Southern Historical Society Papers, Volume 31.
Reverend J. William Jones, Ed.

[364] the temple service. Was it that the Elders might warm their hearts afresh and restrain their evil inclinations as they recited again and again God's mercies and His wrath? Possibly this was one result of its use, but that it was not its main object we learn from the introduction of this Psalm of instruction, where we read: “ For He established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel, which He commanded our fathers that they should make them known to their children; that the generation to come might know them, even the children which should be born; who should arise and declare them to their children.” There you have it. The Divine plan was to lodge that which we wish to remain in the mind of the child. Can we improve upon His plan?

If we wish the authors so dear to us, of whom we are so justly proud, to be loved in the future, or even known outside of a mere handful of dry and bloodless book-worms, we must to-day make them known to our children.

All the criticisms so far made on the Stepping Stones to Literature are negative. We have pointed out things that are wanting. But there is one selection to which we will call special attention. It is, “The battle hymn of the republic,” by Julia Ward Howe, in the Sixth Reader, which represents the invading Northern army as the coming of the Lord in vengeance. Comment on such blasphemy is unnecessary. Surely no Southerner could have taken the trouble to advise himself of the existence of such an outrage on our children.