Audubon County Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Audubon Co., Iowa) 1885-1894, 1891-03-12
char in q bushel measure which

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Good" in childhood gave him holy aspira
| tons for the rest of his life. George Law
declared that biography he read in child
hood gave him all his subsequent propen
sites. Oh, the power Of good bookl But
| alas! for the influence Of bad book. Johr
/ Angel James, than whom England never
| had holier minister, stood in his pulpit
! in Birmingham and said Twenty five
! years ago lad loaned TO me an infamous
book. He would loan 1t only fifteen min
utes and then had to give it back; but
that book has haunted me like spectre
! ever since. | have in agony of sonl ald
on my knees before God, prayed that he
would obliterate from my soul the memory
of it; out shall carry the damage OF ii un-
til the day of my death" Tho assassin oil
Sir William Russell declared that he got
the Inspiration for his crime by reading
what was then a new and popular novel,
Jack Sheppard" Homer's "lliadn made
Alexander the Warrior. Alexander said
so. The story of Alexander made Julius
Caesar and Charles XII, both men Of blood.
Have you in your pocket or in your trunk,
or in your desk at business bad book. a
bad picture, bad pamphlet? In Gods
name | warn you to destroy il.
Wo see so many books we do not under
stand what a book is. Stand it on end.
Measure it, the height Of it, the depth of
it, the length OF it, the breadth of it. You
cannot do it. Examine the paper and es-
innate the progress ma o from the time OF
the impressions on clay, and then on 10
tho bark of trees, and from the bark OF
trees TO papyrps, and from papyrus to the
hide of wild beasts, and from the hide of
bn ,,,fr a,l, Of
our modern paper panufactories, and then
see the paper, white and pure as an in-
fant's soul, waiting for Gods inscription.
A book! Examine the type of il. Exam
inc the printing Of it and see the progress
from the time when Solons laws were
written on oak plnks, and Hesiods poems
werc written on tables of lead and the
Siniatc commands We're written on tables
OF stone, on down to Hoes perfccting
printing press. A book! 1t took all the
universities of the past, all the martyr
fires, all tho civilizations, all the battles,
all the victories, all the defeats all the
clooms, all the brightnesscs, all the cen
turtles to make it possible. a book 1t is
the chorus of the ages-it Is the drawing
room in which kings and queens and ora
tors and poets and historians and philoso-
L
worshippcd anything on earth I
would worship that. II / burned in
Cense to any idol, would build
an altar 10 that. Thank God for
good books, healthful books, inspiring
books, Christian books, books of men,
books of women, Book of God. II is with
these good books that we are to overcome
corrupt literature. Upon the frogs swoop
tho eagles. depend much for the overthrow
of ubiquitous literature upon the mortality
of looks. Even good books have hard
struggle TO live. Polybius wrote forty
books; only five of them left. Thirty
hooks of Tacitus have persisted. Twenty
books OF Piiny have persisted. Livy wrote
one hundred and forty books; only thirty
five of them remain. Hschylus wrote one
hundred dramas; only seven remain.
EurlP!dcs wrote over hundred; only
nineteen remain. Varro wrote the biogra-
phies of over seven hundred great Romans.
All that wealth of biography has persisted.
II good and valuable books have such q
struggle to live what must be the fate of
those that are diseased and corrupt and
blasted ut the very start? They will die
as the frogs when the Lord turned back
the plague. The work of Characterization
will so on until there will be nothing left
but good books, and they will take the
supremacy of the world. May you and
live to see the illustrious day!
Against every bad pamphlet send good
pamphlet; against every unclean picture
send an innocent picture; against every
scurrilous song send Christian song;
against every bad book send good book;
and then it will be as it was in ancient
Toledo, where the Toletum missals were
kept by the saints in six churches, and
slcrcligious Romans demanded that these
mssals be destroyed and that the Roman
mis- sails be substituted; and the war came
on and | am glad TO say that the whole
matter having been referred to champions
the champion of the Toletum missals with
enc blow brought down the champion of
the Roman missals. So it will be in litera-
ture today. The good literature, the Chris
tian literature, in its championship for God
and the truth, will bring down the evil lit
orature in its championship for the devil.
| feel tinglDg to the tips of my fingers and
through all the nerves of my body, and all
the depths of my soul, the certainty of our
triumph. Cheer up,O men and women who
are toiling for the publication Of society,
Toll with your faces IN the sunlight. III
God be for US, who, who can beaSainst us?"