• ~*mm+ ~ JK2 iSrtS if^illSffl Wl-wlUK*?^] «/' m ■ 11 W-£| ... r-v . THE CHILD'S 5 Jllumiuat^ JOraner Sook, ■*? first book of prayers for children, r • • V r PHILADELPHIA: J. W. MOORE, No. 138 CHESTNUT STREET. MDCCCXLVI. . X eg PREFACE The object of the present little book is to place before children those Prayers, Hymns, &c. which it is necessary for every young child to learn as the first early lesson in religion, in a form which, by the prettiness and adaptiveness of the illustrations, may at once tend to in- terest the child in the learning of the Prayers, and at the same time to re- fine the mind in teaching its first lessons in taste — which is too fre- quently vulgarised, by placing in the hands of children such coarse 5 f -.'. 3£ vi PREFACE. and unmeaning illustrations as are very generally found in early child- ren's books. Therefore, in the illu- minated decorations accompanying these Prayers, we have sought to avoid idle and unmeaning orna- ments — employing such as seemed appropriate and likely to increase and develope the interest in each subject rather than divert the atten- tion from it, as is frequently the case in the ordinary and indiscriminate application of ornament. afe. Wit m 1 01 if \ ur Tather which are in heaven HaUbwed be thy name, TKy liiiigdom come . Thy will l>e clone on earth as it is in heaven , Give us this day our daily lore ad , And forgive us our trespasses As we forgive them thattres_ against us , And leadus not into temptation, But de_ liver us from evil , For thine is the kingdom, the power anc Ihe oJo:; Tor ever and ever. AMEX. \F*\ W '0 , GWll as©gE FOR THE CHILDREN PLATE I. The Lord's Prayer is primed in letters of gold upon a ground of blue, which the early- painters considered the most appropriate for sacred subjects, as being the color of the heavens. In the ornamental border are intro- duced the figures of a boy and girl repeating their nightly prayers, the boy surrounded with roses, a flower which poets have selected as an emblem of the freshness and beauty of childhood ; and the girl with lilies, emblematic of female innocence and modesty. PLATE II. The Belief, or summary of the great prin- ciples of the Gospel, written upon a tablet of gold. It is surrounded by an ornamental scroll, ;.<., r 1. era VIII DESCRIPTIVE INDEX FOR THE CHILDREN. containing the names of the apostles who preached the Gospel at the peril and eventual sacrifice of their lives. PLATE III. A Form of Morning and Evening Prayer, surrounded by an ornamental border, such as decorated the rich Prayer Books of our devout forefathers, before the invention of printing, when the skill of the greatest artists of the age was lavished upon the decoration of the Bible and Books of Prayer. PLATE IV. - A Grace or Thanksgiving before and after meat. On one side is seen the wheat sheaf, representing bread, the great staple food of man ; on the other side, the vine, represents wine, which, with water, formed the only drink- of mankind in the early ages of the ste world. At the top are seen a group of children reaping and gathering wheat, and another gathering grapes, and pressing out the juice in the manner practised in wine countries. Below is a representation of the Lord's Supper after the celebrated picture of Leonardo da T I -K* -#>-§ll DESCRIPTIVE INDEX FOR THE CHILDREN. IX Vinci, painted on the wall of a refectory or dining-hall of a convent at Milan — now, un- fortunately, nearly destroyed. PLATE V. A Prayer for sick Friends and one for ab- sent Friends. On the left, at the top, a me- dallion is interwoven in the ornament, repre- senting a little girl in an attitude of prayer. Opposite to this is a similar medallion, with a group representing care and attendance on the sick : they are surrounded with heartsease, a flower which the French call pensee (thought) and frequently use it as an em Mem of kindly thought towards others. Our English name pansy is a corruption of the French pensee. Below, a little boy is repeating his prayer; and opposite to him are a mother and children tak- ing leave of some dear friend, whom a vessel is rapidly carrying away from them. These medallions are surrounded by forget-me-not, a little flower which several nations of Europe ^L call by this name ; the German is vergeismein- nicht. It was probably in the simplicity of early manners given as a token of remem- brance at parting. #-*>•-<§ 5S<^ .•4r_ &^> i 5te 7'V ~-, X DESCRIPTIVE INDEX FOR THE CHILDREN. PLATES VI AND VII. The Ten Commandments. On Plate VI. Moses is seen receiving the tablets from heaven ; and on Plate VII. an aged man is occupied in reading them, whilst on either side a child is attentively studying. The form of these tablets is that used for the command- ments in all early churches, and a still older example of this particular form exists on the arch of Titus, at Rome, erected on his return from the conquest of Jerusalem, where, with the seven-branched candlestick and other spoils of the temple, two tablets are represented of precisely this form, which may possibly have been the tablets on which the Commandments were preserved in the Jewish temple; the originals were probably of gold, or they would not have tempted the Roman conquerors to carry them away. PLATE VIII. The Morning Hymn, the ornaments of which are intended to convey an idea of the beauty of nature in the early morning, repre- sented by luxuriant vegetation, and the glory of the rising sun. ®E> J .•I m r 1 ^v'^_r^ i T< ¥ DESCRIPTIVE INDEX FOR THE CHILDREN. XI PLATE IX. The Evening Hymn, which is intended to convey an impression of the comfort and shelter of home during the night ; while the Gothic casement discovers the wonders of a starry sky, which the elder children are con- templating with admiration, while their little sister has just fallen asleep over the last lines of her Evening Hymn. I • • y