A little more than three hundred years ago, The New England Primer was introduced in Boston as a textbook for the instruction of the colony’s children, not only in the basics of the English language, but in the basics of Christian doctrine and Bible knowledge. This small volume served America as the primary text for elementary education until the dawn of the twentieth century. From the nation’s founders to its Civil War soldiers, from youths in rapidly burgeoning colonial cities to farm kids on the frontier, everyone would have been familiar with its lessons, and would have been expected to follow its fundamental moral tenets. It is not an exaggeration to observe that in the fabric of America, the Primer serves as a key, unifying thread for character formation and the literacy which was seen to be integral to responsible Christian citizenship.
The motivation for the Primer’s publication was the assumption that learning to read was crucial to a child’s ability to handle worldly responsibilities. But even more so, literacy was crucial to growth in knowledge of the Bible, to godly living, to the application of biblical principles to daily life. The Christian child who was part of society was also a child under God’s covenant of grace, and so was accountable for knowing the costs of sin, his need for repentance, and his duty to improve society as a member of the holy priesthood of all believers. Whatever his calling, the child needed to be trained in righteousness, and simply could not glorify God and serve neighbor without the ability to read. There was no antithesis among America’s early settlers between religious and secular, or private and public life. Wherever Puritan culture reached in the colonies, it was thought that the reign of Christ could not be extended without a biblically well-versed, disciplined community of believers who could understand sophisticated sermons and in turn articulate their faith in a sophisticated manner.
The contents of the Primer did not change significantly from its first publication by Benjamin Harris in 1690. (1) The book opens with the hymn, “How Glorious Is Our Heavenly King,” by Isaac Watts, who also records a morning and an evening prayer in subsequent pages. Sections noting proper formation of vowels, consonants, and syllables follow. Consequently, numerous pages use pictures and rhymes to depict each letter of the alphabet. For “B” the author advises, “Heaven to find, The Bible Mind.” “Christ crucify’d For sinners dy’d” illustrates the letter “C.” Throughout the alphabet are references to Elijah, final judgment, Job, Lot, Moses, Noah, Peter, Esther, Samuel, Timothy, and Xerxes, among others. But in this section, as in the rest of the volume, there is a keen emphasis upon human mortality. The letter “G” has this message: “As runs the [hour] Glass, Our Life doth pass.” The letter “Y,” meanwhile, observes, “While youth do che[e]r, Death may be near.”
The Primer proceeds with other alphabet lessons using biblical passages, notes the Lord’s Prayer and the Apostles’ Creed, and presents “Dr. Watts’s Cradle Hymn,” which compares the birth of Christ with that of the student. “‘Twas to save thee, child from dying, save my dear from burning flame, Bitter groans and endless crying, that thy blest Redeemer came. May’st thou live to know and fear him, trust and love him all thy days!” Some ten “Verses for Children” follow Watts’s writing, each of which places special emphasis upon knowledge of the Word of God. In the first, we read, “Though I am young a little one, If I can speak and go alone, Then I must learn to know the Lord, and learn to read his holy word…. When God that made me, calls me home, I must not stay I must be gone. He gave me life, and gives me breath, And he can save my soul from death, By JESUS CHRIST my only Lord, According to his holy word.” Elsewhere, “I In the burying place may see, Graves shorter there than I, From death’s arrest no age is free, Young children too must die.” And, “Eternal King I fear thy name, Teach me to know how frail I am, And when my soul must hence remove, Give me a mansion in thy love.”
A potent message to one reading the Primer is the advice from English Reformation martyr John Rogers, who was burned at the stake in London in 1554. Rogers shows concern that his readers avoid the blasphemies of “that arrant whore of ROME,” while caring for the poor, living modestly, and being “never proud by any means.” Rogers concludes, “Our days begin with trouble here, our life is but a span, And cruel death is always near, so frail a thing is man.”
The Westminster Shorter Catechism (1647) occupies a substantial portion of the remainder of the Primer. This Reformed catechism has been subscribed to by Presbyterians, Congregationalists, and Baptists alike. Though at times criticized for its view of predestination, the Catechism surely is not out of place in the Primer. Protestants of all stripes would have been accustomed to a dogmatic approach to religious education, so that even a form of scholasticism for children would have been valued as strict discipline needed for a godly community. This mindset, coupled with the reality that many children did not live to see their tenth birthdays, demonstrates the perceived importance of encouraging the growth of childhood faith.
The Primer‘s inclusion of the Westminster Shorter Catechism also reflects the typically Reformed concern for confessionalism and proper doctrinal teaching which Martin Luther had advocated in his Small Catechism of 1529. His concern in that age was to protect children from Roman Catholic and Aristotlean teachings and to produce a guideline through which they might be instructed for confirmation. John Calvin followed suit by writing a catechism parents could use to teach their offspring sound biblical ideas at home; his Institutes served a comparable purpose for adults. The Scots Confession (1560), Heidelberg Catechism (1563), and Belgic Confession (1566) all represent efforts to maintain orthodoxy while presenting the basics of the Gospel message to the up-and-coming generation of Christians. While children were accountable before God to understand and live out the law written on their hearts, their parents, pastors, and teachers were accountable for teaching them well. The Primer and its catechetical equivalents were attempts at responsible parenting; they also served as strong bonds which unified Reformed religious culture across the Atlantic.
That very religious culture held the belief that the word, whether written or oral, possessed a power which could transform a soul, and transform society. That word was significantly more powerful when it was the Word of God, the proclamation of the living Word Jesus Christ, who alone could redeem the sinner and grant him eternal life. When Johannes Gutenberg shifted the capacity for popular catechesis from oral tradition to written record, the power of that Word was suddenly and dramatically available to everyone. Not only could everyone read the Bible for oneself, he or she could also learn Christian doctrine and theology, between sermons. While the Primer does teach basic theology and presents numerous brief biblical quotations, it was to the child studying it a concrete symbol of the disciplined, structured Christian life. The practical energies in one’s calling, his meditations, prayers, and worship, were direct outgrowths of this inheritance to him by his parents, teachers, and ministers through the Primer.
After the Westminster Shorter Catechism, it is a natural progression to John Cotton’s catechism, “Spiritual Milk for American Babes, Drawn Out of the Breasts of Both Testaments, for Their Souls’ Nourishment.” Cotton (1585-1652), having emigrated from Britain to Boston’s First Church in 1633, was the premier preacher of his era. His catechism focuses squarely on justification by grace through faith in Christ and permits enjoyment of the gift. For Cotton, education of any sort was an integral part of being human, since we are created to live in society, in covenant with others and with God. The educated person most fully participates in human society, for he learns how to live and what to believe, and cannot make enduring contributions to the world without that knowledge. By means of a question-and-answer format, Cotton teaches fundamental concepts about God, sin, the Decalogue, Jesus Christ as Redeemer, humility, faith, prayer, the Church, and the Sacraments of baptism, and the Lord’s Supper.
Cotton grimly ends his catechism, and the Primer, with “A Dialogue between Christ, Youth, and the Devil.” Since the reality of damnation is so rarely taught today even in American churches, it is mind-boggling to imagine these common lessons among children just over a century ago. Further, instruction about human mortality might today raise many eyebrows, given the popularity of concepts such as self-esteem and actualization. Modern students may be taught about the perspectives various religions espouse, but are not taught the value of grasping onto faith in Christ as the only means of deliverance from self-destructive sin. And it is the exception, not the rule, for religious belief to be seen as the foundation of one’s personal and public life; indeed, the idea of morally grounded citizenship and service has been replaced by a selfish consumer identity that contributes to society only to the extent that that contribution benefits personal fulfillment. Nevermind the decline in valuation of linguistic competency or even eloquence. The Primer is for us a symbol of how far our culture needs to climb to espouse once again principles of absolute truth, the beauty of the word, sinfulness and redemption, personal and corporate accountability, servanthood, and humility in the face of mortality.
Difficult as it is to conceive of the Primer again being used in the United States, the book still stands as a marvelous resource for Christian children. I personally found it to be a refreshing read, one which reminds us of our desperate need for the grace of God in Jesus Christ. As kids today are often distracted with soccer games, music lessons, and with cultural messages that glorify sexuality, greed, and rebellion against authority, asking them to take a few moments to read in clear, concise terms the fundamentals of Christian faith will bring a welcome respite in peaceful truth. Perhaps the very novelty of a text which was once taken for granted can stir young hearts to sincere belief; indeed, there is no other book quite like it.
