The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1881-02-24
miscellaneous.
Rev. I. DEWITT .TALMAGE.
BOoKs--wHAT SHOULD THE PEo-
PIE READG
Tho Far-ReachIng Influences Of the Printing
Press DemOralIzing and had Effects OF
Sensational Literature.
sUBJECT-what Books to Read.

The printing press ls the mlghtlesC
agency on earth for good or for evil. The
minister of the Gospel standing in the
pulpit has responsible position, but |
do not think it is as responsible as the
position of an editor or publisher. At
what time will cease the influence of a
Henry ]. Raymond, or Horace Greeley
or James Gordon BennettP Take the
simple statistics that our New York dali
les now have circulation of 800, 900 per
day, and add to it the fact that three of
our weekly periodicals have combined
circulation of about one million, and ci-
pher, if you can, how far up, how far
down, how far out, reach the influences
of the American printing press. be-
lieve the Lord intends the printing press
to be the chief means for the worlds res.
cue and evaDgelization, and l do not
think the last great battle of the world
will be fought with guns and swords, but
with types and presses-a purified and
Gospel literature triumphing over, tram
pling down and crushing out that which
is deprsved. The only way to fight a
bad book is by printing good one. The
only way to overcome the unClean
newspaper literature is by scattering
abroad healthy literature. May God
speed the cylinders of an honest, intelli'
gent, aggressive Christian printing press
1 put this morning a question Of ever
lasting importance to you and your fam
lilies. What books and newspapers are
We to read2 You see 1 group them to.
gether. A newspaper is only book in
a swifter and more portable shape, and
the same rules that apply to book read
ing will apply to newspaper reading.
What shall we read2 Shall our minds
be made the receptacle of everything
an author has to write? Shall there be
no distinction between the tree of life
and the tree of deAthP Shall we mire in
pollution and chase fantastic will-o' the
Wisps across the swamps, when we might
walk in the blooming gardens of God?
Oh, no! For the sake of our present and
everlasting welfare we must make an in.
telligent and Christian choice. Stand
ing as we do, Chin.deep in fictitious lit
erature, the first question that many
young people are asking me is "Shall
we read noyeIsH"
l Ireply, there are novels that are pure,
good, Christian, elevating to the heart
and ennobling to the life. But l have
still further to say, that many of the
novels in this day are bad and destruC-
tive. A pure work of fiction is history
and poetry combined. 1t is history of
things around US, with the licenses and
the assumed names of poetry. The
world cannot pay the debt it owes to such
fictitious writer's as Hawthorne aud Dick
ems, familiar names. The follies of high
life were never better exposed than by
Miss Edgeworth; the memories of the
past were never more faithfully embalm-
ed than in the writings of Walter Scott;
Cooper's novels are beautifully redolent
with the breath of the seaweed and the
air of the American forest; Thackeray did
a grand work in Caricaturing the preten.
ders to gentility and high blood. Now,
l say books like these, read at proper in
tervals and in right proportion, can not
help but be ennobling and purifying;
but alas, for the loathesome and impure
literature that has come upon the Coun.
try in the shape of novels, like freshet,
overlooking all the banks of decenCy
and common sense. They come from
some of the most celebrated publishing
houses of the country; they come with
the recommendation of some of our re-
ligious newspapers; they lie on your CEN
tire table to curse your children. You
find these books in society, in all grades.
You find your child reading book; you
ask where he got lit; he says it Is borrow
ed; you look at it and see it is bad one.
Alas, too many are too willing to loan bad
books to children. Everywhere and
anywhere an unclean litersturel charge
you it is the destruction of ten thousand
immortal souls, and bid you this morn
ing wake up to the magnitude of the
them .. shall take all the worlds lit
erature, on every subject, in fact and in
fiction, in private and public Libraries,
and pile them up in pyramid of litera-
ture, then | shall bring to bear upon it
some grand, glorious, infAllible, unmista.
kable Christian principles. God help
me to speak with reference to The &C.
count | must at last render, and God
help you to listen.
l charge you, in the first place, to
stand aloof from all books that give false
pictures of human life. Life is neither |
q tragedy nor farce. Men are not all |
either knaves or heroes, and women are
all neither angels or furies; yet if you de-
pohueu upOn muCu OF inc mOQ6rn Iltera' |
ture, you would get the idea that life, in
stead of being something earnest and
practical, is ftful, fantastic and extrav.
agant dream. How poorly prepared are
that young man and woman for the du
ties of life, who spent last night wading
through brilliant passages descriptive of
magnificent knavery and wickednese!
The man will be looking all day for his
heroine, and he will not find her, and
ne will be disappointed. The man who
gives himself up to the indiscriminate
reading Of novels will be nevertheless
insane and nuisance. He will be nei.
Eher fit for the store nor the shop, nor
the field. The woman who gives herself
up to the indiscriminate reading Of nov.
ols will be untitled for the duties Of life,
wife, mother, sister, daughter. There
she Is, hair disheveled, countenance va.
can't, cheeks pale, hands trembling, burst.
ing into tears at midnight over the fate
OF some unfortunate lover. In the dsy
time, when she ought to be busy, she is
staring by the halt hour at--nothinQ; BIZ
ting her finger nails to the quick. The