Alma record. (Alma, Mich.) 1878-1928, 1891-03-13
PERNICIOUS LITERATURE
DIR. TALMAGE COMPARES 1T TO
THE PLAGUE OF FROGS.
Evils Resulting From the Perusal OF
Bad Books, and How They May BE
Overcome.-A Good Book and Its
I'M

NEW YoRK. March 8, ls91.-The plague
Of perncous literature formed the subject
of DIR. Talmage's sermon today, which was
the ia ri Of the SCI les he is preaching on
the Ten Plaques OF the Cities" The
text of the preachers d scourse was taken
from Exodus s. 81: And the frogs came
up and covered the land OF Egypt. And
the magicians did so with Their enchant-
ments, and brought up frogs upon the
land OF Egypt"
There is almost an universal aversion to
frogs, and yet with the Egyptian they
were honored. they were sacred, and they
were objects Of worship while alive. and
after death they were embalmed. and to-
day their remains may be found among
the sepulchreI of Thebes. These creatures,
SO attractive once 10 the Egyptians. at
divine Lehest became obnoxious and loath-
some, and they went Croaklng and hopping
and To- ping INTO the palace OF the king.
and into the bread trays and the touches
OF the people. and even the ovens, which
now are upifted above the earth ard on
the SIDE OF the chimneys, but then were
small holes in the earth with sunken pot
terry. were filed with frogs when the
| housekecpCrs came To look at them. III
man sat down TO eat, frog nj GIFTED on
his plate. Ii he attempted 10 put on
shoe it was prcoccup ed by frog. If he
attempted TO put his head upon pillow, IT
had been taken possess on OF by frog.
Frogs high and low AMI everywhere;
loLthsome frogs, SHINY frogs. bes.cglng
frogs, innumeroble frogs. great FL que OF
iroSs. What made tue II after worSr, the
mag clans sad there was no miracle in
this. AMI they could by sleiGht of-hand
Produce the same thing. and they seemed
TO succeed, for by sleipht-of-hand wonders
may be wrought. After Moses hid thrown
down his staff and by miracle it became IA
serpent. and then he took hold of il and
by miracle IL again became stan, the
scrpent harmers inflated the same thing,
and knowing that there were serponts IN
Egypt which by aspeculiar pressure on the
neck would become as rigid as st elk OF
wood. they seemed TO change the s'rp mt
iuto the staff. and then, throwing it down.
the staff became the serpent. so LIKEWISE
these mlgicians tried to initiate the plague
of frogs, and perhaps by smell Of food at
tracing great number OF them 10 "A GER
tain point, or by shaking them out from
hidden place, the magiCianS sometimes
seemed 10 accomplish the same miracle.
While these magcians made the plague
worse, none OF them tried 10 make it bet
ter. FROGS came up and covered the
land Of Egypt, and the mag clans did so
with their eEchantment, and brought up
frogs upon the land of Egypt
Now that plaque OF frogs has come
back upon the earth. II is abroad today.
1t is shifting tn nation. 1t comes in the
shape OF corrupt literature. These frogs
hop into the store, the shop, the Office, the
banking house, the factory, into the home,
into the cellar. into tho garnet, on the shelf
Cf the library. While the lad is reading
the bad book the teachers face is turned
the other way. One of these frogs hops
upon the page While the young woman
is reading the forbidden novelette, after
retiring at nj. hit, reading by gaslight. one
of these frogs leaps upon the page
Indeed, they have hoped on the news
stands OF the country. and the mails at the
post-onice shake out in the letter trough
hundreds Of them. The plague has taken
at different times, possession of IN s
country. 1t is one Of the most loathsome,
one of the most frightlul, one OF the most
CHASTITY of the ten plaques Of orr mondern
cities. There is vast number of books
and newspapers printed and published
which ought never TO see the light. They
are filled with pest lenco that makes the
land swclter with "A moral epidemic. The
greatest bless NJ that ever came TO this
nation is that of an elevated literature,
and the greatest scourge has been that OF
unclean Literature. Tn last has its
Wet ms in all occupations and departments.
1t has helped TO ill insane asylums and
pententares and almshouses and dens of
shame. The bod. es Of this inft Ct on lie in
the hospitals and in the graves, while their
souls are being tossed over into lost
eternity, an avalanche of horror and
despair. The London plague was nothing
to it, That counted it's victims by
thousands. but this modern pest his
already shoveed its millions into the
charnel-house of the morally dead. The
or gest rail train that ever ran over the
Erie or Hudson tracks was not long enough
nor large enough TO carry the beIstllness
and the patrefaction which have been
gathered up in the last twenty years. The
literature of a nation decides the fate OF a
nation. Good books, good morals. Bad
BOOKS. bad morals.
/ begin w tn the lowest OF all the litera-
ture, that which does not even pretend 10
be respectable-from cover 10 cover blotch
of leprOsy. There are many whose entire
business it is TO dispose OF that kind OF lit
erdture. They display it before the school
boy on his way home They get the cata-
logues of schools and colleges, take the
names and postofice addresses. AMI send
their advertisements and their circulars
and Their pamphlets and their books &c
every one OF them.
In the possession OF these dealers ia bad
literature were found uine hundred thou
sand names and postof1ice addresses, to
whom it was thought IT mi hi &c profitable
TO send these corrupt things. IN the year
1873 there were one hundred and siXty-fvC
establishments engaged in publ shing choIr
corrupt literature. From ono publish ng
house there went out twenty differen,
styles Of corrupt books. Although over
Tia rty tons Of vile literature have been
destroyed by the Society for the suppress
. sion of Vice. stil there is enough of it left
in this country 10 bring down upon us the
thunderbolts Of an incensed God.
IL the year 1865. the evil had become sc
= great in this country that the Congress OF
the United States passed a law foroidding
the transmission of bad literature through
the United States mails; but there worC
large loops in that law through which Grim
inals could crawl out, and the law was 9