Excerpt from Anecdotes, Vol. 1: Religious, Moral, and Entertaining

It need not be observed, that men are naturally indifferent about their duty to God, and unconcerned as to the welfare of their immortal souls. Any attempt, therefore, to set before them the grand object of veneration and worship, to rouse them to duty, to facilitate their happiness, to show them the deformity of vice, and to inspire them with true and exalted views of the sacred Religion of Jesus, cannot, I think, he considered as unworthy of attention. How far this Work will conduce to these ends, must be left to the judgment of the Reader.

Volumes of Anecdotes have already been presented to the public under various titles; but none that I know of which have been more particularly selected as religious, and more immediately calculated to lead men to ge nuine devotion and solid piety. It is to be lamented, that while many write merely to amuse the imagination, the real profit of the mind is not thought of. The passions, perhaps, are affected, and the fancy pleased, while the temper remains unsubdued, the heart unimpressed, and the conduct unsta ble and irregular. Now, without incurring the charge of egotism, I hope the present Work, while it affords a degree of entertainment to the Reader, will also tend to excite reverence for the best of Beings a regard for the no ble and delightful system of Christianity together with benevolence to our fellow mortals, and an earnest desire to devote ourselves to the glory and service of our God and Saviour.

The Reader will evidently see that novelty has not been so much my de. Sign as utility. If any object, however, to the Work on this account, I can only say in reply, that Anecdotes cannot be made. In writing on any system, invention may be displayed, and the ideas of the author may bear the air of novelty but in a Work of this kind, we must confine ourselves to our materials. I own it is not difficult to find, now and then, an original Anecdote but, in this age of writing and publishing, it would be very dif; ficult indeed to find a volume of them, since almost every thing of impor tance is speedily conveyed to the press for the public benefit. We must, therefore, take them as we find them, and make the best improvement of them we can.

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