royal Bible was highly prized; and it was with special favor that it was
opened for us when we had been good, and were deemed worthy of some mark
of approval. My father, then, whose voice made music of every thing,
would read to us the history of Abel, of Noah, of Moses, of Gideon, or
some other of the exquisite narratives of the Old Testament. I do not
say that they were made the medium of conveying spiritual instruction;
they were unaccompanied by note or comment, written or oral, and merely
read as histories, the fact being carefully impressed on our minds that
God was the author, and that it would be highly criminal to doubt the
truth of any word in that book. * * * The consequences of this early
instruction, imparted as an indulgence, I have reason daily to rejoice
in: it led me to search for myself the inspired pages; it taught me to
expect beauties, and excellences, and high intellectual gratification
where God has indeed caused them to abound. As in the natural world we
find the nutritious fruit not lying like pebbles on the ground, but hung
on graceful trees and shrubs, heralded by fair and fragrant blossoms,
embowered in verdant foliage, and itself beautifully shaped and tinted;
so has the Lord arranged that the garden where grows the fruit of the
tree of life, should abound in all that is most lovely to man's natural
perception; and do we not slight this bounteous care for our mind's
enjoyment while he makes provision for our soul's sustenance, when we
neglect to point these things out to the notice of our children? The
word was my delight many a year before it became my counsellor; and when
at last the veil was withdrawn from my heart, and Jesus stood revealed
as the Alpha and Omega of that blessed book, it was not like gradually
furnishing a vacant place with valuable goods, but like letting a flood
of day into one already most-richly stored with all that was precious;
though, for lack of light whereby to discern their real nature, the gems
had been regarded but as common things. My memory was plentifully stored
with what it had been, my free choice to study; and when in the progress