‘I want to read them,’ said Jonathan greatly daring. ‘If one doesn’t read them, how is one to know how to answer them? I want to read them because they deceive people.’
‘Not True Believers,’ said his uncle.
‘No,’ replied Jonathan, ‘but people who might become True Believers.’
‘They should read their Bibles. There you find the answer to everything.’
‘Yes. So I did; I did it last night as I was going to bed: I opened it, just as you do, Uncle, and there it was—written: the thing I was wanting to know.’
‘What was it?’
‘It was this, Uncle: “Oh, that mine adversary had written a book. Surely I would take it upon my shoulder and bind it as a crown unto me.”’
‘That doesn’t say read it,’ objected his uncle.
‘No, but it means it. It means that if wicked books are written we’ve got to do with them, we’ve not just got to let them alone.’
‘We’ll see,’ replied the other; ‘we’ll ask the Lord to show us.’ He got the Book and opened it. ‘There, Jonathan, listen to this: