SUBJECTS OF THE ILLUSTRATIONS. SCRIPTURE STORIES. INTRODUCTORY CONVERSATION. Daughter. Papa, will you tell me some of the stories in Scripture? for though I have read a great deal in the Bible, I do not seem to have always a very clear idea of the different histories in it; and I want to see each Scripture story by itself. Father. Certainly I will do so; and though of course everything is told by the writers in the Bible in a better way than any one else could tell it, yet for young people like you it is often a great advantage to hear a Scripture story condensed into a smaller compass, and kept free from the other matters which Scripture has introduced; and then I think you will remember it better than you have done before. D. And when you have told me one story, I shall like to ask you some questions; for I B often find things in the Bible which puzzle me very much, and sometimes make me feel as if I understood very little of the nature and being. of God, and the way in which he treats human beings. F. I shall most gladly answer you: and though you must not be surprised if I now and then have to say that I cannot explain things; yet I hope that, in everything which it is important for us to know, we shall find that Scripture has told us all that is needful, even though a person of your age may not always find for himself an answer to his difficulties. D. Is the Bible a hard book? F. To understand the general sense of the historical books, and of the most important parts, which tell us of our duty and of God's commandments, is generally very easy. It is written in simple language, evidently intended to be read and understood by simple, uneducated people. But there are of course many mysterious things in it; and indeed it ought not at all to surprise us, when we remember that it gives us an account of God and his relations to us, in the many different ways in which it has pleased him to reveal himself, as our Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier, and, at some future day, our Judge. D. Which are the most difficult parts? F. Of course, all those that tell us about the doctrine of the Trinity, that is, of there being three Persons and yet but one God, must be full of difficulty. Indeed, we cannot expect to comprehend this great truth; we can only receive it as it has been told us, upon the simple authority of the revealed word of God. But there is another difficult subject, namely, that of prophecy; for we believe it was intended that many prophecies should not be intelligible until light was thrown upon them by their actual fulfilment: so that many unfulfilled ones are still either not understood at all, or very differently interpreted, even by those who have devoted much time to their study. D. I have observed that the histories of some persons in the Bible seem very much more fully given than those of others whom we should have thought more conspicuous people. How is this? F. The Bible is not a history of nations and conquests, nor even of manners and customs of |