Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1879-11-14
BOOKS AND READING.
A Err MON
PREACHED BY REV. c. H. MERRILL IN THE CON
GREdAr1oNAL CHURCH, WEST BRArTLEBoRo,
On sunday, September 2s, 1870.

! lhB WIZ uIt llOl hWhTb VI INC luHUence tlQl
is at work among us of n class of literature
which ranges all the way from the doubtfully
good to the unmistakably bad. While there
is much of the average sort of fiction which
finds its way into almost all our homes and il
read only to produce an unhealthy excite
ment and fevorish unrest, reference is made
more particularly to the papers which serve
up crime and scandal by story and illustra-
ton for young and old. We are not un-
touched even here by this food Of evil which
is finding its way to every nook and corner Of
our land. At one Of the anniversary meet.
ings of the Tract Society, Il speaker recently
said that he had just been travelling through
the distant West that he had ridden thous-
ands of miles on horseback through the mag
niticcnt valley of the Yellowstone; that he
had waited amid the towns that were spring
ing up like Jonah's gourd along the line Of
the frontier, and had stopped at many a
rancho set amid the solitude of those vast
plains and those rich valleys yet he had
found no town 50 distant nor any log built
aud mud plastcred rancho so separated in its
loneliness from all Others that it was not in
yaded and defled by these ncfarious illus
trated sheets which launt the crimes of the
metropolis, and stir the vile imaginings ofmon,
and defame purity, and do their mission of
spiritual death. Whatever other papers might
be wanting, these were present in plentiful
and horrible supply
1t may be thought by some that we escape
such influences here in our quiet New Eng
land villages, with our churches and our
schools and our Christian homes. But that
We do not escape the offer of such Htcra.
ture any one can who glauces at the pa
pers spread upon our news-stauds, openly
displaying such pictures as no man or woman.
most Of all no boy or girl, ought ever to see
and that this offer is unheeded, moments
observation or an inquiry Of any nowsdealer
would show to be u myth. BY far the heayi.
est sales of periodical literature are found
among the illustrated weeklies and magazines
for boys and girls which, while not openly
immoral and obscene, do their evil work by
teaching false views OF life, and duty, and
God. From news stands and through the
mails they find their way 10y hundreds of
thousands into the hands of Jaders whose
tastes they crafty. And worse than this, if
anything can be worse, the mails have
brought within the reach of the young such
papers and pictures as no one would ever
dare openly offer for sale, but which are cir
culated by means of lists of names taken from
school catalogues, or sent by the thoughtless
in answer to apparently innocent advertise
ments. There are parents and teachers who
find out TO their sorrow that we are not ex
omPt from aush inAue noss evon here, when
they come across some bundle of papers
smugglcd into the house, or pick up leaves
that have been circulating from hand to
hand to stamp Impressions which can never
be eifaced.
1t is not my purpose this morning to de-
scribe this evil farther. 1t is one difficult to
define. 1t ranges through all degrees of bad.
ness, from the literature which may be called
of doubtful tendency, and which almost all of
us openly toy with, to that which is reeking
with the very fumes of the pit and can be
cleansed only by fire. What is said will
be of general nature and may have in
measure an application for US all, whatever
be our individual tastes and practices and
yet my attention has been called to this sub.
ject specially by the danger TO which the
young are exposed by those stories which
have tendency to turn them into precocous
tramps, youthful highwaymen, and imma-
ture thieves. If any among my hearers have
desire to know somewhat of the nature and
style of these fascinating tales without loss
Of time, and patience, and self respect they
will find review of this class of literature in
one of the last numbers of the Atlantic, by
one Of that guild Of writers who of late have
ventured into warehouses; and the secret hid
ing places of tramps for the public good 1t
is enough to say that the report he brings
goes largely to confirm the popular impress
sion concerning the nature and tendency of
this class of writings.
Now with respect to this great evil it may
be safely said, that the remedy lies not so
much in the way of repression as of cultiva-
tiOn. Our text contains both the necessary
warning and advice. 1t is evenly balanced;
and its two halves cannot be separated with
out marring the single truth it contains At
the same time that We abhor the evil we are
to cleave to that which is good Indeed We
may say that the evil is to be overcome by
cleaving to that which is good We are to
destroy the taste for the bad literature, not
by destroying the taste for reading entirely,
but by cultivating the taste for better.
This is the very principle upon which Chris
tian living is based. We are to overcome
evil with good. We are to become pure and
holy in life, not by checking our natural i'm
pulses and affections, or dwarfng them to a
stunted growth, but by cultiyating these God
given faculties in normal way to their high
est development Loyalty to Christ gives us
a lien upon everything that is really good,
and fair and pleasing and we prove our
loyalty TO him by becoming so filled with
his spirit that only the good can cleave to us,
while the evil leaves us unseathed. A Chris !
tian is not less of man because he is Chris |
tian. He is more of a man in every respect. |
lie is in the full consciousness Of all his pow |
ers, and he is master of himself
There are some weak kneed individuals at |
the present day who are deplorng our pub
lie school system of education. because, they |
say, many of our children only learn enough |
by it to become corrupt The cry is old. |
Bancroft tells us that Sir William Berkeley |
said of the colony of Virginia in the early
days 1G7l), II thank God there are no free
schools nor printing, and hope we shall not |
see them these hundred years; for learning |
has brought disobedence, and heresy, and
sects into the world printing has divulged
them, and libels against the best government |
God keep us from both" A prayer only too
well answered for the good of that common
wealth, Why was ever any great gift be-
slowed upon us without an accompanying re-
sponsibilty2 Did ever any good befall us
without increased temptation to evilP Can
we expect to give our children the least
advantages, to teach them letters, to give them
in the trades or in business for the
purpose of self-support and still keep them in
the innocence of babyhood2 They must