INFANT'S PROGRESS, FROM THE VALLEY OF DESTRUCTION, ΤΟ EVERLASTING GLORY. Mary Martan Bett. BY MRS. SHERWOOD, PHILADELPHIA: PUBLISHED BY A. CLAXTON. INTRODUCTION. MY LITTLE CHILDREN, THE intention of this book is to make you acquainted, in an agreeable manner, with many of those awful mysteries of our holy religion, the knowledge of which is necessary to your salvation. You do not yet know, what it is that has separated you from your God: nor do you fully understand what it was that induced the Lord our Redeemer to descend from heaven for the purpose of assuming our nature, and dying upon the cross. You have, perhaps, never yet been informed that the sin of man's heart is very great, very prevalent, and very hateful; and that, except it be overcome, it will subject him. to everlasting perdition. Many long sermons have been preached, and many learned volumes have been written, in order both to describe the nature of this sin, and to guard us against its influence: but little children cannot understand these grave and elaborate discourses. I have therefore written for your instruction on this subject, a story about some little children, who, like yourselves, were born in a state of sin. And in this story I have personified the sin of our nature, and introduced it as the constant companion of these children. |