Alma record. (Alma, Mich.) 1878-1928, 1891-03-13

BY moral SuuS .OuE vi. DO. lou HliRut |
as well 20 into jungle II the East Indies
and pat "a cobra on the mock. and with pro-
found argument'try TO PERSUADE II that IL
is morally wrong TO bite and TO sting and
10 pc son anything. The only answer TO
your argument would be an uplfted head
and hiss, and sharp, rocking tooth
struck into your arteries. The only argu- /
ment for a cobra Is a shotgun, and the only |
ar ,ument for these dealers in impure lit,r-
aturc is the clutch OF the pol &c and bean I
soup in IA pen tertiary. The law1 The |
law! invoke 10 consummate the work
so Rrandly begun
Another way in which we are TO drive |
back this plague of Egyptian frogs Is by
filling the minds of our young people with
a healthiul literature. i do not mean to
say that all the books and newspapers in
our families ought to be religious books
| and newspapers. or that every song ought
| TO be sung To the tune OF "Old Hundred"
have no sympathy with the attempt to
TO make young old. would rather Join in
! a crusade to keep the young young. Boy
| hood and girlhood must not be abbrcy ated.
| But there are good be ohs, good stories,
/ good b ogrLphics. good works OF iicton,
good books OF an styles with which we are
TO fill the minds of the young. so that
| Tn, re will be no more room for the useless
and the Vicious than there is room for
chat in bushel measure which
is already filled with Michigan wheat.
| A good book-who can exaggorate Its
| power? Benjamin Frank n said that bis
reading of Cotton Mathcr Essays To do
Good. in Oh ldhood gave him holy aspira-
tons for the rest Of his life. George Law
decl red that biography he read in clild-
hood gave him all his subsequent propen-
| et,,oo Oh AZ ,,oNyar Of n tron1 boOli But
alas! for the influence of bad book John
/ Angel james, than whom In gland never
! had a holier MN ster, stool in his pui PIT
| IN Il rmInghdm and SAID Twenty live
! years ago Il | d loaned 10 ne an infamous
book He would loan IL only fifteen min
utes and then had TO give it back but
that LOOK has haunted me like spectre
ever since. | have in agony OF sonl ana
on nv knees before God. prayed that ho
would obllterate from my soul the memory
of it; out shall carry the damage OF 1t I'M
Ill the day OF my Ceath." The ass SSH or
Sir William Russell declared that he got
the lisp ration for his crime by reading
what was then new aud popular novel,
'Ja:k Sheppard" Homer's ''llad 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 Gal book,
bad picture, bad pamphlet? In Gods
name | warn you TO destroy it.
We see so many BOOKS we do not under
stand what book is. Stand it on end
Measure it. the height of it. the depth OF
il, the length of it, the breadth of IT, You
cannot do il. Examine the paper and es-
innate the progress ma Q from the time OF
the impressions on clay. and then on To
the bark of trees, and from the bark OF
trees TO papyrus, and from papyrus 10 the
hide of w Id beasts. and from the de OF
wild beasts on down until the miracles or
our modern paper manufactOr es, and then
see the paper, white and pure as an in
fants soul, waiting for Gods Inscription.
A b ,ok. Examine the type Of it,. Exam
inc .ne printing of it ana see the progress
from the time when Solon's laws were
written on oak pl,nks, and Hcsiod poems
were written on tables of lead, and the
Siniatic commands were written on table'
| OF stone, on down 10 Hoes perfectin.
printing press. a book. IL took all the
universities Of the past, all the marty
fire., all the civiizati, ms. all the battles.
all the victories. all the defeats. all tai
gloc ms, ell the brghtncsses, all the c"r-
lures 10 make it possible. A book. IL 3
the chorus of the ages-it is the drawing
room in which kings and queens and ora
tors and poets and historians and philoso-
piers come out 10 greet you. III L
worshipped anything on earth
would worship that. If / burned in
ccnse to any idol, would build
an altar - 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 goo books that we are TO overcome
corrupt Literature. Upon the frogs swoop
: the eagles. depend much for the overthrow
, of iniquitou5 literature upon the mortality
OF books. Even good cooks have "a hard
stru sgle TO live Folybus wrote forty
, books; only five OF them left. Tn rty
BOOKS of Tacitus have persisted. Twenty
books of Pliny have persisted. Livy wrote
one hundred and forty books; only thirty
, five of theIn remain. AIschylu5 wrote one
, hundred dramas; only seven rcma n.
, Euripides wrote over hundred; only
, nineteen remain. Narro wrote the biogra-
, phies of over seven hundred great Romans.
All that wealth OF bogr lphy has persisted.
, If good and valuable books have such a
, struggle 10 live what must be the fate OF
! those that are diseased and corrupt and
blasted at the very start? They will die
as the frogs when the Lord turned back
, the plague. The work of Chr.stanization
, will go on unit / there w IL be nothing left
, but good books. aud they will take the
supremacy of the world May you and
live 20 see the illustrious dat
Against every bad implicit send good
pamphlet; against every unclean picture
! send an innocent picture; against every
scurrilous song send a Christian song
! against every bad book send good book;
and then it will be as it was in ancient
, Toledo. where the Toletum miss us were
kept by the. saints in six churches, and
, sacreligous Romans demanded that these
. III ssas be destroyed and that the Roman
r mis- sails be subst tuted; and the war came
, on and | am glad TO say that the whole
, matter having been referred TO champ ons
the champion of the Toetum missals with
, enc blow brought down the champion OF
> the Roman mlssals. So it will be in literd-
ture today. The good literature, the Chris
tian literature, in its champ onship Tor God
h.. ,,,fl brip Hntvu the evil 4 L