The Penn's Grove record., 1891-03-20
REV. DR.. 1ALMAGE'S SERMON.
The Brooklyn Divtneis Sunday
Sermon.
subject, "The Plague Of II d Book."

Subject "The Plague Of Il d Books"
> Trxr: Ana nsJ ro1s cams up and coo
cred the land Of Egypt. And the u,u9iciaru
did SO trith their entertainments. une
Drought Up frogs upon the land Of Egypt
lex. viii, Q, 2.
There Is almost a universal aversion Il
frogs. and yet With the Egyptian they wers
hvnorad, they were sacred, and they wert
objects Of worship while alive, and efteI
death they were embalmed. and to-day theii
remains may be found among the sepulchrei
OF Ihebes. These creatures, SO attractive
once to the Egyptians, at divine behest DO
came obnoxious and loatnsome, and they
went croaking and hopping and leaping int
the palace OF the king, and into the bread
trays and the couches OF the people, II ever
the ovens, which now are uplittei above tht
ear, b and on the side Of cnimueys but then
were small holes in the earth, with supSer
pottery, were filed with frogs when tht
housekeepers came to LOOK at them. II q mar
sat down TO eat a frog alightsi on hi, plate.
II he attempted to put Oh a shoe it was pre-
occupied by a frog. II he attempted to put
his head upon a pillow 1t had been taken pos
session Of by a frog.
Frogs high and low aud every where; loath,
some irogs, Shiny frogs, bssisging frogs, in
Vulnerable frogs, great plague OF frogs.
What made tho matter worse the magicians
said there was no miracle in this, and tney
could by sleight OF Ia produce the sam.
thing, and they seemed to succeed, for by
sleight Of hand wonders may bs wrought
After Moses had thrown down his staff and
by miracle it became a serpent. aud then he
took hold of it and by miracle it again be
came a staff, the serpent charmers initiated
the same thing, and knowing that there were
serpsnts in Egypt which by a peculiar pres
sure on the neoS would become as risii as 8
stick of wood, they seemed to change the ser.
pent into the staff, and then, throwing Il
down, the STAFF became the serpent.
80 likewise these magicians tried to ini-
tate the plague OF frogs and perhaps by
smell of food attracting a great number Of
them to a certain point, or by shaking them
out from q hidden place. toe magicians some
times seemed to accomplish the sans mira.
Gle. While these uagicians made the p que
worse, nons Of them tried TO make it Uetter.
"Frogs came up and covered the and oil
Egypt an 1 the magicians did so with their
snchantnent, aud brought up frogs upon the
Land OF Egypt"
Now that plague Of frogs has come bach
upon the earth. 1t is abroad to-day. 1t IL
smitting this nation. II comes in the shape
Of corrupt literature. Tnsss frogs mop into
the store, the shop, the office, the banking
house, the factory-into tae home, into The
cellar, into the garrett. on the drawing room
table, OF the shelf of tue library. While the
lad is reading the bad book ths teachers face
Is turned the other way. One OF these frog
hops upon the page. " lille the young woman
Is read ng the FORBIDDEN novelette, after re
firing at night, reading by gssiight, one Of
these frogs leaps upon the page. Indeed
they have bopped UPON the news stands OF
the country aud the mails at the posIotict
shake out in the letter trough hundreds Of
them. The plague has taken at different
times possession Of this country. 1t Is one Of
the most losthsome, n Of the m ost fright
fuI, one OF the most ghastly OF toe ten plaques
Of cur modern cities.
There Is a vast number Of books and news
rapers printed and published which ought
never to see the light. They are 1lsi with a
pestilence that makes the land swe!ter with Q
moral cpl iemio. The greatest blessing that
ever came to this nation is that OF an eis-
waited literature, ami the greatest scourgs
has been that OF unclean literature. InIs
last has its victims in all occupations an 1
departments. 1t has helped 10 eli insane
asylums and penitsntiariss n almsdOusas
and deps Of shame. The bodies OF this iniec.
ton lie in the hospitals and in the graves,
while their souls are being tossed over into
Z lost eternity, al avalanche Of horror and
despair.
The London plague was nothing to it.
That counted its victims by thou auds, but
this modern pest has already shovs.et is
millions into the charnel house of the morally
dead. The longest rail train that ever ran
over the Erie or Hudson tracks was notlong
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. Ine
literature of Q nation decides the fate OF a
nation. Good books good morals. Bad
books, bad morals
tegin with the lowest Of all the litera.
ture, that which does not even Pretend TO
% respectable-from cover 10 cover a bIotcb
Of lsprosy. There are many WHOSE entire
business n 10 to dispose OF tnat kind Of lit
eraturs. They display it before the scaool.
boy on bis way home. Tney get the cata.
losues OF schools and colleges, taSe the
names and postoIics addresses, II sen /
their advertisements, and their circulars,
and their Pamphlets, snd their 1ooksr to every
QUE Of them.
In the possession Of these dealers IN bad
literature were found nine hundred thou
sand names and postordcs addresses, TO
whom IL was thought 1t might be proirabls
to send these corrupt things. In the year
ls13 there were one hundred and nxty-dvs
establishments engaged in publishing cnsap,
corrupt literature. From one publishing
house there went out twenty different styles
Of corrupt books. Although over thirty
tons OF vile literature have been destroyed
bY LDo SpgltLy lOI ~ SuPpi sA1 "a w.
still there is enough OF it Left In TINS country
to bring down upon US the just anger Of an
aroussa God.
In the year 1868 the evil had become 81
great in this country that the Congress OF
the United States passed a law foroidding
the Transmission or bad literature through
the United States mails, but there vera
large loops in that law through which
criminals might crawl out, and the law wat
q dead faiiure-that law OF 1858. But in
1878 another law was passed by the Congress
OF the United States against the ransml,sion
Of corrupt literature through tbs mati'--l
grand law, . potent law, a Christian law
and under that law multitudes OF tnese
s~coundrels have been arrested. their properly
cophscatsd and they themselves thrown into
the penitentiarisS where they belonged.
Now, my friends, how are Wa TO war
against this corrupt literature and how are
the frogs OF To, Egyptian plague to he
slaint First Of all by the prompt and iusx-
cradle execution Of tbs law. Let all good
posrmasters. and United States district at
tornsyS and dstectivss, and rsformsrs con-
cert In their action TO stop this plague.
When Sir Rowland niu spent his life ID try
ing TO sscurs ,caeap postage not only for
England, BIT for Al the word, and 70 open
the blessing OF the postotlcs 70 all honest
business, and 70 all messages OF CLARITY,
and kindness and affection, for all heath
iul INSTRUMENTATION, rs Gu not mean 70
make vice easy or TO oil the mail bags OF the
United states with the scaos OF such Q
lsprosy.
1t ought not to Be in the power Of every
bad man who can raise a one-cent stamp FOR
q circular or a two-csnt stamp for a letter e
blast q MAI or destroy q homs. The pOStsl
service OF this country must DO Clean, must
be Kent clean. and we must all understand
thar the swift retributions OF the Unite1
States Government hover over every viola
tion Of the letter boz.
There are thousands Of men and women IN
this country, some for personal gain, som'
through innate depravity, some through :
spirit OF revenge. VINO wish to use this great
avenue OF convenience and intelligence FOL
purposes r~evengeiul, salacious and diabolic
Wake up the law. Wake up the penaltiea
Let every court room on this subject be q
Sinai thunderous and aiame. Let the con
vieted offenders be sent for the full term u
Sing Sing or Harrisburg.
/ sm not talking about what cannot b
done. am talking now about what is oeini
dome A great many OF ths printing presss
saat gave themselves entirely to the publica
ton Of vile literature Y been stopped Of
have gone into business less obnoxious
What has thrown Of, what has kep1 of tn,
rail trains OF this country for sorre tin'
back nearly all the leprous periodicals
Those OF US who have been on the rail train
have noticed a great change in the last fea
months and the last year or two. Why hRv,
na.rlw III rha.. vtIa n.dadfrals haan Kant Of