St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1891-08-10
BoNFIREs FOR BAD BOOKS.
Rev. W. j. Lhamon on the Bad
Books Of the Present Day.

L
AT the Church of Christ, last even
ing, Rev. W. J. Lhamon preached on
"Bonfires for Bad Books" His text
was: "And not a few of them who
practiced curious arts brought their
books together and burned them in sight
of all. And they counted the price of
them and found it fifty thousand pieces
of silver: so nightly grew the word of
God and prevailed" from Acts XIX. 10.
He said:
The word bonfire is a mixture of
French and English. 1t means good
fire'-a fire that purifes, disinfects,
takes away the dFOSS. consumes old
refuse, leaves the world better. A fire
that indicates progress, around which
you can shout, hoping for better times.
Christianity itself is such a fire. 1t
blazes along the path of our human prog
ress consuming the drOss, purifying the
gold, destroying error, confirming truth.
The curious arts spoken of in the
text, are of a thousand kinds all the
way from the dIvining rods of ancient
Egypt down to the latest Gypsy fortune
teller who looked at the curls on your
finger ends ard told you all about your
past and future, and whether you would
be rich or poor, and what kind of a hus-
band or wife you were TO have. All the
way from the witch of EndOr down to
the latest spiritualistic seanee the world
has been burdened with curious arts
1.-The COperniean system has killed
aStrOlOgy with most sensible people, yet
there is an occasional belated aStrolOger
who pretends (having the date Of your
BIRTH to read your history and your
less in aStrology than you do, yet
of flattery and getting your money.
The Greeks put a maiden over a
gas well till she became sense
less and then took down her words for
Omens. Mrs. Blayatsky smoked cigar
cites till she was both senseleSs and
prOfane, and was then elected the high
priestess of theOSOphy. Another trick
of the Greeks and Romans was to kill a
COW and watch the liver while it cooled,
and so read the signs of the times. 4
Door. insane negro goes about with a
rabbits foot in each pocket to make
him lucky at the horse races, and
we send out a water witch
with a forked stick when we
want to locate a well. Superstition. to
which atheism is first cousin, is the fer
tile mother of all sorts of diyination.
Nothing has escaped the sOOthsayerS.
There is astrology, and clerOmancy, and
phonomancy, and OneiTOmancy, and
geOmancy, and necrOmancy, and cheirO-
NANCY, and lithOmancy, and CASTRO
NANCY, and catoptrOmancy, and rhabdo-
nancy, and OrnithOmancy, and one
might not easily guess how many
other ways of guessing at peoples fort
unes for compensation. all nOuriShed
by superstition, and all members of the
same unSavOry family of curious arts. :"
Shakespeare's witches are members of
this family. That was a wonderful
charm they got up, as good and as
strong as any that ever was made.
Here is only part of the recipe:
'Fillet Of a fenny snake
In the cauldrOn boil and bake;
Eye OF newt and toe of frog
Wool OF baI and tongue OF DOG.
Adder's fork and blindworm's sting,
Lizard leg and OwletS wing.
For charm of powerful trouble,
Like a hel-DrOth boil and bubble
Now If you had a library Of books
filed with such recipes as that, wouldn't
YOU feel like burning it? The sooner
we get rid of supeTStitiOns and humbug-
gerry and quacks and their nOstrums,
whether religious, scienticfic or medi-
cal, the better it will be for US.
But the books that harm Us most are
the highly seasoned cheap novels, called
spicy that get into the hands of mill
ions of boys and girls, corrupting their