chapters in the same way often fail to finish the subject with which
they deal, and sometimes include several subjects. Therefore, the
mother who undertakes to read the Bible to her children needs first
to go through the lesson herself, and to decide what subject, not what
chapter, she will take up that day. There is a reader's edition of
the Bible, and one called the "Children's Bible," both of which aim
to leave out all repetition and references and to arrange the Bible
narrative in a simple, consecutive order, nevertheless employing the
beautiful Bible language. These editions might prove of considerable
help to mothers who feel unequal to doing the work by themselves.

[Sidenote: Children's Bible]

Second, comparable to this in importance is the reading of the Bible
and talking about it in a perfectly ordinary tone of voice; for what
you want is to make the Bible teachings live in to-day. You must not,
therefore, suggest by your tone or manner that they belong to another
day, and that they are, in some sense, to be shut out from common life
and speech. This does not mean such common use of Biblical phrases
in every day conversation as to cause it to grow into that form or
irreverence known as cant, but it does mean simple usage of Bible
thought, and the effort to fit it to the conditions of daily life.
Such a habit in itself will force any family to discriminate as to
what things in the Bible are living and eternal, and what things
belong rightly to that far away time and place of which the Bible
narrative treats, thus practicing both teacher and pupils--that is,
both parents and children--in the art of finding the universal spirit
of truth under all temporal disguises. Without this art the Bible is a
closed book, even to the closest student.