Article November 18, 1972 Issue

The Bible Was a Closed Book

MARIA J. TURNOCK

The Bible of my childhood was a handsome, illustrated volume, made even more important by a velvet case with embroidered roses and a silver clasp. It was difficult to open; and, except on rare occasions, it remained closed, symbolically, for many, many years.

It lay on a round table in the center of the parlor, so reverenced that once my mother declared: "To think that you would say, or even think, such things in the same room with the Bible! Either you or the Bible will have to leave the room." Nothing shamed us more.

The Bible was definitely a moral presence. When needing discipline, we were led to the parlor and talked to, the Bible between parent and child. Repentance was necessary, we were told, before there could be forgiveness; and punishment by God would follow if we were not honest, for He could see the heart.

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