New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1848-03-04

should be; the case. ask your grandparents, or
your uncle or aunt, to explain them If you still
lind thcm too hard put them ilc aud lay them
by ioy two or three years. after which read them
again. aud YOU will find them easy enough. II Is
essential nly son In order that you may go through
life with comfort to yourself and usefulness 10
your Eellowcreatures that you should form and
adopt certain rules or principles for the govern.
meut Of your conduct and temper Unless
you have such rules and principles there will be
namberless occasions on which you will have 10
guide Tor yoar government bat your passions In
your Infancy and youth you have been, and will be
Tor some years under the authority aud control Of
your friends and instructors but you must soon come
to the age when you must govern yourself You have
already cone 20 that age 10 many respects you
know the difference bstveen j. .at and wrong, and
you know some Of your duties and the obligations
you are under TO become acquainted with them all
1t is in the Bible you must earn them, end from
tho Bible how to practice them. Those duties are
70 God, to your fellow creatures, and to yourseh.
Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, with all thy
heart aud with all thy soul aud with all thy mlnd'
aud with ali thy strength, and thy neighbor as thy
self" On these two commandments, Jesus Christ
expressly says, chang all the Law and the
Prophets, !" that is 10 say the whole purpose OF
Divine Revelation is TO inculcste them eticacoasy
upon the minds ofmen. You will perceive that
have spoken Of duties to yourself distinct from
those to God and 10 your fellow creatures; while
Jesus Christ speaks only Of two commandments.
The reason is, because Christ and the command
ments repeated by him, consider seltove as 80 I'M
planted in the heart ofevery man by the law OF his
nature, tha, it requires no commandment to estab-
lish it's influence over the heart and SO great do
they know its power to be, that they demand no
other measure forthe love OF our neighbor than that
which they know we shall have for ourselves But
from the love Of God and the love OF our neighbor
result duties to ourselves as well as to them, and
they are all 10 be learned in equal perfection by our
searching the Scriptures. Let Us, then, search
the Scriptures aud in order to pursue our inquiries
with methodical order, let us consider the various
sources Of information that we may draw from in
this study. The 3 bic contains the Revelation OF
the VIII of God. 1t contains the history OF the crea
ton Of the world, aud of mankind and aiterward
the history Of one peculiar nation certainly the
most extraordinary nation that has ever appeared
upon the earth. 1t contains system OF Religion,
and of Morality, which we may examine upon its
own inertia independent of the sanction itreceves
from being the Word Of God and 1t contains nu
merous collection Of books, written al different
ages of the world, by different authors, which We
may survey as curious monuments Of antiquity and
as literary compositions. In what light soever we
regard it, whether with reference to Revelation, to
Literature, to History, to Morality-itis an In
valuable aud inexhaustible mine of knowledge
and virtue.
| shall number separately those letters that
mean to write you upon the subject Of the Bible,
and as after they finished, shall perhaps ask
you to read them all together or to look over them
again myself you must keep them on separate
file wish that hereafter they may be useful to
your brothers and sisters, as well RS to you. As
you will receive them as a token Of affection foryou
during my absence | pray that they may be
worthy to be read by them all with benefit to them
selves fit please God that they should live to be
able to understand them.
From your afectionste father,
JOHN QUINCY ADAMS