The Red Cloud chief., 1891-03-20
THE THIRD PLAGUE.
Dr.. Talmage Discourses on the Evils
Of Bad Literature.
Bad Papers and Novels Iikened - the
Plague of Frogs In EGypt-Ths Law
Evoked-Power of Good and Bad
Books illustrated.

Inc plague OF pern1c1ouS literature
was the subject of the third discourse
OF DIR. Talmage at Brooklyn on the
Ten Plaques of the Cities" His text
was from Exodus, vii. CT: "And the
frogs came mp and covered the land OF
Egypt And the magicians did SO with
their enchantments, and brought up
frogs upon the land of Egypt" Follow
ing is the ermon
There is almost a 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 to-day their remains may
be found among the sepulchres Of
Thebes. These creatures, so attractive
C to the Egyptians, al divine behest
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 chimneys, but then
were small holes in the earth with
sunkcn pottery, were filed with frogs
when the housekeepers came to look at
them. II a man sat down 10 eat, a frog
alighted on his plate. IL he attempted
10 put on a shoe, il was ~preoccupied by
q frog If he attempted to put his head
upon a pillow, 1t had been taken posses
sion Of by a frog. Frogs high and low
and everywhere; loathsome frogs, Shiny
frogs, besieging frogs, innumcrable
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 sue
coed, for by straightforward wonders
may bc wrought
After Moses had thrown down his
staff and by miracle il became a SER
pcnt, and then he took hold of it and
10y miracle it again became a staff, the
serpent charmers initiated the same
thing, and knowing that there were
serpcnts in Egypt which 10y a peculiar
pressure on the neck would become as
rigid As a stick Of wood they seemed 70
change the serpent into the staff, and
then throwing it down the staff became
XIX " lfiti- w lihfNs y luf~f fldEl-
clans tried To initiate the plague of
frogs. 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. 1t is shifting this nation.
IL comes an the shape of cor
rupt 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 o!
these frogs hops upon the page. While
the young woman is reading the for.
hidden novelette, after retiring at night,
reading by gas-light, one of these frogs
. leaps upon the a Indeed, they have
y hoped upon the news stands of the
country. and the mails at the post Office
shake out in the letter trough hundred,
of them.
The plague has taken, at diffcren,
times, possession of this country. 1t i.
one of the most ioathSome. 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
ought never 10 see the light They art
filled with a pestilencc that makes the
land swcltcr with n moral epidemic.
The greatest blessing that ever cam,
e. this nation Is that Of an elevated
literature, and the greatest scourge ha'
been That Of unclcan literature. TIL,
last has it, victims in all occupation
and departments. Ii has helped To I'll
insane asylums and p~cnitcntiaries and
almshouses and dens Of shame. Tn,
bodies of this infection lie in the hos
pitfalls and IN the graves, while thciI
souls are being tossed over into a los
eternity, an avalanche Of horror an,
despair. The London plague wasnoth
ing Ia il. That counted its victims h.,
thousands. but this modern pest ha
already shovcled its millions into TIN
charmed house of the morally dead Th'
literature Of a nation decides the fate %
"A nation. Good books, good morals
bad books, bad morals.
begin with the lowest of all TN
literature. that which does not ever
pretend Ia be reSpcctahle-from cove
Ia cover n blotch Of leprosy. There ar
many whose entire business Is 10 dis
POSE Of that kind OF literature. The,
display il before the schoolbny on hi
way home. They get the catalogues q
schools and colleges, take the name
aud post office addresses and send thci
advertisements and their circulars an
their pamphlets and their books &
every one Of them.
In the possession of these dealers il
bad literature were found 900. 600 name
and post Office addresses Ia whom i
was thought it might be profitable &
send these corrupt things In the yea
ls3S there were los establishments en-
gagged in publishing cheap. eorrup
literature. From one publishing hous'
there went out twenty different style,
Of corrupt books Although over thirt,
tons of vile literature have been des
troyed hy the society for the suppress
sion If vice, still there is enough of i
left in this country to bring down upol
us the thunderholts of an incensed God
In the year 1858 the evil had bccom,
- great in this country that the con
gress of the United States passed n law
~forbidding the transmission Of bad lii
crature through the United State
mails: but there were large loops il
that law through which criminals
might crawl out, and the law was
dead failurc-that law of 1868 But II
1873 another aw was passed by the con
gress Of the United States against th,
transmission of corrupt litera;ur,
through the mails-s grand law, /:
potent law. \ Christian law-and under
that law multitudes Of these scorndrel,
have been arrested, their property con
fscated and they themselves thrown
into the penitentiaries where they be
longed
Now. my friends how are we TO wa
= against this corrupt literature and how
are the frogs of this Egyptian plague Il
be slain? First Of all. by the promp'