Today on celebrate the bible: Here we have a children’s pictorial scholastic primer. It was published by the American Tract Society. The society was founded in New York City in 1825. If you’re listening to this from the actual web page, I will describe the photos. If you’re listening to only the podcast; you can see the photos by going to celebratethebible250.com.
The first photo (going from top to bottom) is a photo of the book cover. It says “the pictorial tract primer”, along with an illustration of a mother and children reading.
When we open the book, we see a little girl’s name, Ellen Marshall. There is also a short poem that she wrote about her ownership of the book. Let me read what it says: “Touch not this book, for fear of shame. For here you see the owner’s name”.
Our next photo shows the title pages, which contain a few steel engravings. On the left, we see Christ blessing the little children on the frontispiece. We also see a mother reading to her young children on the title page.
The next photo shows the letters of the alphabet. Each letter has an illustration and a poem. There are three of each on a page. The alphabet is shown in upper and lower case. Let’s take the letter “L” in the photo. It reads “L is for Lydia, God opened her heart. What he had bestowed, twas her joy to impart.” And so on, and so forth, for each letter of the alphabet.
My next photo shows one of various short paragraphs that follow several illustrations. For this example, we have the Dove. Allow me read what it says about the Dove: “See this Dove? It is a meek and kind bird, and does no harm. When two or more are in one nest, they live in love. John and Jane, and each boy and girl, must try to be good and kind. The Son of God, who died to save us from sin, can help you to be mild and meek, like the Dove.”
And so on, and so forth, throughout the small booklet. Back in the 1800’s, children would learn to read and write using bible verses in tract’s like these. I’m happy to show an example of such a book here today.
Until we meet again, and for “Celebrate the Bible 250”, this is Frank Douglas. Let’s remember to not only celebrate the bible during the semiquincentennial … but to read it, too!
America 250 Semiquincentennial Bible Celebration 