THE CATECHUMEN'S GUIDE, PREPARED WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO THE WANTS OF THE EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN CHURCH IN THE UNITED STATES. BY CHARLES A. SMITH, ALBANY: PRINTED BY JOEL MUNSELL. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1837, by CHARLES A. SMITH, In the Clerk's office of the Northern District of New-York. 688 Luth PREFACE. This book, as the title implies, is intended to aid Catechumens in their preparations for the lecture room, so that their instruction, which must ever be regarded as an important branch of ministerial duty, may be rendered more interesting to the pastor, and more useful to themselves. But, although designed chiefly for this purpose, it may also, perhaps, in some degree, assist the intelligent and advanced Christian in his investigations of truth and duty, and prove advantageous to those who have just entered the ministry. The introduction to the work, is a defence of the plan of Catechetical Instruction; this is followed by an address to Catechumens, and the whole closes with an address to Young Communicants. The questions have been appended at the bottom of each page, so as to exercise, as much as possible, the reflective powers of the reader. A serious objection generally urged against catechetical instruction, is the fact, (often too well established,) that the answers of the Catechumen are mere recitation from memory, and that, consequently, they are not to be regarded |