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    presented ? May we not be allowed , where the whole is too vast , to call the attention to a kw important objects ^ at the risk of a temporary inattention to outline or relative position ? And what could we select more important than the immediate inspection and care of the Almighty Parent over his creatures ; and how could we embody that idea , and present it to the mind with more force , or in more lovely colours , than we find it in the Old

    Testament ? Who that lives ever regretted the speculative errors he might imbibe from the story of Joseph •? Who cannot remember the time wben a Deity appeared to him to hover in the clouds and watch tibe floating cradle of Moses ; and who would wish not to have felt what philosophical generalities were then incapable of exciting ? Which of us but might trace something of that confidence in Divine protection , that fearlessness of virtue which we are willing to ascribe to rational convictions , to the early sympathy

    with Daniel when " he kneeled and prayed as heretofore , " and the delight of seeing him in the lions' den , when " the Lord gave command , and the lions harmed him not" ? All the speculative accuracy that man ever attained would be dearly bought at the -expense of this early truth of feeling , if such were the price . Happily it is not so ; there is no better means of raising our minds to the whole , than by making ourselves acquainted first with a part , and though the immediate effect may be to produce a

    disproportionate , that is , a false opinion of its importance , we need no other correction than an extension of knowled ge * Tell a child of general laws and systetes of worlds , and what becomes in his feeble mind of the care of the Deity over an individual ? It is lost in the impossibility of comprehension . Shew him rather the hand of the Almighty , as it sheltered and guided the patriarchs , and he may then proceed by degrees till he can conceive of that care which extends to mankind in all ages and climates , and blesses -even the beasts of the field and the tribes of the air . We kave no hesitation in

    saying , that this is the natural progression of the wiind , and that a premature infusion of general ideas , if it were possible , would not be desirable . We are not to be uneasy that we cannot force upon our children mental food already digested , or starve them from the fear of pernicious i&gredients ; but to furnish them with the simple materials which experience has pointed out as fit for their age , trust them to the natural use of their own powers , and , above all , not forbid them the manaa from heaven . Without being

    over-anxious , we may offer an occasional hint , -and thus lead the way to an enlargement of thought ; we may point out the connexion "betweea what is already known and what is beyond ; but our object should be to exercise reason rather than to store the mind with its results . Children are often bewildered with words , and here our afssistance is needed . On sacred

    subjects we have a kind of sacred language Which should be distinctly explained , and we regret that " Sister Ajvne , " in our story , has occasionally neglected this opportunity of being useful . In the conversation on the conduct of Jonah , she has very properly remarked upon " jealousy , " as applied to the Almighty , but she has neglected to explain ( she has even coratributed to misrepresent ) that "/ e « r of God , " which is so fkt from approaching to dread , or to any other unpleasant sensation , that k might rather be called Uhfe chmax of love and reverence . The stfbject is thus introduced :

    Harrietts " You said just now , Anne , that God will protect those who love and fear him as they ought . Bo youlkfiow 1 feel as if I loved him so very much that 1 am not afraia of him , ——Is tM « wrong ?"

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    A Sister ' s Gift . 695

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 2, 1828, page 695, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2565/page/39/