The Caucasian. (Clinton, N.C.) 188?-1913, 1893-05-25

a FIFTH GATE TO HE'LL - MODERN
6k5YLoS.
EIeauent Sermon by Rev. Thomas Dixon.
ira Horrible Hour with sewrbes.
fuI DepFaxity-The Cause of the Evil

Visit TO the N~ws~tands--Sa&e- Of fauth
fHi Dspraxiiy-The Cause of the ESti-
NEW YORK, May 2l.-Extranriinar!
interest confines 10 be manifested il
New York in the delivery Of a series =
sermons on THE Gates of Hell In Mod
srn Babylon" On some days more peo
| pie are turned from the doors than gair
admission TO the hall. Rev, Thomas
Dixon, Jr.. delivered this morning th'
| ffth sermon Of the series. the subjecf
was Obscene Literature" The tex
chosen was from Matthew xiii, 25
While men slept his enemy came ant
sowed tares among wheat"
The invention of ers was one of tbs
events in the development of hui ianity
The power TO record mans thoughts anG
transfer them to future generation,
without practical limitation meant tn,
endowment of mans personality on
the earth with practical Immortality
There is no past so long as books shall
live" Books bind age to age. century tc
century. The power Of book is pow
er that cannot be estimated because we
cannot estimate the different forces il
will touch in different generations, ages
and centuries. The invention of printing
marked the climax Of power in the prog
ress of immortalizing thought. 1t has
been said that books are embalmed
minds. 1t is e mistake. They are the
incarnation Of immortal minds. This
wars of the future will not be fought
with ironclads upon the seas, with guns
echoing from the hills 1.-The charge Of cav
airy, Of infantry, in action. The battles
of the future will be battles of thought.
The weapons used will be the pen and
the printed page. The printing press,
with its lever and its wheels, will be the
engine Of war in the coming centuries.
Here the battles of humanity will be
fought, and here they will be settled.
Books, after all, are the powers that
today are slowly fashioning the charac-
tiers for the two great armies in this de-
cisive struggle. Well has the poet said:
Hark, the world SO loud,
And yet the movers of the world SO still.
Emerson has most forcefully said, "In
every mans memory. with the hours
when life eliminated are usually asso-
ciated certain books which met his
views" Benjamin Franklin declares
that his character was formed and his
life shaped by the reading of little
book of Cotton Mathsr's entitled DO
ing Good" The murderer of Lord Rus
sell confessed before his execution that
he was started On his career of crime by
the reading of trashy book. If every
wrecked character could be uncovered
and it's secrets shown to the world. the
beginnings of -wrongdoing would be
found in thousands of cases to have their
source in these silent fashioners of mems
characters through their thoughts. '.All
the known world" says Voltaire, sex
cepting only savages. are governed by
books"
Their evil power seems even more sub
tie and resistless than their power for
good. Books are made from books. The
power of propagation in evil seems even
more marvelously prolific than in good
Australia is cursed with the plague of
rabbits. The evil was caused by a fool
lsh colonist, who brought common spe-
cies of rabbit from Europe and loosed it
"a Australia. This senseless act has
caused the nation millions of pounds
sterling. Crops have been destroyed and
whole sections brought to the verge of
starvation by this pestilence. developed
from SO small a beginning Such is the
power Of an evil idea to propagate itself
when once born into the world of litera-
:ure, high or low. There seems to be
fatal fascination about evil thus incar-
mated in letters Aytoun said of this
thought:
I've heard that poison sprinkled flowers
Are sweeter In perfume
Than when, untouched by deadly dew.
They opened in their bloom.
I've heard that with the witches song,
Though harsh and rude it be-
There blends wild, mysterious strain
OF weirdest harmony,
So that the listener, far away,
Must needs approach the ring
Where on the savage Lapland moors
The demon cherus sing.
And believe the DEVILS voice
Sinks>deeper in the ear
Than any whispers sent from heaven.
However soft and clear
: ~ADOAe oho ~ 1iiuCu page ul1ou W1Un evil
hought there is a spell, fascination,
Which gives false color to the events
described. Could the events themselves
70 seen in their bald reality and the au-
hor or editor stripped of his power to
ascinate through the spell of letters
he result would be repulsive and dis
,usting to those brought in contact.
The wise
Minstrel and sage-out of their books are clay,
3ut In their books, as from their graves. thev
rise
angels that side by side upon ones way
Walk with and warn US.
md the poet might have added, with
greater truth, cor else damn u.s." j
RIVALS THE AURORA BoREALIs,
The evil book is the book that sells in
oday's world, and it seems to have been
o through the ages of the past. Learn.
ng has gained most by books by which |
ne printers have lost, the sage tells us,
socks that make history have been sold
or song and have failed Of any popular
uccess, while books that live only tn |
urse the thousands are gold mines for |
heir publishers.
az A~.ooCAA C1Cy Is Inc center OF the |
'ook world. 1t is the center of book
reduction and book distribution. It is
he center of letters and of the forces |
hat shape the supply of the worlds lit |
nature. When Paul preached at Ephesus
nd men were convicted of sin. thew
rought out their evil books and burned
hem IN the public places. If all the
VII books of the modern city wore /
rought out and made into a bonfire. it
would ilumine the sky with splendor
hat would rival the aurora .borealis.
rom every city of the nation the beay-
ms would be ablaze for hours by such a
ondagration.
The printing press in the modern eatu
s aaerer before in the histoa-g ~ t6e
'ortd, IS today lifting the food oates OF
Ell upon the human imagination. and
'iaate men sleep countless hosts are beino
lcept to ruin here and hereafter. We
bserve the developments of this terrible
act upon every hand.
Flrst-tn the character of the news
Eand today. In all our public places,
4 the h0fQf0 he olo !