A MODE OF CATECHISING. BY THE REV. TEMPLE HILLYARD, Rector of Oakford (Devon); Canon of Chester Cathedral. PUBLISHED UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE TRACT COMMITTEE. LONDON: SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE. 77, GREAT QUEEN STREET, LINCOLN'S-INN FIELDS; AND BY ALL BOOKSELLERS. PREFACE. MANY will wonder that I should presume to put forth another little book on the Catechism, seeing that such books already abound. But I could not resist the request of some of my children that I would permanently record the mode by which I had instructed and interested them in the great Truths treated of in the Catechism. This little book is merely suggestive. It is only to begin with. The Catechist will not, perhaps, wholly throw it aside, but supplement it by his own questions and answers, and give his own explanations and illustrations in a manner which is natural to himself, and which may be in many cases taken from the circumstances in which he is placed, from occurrences in his own Parish, and even from the very scenery which surrounds him. It is thus that the attention of the children is kept up, and holy Truths associated with times and places other than school-hours and the school-room. A child that is accustomed to a dry, hard, though very orthodox, mode of catechising in a schoolroom, would hardly be able to answer a single question out of it. Ask such poor little unfortunate scholars a question on their road home |