viii Long, Sir, may you be spared to emulate all the virtues of your illustrious race, whose kings, the fathers of their people, have won, thereby, a glory purer and more durable than any diadem can confer, in the love and loyalty of the generous millions entrusted by Providence to their charge. Deign then, Sir, for such reasons, graciously to accept the humble expression of my dutiful homage. I have the honour to be, With profound respect and gratitude, Most obedient and devoted servant, JOHN STEWART. SWAFFHAM, NORFOLK, November 1st, 1827. PREFACE. In presuming to undertake an illustration of the leading beauties of Scripture History, I have been impelled by a sense of duty alone. It is true that other, and far more talented individuals, have made a similar journey before me, but I am unaware of any of them having pursued it by the same route. The course I have adopted, however, seemed to my best consideration a desirable one ; and I humbly trust that it may likewise be found an useful one. It would be presumptuous, indeed, in me to anticipate the success of these efforts, in the grand cause of morality and piety; but I can at least affirm that they have been strenuously directed to merit it. B No time appeared to me more favourable than the present for an attempt to render the study of the book of life more interesting and attractive; and which I can have no doubt it would infallibly become, were its precious contents but read oftener, and meditated upon with a disposition impartially bent to do them justice. I have long perceived, with an awful regret, that owing to a combination of causes, the bible is becoming less and less perused; and that, by no unimportant portion of our people, it is in some degree considered to be obsolete, with all its sacredness frittered away. I tremble to reflect, how seldom its invaluable pages are recurred to for a good end, its lessons savingly inculcated, its vital truths fairly discussed, and their unspeakable benefits properly estimated. Nor have I been an unconcerned observer of the " signs of the times” — and I think I have clearly noted, that the fearful increase of crime which now deluges society, and which has latterly become so lamentably habitual throughout our beloved country, bears a pretty exact ratio to the indifference manifested for the sacred ordinances of religion, and to the desuetude into which Bible Reading has fallen. If we cast a glance at the records of General Assize, the eye soon shrinks on perusing them, and the heart sickens to dwell on them. The holiest ties of life are there seen to be severed; and the relative positions of parents and children of husbands and wives and of friend, and master, and servant, to be frightfully dislocated. Had public worship and family prayer been less neglected, or observed with more sincerity, these violations of the laws of God and man might not have so blurred the columns of our diurnal prints, nor exacted the sanguinary retribution which they are bound to announce. Education, although more extended among us, has failed to establish a correspondent morality; because, in too many instances, the former has not been built upon the basis of religion. Unless education be directed by the sacred and sublime principles of the Christian faith, it becomes not merely not a blessing, but oftentimes a curse; its advantages being always problematical — its evil consequences, never! Look to the Report of the House of Commons, for the average increase of population and of crime, during the last twenty years! Unhappily, it speaks a language incapable of misinterpretation. It proves that, during this period, while the population has increased one third, crime has increased fourfold, and that the educated guilty exceeded in number the uneducated guilty, in the proportion of sixty to forty. The reason is evident. The mind once disencumbered of ignorance, becomes more susceptible of the earliest impression to be subsequently stamped upon it; —if good, it is happily retained; but if bad, through the devices of artful infidelity, the consequences are deplorable. Bereft of the knowledge of the Gospel for anchorage, the acquisition of education, in such a case, but drives the possessor into a channel frequently of fixed immorality and vice. To obviate this, the Bible ought to be the tree on which education is grafted. There the root is sound, and the scions |