Anthony Opie 1833. THE SACRED HISTORY OF THE OLD TESTAMENT, ABRIDGED, IN THE LANGUAGE OF THE BIBLE. FOR THE USE OF CHILDREN.. BY RALPH BARNES, ESQ. WHATSOEVER THINGS WERE WRITTEN AFORETIME, WERE St. Paul. Exeter, PRINTED & SOLD BY S. HEDGELAND, SOLD ALSO BY F. C. AND J. RIVINGTON, ST. PAUL'S CHURCH-YARD, AND WATERLOO-PLACE; AND G. AND W. B. WHITTAKER, AVE MARIA LANE, LONDON. 1821. DEDICATION. IN the firm persuasion that the Bible directs us to all knowledge necessary for our temporal and eternal happiness, and that the greatest blessing I can bestow on my Children is to teach them to read, understand, and love its precepts, I dedicate to them this little Volume. My object has been to bring within a small compass, and relate in a connected manner, the History contained in the old Testament, following as closely as possible, the simple and impressive words of the Bible itself: a point in which other Abridgments appeared to me materially defective. Sensible of the difficulty, in any extract, of preserving the beauty of the original, I am at the same time impressed with the importance of engaging the Infant attention, before it be capable itself of searching the Sacred Volume. My design is, by presenting the Scripture History to the infant mind in a form within the compass of its understanding, not to discourage an inclination, but to excite a desire, to be better acquainted with the Bible at large. R. B. |