Series of Instruction Books for Schools and Families, EDITED BY THE RIGHT REV. WILLIAM CROSWELL DOANE, S.T.D., Manual of Christian Doctrine, ACCORDING TO THE CHURCH CATECHISM, ADAPTED TO UNIFORM GRADES. BY THE REV. WALKER GWYNNE, RECTOR OF 8. MARK'S CHURCH, Augusta, maine. WITH INTRODUCTION BY THE VERY REV. R. W. CHURCH, M.A., D.C.L., DEAN OF S. PAUL'S, LONDON. "Rooted and built up in HIM, and stablished in I HAVE looked over the several Catechisms for the use of Sunday-Schools compiled by the Reverend Walker Gwynne, and adapted to schools of the Church of England in Canada, and think them very instructive and useful I am pleased to be associated in this matter with one whom I so highly esteem as the Dean of St. Paul's, London. JOHN FREDERICTON, Metropolitan of Canada. BISHOPSCOTE, May 20, 1887. INTRODUCTION. one. SOUND and profitable religious instruction has two requisites: it must be clear and distinct, and it must have the life and animation of conviction and faith on the part of the teacher. The second requisite, of course, is a personal The teacher must have his heart and his intelligence in his work, must be alive to its importance, must be able to communicate some of the interest which he feels in it to his pupils. No books or directions or helps can give this. But as regards the first requisite, clearness and distinctness in the matter of teaching, much may be done by books; much may be done to give fulness, order, proportion, definiteness, meaning, to what is taught. Much may be done to connect, to illustrate, to make sure that things are made plain. Much may be done to assist the teacher in tracing out a natural and intelligent line for his teaching, and in suggesting methods of grounding his pupils in the elements and fundamental truths of Christian doctrine. Much can be done by books in this way; and it is certain that much is needed to be done. We none of us probably adequately comprehend the degree of ignorance or of half-knowledge, vague, baseless, meaningless, in which multitudes of what we call our educated classes grow up. They have never had a month's real and serious teaching about the rudiments and first principles of Christian revealed truth. They know, from hearsay, a number of words, and perhaps statements; but nothing has ever led them to ask themselves what the words and statements meant, or how they hung together. Or they put a meaning upon theological terms which suits some idea which they favour, but without considering for a moment whether it is the true meaning, and how far it is consistent with the whole system of which it is a part. They read the Bible, they follow the prayers, they listen to the sermon, perhaps with a quick sense for what touches |