Let that therefore abide in you, which ye have heari
from the beginning.—1 JOHN ii. 24.

SEVENTH EDITION. THIRTY-FIFTH THOUSAND.

New York:

E. & J. B. YOUNG & CO.,
COOPER UNION, FOURTH AVENUE.

MDCCCLXXXIV.

"O Children of the Church! live in the Church, love her
holy ways, walk in her paths of peace, look not beyond!
You have naught to do with those who are without, but to
treat them kindly, do good to them, and pray for them. In
the Holy Catholic Church you have your portion; be con-
tent; give God thanks; be at rest. Live by the Bible and
the Prayer Book. Begin each day with prayer; go forth to
your work and to your labour until the evening; lie down
with the Eye of Jesus looking upon you, and the Holy
Angels watching around. Do good in your time. Be sober,
industrious, true, honest, kind. Fulfil your course. Lay
hold on all the helps which the Lord puts within your reach
to bring you to Heaven. So shall your walk be close with
God; so shall you at length rest in Him with the blessing
of the Holy Church upon your grave; so shall you wake in
the last great morning, to rise and go to your Father's
House; to be brought close to that Lord, of whose Body you
are a member, and from whose side you will never be parted;
to inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the beginning
of the world."

Copyrighted, 1880, by

POTT, YOUNG & COMPANY.

5-17

INTRODUCTORY NOTE.

THIS Catechism has been compiled by one of the clergy of our parish, at my request and under my direction. Of course there can be nothing original in such works: the sole test of their value is their accordance with the mind of the approved doctors and theologians of the Church. I believe this little book will stand that test.

What is wanted most in these days is dogmatic, orthodox, Catholic teaching. There is better work to do than merely to cram children with geographical, topographical, and historical statistics, divert them with stories, and bore them with moral platitudes and general statements which nobody denies. What can it avail to drill our boys and girls on the mountains and rivers, the beasts and fishes, the birds and bugs of the Bible, to entertain them with pictorial lessons about Joseph and his brethren, David and Goliath, witches, prophets, wise men, and bad and good folk, while omitting the "weightier matters" of the Creed, the Holy Mysteries, the things to be believed to the saving of the

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soul? It is waste of time to tell the history of the earthly life of Christ, while hiding or obscuring the truth that He is Very God of Very God, the atoning High Priest, the Royal Lawgiver, the Awful Judge; or to follow the Apostles in their journeys and voyages, yet ignore the Catholic and Apostolic Religion which they built up. And whatever others may think, it is my conviction that, in this free and easy age, we need something better than that sort of teaching which offends no one, and those manuals which owe their circulation to the fact that everything has been weeded out which might have diminished the sale. Let us teach, first, the Catholic Faith, whole and undefiled, the Sacramental System, the Precepts of the Church, the Perfect Law of GOD. This is what our Mother intends, in her standing order to Sponsors, "Chiefly ye shall provide that this child learn THE CREED."

It is my wish that every child in the schools of our parish-and there are 4,455 on our rollsmay, before he leaves us, be taught this catechism, and know it thoroughly. And may God Almighty bless the little ones, and have them ever in His holy keeping.

TRINITY RECTORY, NEW YORK,
August 7th, 1880.

MORGAN DIX,

PREFACE.

AT a time like this, when Catechisms, Leaflets, and manuals of Sunday School instruction abound, the best justification of another attempt in the same direction may be a statement of the use to which this Catechism is to be put. The Sunday School of Trinity Church is divided into four main departments: the Infant School, the Primary Department, the Main School, and the Bible Classes. At the outset most of the children know little even of the first principles of religion, nothing of the Church. In the Infant School and the Primary Department the scholars learn the Church Catechism. They are then promoted to the Main School, which is composed of from thirty to forty small classes, and here they remain until they reach the age of seventeen, or thereabout. From this time on they are assigned to one of the Bible Classes, and a most encouraging feature of the work is, that there are upwards of one hundred and ten scholars who have passed their sixteenth year. At the afternoon service of the First Sunday in