Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1891-03-13
PLAGUE OF BAD BOOKS.
TAlMAGE'S THIRD SERMON ON
THE EVILS OF CITIES.


Attentive Audience Present.
The plague of pcrnicious literature
z,rp,ed the subject of Dr. Talmage's ser
Me,s, which was the third of the series
ac is preaching or the s'Tcn Plaques OF
ahe Gisies. The text of the preachers
discourse was taken from EN. Viii, Is, =:
H'ANl tho frogs came up and covered the
aaNti ST Egypt. And the magicians Gid
~, with their entertainments, and brought
NJ, frogs upon the land OF Egypt"
There is alnost 6; universal aversion to
lynss, and yet with the Egyptian they
werp honorcd, they were sacred, and
ahcy were objects of worship while alive,
and after death they were cmbalmcd,
Nnd to-day their remains may be found
szs.tag the scpu!ri,rcs OF Ihcbcs. These
ayra.nieS, SO attractive once 20 the
Egyptians, a. divine hehcst became oo-
nnNinns and laatbsOmc. and they went
s,tSakins and lcpping and caphg into
ta.s palace OF the KING, and into tho
hEeaI trays and The co"clcs OF INC
sfanple. and even the ovens, which row
arc nn,iGtad above the earth aud on the
SSsis nf chiiaNeys, but then were small
Mn!es in the earth, with Snnkcn pottery:
wara filled with frogs when tho bolSa-
keepers came 10 look at them. Ii arla:An
sat sauwn 10 eat Z; frog alighted or ms
pistn. II he attempted to put on d shoe
IL 1as prcoccuui d by a frog. If ia at
e,a;seh to put his head upon pillow 1t
had bacn taken possession OF 10y Il frog
Frogs high and low and everywhere:
goa,Asomc frogs, SHINY frogs heS;esing
ssss,gs, illnumrtanlc frogs, great s'lasH"
oil frogs. What made the matter worse
slas. n>agiciaus sait! there was 40 mirac!"
i'll this, and they could by siight-of-hand
psyrance the same thing, and They seemed
so succeed, fer by slight-of-hand wonders
u1ay be wrought. After Moses had
thrown down his staff and by miracle it
Deca:an q serpent, and then he took hold
asf it and by miracle it again became
staff, the serpent charmers initiated the
sslne thing. and knowing that there were
serpcnts in Egypt which by u peculiar
pressure on the neck would become us
rigid as stick Of wood, they seemed 10
gilaHge the serpent into the staff, and
1lcn, throwing it down, the staff became
1hn serpent.
So likewise these magicians tried to
Rnlitate the plague of frogs, and perhaps
by smell of food attracting a great NUM-
her of them to a certain point, or by
shaking them out from hidden place,
she magicians sometimes seemed to ac-
epnlpish the same miracle. While these
niagcianS made The plague worse, nonc
af them tried to make il better. ''F'rogs
game up and covered the land of Egypt
and the magicaEs did so with their en-
ehantmcnt. aud brought up frogs upon
ahe land of Egypt"
Now that tho plague of frogs has come
back upon the earth. 1t is abroad to-
DAY. Ii is shifting this 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 the
garnet, on the drawing room table. on
the shelf OF the library. While the lad
rs reading the bad book the teachers
lace is turned the other way. One Of
shese frogs hops upon the page. While
t{ie young woman is reading tho forbid
den novelette, after retiring at night,
reading by gasight, one of these frogs
seaps upon the page. Indeed they have
h0pped upon tie news stands of the
country and the mails at the postot,icc
shake out in the letter trough hundreds
OF them. I he plague has taken at diff
trent times possession OF this country.
IL is one of ne most ioathsomo, one of
the most frightful. one of the most
CHASTITY Of the ten plaques of our modern
cities.
There is a vast number of books and
newspapers printed and published which
snght never to see the light. They are
filled with q prstilcncc that makes the
Band swcl,cr with a moral epidemic. zinc
greatest blessing that ever came to this
nhtion is tha! Of an elevated literature
and the greatest scourgc HAS been that
OF uEclcay iiJcratlige. This last has it's
victims in all occupations AND depart
R,ents. II has helped to ill insane as
ylums ami pGnitrntiariGs and ;.lnlshouscs
and dens Of shame. TIE bodies Of this
infection liz in he hospitals and in tie
graves, while their souls are being tossed
over into Il LOST eternity, an avalanche of
horror and despair.
The Lonaun plague was nothing to it,
That counted it's victims by thousands,
hut this modern pest las already
shoyelcd its 1uiilions into the charnel
house of the morally dead. The longest
vail train that ever ran over the Eric or
hudson tracks was not long enough nor
3arge enough to carry the bcastlincss
and putrefac'lnn which have Been gath
cred up in ha1 cooks ard newspapers of
this land in The last twenty years. The
literature OF q ration decides the fate of
n nation. Good boots, good morals
Bad books, bad morals.
begin with the lowest of all the lit
#rature, thai which does not even pre-
send to b" blc--iro.n cover to
eoger u blo1ci vi leprosy. There are
many whose entire business is to dispose