The Forrest City times., 1891-03-13

Another way in which we arc Co drive back this plague of Egyptian frogs Is by filling the minds of our young people with . healthful literature. L, not mean to say that all the books and newspapers in our families ought to be religious books and newspapers. or that every song ought to be sung to the tune of ''Old Hundred" havc ho sympathy with tho attempt to to make young old. would rather join in a crusade to keep the young young. Boy hood and girlhood must not be abbreviated But there are good books, good histories, good biographies, good works of fiction, good books of all styles with which we arc to fill the minds of the young. so that there will be no more room for the useless and the vicious than there is room for chah in bushel measure which is already filled with Michigan wheat
 A good book-who can exaggeratc it's power? Benjamin Franklin said that his reading of Cotton Mathcrs "Essays To Do Good, in childhood gave him holy aspira- tions for the rest of his life. Gcoige Law declared that Il biography he read in child hood gave him all his subsequent propen- sities. Oh, the power of good book. But, alas. for the influence Of a bad book. John Angel James, than whom England never
 
 in Birmingham and said ..rwenty five years ago lad loaned to me an infamous book. He would loan it only fifteen min utes and thc., had to give it back: but that book has haunted mo like a spectre ever since. have in agony of soul and on my knees before God, prayed that he would obliterate from my soul the memory of it, out shall carry the damage of it un- til the day Of my death" The assassin of Sir William Russell declared that he got the inspiration for his crime by reading what was then now and popular novel, Jack SheppaiY.' Homer's ''lliad' made Alexander the Warricr Alexander said so. Tho story oi Alexander made Julius Cesar and Charles XII, both men of blood. Have you in your pocket or in your trunk, or in your desk at business bad book. a bad picture, bad pamphlet? In Gods name warn you to destroy it.
 We sec So many books we do not under stand what book Is. stand it on end. Measure it. the height of it, tue depth Of 1t, the length of it, the breadth of it. You cannot do 1t. Examine the paper and es- innate the progress ma e from the time Of the impressions on clay, and then on 10 the bark of trees. and from the bark of trees to papyrus, and from papyrus to the hide oi wld beasts. and from the hide of wild beasts on down unsil the miracles of our modern paper manufactures, and theH nee the paper. white and pure as an in fants soul, waiting for Gods inscription. X book Examine the type of it. Exam inc the printing of 1t and see the progress from the time when Solons laws were written on oak piinks. and Hcsiod's poems wero written on tables of lead. and the Sinistc commands were written on tables os stone, on down to Hoes perfecting printing press. A book! 1t took all the universities of the past, all tho martyr fires. all the civilizations. all the battles. all the victories. all tho defeats. all the glooms, all tho brightnesses. all the cen turics to make it possible. A book It is the chorus Of the ages~-it is the drawing room in which kings and queens and ora tors aud poets and historians and philoso- phers come out to greet you. If worshipped anything on earth I would worship that. If l burned in- eense to my idol, I would build an altar 10 that Thank God for good books. healthful books. inspiring books. Christian books. books of men. books of women. Book of God. It is with these good books that we are to overcome corrupt literature. Upon the frogs swoop the eagles. ldepeud much for tae overthrow of iniqui,ots literature upon the mortality Of looks. Evcn good books have hard struggle 10 live. Poybius wro.c forty books; only five of them left. Thirty books Of Tacitus have perished Twenty books of Pliny have pcrishcd. Livy wrote one hundred and forty books; only thirty i've of them remain. fschyius wrote one hundred dramas. only seven remain. Euripides wrote over hundred, only nineteen remain. Varro wrote the biogra- phieS of over seven hundred great Romans. All that wealth Of biography has pcrished. If good and valuable books have such a struggle to live what must be the fate of those that are diseased and corrupt and blasted at the very start? They will die as the frogs when tho Lord turned back the plague. The work of Christianization will go on uusil there will be nothing left but good books, and they will take the supremacy of the world. May you and I live to see the illustrious day.
 Against evcry bad pamphlet send good pamphlet; against every unclean picture send an innocent picture; against every scurrilous song send a Christian song; against every bad book send n good book uiu tuSG lt Wtl tt as ll WIS Ill uncicDt Toledo. where tho To.etum misslls were kept by the saints in six churches, and sacrel.gious Romans demanded that these missais be destroyed md that tho Roman mls sais he subsututed; and the war camo on and am glad to say that tbe whole matter having been referred to champions tho champion of the Tolct1m missals with enc blow brought down the champion of toe Roman missals. So 1t will be in ltcra- ture today. The good literature. the Chris tan literature In it's championship for God and the truth. will bring down the evil lit. crature in it's championship for tue devil. feel tingl.na to the tips of my fingers and through all the nerves of my body. and all the depths of my soul. the certainty of our triumph. Cheer up.O men and women who arc toiing for the puritication of society! Toll with your faces in the sunlight If God bc for us. who, who can be against us?"
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