The Princeton union., 1895-07-11
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
THE GATES OF HELL AND WHAT
THEY ARE MADE OF.

tHG GATES OF HE'LL AND WHAT
THEY ARE MADE OF.
Impure Litcrature, the Dissolute
Dance, Indiscreet Apparel ana Al
coholic Beverage, All Passage
ways to Perdition.
New York, Special--In his sermon
to-day DR.. Talmage chose a momen-
tous and awful topic: '"rhe Gates Of
HELL the text selected being the ia
miliar passage in Matthew xvi, IS:
The gates Of hell shall not prevail
against it,"
Entranced, until we could endure
no more of the splendor, we have
often gazed at the shining gates, the
gates Of pearl, the gates OF heaven.
But we are for awhile to look in the
opposite direction and see swinging
open and shut the gates of hell.
l remember, when the Franco Ger
man war was going on, that stood
one day in Paris looking at the gates
OF the Tuilleries, and l was so alb
sorbed in the sculpturing at the top
OF the gates-the masonry and the
hronze-that forgot myself, and after
We're officers of the law scrutinizing
me, supposing. no doubt, 1 was a Ger
man, and looking at those gates for
adverse purposes. But, my friends,
we shall not stand looking at the out
side of the gates of hell. In this SER
mon l shall tell you of both sides,
and / shall tell you what those gates
are made of. With the hammer Of
Gods truth 1 shall pound on the bra
zen panels, and with the lantern of
Gods truth 1 shall fash light upon
the shining hinges.
Gate the first: Impure literature.
Anthony Comstock seized twenty tons
of bad books, plates and letter press,
and when our Prof. Cochran, Of the
polytechnic institute, poured the de-
&tructive acids Oh those plates, they
smoked in righteous annihilation. And
yet a great deal of the bad literature
of the day is not gTipped Of the law.
1t is StreWn in our parlors; it is in
your libraries. Some OF your children
read it at night after they have re-
tired, the gas-burner swung as near
as possible to their pillow. Much Of
this literature is under the title Of
scientific information. A book agent
with one of these Internal books,
glossed over with scientific nOmencla-
ture, went into hotel and sold in one
day a hundred copies, and sold them
Ill to women! 1t is appalling that men
and women who can get through their
family physician all the useful in
forl~s-ion they may need, and with
out any contamination, should wade
chin deep through such accursed lit
crature under the plea of getting use
ful knowledge, and that printing
presses, hoping to be called decent,
lend themselves to this infamy Faith
ers and mothers, be not deceived by
the title, medical works." Nine
tenthS Of those books come from the
lost world, though they may have Oh
them the names of the publishing
Philadelphia. Then there is all the
over the land by the million AS there
are good novels that are long, so l
suppose there may be good novels that
are short, but it is the exception. No
-one-mark this-no one Systematically,
reads the average novelette, of this;
day and keeps either integrity or yir-
tue. The most of these noveiettes are
written by broken down literary men
for some compensation, on the prin-
ciple that, having failed in literature
elevated and pure, they hope to sue
ceed in the tainted and nasty. Oh!
this Is wide gate of hell. Every
panel is made out Of a bad book, or
newspaper. Every hinge is the inter
Joined type Of corrupt printing press.
Every bolt or lock of that gate is
made out of the plate of an unclean
pictorial. In other words, there are
Il million men and women in the
United States to-day reading them
selves into hell! When, in one of our
cities, a prosperous family fell into
ruins through the misdeeds of one Of
it's members, the amazed mother said
to the officer of the law, 'Why, never
supposed there was anything wrong.
l never thought there could be any
thing wrong" Then she sat weeping
i'll silence for some time and said:
"Oh! have got it now! l know, l
know! l found in her bureau after
she went away bad book. That's
what slew her" These leprous book
sellers have gathered up the cata-
logues Of all the male and female SEM
inaries in the United States, cata-
logues containing the names and resi-
dences of all the students, and circu-
without any exception. Can you i'm
agine anything more deathful? There
is not 4 young person, male or female,
or an old person, who has not had
offered to him or her q bad book or q
bad picture. Scour your house to find
out whether there are any of these
adderS coiled on your parlOr center
table, or coiled amid the toilet set on
the dressing case. adjure you before
the sun goes down to explore your
family libraries with an inexorable
scrutiny. Remember that one bad
book or bad picture may do the work
for eternity. 1 want to arouse all your
suspicious about novelettes. I want
to put you on the watch against every
thing that may seem like surreptitioue
correspondence through the postottice
/ want you to understand that i'm.
pure literature is one of the broadest
highest, mightiest gates Of the lost
Gate the second: The dissolute
dance You shall not divert me to the
general subject of dancing. Whatever
you may think Of the parlor dance OF
the methodic motion Of the body to
sounds Of rnI1sio in tha fo nilu or +Lo