The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1891-03-13

frogs of Egypt Is by rolling over then
the Christian printing press, which shal
give plenty OF healthful reading to al
adults All these men and women ar
reading men and women. What ar
you reading? Abstain from all thos
books which, while they had some goot
things about them have also an nd
mixture of evil. You have read book
that had two elements in them-th'
good and the bad. Which stuck tx
youl The badl The heart of mos
people is like q sieve, which let's tin
small particles Of gold fall through bu
keeps the great cinders. Once in {
while there Is nlind like loadstone
which, plunged amid steel and bras
filings, gathers up the steel and repeli
the brass. But 1t is generally just the
opposite. If you attempt to plunge
through fence of burrs to get one
blackberry you will get more burrs
than blackberries. You cannot afford
to read bad book, however good you
are. You say, 1.-THE influence is insig-
nificant." I tell you that the scratch
of pin has sometimes produced the
lock jaw.
Alas! if through curiosity, as many
do, you pry into ON evil book, your
curiosity is as dangerous as that of the
man who would take a torch into a
gunpowder mill merely to see whether it
would really blow up or not. In me-
nagerie man put his arm through the
bars of black leopard's cage. The
animals hide looked so sleek and
bright and beautiful. He just stroked
it once. The monster seized him, and
he drew forth q hand torn and man
gled and bleeding. Oh, touch not evil
even with the faintast stroke! Though
it may be glossy and beautiful, touch
it not, lest you pull forth your soul
torn and bleeding under the clutch of
the black leopard But" you say,
chow can find out whether book is
good or bad without reading q" There
is always something suspicious about a
bad book. Inever knew an exception
something suspicious in the index or
style of illustration. This venomous
reptile almost always carries warning
rattle.
The clock strikes midnight A fair
form bends over a romance. The eyes
flash fire. The breath is quick and
irregular. Occasionally the color dashes
to the cheek, and then dies out. The
hands tremble as though guardian
spirit were trying to shake the deadly
book out of the grasp. Hot tears fall.
She laughs with shrill voice that
drops dead at its own sound. The
sweat on her brow is the spray dashed
up from the river of death. The clock
strikes four, and the rosy dawn soon
after begins to look through the lattice
upon the pale form that looks like a |
detained specter of the night. Soonsin
8, madhouse she will mistake her ring
4 curling serpents, and thrust Mer
through the bars of the,
l(lson, and smite her head, rubbing it I
back as though to push the scalp q ron
the Skull, snrieking, "My brain !! |fny
brainp' Oh, stand off from that! Why
will you go sounding your way amid
The reefs and warning buoys, when
there is such vast ocean in which you
may voyage, all sail set9
A BOOK!
We see SO many books we do not I'M
lerstand what a book is. Stand it on
end. Measure 1.-THE height of it,
the depth of it, the length of it, the
breadth of it. You cannot do it, Elk
anime the paper and estimate the prog
-ess made from the time of the impress
,ions on the clay, and then on to the
bark of trees, and from the bark of
;rees to papyrus, and from 2apyrus to
he hide of wild beasts, and from the
hide of wild beasts on down until the
miracles of our modern paper manu-
factories, and then see the paper, white
md pure as an infants soul waiting for
Gods inscription.
A book! Examine the type of it.
Examine the printing of it, and see the
progress from the time when Solon's
avs were written on oak planks, and
Hesiods poems were written on tables
If lead, and the Siniatic commands
we're written on tables of stone, on
Town to Hoes perfecting printing press.
A book! 1t took all the universities
# the past, all the martyr fires, all the
affiliations, all the battles, all the vic
cries, all the defeats, all the glooms,
III the brightnesses, all the centuries to
make it possible.
A book! 1t is the chorus of the ages;
t is the drawing room in which kings
md queens and orators and poets and
historians and philosophers come out to
rect you. If worshiped anything on
arth l would worship that. If
burned incense to any idol would
,uild an altar to that. Thank God for
,ood books, healthful books, inspiring
looks, Christian books, books of men,
looks of women, Book of God. 1t is
With these good books that we are to
'vercome corrupt literature. Upon the