But even if you are ever so careful as to what you read, it is almost certain the devil will put something into your hands that you should not read. He does so to us all. Rich and poor, young and old, all alike read a good deal that they should not--for rich people have their temptations too, and very hard they are tried sometimes. Well, the only safeguard I know of is, whenever you read anything you know to be bad shut up the book at once, and read no further. And whenever you read anything that you are doubtful about, take down your Bible and ask God to shew you, out of His Word, whether what you have been reading is right or wrong. You know, I daresay, that all along a part of the south coast of England there are a number of round towers, built at certain distances from each other. And the object of these towers was this. Many years ago we expected a foreign foe to land on our shores, and we built these watch-towers to guard against surprise. And it is just the same with the Bible. God has said, I won’t prevent the devil trying to persuade you to read these bad books, and I won’t prevent your reading them; but I give you the Bible, which, if you compare its words with the words of the books you read, they will, like the men in the watch-towers, give you warning of the enemy’s approach. Reader, if you require plainer words than those written in God’s Bible, I fear you will never read them on earth, and you certainly will never read them in heaven. How often we hear men say, "I’m no scholar." And this is given as an excuse for not coming to church, and for not reading the Bible, and a lot of other things too. But there’s many a man who will tell you he’s no scholar, if you ask him to read the Bible; but if you give him a newspaper and tell him there’s an account of a horrible murder in it, he’ll take that gladly, and he won’t tell you he’s no scholar then! He’ll very soon find that either his wife or his children can read to him about the murder of a fellow creature, but he won’t take the trouble to ask them to read to him about the death of God’s only Son.