verse of the second chapter, when he had the misfortune to meet with an accident which has since laid him aside from public activity. The same year he published these lessons, and prefixed to them the following address:

THE AUTHOR OF THESE LESSONS

TO THE CHILDREN WHO HEARD THEM, FOUR MONTHS AGO, IN THE CHAPEL OF THE ORATOIRE.

"In presenting you with this First Chapter of Genesis, and the explanations of it which I so lately gave you, I am only paying a debt of gratitude, and returning, as best I can, the kind visit which I received from you eleven weeks ago. I shall never forget it.

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Scarcely free from those painful bonds which had confined me so long to my bed, I was broken in spirit and in body, and could hardly stand even with crutches, when some one came to announce a visit. 'It is impossible for me to receive it,' I answered. They insisted, however, that I should at least appear on the balcony of my room; and it was you, my dear young friends! There you all were, spread in a circle on the lawn. I saw you with deep emotion; I heard your voices and your hymns, and I addressed to you a few words. But what touched me more than all the rest, was that thick package of cards which three of you presented to me, in name of all, and which came from all, each card having inscribed on it one of your names, and one or two passages of consolation or of exhortation, chosen from the Word of God, to address to me. These flowers, gathered for me by your hands in the garden of the Scriptures -and for the most part very happily chosen-wafted to me a sweet odour of Christ. I read them frequently; they refreshed

my soul, and I felt myself consoled of God. From that day, when I was still incapable of the slightest exertion, I resolved to send you in return a passage of Scripture, as soon as my health allowed me the easy labour of getting the notes of my lessons re-copied and corrected.

“Here, then, I address to you the First Chapter of Genesis, which formed the subject of our meditations together, before the hand of God separated me from you. You will not find the seven verses which follow, though I explained them also. It seemed to me better not to enter on a new chapter: the first will suffice. Here it is.

May the thirty-one verses, which you will read, I hope, with great attention, do you as much good as yours have done me! May they be 'a lamp to your feet, and a light to your path!' May they remind you each day of Him, who, having formed us once from the dust of the earth, has promised, in Jesus Christ, to make us spring from it a second time at the resurrection of the just!

"Let me hope that these great scenes of the creation will frequently recur to your thoughts in presence of those glorious works amid which God's goodness has placed you on the shores of our lake, on our hills, in our meadows, at the foot of our mountains, and also under the domestic roof, amid all the trials and all the joys of life. Let me hope that they will rehearse to you each day how great the Lord is, and that they will encourage you in your prayers; for He is good, and his mercy endureth for ever.' But above all, I earnestly desire that this mighty creation of the six days may frequently remind you that there is another still mightier and more wonderful, of which the Bible ever speaks, with which we cannot dispense,

b

and which God our Saviour still works from day to day in souls when he converts them. If any man be in Christ,' says Paul, he is a new creature.'

"Wherefore, dear children, seek always in His Word for that great and good God. It is there that he is to be found; it is there that he comes to meet the child who longs after Him; there that He presses him to His heart, and says, 'Bring forth the best robe and put it on him ;'1 there that He 'creates in him a clean heart, and renews a right spirit within him.2 It is, as Christ has said, by hearing Moses and the prophets, that the heart is converted to God, and escapes the wrath to come. They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them. If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead."' But let that search be made in the sincerity of a guileless heart, and with all humility, for 'Thus saith the Lord, The heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool: . . . for all those things hath mine hand made, and all those things have been, saith the Lord; but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor, and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word.'4

"GENEVA, 2d August 1856.”

In seeking to let English readers have the benefit of these admirable lessons, the translator has endeavoured to preserve, as far as possible, the form and style in which they were given. The questions put, and the answers of the children, which have been embodied in the lesson, are all preserved as they were spoken, and may easily be discovered by the style of the dis2 Ps. li. 10. 3 Luke xvi. 29, 31.

1 Luke xv. 22.

4 Is. lxvi.

course. There is one feature, which, while it gave greater power to the lessons as delivered in Geneva, must weaken it in some degree when read in this country, and that is, the continual references to scenes and places in the immediate vicinity of Geneva. It was found difficult to alter some of these advantageously, and impossible to alter others, without entirely changing the character of the work; they have, therefore, been generally permitted to remain as they are in the French, and, where ignorance of the localities might prevent a clear conception of the passage, explanatory foot-notes have been given.

T.