Yet they have also wrought untold harm. They contain statements and highly wrought pen pictures that excite the imagination and give rise to a train of thought which is full of danger, especially to the youth. The scenes described are lived over and over again in their thoughts. Such reading unfits the mind for usefulness and disqualifies it for spiritual exercise. It destroys interest in the Bible.
Heavenly things find little place in the thoughts.
As the mind dwells upon the scenes of impurity portrayed, passion is aroused, and the end is sin. Even fiction which contains no suggestion of impurity, and which may be intended to teach excellent principles, is Page 446 harmful. It encourages the habit of hasty and superficial reading merely for the story. By fostering love for mere amusement, the reading of fiction creates a distaste for life's practical duties. Through its exciting, intoxicating power it is not infrequently a cause of both mental and physical disease.