to entertain them; or, if they read so many of these books as to dislike to read those of a more serious and instructive kind—then there is very great danger of their acquiring`a strong dislike to the reading of the Bible.

For the Bible is very far from being a book of mere entertainment. It is full, indeed, of interesting things; but to understand them, and to get good from them, requires patient thinking and serious feeling.

Let parents and teachers beware-lest, by indulging children too much in the perusal of mere books of amusement, they acquire such a fondness for fiction, that it will be difficult for them to read any thing that demands patient and continued attention, and tends to produce serious thoughts and feelings.

Should this lead to their considering it an irksome and disagreeable task to sit down, at suitable times, to the faithful perusal of the sacred Scriptures-what an error in their education has been committed-what a tremendous evil has been incurred!

Books, surely, ought to be placed in the hands of children and youth-many more than are now in circulation-which will require some effort of mind, on their part;-which will demand more or less of continued, patient, and serious thought.

Truth, too—above all, the facts of the Bible-should form a considerable part of a child's religious reading, instead of that mass of fictitious narrative which, at present, so greatly abounds.

Grant that all fiction is not to be discarded; yet there are limits, surely, to its use, in the religious instruction of our children and youth. Its influence is, just now, immense. It sways the minds of the rising generation, who have access to books, to a vast extent. It is molding their intellectual habits. It is forming their taste. It is influencing their moral feelings. It is training them up, in too many instances, to a loose, desultory, luxurious, and disconnected kind of reading, which will render to them, in maturer life, all our standard works of religious truth, by which the souls of English and American Christians, of earlier days, were nurtured to deep thought and a vigorous faith-insipid, irksome, revolting.

In this volume, and also in The History of Jonah, not long since published, the author has made a humble attempt to do something to remedy the evils to which he has alluded.

The success of this attempt awaits the decision of the religious public.

UNIVERSITY

HISTORY OF JOSEPH.

OF JOSEPH.

ONE of the most interesting and instructive histories in the Bible is that of JOSEPH. Children and youth have always been fond of reading it. I wish to tell it to them in this book in such a way that they may get good from it.

You have read many books, my dear children, merely to get amusement from them. You have liked the entertaining stories which they contained. But

you must read books for instruction also. For you need to learn what is useful; and what will teach you how you may grow up to do good in the world, and be prepared to be holy and happy, for ever, in heaven.

You play sometimes. What fine sport you have! I should like to see you playing. It does you good. It makes you cheerful and happy. It gives you healthful exercise, and helps you to grow strong and active.

But it will not do to play too much. Something else must be done. You must get ready to be useful as you grow up to be men and women. Boys and girls who play all the time, and do nothing but amuse themselves, will dislike all kinds of labor as they grow up. They will become idle and useless people; doing no good to others, and getting none themselves.

It is just so in your reading. If you read only story books, to be amused by them, you will become so fond of this kind of reading that you will dislike instructive and useful books. You will think it a hard task to read them; just as a child who plays all the time thinks it very disagreeable to do any kind of work. Your minds will become weak. You will be able to think scarcely at all about good and important things. And what will be the worst evil

the Bible, the best of all books, will seem to you a dull and tedious book indeed.

very

I do not mean to say that you should never read any story books that will amuse you; though I fear many children read such kind of books a great deal more than is good for them. But what I mean is, that you should be more fond of reading books that are useful and instructive; books that will make it necessary for you to think when you read them— sometimes to think hard, so that you may understand clearly what you read, and get good from it. Espe cially should you be fond of reading those books which are written to lead you to think about your souls, and what you must do to be saved.

Perhaps some of you, my dear children, will say that this is too long and sober an introduction. You may feel very impatient to have the history of Joseph begin.

This shows that there is some reason for my thinking that you have been so much in the habit of reading for mere amusement, that you cannot bear to read any thing of a serious and instructive kind, even for four or five minutes.

If this is really so, you ought immediately to en deavor to take an interest in that kind of reading which will require you to be fixed in attention, pa. tient in thinking, and serious in feeling.