Herald and news. [volume] (West Randolph, Vt.) 1878-1943, 1891-03-19
PLAGUE OF BAD BOOKS.
~ TAI nAeE's THIRD SERMON ON
The EVILS OF CITIES.


vru YORK. March s.-The plague of
.nicious literature formed the subject of
Talmape's sermon today, which was
~ .bird Of the series he is preaching on
~. -. aTen Plaques of the Cities" The
Wv ntIvn Academy of Music was filed in
piOS ,,,orning by a dense crowd eager to
sne IL ard at night at the Christian Her
"a m .ryice in the New York Academy of
80 the doors had TO be closed long be-
49, tbe hour of service, there being no
.0ace available within the building for
- hearers. So large is the number of
hose every week disappointed of gaining
admission that the project of hiring the
Madison Square Garden has again been re-
r;red One citizen has offered to pay all
no eypenses if the Garden can be secured
mi DR. Talmage can be induced to preach
nit The text of the preachers discourse
.ras taken from Elk. viii, 8, Z: "And
M frogs came up and covered the land of
Fl,cnt. And the magioians did so with
tTeir enchantments and brought up frogs
mon the land Of Egypt"
TIL. ANCIENT PLAGUE OF FROGS.
There is almost universal aversion to
,rogs and yet with the Egyptian they were
bo1ored. they were sacred, and they were
o,ierts of worship while alive, and after
deotb they were embalmed, and today their
,emains may be found among the sepul-
..res cf Thebes. These creatures, so at
rraetiye once to the Egyptians, at divine
bebest became obnoxious and loathsome,
AMI they went croaking and hopping and
l4aping into the palace of the king. and
into the bread trays and the couches of the
neople. ana even the ovens, which now are
nnlifted above the earth and on the side of
cbinneys. bur then were small holes in the
earth. with sunken pottery, were filled
with frogs when the housekeepers came to
look al them. II a man sat down TO eat
frog alighted on his plate. II he attempted
10 nut on shoe it was preoccupied by
frog. If he attempted to put his head upon
apillow it had been taken possession of by
a 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 succeed, for by seight of hand wonders
nav be wrought. After Moses had thrown
down his staff and by miracle it became
serpent, and then he took hold of it and by
miracle it again became staff, the serpent
oharmers 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 imi-
tate the plague of frogs, and perhaps by
smell of food attracting great number OF
them to a certain point, or by shaking
them out from hidden place, the ma
ricians sometimes seemed TO accomplish
the same miracle While these magcians
made the plague worse, none of them tried
to make it better Frogs came up and
covered the land of Egypt, and the ma
gicians did so with their enchantment, and
brought up frogs upon the land of Egypt"
THE MODERN PLAGUE OF FROGS.
Now that plague of frogs has come back
upon the earth 1t is abroad today. IL is
shifting this nation. 1t comes in the shape
Of corrupt literature. These frogs hop into
the store, the shop, the Office, the banking
house, the factory-intc the home, into the
cellar, into the garrett, 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 they have hoped upon the news
stands of the country and the mails TT the
postoillce shake out in the letter trough
bun s,,gt 81, fTasa nlnUDa has taken
at different times possession of this coun-
try 1t is one of the most loathsome, one
Of the most frightful, one of the most
CHASTITY of the ten plaques of our modern
cities.
There is vast number of books and
newspapers printed and published which
ought never to see the light They are
filleu with pestilence that makes the land
swelter with moral epidemic. The great
est blessing that ever came to this nation
is that of an elevated literature, and the
greatest scourge has been that of unclean
literature This last has its victims in all
occupations and departments. 1t has
helped to fill insane asyiums ana penn.
tentiaries and almshouses and dens OF
shame. The bodies of this infection lie in
the hospitals and in the graves, while then
SUulS are DEluH lpSocu wv
eternity, an avalanche of horror and des-
pair
The London plague was nothing 10 IL
That counted its victims by thousands, bu'
this modern pest has already shoyeled lts
millions into the charmed house OF the NOR
ally d ad. The longest rail train that ever
ran over the Erie or Hudson tracks was
not long enough nor large enough to carry
the beastliness and the putrefaction whlcn
have been gathered up in bad books ana
newspapers of this land in the last twenty
years The literature of a nation decides
the fate of nation. Good books, good
morals. Bad books, bad morals.
THE LOWEST OF BAD LITERATURE.
begin with the lowest of all the htera
tnre. that which does not even pretend .
be respectable-from cover 70 cover a oioVcl
Of leprosy There are many whose entir'
business it is to dispose of that KIND Oh nv
erature. They display it before the scnooi
boy on his way home. They get the cata
logues of schools and colleges, take tns
names and postofice addresses. ana SEM
their advertisements, and their circulars
and their pamphlets, and their DOCKS u