How children were taught to love God in 1855

Part 4 in an exclusive Herald-Guide series

CHAPTER IV. THE BIBLE.

MY DEAR CHILD - Can you see God? No; you cannot see him. No one in this world can see him, though he can see us all the time. He looks at us, and sees all we do; he hears all we say, and he knows every thing which we think about or wish, even if we do not tell it to any body.

Do you not wish to please God, who is so good and kind to you? Yes, I hope you do.

But how do we know just what will please him? We never saw him to ask him how we could please him, and how shall we know? I will tell you.

He has given us a book in which is written down just what he wishes us to do; and in it are written also what kind things he has done for us, and what more he means to do. Must not this be a very precious book?

What is its name? It is the Bible. The Bible is God's book; it is the book which he has given us to teach us what will please him. It is the most interesting book in the whole world. It is worth more than all the rest of the books in the world put together. When you learn how to read, will you not love to read it? God did not make it for grown up people only, it was made for children too. A great many things in it are about little children. It is full of the most beautiful stories in the world, stories for children.

Ask your mamma, when she is at leisure, to tell you one of the pretty stories out of the Bible. The story of the little baby in the bulrushes, or the story of the good man who was shut up in the lion's den.