The surviving manuscript of the instructional work A Manual of Religious Belief is written in the form of a theological dialogue between father and child written out in holograph by John Murdoch for William Burnes, Robert Burns's father. William had started to compose and compile the work before Robert Burns's birth and wrote the first rough draft that has not survived. This work was originally composed with a stronger Scots language content that Murdoch modified, as well as making grammatical corrections. History of the manuscript The manuscript is not bound and is made up of only six leaves, quarto size, that is 16.5cms by 21 cms. The document is devoid of a title, contents page, pagination or even a record of authorship. It is lightly tied with a piece of red thread and John Murdoch's legible and elegant handwriting is found on all the sheets except the final verso. Burns's biographer, James Currie, stated that Gilbert Burns, Robert's brother, had the manual in his possession after his father's death and unlike many other Burns manuscripts used by Currie, it remained in the hands of the family, for in 1875 it passed from Gilbert to his youngest son, also Gilbert, who lived in Chapelizod, Dublin. The family of Gilbert Burns of Chapelizod donated the manuscript to the Robert Burns Birthplace Museum at Alloway in South Ayrshire. The Manuscript and its contents As stated William Burnes had been working on his theological manual for religious guidance since Robert's birth and probably before. The ponderous religious jargon used shows the religious influences of the 18th century ministers, however producing the manual as a dialogue was very innovative for the time. Murdoch had similar religious views to William and probably transcribed the manuscript in 1765 when he was working at Alloway, adding only grammatical corrections and language alterations. William had used 'douther' for 'daughter' and his handwriting was not as readable as Murdoch's copperplate hand. In 1875 the manual was transcribed and published for the first time by McKie and Drennan of Kilmarnock with a largely biographical introductory essay by a noted Burnsian, James Gibson of Liverpool. In 1896 Chambers-Wallace published a version which reached a wide audience and they first provided the now accepted name in their title : The Introduction and Questions asked in the dialogue The following questions give the essence of the approach taken by William Burnes and an insight