I read this today in Benjamin Franklin’s autobiography:
This obscure family of ours was early in the Reformation, and continued Protestants through the resign of Queen Mary, when they were sometimes in danger of trouble on account of their zeal against popery. They had got an English Bible, and to conceal and secure it, it was fastened open with tapes under and within the cover of a joint-stool. When my great-great-grandfather read it to his family, he turned up the joint-stool upon his knees, turning over the leaves then under the tapes. One of the children stood at the door to give notice if he saw the apparitor coming, who was an officer of the spiritual court. In that case the stool was turned down again upon its feet, when the Bible remained concealed under it as before.
I can’t help but wonder what would happen if people in our little community were told that they couldn’t read their Bibles. Would it increase our Bible reading?
