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BEING

A COMPILATION ·

FROM

QUESTIONS ON THE SELECTED SCRIPTURE LESSONS,"
BY ALBERT JUDSON,
Minister of the Gospel;

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BY A SUPERINTENDENT OF A SABBATH SCHOOL IN
NEW JERSEY.

PREPARED BY HARVEY FISK,

IN CONJUNCTION WITH THE AUTHORS OF THESE RESPECTIVE
WORKS, AND REVISED BY THE COMMITTEE OF PUBLICATION
OF THE AMERICAN S. S. UNION.

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Eastern District of Pennsylvania, to wit:

BE IT REMEMBERED. That on the twenty fifth day of December, in the fifty-third year of the Independence of the United States of America, A. D. 128, PAUL BECK, Jun. Treasurer in trust for the American Sunday School Union, of the said District, has deposited in this office the title of a book, the right whereof he claims as

proprietor, in the words foilowing, to wit:

"Union Questions: Being a compilation from "Questions on the Selected Scripture Lessons," Ly Albert Judson, Minister of the Gospel; and from "A New Series of Questions," by a Superintendant of a Sabbath School in New Jersey. Prepared by Harvey Fisk, in conjunction with the authors of these respective works, and revised by the Committee of Publication of the American S. S. Union. Volume I."

In conformity to the Act of the Congress of the United State, entitled. "An Act for the Encouragement of Learning, by securing the Copies of Maps, Charts, and Books, to the Authors and Proprietors of such Copies, during the tines therein mentioned"- And also to the Aut, entitled, “An Act supplementary to an Act, enited, "An Act for the Encouragement of Learning, by securing he Copies of Maps, Charts and Books, to the Authors and Prorietors of such Copies during the times therein mentionel," and extending the benefits thereof to the arts of designing, engraving, And etching historical and other prints."

D. CALDWELL,

Clerk of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

PREFACE.

THE plan of limited lessons, now so extensively adopted, is an improvement in the system of Sabbath Sch of instruction, of comparatively recent origin. The old method was, to allow aot only ench class, but each scholar also, to learn, separately from the rest the lesson of each successive week, and without limitation, other than the ability or inclination of the learner might oc asion. Encouragement was held out at the same time, to long lessons, by paying ho scholars at a fixed .ate for the quantity con.mitted to inemory, and more attention was necessary given to the space gone over than 10 the real improvement of the scholar. Much was learned imperfectly by rote, but comparatively little received into the understanding and the heart. It was a plan adapted to perplex and retard most Beriously every wheel of the gio.ious institution.

Upon this system, the introduction of limited lessons was a simple, but vastly important improvement. It prescribes the same lesson for a whole school, and defines its extent within such moderate limits, that a child of common capacity, who can read, may commit it to memory with ease. The plan aims, especially, to secure some true and right understanding of the scripture that is studied. For this ead, it requires the teachers to make use of simple and various questions to their scholars, in relation to the matter of each lesson; questions suited to compel aueation to every minute point, to excite and draw forth thought, and to awaken the moral sensibility of the

heart.

Few teachers are qualified to discharge this duty without help; and all are aided by a judicious directory to their own preparations, assisting them in guiding the thoughts of their scholars. In view of this want. it was natural that the idea of forming and publishing a system of questions for the use and imitation, should be early conceived, and carried into effect.

The first experiment of this sort, was made in 1823,* by Mr. TRUMAN PARMELE, in Utica, N. Y. A small volum. was published for the use of Sabbath School teachers, containing a series of simpe questions on the four Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles, in regular order. The questiors were few; not more than one, for the most par, upon each verse. They were not designed to occupy the whole range of the teacher's exercise, but merely as a general outline, to be filled up in every case as it was exiled for in practice.

Another system of questions was published by the New York Union, and the Am. S. S. Uniòn, in 1825. It differed from Mr. Parmele, in adopting a ses of lessons selected from the different gos

*The Rev. Dr. M Dowell's Questions on the Bible, were extensively in circulation previc us to this time. But they were do eigned and used principally for Bible Classes, and consequently are not reckoned among books prepared for Sabbath Schools, though it is probable they led the way to all the systems that have boon prepared for Sunday Seoul instruction.

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