Lewiston teller. [volume] (Lewiston, North Idaho) 1878-1900, 1891-03-26
PERNICIOUS LITERATURE
DIX. TALMAGE COMPARES 1T TO
THE PLAGUE OF FROGS.

cHcome.-A GOOD Book and lt0 |
influence.
NEW York, March 8, ls9l.-The plague
o. pernicious literature formed the subject
W VI. 1almages sermon today, which was
inc thlru OF the SCI les he is preaching on
inc Zen Plaques Of the Cities" The
.eAt OF the preachers discourse was taken
iio" Exodus :. 81: And the frogs came
up and covered the land of Egypt And
the magicians did so with their enchant-
ihents and brought up frogs upon the
land Of Egypt"
There is almost an universal aversion to
frogs, and yet with the Egyptian they
We're honored. they were sacred, and they
were objects OF worship while alive, and
al1ef death they were embalmed, and to-
uay lhelf remains may be found among
'he sepulchres Of Thebes. These creatures,
So attractive once to the Egyptians, at
oiVlne behest became obnoxious and loath-
some, and they went croaking and hopping
ana leaping into the palace of the king,
| ana INTO the bread trays and the couches
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 pot
terry, We're filed with frogs when the
| housekeepers came to look at them. If o
man sat down to eat. frog alighted on
his plate. II he attempted to put on a
shoe, 1t was preoccupicd by frog. If he
attempted to put his head upon pillow, it
mad been taken possession of by q frog.
Frogs high and low and everywhere;
loathsome frogs, Shiny frogs, beseging
frogs, innumeroble frogs. great plague of
frogs What made the matter worse, the
magiclans said there was no miracle in
this, and they could by sleight-o of hand
produce the same thing. and they seemed
to succeed, for by sleight-of- hand wonders
may be wrought. After Moses had thrown
down his staff and by miracle it became a
serpent, and then he took hold of it and
by miracle it again became staff, the
serpent charmers initiated the same thing,
and knowing that there were serpents in
Egypt which by peculiar pressure on the
neck would become as rigid as a stick of
wood, they seemed to change the serpent
: INTO the staff, and then, throwing it down,
the staff became the serpent. So likewise
these magicians tried to initiate the plague
OF frogs, and perhaps by smell of food at
tracing great number of them to a Ger
tain point or by shaking them out from a
= hidden place, the magicians sometimes
seemed to accomplish the same miracle.
While these magicians made the plague
worse. none of them tried to make it bet
ter. ''Frogs came up and covered the
land of Egypt, and the magicians did sc
with their enchantment, and brought w
frogs upon the land of Egypt"
Y Now that plague of frogs has come
v back upon the earth. 1t is abroad today
:, 1t is shifting this nation. 1t comes in thu
y shape of corrupt literature. These frogs
hop into the store the shop, the Office, thu
Y banking house, the factory, into the home
:. into the cellar. into the garnet, on the shell
n # the library. While the lad is reading
the bad book the teachers face is turnet
the other way. One of these frogs hop
II upon the page. While the young woman
= is reading the forbidden novelette, afte
= retiring at night reading by gaslight, on
Of these frogs leaps upon the page
l. Indeed, they have hoped on the news
:, stands of the country, and the mails at tn
y post-of1ice shake out in the letter troug
= hundreds of them. The plague has take
at different tines, possession of thi
ID country. 1t is one of the most loathsome
y, CHASTITY of the ten plaques of our monder
y" cities. There is a vast number of book
and newspapers printed and publishe
70 which ought never to see the light. The
i are filled with pestilence that makes tn
!, land swelter with a moral epidemic. Th
greatest blessing that ever came to tn
nation is that of an elevated literature
10 and the greatest scourge has been that {
n. unclean literature. This last has i
in victims in all occupations and department.
1t has helped to fill insane asylums an
"a penitentiaries and almshouses and dens {
- shame. The bodies of this info ction lie
~ the hospitals and in the graves, while the
w souls are being tossed over into To-
eternity, an avalanche OF horror an
RS despair. The London plague was nothir
y. to it. That counted its victims
-, thousands, but this modern pest hi
~ already shoveled its millions into tt
W charnel-house Of the morally dead. IT
ne lori est rail train that ever ran over Il
hit Erie or Hudson tracks was not long enoue
nd nor large enough to carry the beastline
lv and the patrefaction which have bet
- gathered up in the last twenty years. II
literature of nation decides the fate OF
n. nation. Good books, good morals. B,
,s- books, bad morals.
I'd begin with the lowest Of all the liter
sit ture, that which does not even pretend
be respectable-from cover to cover blot
of leprOsy. There are many whose emit
ID, business it is to dispose OF that kind OF II
nd eraturc. They display it before the schot
'as bow on his way home. They get the cat
MS logues of schools and colleges, take Il
names and postoffice addresses, and SCI
their advertisements and their circula
:. v' and their pamphlets and their books
=, every ono of them.
al In the possession of these dealers in b
in literature were found nine hundred tho
sand names and postoffice addresses,
cd whom it was thought it might be profltat
" to send these corrupt things. In the We
~ 1878 there were one hundred and sixty-h
ne establishments engaged in publishing che
on corrupt literature. From one puoilshi
house there went out twenty difere
tie styles Of corrupt books. although ov
do thirty tons of vile literature have be
nj; destroyed by the Society for the Supprt
Pt sion OF Vice, still there is enough OF it Il
in this country to bring down upon US I
oss thunderbolts of an incensed God.
In the year 1868, the evil had become
no great in this country that the Congress
10. the United States passed law foroiddi
the transmission of bad literature thrOu