Jack looked startled. "But do you think it could have been the true and right Gospel, Uncle Thomas?" he said. "The priests tell us more about our Lady than about our Lord himself; and I am sure that Anne says ten prayers to her for one that she says to our Lord."
The old man did not answer immediately, and Jack repeated his question, "Do you think it could have been the true Gospel after all?"
"I have been thinking, Jack—" said the shepherd, after a little silence, and without answering or seeming to hear the question, "I have been thinking that I have perhaps done wrong in this matter."
"How?" asked Jack.
"Because the knowledge I have given you, may bring you into danger. Because the questions I have raised in your young mind will not be lightly laid again. And how shall I answer it to your father, if anything happen to you?"
"But, Uncle Thomas," said Jack, after a little silence, "your father did not fear to expose you to the danger."
"No, because my father was fully persuaded in his own mind. He esteemed the true knowledge of God and his truth worth every danger which could befall. I well remember his words to me, whispered in my ear as he gave me his last embrace, 'My son, remember the words of our Lord: Fear not them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do; but fear him who is able to cast body and soul into hell!'"
"I cannot but think he was right," said Jack, with decision, after a little pause. "I cannot but think the truth must be worth any danger that can come upon us for its sake. Nor can I yet understand why reading God's Word should make men heretics. The priest at the convent says it is because ignorant men know not how to use it, and that it is like a poisonous drug which can be safely touched only by a physician."
"Ay, I have heard that story often enough," said the old man; "and how that the giving the Scripture to the common folk is a casting of holy things to the dogs and pearls before swine. A pretty saying indeed, to call those for whom Christ died, dogs and swine!"
"Do they then christen little whelps and pigs?" asked Jack, shrewdly. "Methinks that were as great an abuse of holy things as reading the Bible to the vulgar people."