The enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 188?-1899, 1891-03-11
PLAQUES OF THE CITIES.
DR.. Talmage Says Corrupt Litere'
ture Is One Of Them.
wh..s sad Books are Doing for the Boys
Girls, Mon and Women of America
The Law Should be Invoked
TO Fight tho Plague.

The plague of pernicious literature
formed the subject of DR.. Talmage's
third sermon Of the series he is preach
ing on "The Plaques Of the Cities"
The text Of his discourse was taken
from Exodus viii. 8-7: "And the frogs
came up and covered the land Of Egypt.
And the magicians did so with their
enchantments, and brought up frogs
upon the land Of Egypt" The preacher
said:
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 to-day their remains may
be found among the sepulchers Of
Thebes. These creatures, so attractive
once to the Egyptians, at 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 couches 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 sunken pottery,
were filed with frogs when the house
keepers came to look at them. Haman
sat down to eat, frog alighted on his
plate. II he attempted to put on shoe,
it was preoccupied by frog. If he at
tempted TO put his head upon pillow,
IL 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 sue
ceed, for by sleight-of-handw wonders may
be wrought. After Moses had thrown
down his staff and by miracle 1t became
a serpent, and then he took hold of it
and by miracle IL again became n 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 stick of wood, they seemed 10
change the serpent into the staff, and
then, throwing IL down, the staff be-
came the serpent. So likewise these
magicians tried to initiate the plague OF
frogs, and perhaps by smell Of food at
tracting great number Of them TO q
certain point, or by shaking them out
from a hidden place, the magicians
sometimes seemed 10 accomplish the
same miracle. While these magicians
made the plague worse, none OF them
tried TO make IL better. ''Frogs came
up and covered the land OF Egypt, and
the magicians didso with their enchant-
mept and brought up frogs upon the
land Of Egypt"
Now that plaque of frogs has como
back upon the earth. II Is abroad to
day. II is shifting tn 5 nation. 1t comes
in the shape Of corrupt literature.
These frogs hop into the store, the shop,
the office, the banking house, the factory
into the home, into the cellar, inte
the garret, on the drawingSoom table,
on the shelf Of the liabrary. While the
lad is reading the bad book the teachers
face is turned the other way. One oi
these frogs hops upon the page. While
the young womaL is reading the for
'bidden novelette, after retiring at night,
reading by gaslight, one Of these frogs
leaps upon the page. Indeed, they have
hopped 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, Mt diff
ferent times possession Of this country.
II Is one of the most loathsome, one oi
the most frightful, one Of the most
gliastly of the ten plaques Of our mod
ern cities There is vast number OF
books and newspapers printed and
published which ought never 70
see the light They are filled
with a pestilence that makes the land
swelter with a moral epidemic. The
greatest blessing that ever came 90 this
nation Is that of an elevated literature,
and the greatest scourge has been that
Of unclean literature. This last has lis
victims In all occupations and depart
ments. II has helped TO fill insane asy'
lums and penitentiaries and 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 lost eternity, an avalanche
of horror and despair. The London
plague was nothing 10 Il. That tcounted
its victims by thousands but this mod
srn pest has already shoveled its mil
lions into the charnel-house Of the NOR
ally dead The longest rnil-train that
ever ran over the Erie or Hudson tracks
was not long enough nor large enough
20 carry the beastliness and the ptitre'
faction which have been gathered up in
bad books and newspapers Of this land
In the last twenty years The litera'
ture Of nation decides the fate Of q
nation. Good books, good morals. Bad
books, bad morals.
begin with the lowest OF all the 1T
erature, that which does not even pre-
tend TO be respectable-from cover tc
cover blotch Of leprosy. There are
many whose entire business II Il 10 dis
pose Of that kind OF literature. They
display II before the schoolboy on his
way home They get the catalogues Of
schools and colleges, take the names
and post Office addresses, and send Their
advertisements and their circulars and
theirpamphlets and their books to every
one OF them.
In the possession Of these dealers in
bad literature were found nine hundred
thousand names and post Office ad
dresses, TO whom II was thought Il