PREFACE

TO THE ENGLISH EDITION.

THE first series of Lectures by Dr. Todd has been no small favourite in the nursery and in the school-room, Published in the year 1834, it has maintained an undiminished hold upon the youthful mind, and is still sought after with eagerness as a welcome addition to juvenile libraries. It has been translated into French, German, Greek, and many other languages, has been adopted as a school-book for the liberated slaves at Sierra Leone, and has been printed in raised letters for the blind. In America, it has reached its twenty-first thousand. In this country, it has passed through many editions, the total sale of which has exceeded one hundred thousand copies!

Under these circumstances, the public are doubtless prepared to hail the advent of a

Second Series. Competent parties in America, who read the new Lectures in manuscript, did not hesitate to pronounce them equal to their predecessors. In the confident hope that a similar judgment will be formed on this side of the Atlantic, they have been carefully revised for re-publication, and are now presented to the rising generation of our own land. The young will find much to interest their fancy, to instruct their minds, and to profit their souls, in these cheerful yet truthful pages.

LONDON, February, 1859.

AUTHOR'S PREFACE.

THERE are, perhaps, loftier walks than the paths in which the feet of childhood tread, But when we remember how earnestly Moses commanded his people to instruct their little ones; how beautifully David spoke to them, and of them ; how wisely and fully Solomon taught them in his Proverbs; how tenderly Christ embraced them, and charged His ministers (in charging Peter) to feed His lambs; how great is the number now under the care of the Church of Christ for instruction; and how great a proportion of all who are, at this day, converted to God, come from among these lambs,—we can hardly over-estimate the importance of this department of spiritual labour.

Many years ago, I made the attempt to speak to children by the pen. The effort was far more successful than I had any right to hope. Whether the harp has since become so worn by time

that its notes will be no longer recognised, will be determined by the issuing of this little volume. Should it, like some unpretending bird, light upon as many bright and sunny places, and with its notes cheer as many listening children, as the First Series has, I can hardly think of a higher earthly recompense.

We read, in our blessed Bible, of a temple in which the very snuffers were of pure gold; but more beautiful far is the heart of the child in which the Holy Ghost dwells as His temple. To this end, I trust with something of the child's humility,-I send forth this humble volume, and commend it to the blessing of the Great Redeemer.

PITTSFIELD,

August, 1858.

"Ye shall find the Babe, wrapped in swaddling-clothes, lying in a manger."-LUKE ii. 12.

CHILDREN, you know that if you were to try to make a mill, or a carriage, you would go to work very differently from the way in which a man would; and you know, too, that while the man might finish his mill or carriage, you could not finish yours. The man would go to work very differently from the child, because he is older and wiser.

B