with impunity (Mark xvi. 18); but the sons of God, whose faith is yet weak, should not be exposed to these serpents, and to give them the opportunity of drinking such poison would indeed be rash. Great caution should therefore be used, and this is what we urge. The Spirit of Christ has said that the children of God should be nourished by the spiritual milk that is without guile (1 Peter ii. 2; 2 Tim. iii. 15).
23. But those who thus incautiously aid the cause of Satan and oppose that of Christ have yet another argument. “The Holy Scriptures,” they say, “are too hard for the young, and therefore some other books must be given them to read until their judgment is mature.”
I answer: This is the language of those who err and know not the Scriptures nor the power of God, as I will show in three ways: firstly, there is a well-known story told of Timotheus the celebrated musician, that whenever he took a fresh pupil he asked him if he had already learned the rudiments with another master. If he answered in the negative he took him at a moderate price; if in the affirmative he charged twice as much. For he said that those who had already learned give him twice as much trouble, as he had first to cure them of their bad habits, and then to teach them the right way to play. Now, our master, and that of the human race, is Jesus Christ, and we are forbidden to go to any other (Matt. xvii. 5, and xxiii. 8). He it was who said: “Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not” (Mark x. 14), and shall we, contrary to His will, lead them elsewhere? Are we afraid that Christ’s task will be too light, and that He will teach them His ways too easily? And are we therefore to take them through the cook-shops and taverns, and give them to Christ to reform when thoroughly corrupt? This is a terrible proposal for the unhappy and innocent boys; for either they will have to spend their whole lives in laboriously getting rid of the habits they have acquired, or they will be altogether rejected by Christ, and given over to the tuition of Satan. Is not that which has been
