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WITH WHICH ARE INTERSPERSED SUCH QUESTIONS AND
ANSWERS ON DIFFERENT SUBJECTS, AS SEEM CAL-
CULATED TO ILLUSTRATE AND EXPLAIN THEM.

IN FOUR PARTS.

BY ELISHA P. SWIFT, A. M.

Pastor of the Second Presbyterian Congregation, Pittsburgh.

Designed for the use of Bible-Classes and other Societies, formed for the
study and recitation of the word of God and for private families.

PITTSBURGH:

Published by

R. PATTERSON & LAMBDIN.

Butler & Lambdin, Printers,

...........

1821.

5963

.892

WESTERN DISTRICT OF PENNSYLVANIA, TO WIT:

L. S.

BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the sixth day of April in the forty fifth Year of the Independance of the United States of America, A D. 1821 R. Patterson and Lambdin of the said District, have deposited in this Office, the TITLE of a Book the right whereof they claim as proprietors in the words following, to wit: The SACRED MANUAL, containing a series of questions, Historical, Doctrinal, and Preceptive, on the Sacred Scriptures, with which are interspersed such questions and answers on different subjects, as seem calculated to illustrate and explain them in four parts, by E isha P. Swift A. M. Pastor of the second Presbyterian Congregation Pittsburgh

Designed for the use of Bible Classes and other Societies formed for the study and recitation of the word of God and for private families.

In Conformity to the Act of the Congress of the United States, entitled, "An Act for the Encouragement of Learning, by securing the copies of Maps, Charts, and Books, to the Authors and Proprietors of such Copies, during the times ther in mentioned "And also to the Act, entitied, “An Act supplimentary to an Act, entitled, "An Act for the Encouragement of Learning, by securing the Copies af Maps, Charts, and Books, to the Authors and Proprietors of such Copies, during the times therein mentioned," and extending the Benefits thereof to the arts of designing, engraving, and etching historical and other Prints,"

R. J. WALKER.

Clerk of the Western District of Pennsylvania.

REMARKS.

There are few persons connected with the Presbyterian Church in the United States, who are unacquainted with the fact, that on the recommendation of the General Assembly, classes have been formed in most of the congregations of that body, for the regular and systematic study and recitation of the Sacred Scriptures.

Although some years have elapsed since that practice commen. ced, no series of questions has ever been published, particularly adapted to that exercise, in which it is common for the middle. aged, and youth as well as children to be promiscuously united.

An excellent book designed for the use of schools and children, consisting of questions on the Bible, was several years ago, published by the Rev. Dr M'Dowell, of New Jersy, which has had a deservedly extensive circulation, and several others of a similar description, some of which were designed for sabbath schools, have issued from the press at different times and in various places; but as none of these were designed for, so none of them seem exactly adopted to the object, and the different capacities of the members, usually-composing Bible classes, especially as they are constitued in the Western Country; and none of them had any considerable circulation in this district of the church. The expediency of putting into the hands of at least each family connected with a class, such a series of questions as shall so mark out the general track of examination, that the members may come together under the obvious advantages of having previously known the principal points on which they are to be questioned, is, we believe universally admitted.

To connect with such a series, the answers of such questions as are intimately connected with the history and not to be easily drawn from the text itself-and such chronological facts as may not lie within the reach of the members of such a class generally is supposed to be necessary to make the system of instruction any way complete. As all answers however (as far as possible) should be drawn from, and stated in the language, of the Sacred Scriptures--it is thought that the present plan of making references to appropriate and collateral passages, and leaving all but the most difficult questions unanswered, is preferable for this kind of instruction to a regular catechism like Dr. Watts' "Historical Catechism," in which the learner replies, not in the language of the Bible-but in that of the author.

There is in a plan of this sort great difficulty in forming a series of questions, historical and doctrinal, without adopting an arrangement somewhat different from that found in the Sacred Scripures. After much reflection it has been considered essential

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