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THE

CHILD'S BOOK

ON

THE SABBATH.

BY REV. HORACE HOOKER.

PUBLISHED BY THE

AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY,

150 NASSAU-STREET, NEW-YORK.

D. Fanshaw, Printer.

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1835, by LEAVITT, LORD, & Co. in the Clerk's office of the District Court for the Southern District of New-York.

Right of publishing transferred to the American Tract Society.

BV

113

.H6

PREFACE.

The children and youth of the present generation will, without doubt, have to decide whether the Sabbath shall be preserved to our country, as a day holy to the Lord. Ought they not, then, to know the nature and value of this institution, and the dangers which threaten its existence? However others may feel, the author must regard this subject as one respecting which the young ought to be faithfully and fully instructed. If, with a fair view of the design of the Sabbath; of the authority by which it is established; and of its close connection with the interests and eternal destinies of men, the youth of our country shall say, "Let the Sabbath cease to be holy, let it be a day of dissipation and merriment," we should weep over their decision. But, having set before them their duty, we should still have the satisfaction of feeling that we have done what we could to prevent this calamitous result.

It has been the design of the author, in the following pages, to employ such language and modes of illustration, as shall render the subject not only intelligible, but interesting to the young. At the same time, he has kept in view persons of more advanced age; and he indulges the hope that what he has written may not be unprofitable to readers of this class.

Some may think that so much notice ought not to have been taken of objections against the Sabbath, lest it should weaken respect for the institution. If the young could be kept in ignorance of these objections, the author would assent to this view of the subject. But, at the present day, such a thing cannot reasonably be expected. The enemies of the Sabbath are many, and they are active and bitter in their opposition. Tracts, and pamphlets, and newspapers, and all the means of disseminating truth are now perverted to the diffusion of error. It is impossible to prevent this. Shall the advocates of the Sabbath, then, state the objections of the enemy fairly, and refute them by clear and convincing arguments, —or shall they suffer them to be brought before the minds of the young, when no one is at hand to show their fallacy? The former course seems most expedient to the author.

It is suggested, whether parents might not profitably make a chapter of this book the ground-work of a short exercise with their children on the Sabbath. A succession of such exercises, until all the chapters had passed under review, would revive in their own minds the reasons in favor of the Sabbath, and impress these reasons on the minds of their children. A similar exercise, perhaps, might not be unsuitable for classes in Sabbathschools.

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