f t FRONTISPIECE To-day with pleasure Christians meet, To pray and hear thy word ^ And I would go with cheerful feet To learn thy will, O Lord, A TWO DIALOGUES WITH CHILDREN, On keeping holy the Sabbath^ AND On s:oins: to Church. WELLINGTON, SALOP : j PRINTED BY AND FOR F. HOULSTON AND SON. And sold by Scatcherd and Letterman, Ave- Maria Lane, London; and all other Booksellers. 1818. [Entered at Stationers' Hall.] I \ . I TfVO DIALOGUES WITH CHILDREN. BIAILOGUE I, O^ THE SABBATH-DAY. Q. Which day is the Sabbath- day? A. The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord our God. Q. Why are we to keep the Sabbath holy ? A. Because, when God made the heavens and the earth, he rested on the seventh day^ and blessed it^ and hal- lowed it. Q. What do you mean by saying that God rested on the seventh day? A* I mean that God ceased from the work of his hands, and rejoiced in it. O TWO DIALOGUES Q* What does the word Sabbath mean? A. The word Sabbath means liest^ Q. Where was the first Sabbath kept ? A« It was kept in Heaven; when the creation of the world was finished, and the morning stars sang together^ and the sons of God shouted Jbr joy. Q* Where will the last Sabbath be kept? A. In Heaven ; where there remain- eth a rest for the people of God. Q. What sort of a Sabbath will the last be? A, An eternal Sabbath of holy rest and joy. Q. What else is the Sabbath-day called ? A. It is called The Lord^s day. Q. Why is it called the Lord^s day? A, Because on this day our Lord Jesus Christ rested from his sufferings a.nd labours; and after dying on the WITH CHILDREN. J cross for our sins, rose again from the dead for our justification. Q. How must you keep holy the LordVday? A. By resting from worldly business and work, from worldly talk, and worldly thoughts. Q, Is there any thing else you must remember, if you would keep the Sab- bath holy? A. Yes; I must not spend it m worldly visiting, or in travelling, or going on errands, or in idle games and amusements. Q. May you go to visit your rela- tions, or travel for the sake of meeting your friends? A. No, not if it causes me to neg- lect the public worship of God. Q. Are no worldly works ever to be done on the Sabbath-day? A. None but works of real necessity, or of charity. Q. Why are you to put worldly -■^ 8 TWO DIALOGUES things away from you on the Lord's day? A. That I may attend wholly to heavenly things, and the worship and service of God. Q. Must you not worship and serve Gcd every day? A. Yes, I must worship God in pri- vate, and serve him in the work of my place and calling, every day. Q. What then is the proper work and business of the Sabbath-day? A. The proper work and business of the Sabbath-day is the public wor- ship and service of God. Q. What will the public worship and service of the Sabbath prepare you for? A. It will prepare me for the rest and worship of heaven. Q. Can you go to heaven without such a preparation? A* No. Q. Is the want of good clothes a. WITH CHILDREl^. § sufficient excuse for neglecting the public worship of God? A. No, it is no excuse at all: and persons who take proper care of what they have, need never be Avithout de- cent clothes. Q, DoesGodany where promise that they who seek his kingdom and righ- teousness in the first place, shall have all needful things provided for them? A. Yes, in Matthew vi. 31, 33. Take no thought^ ^ctp^g^ What shall we eat? o)\ What shall we drinJcf or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? but seek ye Jirst the kingdom of God^ and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Q. What are those persons guilty of, who refuse to keep holy the Sabbath? A. They disobey the commands of God, they despise the love and suffer- ings of our Lord and Saviour Jesua Christ, and they turn their backs on heaven. 10 TWO DIALOGUES Q. What must such persons expect to be upon them? A. The fearful curse of God. Q. What may you expect, if you keep holy the Sabbath ? A. I may expect the blessing of God on me, and all 1 do: for God has blessed the seventh day, as well as hal^ lowed it. Q. Repeat a text which contains a promise of such a blessing. A. If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbathyfrom doing thy pleasure on my holy day ; and call the Sabbath a de- light^ the holy of the Lord, honourable; and shalt honour him^ not doing thine own ways J nor finding thine own pleasure^ nor speakifig thine own words: then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord ; and I will feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father : for the mouth of the Lord liaih spoken it. (Isaiah Iviii. 13? 14.) WITH CHILDREN. 11 BIAILOGUE II, ON GOING TO CHURCH, Q. W^HAT did you say was the proper work and business of the Sab- bath ? A. The public worship and service of God. Q. What should we feel when we are told to go to church? A. We should be glad when they say unto us, "We will go into the house of the Lord!^ Q. How should you behave in walk- ing to church? ^ A. I should walk quietly, not mak- | ing a noise; and seriously, thinking J where I am going, and what I have to do there. Q. What should you think, as you are going into the church? 12 TWO DIALOGUES A. I should think, Surely the Lord is in this place ! This is none other than the house of God. This is the gate of heaven. (Gen, xxviii. l6, 17.) Q, What do you go to church for? A. I go to church " to acknowledge and confess my manifold sins and wick- edness, to render thanks to God for the great benefits I have received at his hands, to ^et forth his most worthy praise, to hear his most holy word, and to ask for those things, which are requisite and necessary, as well for the body as the soul/^ Q. What must you do when you go into the church? A. I must go quietly to my own place, and there either kneel down or stand up, and pray to God, to be with me and bless me. Q. What words will you say to yourself? A. Let the words of my mouthy and the meditation of my hearty be akoays WITH CHILDREN. 13 acceptable in thy sight, Lord, my Strength and my Redeemer. Q. How should you behave while you are in the church? A. I must neither laugh nor talk, nor stare about me, nor make a noise with my feet: but attend to the ser- vice, and stand up when the rest of the congregation stand ; sit, when they sit; kneel, when they kneel;' and join with them in reading the psalms, and in the prayers, and singing. Q. When the Scriptures are read^ and the clergyman is preaching, what must you do? A. I must look towards the clergy- man, and think, what I am hearing, is the JVord of God. God is speaking to me by it, for my instruction and salva- tion. Q. What should you do when th^ service is over? A. I should say, ^' Pardon, O Lord, my sins, negligences, and ignorances; 14 TWO DIALOGUES hear my prayers, and bless thy word to my soul/' ^ Q. But is any mere form, or out- ward worship, pleasing to God? A, No: God is a Spirit ; and they that worship hifn^ must worship him in spirit and in truth. Q. What will you try to do then? A. I will pray with the spirit^ and I will pray with the understanding also; I will sing with the spirit^ and I will sing with the understanding also. Q. What good shall you gain by worshipping God in this manner? A. The Worship and Word of God on earth, will prepare me for his Pre- sence and Worship in Heaven. Q. If at any time you are hindered from going to the house of God, by sickness^ or other necessary cause, ^vhat should you feel ? A, I should feel the same grief and desire which David speaks of in the eighty-fourth psalm. How amiable are WITH CHILDREN. Ic; thy tabernacles^ Lord of hosts ! My soul longethfor the courts of the Lord. One day in thy courts is better than a thousand. I had rather be a door-keeper in the house of my Gody than to dwell in the tents of ungodliness. Let the children be first taught to repeat these answers perfectly ; and then be examined and questioned out of them, till they have learnt to understand and apply them. Let them also learn to repeat Watts's Hymns for the Lord's-day morning and evening. C« Rf C. FINIS. HoulstonSj Printers. 350)3^5 ■" ^ 4"% "J^ i tTVvu Dh .^J&iu£'> I ^' — ^- -^-. --n~ ■■■.■■-^ ■: ■^...■..