Produced by Al Haines [Illustration: Cover art] [Frontispiece: Moses and Zipporah at the well] CHILD'S Story of the Bible BY MARY A. LATHBURY WITH INTRODUCTION BY BISHOP JOHN H. VINCENT ILLUSTRATED WITH NUMEROUS FULL-PAGE COLORED PLATES, AND PHOTO-ENGRAVINGS BOSTON DEWOLFE, & FISKE Co. COPYRIGHT, 1898 By DEWOLFE, FISKE & CO. PREFACE. To Mothers. I have been asked to prepare this little aid for your use in the Home--that first and greatest of schools. The school was founded by the Maker of men, and He called mothers to be its earliest and most important teachers. He prepared a text-book for it which we call His Word, illustrating it richly and fully from life and Nature, and filling it with His Spirit. Wherever it is known, as the children become the members of the Church, the citizens of the State, the people of the World, the Book goes with them, forming the Church, the State, the World. It is not only equal to the need, but contains infinite riches that wait to be unveiled. That no busy mother may say, "I cannot take time to gather from the Bible the simple lessons that my children need," this book of little stories--together making one--has been written. I have tried to preserve the pure outlines of the sacred record from the vivid description and the suggestive supposition that are sometimes introduced to add charm to the story, and in all quoted speech I have used the exact words of the authorized version of the Scriptures, so that the earliest impression made upon the memory of the child might be one that should remain. The stories are not a substitute for the Word--only little approaches to it through which young feet may be guided by her who holds a place next to the great Teacher in His work with little children. M.A.L. INTRODUCTION. When the children gather at mother's knee, and the tiniest finds a place in mother's arms, and all clamor for a "story," "a story, mamma," how lovely is the picture--the living picture--that circle makes! Love, longing, wisdom, expectancy, faith, shining eyes, lips that move involuntarily, keeping time to the sweet movements of mother's lips! Blessed group! Happy mother! When the stories mother tells are light and meaningless, full of rhyme and rollick, even their eyes are bright and faces radiant, and her own sweet face and voice give charm and weight and significance to the delicious nonsense she rehearses.