KEY.

What PROHIBITION is here directly or indiprectly made? Why is this deed, or word, or thought forbidden?

What prophecy is here RECORDED? At what period of time? Has it been fulfilled? How? When?

What affecting SCENE is shere exhibited? What feelings should it produce?

EXPLANATORY DIRECTIONS,

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For using the Reference Bible and Reference Testament, in communicating instruction to the young.

THE Editor feels it due to Instructers and members of Bible Classes and Sunday Schools, to enter into some detail of illustration, respecting the manner in which these works were intended to aid their most benevolent and commendable efforts The questions in the Key page were never designed to be a substitute for thousands of other questions, but may considerably aid in suggesting the leading topics on which questions will be raised. Let a part of the 3d chapter of Matthew be used for illustrating the plan in more detail. A small ƒ precedes the first verse. That directs the attention to FACTS. Let such questions as these be raised: Where did John Baptist begin his ministry? In the wilderness of Judea. What do you know of the wilderness of Judea? The pupil will be prepared to answer this question by consulting the Tables and Maps accompanying these works. What was the object of John's ministry? To prepare the way for the Messiah's advent.

Before the 2d verse d is inserted, which directs the attention to DUTY. On the Key page it is asked, What duty is here enjoined? Repentance. On whom? On all mankind. Can you repeat any other passage which will confirm this answer? God Now commandeth ALL MEN EVERY WHERE to repent. Is it taught by precept, by example, or by inference? Here John Baptist taught it by direct precept; other ministers are bound to preach like him; like all the prophets, apostles, and the Master himself. Áll their hearers are bound to obey these messages. Therefore precept and inference both teach this duty. How enforced? It was then enforced by the near approach of the Gospel dispensation, called there the kingdom of heaven. It may now be enforced by the reasonableness of the duty, its necessity, and the near approach of death and eternity, Here let the instructer roll the subject on the consciences of the pupils. You have said that repentance is binding on ALL; then it is binding on each of you. Have you done your duty? We have seen that it is a reasonable duty; are you not acting a most unreasonable part if you are neglecting it? It is a necessary duty; for, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish: and dare any one of you longer neglect it? Since, without repentance, where Christ has gone no sinner can go, and liable as you are every moment to drop into eternity,

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EXPLANATORY DIRECTIONS.

Before the 3d verse a is inserted. The Key page asks, What prophecy is here ACCOMPLISHED? The voice of one crying in the wilderness, &c. Where is it found? By_recurring to the Tables the answer will be found, viz. Isa. 40th chap. 3d verse. How many years had it been written? See Tables, viz. About 700 years. The instructer will then draw this inference: If such men as Isaiah could predict future events with minute accuracy several centuries before they took place, they must have been different from other men. Who can now foretell events for 3, or 5, or 7 centuries to come? These prophets were, therefore, what the New Testament calls them, holy men of God, who spoke as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. In other words, they were inspired men. God has spoken by them to us. We must implicitly believe all he has revealed, and cheerfully obey all he has commanded. By some such process, young minds will more deeply revere the Bible; they will be more ready to believe all its doctrines, and have its high and holy claims press upon their consciences.

Before the 4th verse ƒ again occurs. What account can you give of John Baptist's raiment? He was clad in a coarse garment of camel's hair, bound about him with a girdle of leather. What was his diet? Locusts and wild Honey. Here the instructer can bring present oriental customs in confirmation that locusts are sometimes eaten; and he can show that in the days of Saul and Jonathan honey from wild bees abounded in the woods of Palestine. Is any doctrine or duty connected with them? We may learn the duty of plainness in dress, and abstemiousness in diet, when these will subserve our greatest usefulness.

In the indentation of the 6th verse you find g. This directs the attention to GEOGRAPHY. What geographical information is known of Jerusalem, Judea, the Jordan, and the region beyond it? The Tables, and Maps, will enable pupils to reply with readiness and propriety.

Against the 7th verse there stands a t, the representative of doctrinal TRUTH. The questions are, What doctrinal TRUTH is here inculcated? The exceeding depravity of that generation directly; and since, as in water face answereth to face, so the heart of man to man, we indirectly learn the doctrine of universal depravity. How illustrated? By recurrence to natural history. Man is inclined to evil as the viper is to be venomous. What practical influence should this truth have? It ought to humble us. But is there not another doctrinal truth here? Yes; the doctrine of future

EXPLANATORY DIRECTIONS.

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ther t stands, we may learn the duration of that punishment. For when the righteous are gathered to the heavenly garner, the wicked will be doomed to unquenchable fire, or everlasting destruction, from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power. It would be easy to protract this illustration through the intermediate and subsequent verses of this chapter, showing, that in the 11th verse the doctrines of the personality of the Holy Ghost, and regeneration by the Holy Spirit, are inculcated. But it is not necessary. The pupils ought, as much as possible, to be made to feel, that they are individually addressed in these messages from God, that they are depraved, condemned, and perishing, without renewing grace by the Holy Spirit, producing repentance and its fruits of holiness.

The character and preaching of John Baptist might constitute the basis of some general remarks. He was a man of God, plain in dress and abstemious in his habits. He was discriminating in his views of divine truth, and in disclosing them kept back nothing which was profitable to his hearers. He preached the doctrines of universal and entire depravity in man, its merited exposure to future endless punishment, and that deliverance was obtained by the renewing influence of the Divine Spirit, inclining and enabling the soul to exercise repentance towards God, and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ, with corresponding fruits in the life. He was faithful to warn, reprove, and rebuke sinners of every rank or description, fearless of personal consequences. Here we may learn ministerial duty, and what criterion can be used for determining who are, and who are not, faithful stewards of the mysteries of God.

To illustrate the application of two or three other letters, turn to the 8th chapter of Matthew. Again ƒ precedes the 1st verse. What facts are here related? The descent of Christ from the mountain with multitudes in his train, the divine homage he allowed to be given him by a leper, with the remarkable and importunate prayer which accompanied that worship. Is any doctrine or duty connected with them? Yes; both may here be learned by inference. For if INCARNATE TRUTH allowed himself to be honoured even as men honour the Father, such homage is his due, and it is our DUTY and the duty of ALL to worship Him. Heaven worships Him, and if idolatry is not in heaven, it is not idolatry to worship Him on earth.

Before the 3d verse m is inserted. What MIRACLE is here recorded? The cleansing of the leper. By whom and for what

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EXPLANATORY DIRECTIONS.

power and compassion. In whose name, and by whose authority? Christ wrought miracles in his own name, and by his own authority. I WILL; BE THOU CLEAN. On the tempestuous wave he could say, PEACE; BE STILL: beside the grave, LAZARUS, COME FORTH. Peter and other apostles were accustomed to say, when healing the sick, JESUS CHRIST maketh thee whole. Be it known unto you, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ doth this man stand here before you whole. Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. Before the 8th verse c is inserted. What traits of moral CHARACTER are here given? Humility and faith. Are they morally good or evil? Good. Do they belong to a natural or renewed state? To a renewed. What advantages or disadvantages attended? The strong approbation of Christ, and an answer of mercy. Have we humility and faith? Without some measure of these, Christ never will approve our persons, or accept our petitions. And when shall we begin to be humble, and begin to believe in Christ, if we have yet neglected? Behold Now is the accepted time; behold, Now is the day of salvation. The Holy Ghost saith, TO-DAY, if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts. O that these dear YOUTH were ALL truly wise, that they well understood the truths of revelation, and would rightly consider their LATTER END!

Should some such simplicity of exposition and application of divine truth make Pastors and Sunday School Teachers instrumental in saving more souls than they would otherwise do, neither the Editor's labours, nor theirs, would be in vain. CELESTIAL and IMMORTAL anthems would celebrate such labours.

NOTE. Permit the Editor further to remark, that after sustaining for some time an inconvenient pecuniary responsibility, arrangements are now made that Quarto, Duodecimo, and 18 mo. Reference Bibles, and two sizes of the Reference Testament will soon circulate, in proportion to the costs of manufacturing them, as low as the American Bible Society's BIBLES. He would add, that a contract exists for this Work to be published in England. And he should not do justice to himself if he omitted to say, that after the circulation of a few hundred copies from his present plates, he has not the least pecuniary interest in the circulation of either of these Works. He does believe them adapted to aid in the study of the Scriptures, and the delicacy in encouraging