The Bible the Book for Boys.

TO THE BOYS OF BRITAIN.

E who has written these sketches knows all about boys and their ways. He is now, it may be, five or six times as old as you are, having nearly numbered threescore years. He never forgets, but often thinks of, his own boyish days; and not only has he watched the ways of other boys ever since, but he has always had his eye on his own; for of ten children around his own fireside, seven of them were boys. He knows, therefore, what boys are and what boys like.

And then, as to the Bible being the Book for Boys; the writer never read any book like it in

or a man.

his life—either when he was a boy, or a youth, One of the earliest things he can remember in his own history is that he could read the Bible to his grandmother, even before he was dressed in the clothes of a boy. When he grew bigger, and greedily read all the books he could get, the chapters in Genesis and Samuel were greater favourites with him than Robinson Crusoe, or even Pilgrim's Progress. And he has observed in his own family, and in other families, how deeply interested the children are in the narratives of the Bible which give the early history of distinguished men, like Joseph, and Moses, and David-these are the children's heroes, and they like to read about them.

Yes: the Bible is the book for boys-for all boys, of all nations, and of all ages. And you, the boys of Britain, above all other boys, are bound to regard the Bible as your book.

The word BIBLE means The Book, and it is the book. Every other book is but a book, but

this is the book. There is no book like the Bible-there never was, there never will be. For the Bible is the book of God. By whom, and at what times, and in what ways, He gave the various parts of it, until the whole book was completed, will not be for me to tell you now; but if you wish to know all about the history of this wonderful book, and I hope you do, you may easily obtain the information. And when you have, you will admire the wisdom and goodness of God, in so arranging and managing everything, that no one should have any cause to doubt that it was written under the immediate direction of his Holy Spirit.

I said that you British boys were bound to regard the Bible as your book, and I will tell you why. No nation paid a higher price than your forefathers did, three hundred years ago, to secure it, and hand it down to you as their best legacy.

When the Bible was completed it was written

with pen and ink on parchments, and every copy of it cost much time and labour and expense; and therefore it was not within the reach of many as it is now. And this was not all: it came to pass that many of the men who had the charge of it, because it condemned their hypocrisy and wickedness, would not let the people see it. In our own land, for ages, it was seldom seen, and little known. Only portions of it at one time. or other were translated. At length, Wicliff translated the New Testament; but it was not until the invention of printing that the whole bible could be said to be within the reach of the people.

And the first printed English Bible was not printed in England, but in Holland; and the noble-minded man who translated it and printed it was burnt alive as a heretic-burnt alive by the Roman Catholics remember-for sending the English people the bible, the very best gift that ever reached our shores. But the name of