practical guide, to lead men to Christ, and to train them to holiness, I would say, Begin at the thirty-ninth question, and be guided with those which follow, onward to the end.” 3. Even children might, on these principles, be taught to greater advantage than they usually are. Instead of beginning to instruct a child, respecting the abstract character of God, the distinctions of personality in the Godhead, the doctrine of decrees, and other matters of difficult comprehension, I would begin my attempts to instruct him, with the meaning and application of each succeeding commandment, and onwards to the end; by which time, he would have materials out of which to conceive of God, of his purposes and works ; and his mind would be also, in some measure, prepared for more abstract processes of thinking.
4. Much of the apparent abstruseness of this little work would in this way disappear, and on the same principle on which science becomes comparatively easy, when perceived in a proper course and by proper means. Depart from the arrangements of a Linnæus and Jussieu, and the beautiful order observable in botany will appear confused and perplexing; or invert the order in any process of mathematical inquiry, and the evenness of the way along which we find an easy path will be rugged to the master, and impassable to the pupil. And strange were it, indeed, if an arrangement so exact and so well adapted to its own special ends as that of the Catechism, should nevertheless leave each question to be taken up, like some cube cast on a gammon board, in any order and with equal intelligence.
5. If these principles and distinctions were more observed, more justice would be done to the merits of the work, and it would be rendered more generally useful.