tand you to mean that children should not read the Bible at
all?" asked Dudley.

"The mysteries of the Scriptures are not for the child to tamper with.
When I was a schoolboy in Massachusetts, the New England Primer was the
only reading-text, and I wish it were in vogue in our schools now; it
contained the Lord's Prayer and the Shorter Catechism, and that's all a
child should know about the Bible until after he is converted."

"But," asked Dudley, "how can a child learn the way of salvation if not
by Bible reading?"

"By study of the catechism, of course," answered Gilcrest. "Once rooted
and grounded in that, he will not be liable to fall into error later
on, and put wrong interpretations on the Holy Scriptures. I'd rather
have the Bible a sealed book to the unconverted, so that the Spirit may
work untrammeled and sovereignly on his heart."

"Ah! I see now why the priests in olden times chained up the Bible so
that the common people could not have access to it," observed young
Dudley, with a sarcasm which was entirely lost on Gilcrest. "But isn't
it the idea of this age and country that there should be a 'free Bible
for a free people'?"

"Yes, for a 'free' people," retorted Gilcrest, "but not for those who
are still under bondage to sin. Besides, those who have not been well
instructed in the catechism, know nothing about 'rightly dividing the
word.'"

"How about that passage," asked Abner, "'All scripture is given by
inspiration, and is profitable for--for--for----'?"

"Henry kin say it fur you," interrupted Mason Rogers, thinking that the
schoolmaster's Biblical knowledge had failed him; "he's mighty peart on
quotin' Scriptur."

Whereupon Henry, who up to this time had been a silent but interested
listener to the discussion, repeated the passage.

"Precisely!" Gilcrest exclaimed. "All Scripture is profitable--but to
whom? To 'the man of God.' To such--the elect, the called--how are the
Scriptures profitable? Why, as Paul says, to reprove and correct when
he goes off into forbidden paths, and to instruct him further in
righteousness. Only the regenerate, the elect, are referred to; for
they only can do good works. Moreover, the very passages that are 'a
savor of life unto life' to the called, are 'a savor of death unto
death' to those out of Christ."

"Egzactly! I see that p'int, anyway," said Mason Rogers, as he sat with
chair tilted back, meditatively nibbling at the stem of his unlighted
pipe. "Sartain