The Yazoo sentinel. (Yazoo City, Miss.) 1878-1916, 1891-04-02
REV. DIR. TALMAGE.
rHE ERooKLN DTvINrs SUNDAY
SERMON.

There Is almost a universal aversion /
frogs and yet with the Egyptian they wer
honored, they were sacred, and they wer
objects Of worship while alive, and afte
death they wero embalmed. and to-day thel
remains may be found among the sepulchre
Of Thebes. These creatures, 70 attractiv
once 70 the Egyptians, &C divine behest be
came obnoxious and loathsome, and the
won't croaking and hopping and leaping int
the palace Of the king, and into the breaG
trays and the couches Of the people, and ever
the ovens, which now are uplifted above thu
tearth ana on the side Of chimneys, but ther
VI were fmall holes In tho earth, with sunker
pottery, wero filled with frogs when Oh,
housekeepers came TO look at them. If mar
sat down 20 eata frog alighted ON his plate
II be attempted 70 put ON a shoe 10 was pre-
occupied by a frog. II he attempted TO pu
his head upon pillow 1t had been taken pos
session OF by frog.
Frogs high and low and everywhere; loath
some frogs, Shiny frogs besieging frogs. IN
Vulnerable frogs great plague Of frogs
4 What made the matter worse the magiciani
said there was no miracle In this, and they
could by sleight Of hand produce the same
I thing, and they seemed to succeed, for by
sleight Of hand wonders may be wrought.
\ After Moses had thrown down his staff and
Z BY miracle II became a serpent and then he
Z took hold OF IL and by miracle IL again be
came a stan, the serpent charmers Initiated
! the same thing, and knowing that there were
serpents in Egypt which by a peculiar pres
sure ON the neck would become as rigid as a
stick Of wood, they seemed TO change the SER
pent into the stan, and then, throwing it
down, the staff became the serpent.
80 likewise these magicians tried 20 imi-
tate the plague of frogs, and perhaps by
smell Of food attracting great number Of
them to certain point, or by shaking them
out from hidden place, the magicians some
times seemed TO accomplish the same mira
Gle. While these magicians made the plague
worse, none OF them tried to make it better.
Frogs came up and covered the land Of
Egypt, and the magicians did so with their
enchantment, and brought up frogs upon the
land Of Egypt"
Now that plague Of frogs has come back
upon the earth. II is abroad to-day. IL Is
smitting this nation. IL 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 the garnet, ON the drawing room
table, on the shelf Of 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
Ia reading the forbidden novelette, after re-
firing at night, reading by gashght one of
these frogs leaps upon the page. Indeed
they have hoped upon the news stands of
shake out in the letter trough hundreds of
them. The plague has taken at different
times possession of this country. II is one of
the most loathsome, one of the most fright
ful,one Of the most CHASTITY Of the ten plaques
Of our modern cities.
There Is a vast number of books and news
papers printed and published which ought
never to see the light. They are filled with
pestilence that makes the land swelter with
moral epidemic. The greatest blessing that
ever came TO this nation is that of an ele-
waited literature, and the greatest scourge
has been that OF unclean literature. This
last has its victims in all occupations and
departments. 1t has helped to fill insane
asylums and penitentiaries and alnshousss
and dens OF shame. The bodies Of this nice
ton 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 its victims by thousands, but
this modern pest has already shoveled its
millions into the charnel house of the morally
dead. The longest rail train that ever ran |
over the Erie or Hudson tracks was not long
enough nor large enough to carry the beast |
illness and the putrefaction which have been /
gathered up in bad books and newspapers of |
this land in the last twenty years. The |
of a nation decides the fate OF a |
nation. Good books, good morals. Bad /
books, bad morals.
begin with the lowest Of all the litera-
ture, tnat which does not even pretend to
DO DISQUALIFICATION cover TO cover q blotch /
Of leprosy. There are many whose entire
business IL is to dispose of that kind of lit
erature. They display it before the school
boy on his way home. They get the cata-
logues of schools and colleges, take the
names and postoGice addresses, and send
their advertisements, and their circulars
and their pamphlets, and their books to every +
Dne Of them.
In the possession Of these dealers in bad
literature were found nine hundred thou
sand names and postoHice addresses, to
whom it was thought it might be profitable
10 send these corrupt things. In the year
1878 there were one hundred and sixty-five
Establishments engaged in publishing cheap,
corrupt literature. From one publishing
house there went out twenty different STYLES
II corrupt bookslS Although over thirty
ons Of vile literatsAfe have been destroyed
BY the Society for the Suppression of Vice.
till there is enough of it left in this country
o bring down upon us the just anger of an
aroused God.
In the year 1865 the evil had become so
gTeat in this country that the Congress of
he United States passedsa law forbiddine
he TRANSMISSION OF bad literature through
he United States mails, but there were
arge loops in that law through which
criminals might crawl out and the law was :
! dead failure-that law Of 1865. But in
SO another law was passed by the Congress
I the United States against the Transmission {
{ corrupt literature through the mails-a I (
rand law. q potent law, a Christian law {
nd under that law multitudes Of these
couudrels have been arrested, their property s
aud they themselves thrown into
be penitentiaries where they belonged. I
Now, my friends, how are We to war
gainst this corrupt literature, and how are
be frogs Of this Egyptian plague to be I
lainl First Of all by the prompt and mex
rable execution Of the law. Let all good 7
and United States district at 5
orneys, and detectives, and reformers con
srt IN their action 70 stop this plague. I
When Sir Rowland Hill spent his life in try
IS 70 secure cheap postage not only Tor 7
highland, bat for all the world. and to omen 4
be blessing Of the postofice to all honest 4
usiness, and 70 all messages Of charity. \
nd kindness. and affection. for all health !
d intercommunication. he did not mean to :
lake vice easy or 70 an the mail bags OF the :
'nitcd States with the scabs Of such a I
prosy.
L ought not to be in the power Of every a
ad man who can raise q one-cent stamp for !.
circular or q two-cent stamp for letter to / I
last man or destroy home. The postal Z
ryice Of this country must be clean. must =
E kept clean. and we must ali understand q
at the swim recributions Of the Unitei :
tates Government hover over every viola
on Of the letter box
There are Thousands Of men and women IN I 4
~ country. some fer personal gain. some
rough innate depTarItF. soue through b
'irit 81 revenge. VINO wish % use this rTeaf r
venus q co1renience and iurelliCence for !.