A

SIMPLE EXPLANATION

OF THE

SHORTER CATECHISM,

INTENDED FOR SUNDAY SCHOOLS.

Dear children, I wish you not only to learn your catechism, but to understand it; in it, you will find all the truths necessary for you to know and all the duties God requires you to perform.

Question 1. What is the chief end of man. Answer. "Man's chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever."

This is a question of great importance. You have been told that God made you: have you never asked why? God is wise, he is Wisdom itself, he must have had some reason, and the answer to the question is taken from his own word; if it were not, we should not know it to be true. The purpose for which we were made, is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever; it is our duty then, to glorify God, and this we can do only by believing in him, trusting him, and obeying

him, and if we do this we shall enjoy him forever.

Q. 2. What rule hath God given to direct us, how we may glorify and enjoy him?

A. "The word of God, which is contained in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament, is the only rule to direct us how we may glorify and enjoy him."

This question very naturally follows, has God given us any rule? If he expects any service from us, surely he will tell us so, and tell us what will please him; if we were to attempt it without knowing how, we might do just what would displease him. God has given us a rule; it is to be found in the Bible, here called "the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments." This is the word of God. Q. 3. What do the Scriptures principally teach?

A. "The Scriptures principally teach, what man is to believe concerning God, and what duty God requires of man."

The Scriptures are given to teach us, what we are to believe concerning God, and what he requires of us. Remember, this word of God is just as much spoken to us, as if it was spoken with a loud voice from the clouds. If you were to see yonder cloud burst suddenly, and hear a loud voice directed to you, in these words, "Thou shalt not

take the name of the Lord thy God in vain," "Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy" "Thou shalt not steal"--" Thou shalt not kill"--would you ever dare to commit such crimes again? If you did, you must own that God would be just in condemning you, and yet all those commands are found in the Bible and they are all addressed to you. In that book you will find full and plain directions for every duty required. If you read it carefully, and pray to God to open your hearts to understand it, you will certainly learn what you ought to do to inherit eternal life.

Q. 4. What is God?

A. "God is a spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth." Q. 5. Are there more Gods than one?

A. "There is but one only, the living and true God."

Q.6. How many persons are there in the Godhead?

A. There are three persons in the Godhead, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, and these three are one God, the same in substance, equal in power and glory."

Those questions relate to the being of God, and are not to be perfectly understood by us,

B

until we throw off these mortal bodies and arrive in that land of light where we shall see God, face to face. At present we know him only by his works and from his word.

Look around you, my dear children, and you will every where see marks of the power and of the wisdom of God. Behold the sun, the moon and the stars, observe the earth on which we live, covered with trees and grass and a great variety of plants and animals. Who made them? Man is the most powerful being that we are acquainted with; he can build houses, bridges, and ships, and make a variety of curious machines; but no man can make a tree, or even a single grain of sand. Man can only put things together which have been made before; he can create nothing; there must be some being far greater than man, a being wise enough to contrive all the wonders which we see around us, and able to create, and preserve what he has created; and this being we call God.-It is but little however, we ever know of God merely from his works. If he had not taught us to know him by giving us his precious Bible, we might have been worshipping gods made of wood or stone; but in the Scriptures we find that God has not a body as we have; he is a Spirit (we have spirits as well as bodies, that part of us which thinks and understands and

dreams, is our spirit)—and he is infinite that is, he is without bounds or limit in all his attributes and perfections; and he is eternal, which means that he had no beginning and will never have an end; and he changes not; he is the same yesterday, to day, and forever; he is wise, powerful, holy, just, goodand true. There is but one God: this you can all understand. The answer to the next question, that there are three persons in the Godhead, is difficult, I may say impossible fully to understand; but we can believe it: for God has declared himself to be one God, and yet frequently in his own word speaks of the Son, and this Son is clearly spoken of as equal with the Father, and the Spirit or Holy Ghost as equal with the Father and Son. We should take care how we disbelieve any thing which God has revealed, merely because we do not clearly understand it; there are many things which we can give no clear account of, and yet we see them every day.. The growth of vegetables is one instance; you have seen little peas and beaus put into the ground; in a few weeks, they become plants and produce other peas and beans. How does this strange effect take place? "We do not know," is all we can say about it; neither do we understand how our own souls and bodies are united to form one being, and