Excerpt from The Old Testament Bible Stories: As a Basis for the Ethical Instruction of the Young It has been as a teacher In ethics that the author has become more and more impressed with the value of the Old Testament Bible Stories as a means for the ethical instruction of the young. From this standpoint alone they are without parallel in the world's literature. What is more, they can be used for this purpose by all classes of serious minds. For the devout Christian, or the pious Jew, for the agnostic, or oriental Buddhist, they teach the same lesson, and it is a lesson on which they can all agree. Each person may add his own the ological interpretations, but he can have but one opinion as to the moral truth to be found there. From the picture of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden down to the death of Solomon, it is a narrative sat urated all the way through with the stern teaching of ethical experience. And it may be well to give these stories to the mind when it is quite young - perhaps at the early age from seven to ten years. It is then, if not before, that the specific education of the conscience should begin; and the best means for this purpose at the outset would be these stories from life itself. But, on the other hand, every one is aware that the Bible was intended as Scriptures for adult minds. The conscience of the child cannot take truth home in the form in which the adult would receive it. Under these circumstances we are not dealing irreverently in rear ranging this material in simpler story form for the young mind, putting it in such shape that the ethical lesson shall stand out conspicuously and free from cer tain complications in which the language in the Scrip tures themselves may be involved. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.