to the young and tender heart, that wrong notions will be conceived by the ever-busy intellect, if left uninstructed, and that, life being uncertain, the eternal happiness of a child already knowing good from evil may be endangered by delay?
As it is clear that the greatest accuracy is essential in the foundation of a building, the writer has attempted to prove every statement either by the footnotes or by the references at the beginning of each chapter, both of which are intended solely for the use of the teacher. The poetry is also not designed to be learned by heart.
A verse applicable to each Scripture Lesson has been selected so that the child may memorize it after each lesson. Very young children will not be able to learn these verses till the second time of going through the lessons. Children should not be required to name the part of Scripture from which the words are taken.