The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1891-03-13
CORRUPT LITERATURE.
Or. TALMAGE breaches A RINGING
SERMON ON A CRYING EVIL.

SERMON ON A CRYING EVIL.
yeung and Old Are Being Mentally
Morally and Physicaliy Infected b!
Rernicious Books-The Wrong Must Ii
Righted-How to DO 1t.
NEW YORK, March 6.-The plagu,
of pernicious literature formed the sub
3ect of DR.. Talmage's sermon today
which was the third of the series he il
preaching on the Ten Plaques of the
Cities" The Brooklyn Academy Of
Music was filled in the morning by g
dense crowd eager to hear it, and al
night at The Christian Herald service,
in the New York Academy of Music,
the doors had to be closed long before
the hour of service, there being nc
space available within the building fol
more hearers. So large is the number
Of those every week disappointed OF
gaining admission that the project OF
hiring the Madison Square Garden has
again been revived. One citizen has
offered to pay all the expenses if the
Garden can be secured and DR.. Tai
mage can be induced to preach in it.
The text of the preachers discourse
was taken from Elk. viii, 6, z: "And
the frogs came up and covered the
land OF Egypt. And the magicians
did so with their entertainments, and
brought up frogs upon the land of
Egypt"
There is almost 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 en-
balmed, and today their remains may
be found among the sepulchers of
Thebes. These creatures, so attractive
once to the Egyptians, at divine be-
hest became obnoxious and loathsome,
and they went croaking and hopping
and leaping into the palace of the king,
and into the bread trays and the touches
Of the people, and even the ovens,
which now are uplifted above the earth
and on the side of the chimneys, but
then were small holes in the earth
with sunken pottery, were filled with
frogs when the housekeepers came to
look at them. If a man sat down to
eat, frog alighted on his plate. If he
attempted to put on shoe it was pre-
occupied by frog. If he attempted
to put his head upon pillow it had
been taken possession of by frog
Frogs high and low and everywhere;
loathsome frogs, Shiny frogs, besieging
frogs, innumerable frogs, great plague
of frogs. What made the matter
worse the magicians said there was no
miracle in this, and they could by
sleight of hand produce the same thing,
and they seemed to succeed, for by
aleight Of hand wonders may be
wrought. 2After Moses had fEfown I
down his staff and by miracle it be-
came serpent, and then he took hold
of it and by miracle it again became
staf, the serpent charIners initiated
the same thing, and knowing that
there were serpents in Egypt which by
q peculiar pressure on the neck would
become as rigid as stick of wood,
they seemed to change the serpent into
the staff, and then throwing it down
the staff became the serpent. So like
wise these magicians tried to initiate
the plague of frogs, and perhaps by
smell of food attracting great number
of them to a certain point, or by shak-
ing them out from a hidden place, the
magicians sometimes seemed to &C
complish the same miracle. 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 enchantlnent, and brought up
frogs upon the land of Egypt"
A MODERN PLAGUE.
Now that plague of frogs has come
back upon the earth. 1t is abroad to-
day. 1t is shifting this nation. It
comes in the shape of corrupt litera-
ture. 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 is
reading the forbidden novelette, after
retiring at night, reading by gaslight,
one of these frogs leaps upon the page.
Indeed, they have hoped upon the
news stands of the country, and the
mails at the postoffice 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 loathsome, one of the most
frightful, one of the most CHASTITY of
the ten plaques of our modern cities.
There is vast number of books and
printed and published
which ought never to see the light.
They are filled with pestilence that
makes the land swelter with a moral