"The Sunday At Home: A Family Magazine For Sabbath Reading" was published by The Religious Tract Society, of London: a robustly evangelical organisation and extremely influential in its day. The volume I have is for 1865 (the year the American Civil War ended, Lincoln was assassinated and Lister developed antiseptic surgery). Had you been a subscriber, here is what the first week's edition would have brought you (for the princely sum of one penny):
The Forty Acres; Or Dancing The Old Year Out And The New Year In, by the author of No.1, Paradise Row (a serialised story)
A Hymn For The New Year (Tune: Jerusalem The Golden)
A Winter Meditation (Cowper's 'Task' Book VI, The Winter Walk At Noon)
The Old Year And The New: Looking Back And Looking Forward (an exhortation)
Early Christian haunts In The Catacombs of Rome
The Pulpit In The Family: Eben-ezer; or, The Stone of Help (a sermon)
Sabbath Thoughts: Alleluia
Pages For The Young:
Marion, The Ballad Singer (Chapter 1 - The Working Party)
Scripture Enigma
Scripture Character
Questions on Bible Saints
The last three are Bible quizes or riddles but ones which presupposed an astonishing amount of Scriptural knowledge on the part of their young readers - or at least the ability to find the answers in the family Bible. One can imagine the solving of them being a family affair, with much excitement as the solution was pieced together. Rob and I attempted a couple of them. Great fun (and fortunately the solutions are offered in subsequent editions).
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment