The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1884-12-24
the Reformation" Our readers will
find an interesting article about the
great reformer elsewhere in this paper.

THERE are some themes which, either
in themselves or from the nature of the
matters to which they relate, appear to
be ineXhaustible One of these is the
evils which already infect, and the
dangers which imminently or remotely
threaten, our popular literature. The
topic thus suggested is large and
complex one, and it is our purpose to
consider only one phase of it. The ex-
istence and wide diffusion of vicious
and frivolous literature at the present
time. are notorious; and it is equally
notorious that the prevalence of i'm
moral and otherwise fagrantly mis-
chievous publications is "great evil
under the sum-" Yet it may be serious
ly questioned whether contact with
these aggressively bad books and peri
odicals is after all the chief peril to
which our ingenious and unsophisti-
Gated readers are exposed. "In vain
the net is spread in the sight of any
bird" Much of this coarse literature,
too, has no attraction for any but vul-
gar minds, and is to great extent un-
known. The gravest danger would
seem to arise from very different
quarter. The approaches of the tempt
er are never to be so much dreaded as
when they are insidious. Satan is for
midable indeed at all times, and under
all circumstances but Satan is most
formidable when seemingly armed in
the glittering casque and hauberque
that betoken a warrior of heaven.
d" The Devil can quote Scripture ;" and
the Scripture is seldom more effective
Gin certain way than when it issues
from the Devils lips. Belial is the I'M
doubted prince of our sensational
preachers: but what is more to our
purpose, the father of lies (and of all
subtle devices Of iniquity) is also the
very Coryph@us of our more alluring
Biblical critics. These men play the
part of the wolf in the story of Little
Red Riding Hood, or Ito vary and dig
Nifty the image they "borrow the
livery of heaven to serve the Devil i'm
The most arrant infdels of Germany
and England often write as piously
Chat is to all appearance as an Arch
bishop or Queens chaplain. The
day is not passed when books of the
same general quality as Francis Will
liam Newman's treatise on {" The Soul"
and Morells Philosophy of Religion
are mistaken by good, honest people
for books of devotion. We live in an
age when Spinoza, the outcast Jew and
pantheist of Rotterdam, and the father
of modern Rationalism, is numbers
among the Christian martyrs, and
when the dark but sovereign thinker
of the German idealists, Hegel, is fond
ly imagined to have been whilst living,
and to be still now that he is dead.
safe and luminous guide through the
mazes of history, philosophy, and
ethics. Well may this Bismarck of the
| u "iioNOiuOhCdiloCo ndNO SdIu WnGn ne
was dying Off the report be true), that
there was but one man in Europe who
understood his true meaning and that
that one man did not understand it,.
We live in an age when the destructive
schemes of Reuss, and Kuenen, and
Wellhausen, not to mention secondary
names like those of Robertson Smith
and Professor Toy, are upheld in the
high places of what was once, at least,
believed to be the home of evangelical
orthodoxy.
Now it is sad fact that the infidel-
ity which at first is confined to men of
mark and learning after while sits
1down until it reaches the very lowest
OF the population. The air becomes
impregnated with the noxious germs.
and they are borne dixie the spores of
malarial poison on every breeze that
moves the clouds or ruffles the ocean.
One of the most common and potent
vehicles Of the invisible miasm is the
stream Of current publications, both in
the form Of books and periodicals. It
is here tnot we often sec revived thc
flimsy argument or yelled assault that
was abandoned on the continent Of
/ Europe years ago. Some one has re-