The story Bible

Foreword

IN writing the Story Bible it has been my aim so to tell again the tales from Holy Writ familiar through the centuries, that our children of to-day may read and love them. The Bible is a treasury of stories, vivid, dramatic and full of charm. Each story has a hero or a heroine whose name is a household word, whose feats of valor or sacrifices of love stimulate us, as they have stimulated those who have gone before, to live noble lives; to do justly, love mercy and walk humbly before God. I have disengaged each story from surrounding passages which treat of other affairs so that the story itself may stand out alone, like a gem or a picture. I have arranged the stories in their accustomed Biblical sequence so that they follow the order of the books in the Old and New Testaments and may later introduce their readers to the Bible in whatever version they prefer. These stories have been written with great simplicity that mothers may read them to little children, and older children read them, with pleasure, as they would read a favorite story book.

People who fancy that children do not enjoy good literature are mistaken. Much depends on the early choice for them of what is best. Give a child the best and he will not be contented with the worst. The child delights in brave deeds, in romance, in chivalry, in splendid diction and poetic style. Imaginative literature fascinates children. They cannot have too much of it, from the fairy and folk lore of every nation to the beautiful truth lore scattered for them over the pages of our English Bible. Any group of listening children will hang eagerly on the story of Noah, of Abraham, of Joseph, of David, of Daniel and of the Child who came to earth in the fullness of time, when the Star led the way to the Manger. All these wondrous tales and many more stories are in this volume. I hope it may find its way wherever children meet around the hearth, and that mothers may accept its help in the training of their little ones.

For Sunday afternoons and daily reading, and for quiet hours with father and mother, the Story Bible will ■ prove a standby, the melody of its pages drawn from the one Book that never goes out of fashion and never fails to carry a heavenly message to old and young.

MARGARET E. SANGSTER.

Contents

Page

XXXI. Ruth and Naomi 231

XXXII. The Child Samuel 243