Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1891-03-14
CORRUPT LITERATURE.
Or. TALMAeE breaches A RINGING
SERMON ON A CRYING EVIL.

SERMON ON A CRYING EVIL.
Young and Old Arc Being Mentally.
Eornlly and Physically Infected by
Pernicious EoohsJTho Wrong Must BE
Riebte1-How to DO 1t.
New YORK. March S.-The plague
ofpernicious literature formed the sub
ject of DR.. Talinage's sermon today,
which was the third of the series he is
preaching on the 'sFen Plaques OF the
Cities The Brooklyn Academy of
Music WIS filled in the morning by q
dense crowd eager to hcu it, and ut
night at Tho Christian Herald service,
in eethe New York Academy of Music,
the doors had to be closed long before
the. hour Of service, there being no
space available within the building foi
msfe hearers. So largo is the number
of those every week disappointed of
gaining nission that the project of
hirsag the Mad ison Square Gardeny has
again bcenS.revivcd. One citizen has;
Offered. to pay all the expenses it, tho.
Gard enScan be secured and Dr.. Tai
mage. can be induced to preach in it.
The steyt of tho preachers discourse
was5 taken from Elk viii, Co. And;
thessifross;s came up and covered the
lara of Egypt. And the 1nagicians
did, SO with their entertainments, and
brought up frogs upon the land of
Egypt.
Thero is almost o 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.tfound among the sepulchers Of
Thebcs. These creatures, so attractive
onec 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 couches
of THO people, and even the ovens,
which now arc uplifted above the earth
and on the side of the chimnoys, but
then wero small holes in tho earth
with sunlsen pottery, were filled with
frogs when tho housekcepers came to
look at them. If a man sat down to
eat;:a frog ahghtcd 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 q frog.
Frogs high and low and everywhere;
loathsomc frogs, Shiny frogs, besieging
frogs innumerable frogs, great plague
of frogs. What made the matter
worse the 1nagicians said there was nc
miraclos.in this, and they could by
sleight oflland produce the same thing,
and they seemed to succeed, for by
sleights Of hand wonders may be
wrought After Moses had thrown
down his staff and by miracle it be-
came a,serpent, and then he took hold
of ,itand .bylniracle it again became
sta Z, the serpent charmcrs initiated
tho saaiie thing, and knowing that
there were scrpents in Egypt which by
peculiar pressure on the neck would
become as rigid as q 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 lnagicians tried to initiate
tho plague of frogs, and perhaps by
smell of food attracting q great number
of them to certain point, or by shak-
ing them out from q 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 enchantinent, 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. 1t
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, thoy have hoped upon the
news stands of the country, and the
mails at the postofice 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 ghastly of
tho ten plaques of our modern cities.
There is a vast number of books and
newspapers printed and published
which ought never to sec the light.
They are filled with q pestilence that
makes the land swelter with moral
epidemic. The greatest blessing that
ever came to this nation is that of an
elevated literature, and tho greatest
scourgc has been that of unclean Liter
allure. This last has its victims in all
occupations and departments. 1t has
helped to fill insane asylulns and peni-
tentiarics nnd almshouses and dens Of
shame. The bodies of this infection
lie in the hospitals and in the graves,
while their souls are being tossed over
into q lost eternity, an avalanche OF
L.