Milford chronicle., 1895-07-05

Hammers the Brazen Panels With til,
Anvil OF Gods Truth-swinging Out an,
Swinging In.
NEW YORK, June 3O.-In his sermon foi
today DR.. Talmage chose a momentou.
and awful topic, "The Gates Of Hell, " tn,
, text selected being the familiar passage il
Matthew xvi IS, ''Tho gates Of he'll shall
not prevail against it -
Entranced, until we could endure nc
more Of the splondor, we have often gazed
mt the shining gates the gates of pearl, the
gates of heaven. But we arc for awhile to
loDk in the opposite direction and see
swinging open and shut the gates of hell
l remember when the Franco German
war was going on, that I stood one day in
Paris looking at the gates of the Tulleries,
and was so absorbed in the sculpturing
at the top of the gates-tho masonry and
tho brOnze-that forgot myself, and after
awhile, looking down, 1 saw that there
ware officers of the law scrutinizing mo-
suppOsing, no doubt, was German and
looking at those gates for adverse purposes.
But, my friends, we shall not stand look
ing at the outside of the gates Of hell In
( this sermon l shall tell you of both sides,
/ and shall tell you what those gates are
rAado of. With the hammer of Gods truth
: shall pound on the hrazcn panels, and
with the lantern of Gods truth shall
flash light upon the shining hingesl
Impure Literature.
Gate the First.-Impure literature An
thony Comstock seized 90 tons of bad
books plates and letter press, and when
our Professor Cochran of the Polytechnic
institute poured the destructive acids on
those plates they smoked in the righteous
humiliation And yet a great deal of the
bad literature Of the day is not gripped of
the law. It is strewn in your parlors; it
is in your Libraries Some of your children
read it at night after they have retired,
the gas burner swung as near as possible
10 their pillow. Much of this literature is /
under the title of scientific information. A
book agent with one of these internal !
books CLOSED over with scientific nomen-
clature went into a hotel and sold in one
day q hundred copies and sold them all to Z
Nvomenl 1t is appalling that men and /
women who can get through their family /
physician all the useful Information they 1
may need, and without any contamination,
should wade chin deep through such ac-
cursed literature under the plea of getting
useful knowledge, and that printing presses
hoping to be called decent lend themselves
to this infamy. Fathers and mothers, be
not deceived by the title medical works. -
Nine-tenths of those books come hot from
the lost world, though they may have on
them the names of the publishing houses
of New York, Chicago and Philadelphia.
Then there is all the novelette, literature of
the day flung over the land by the million
As there are good novels that are long, SO
I suppose there may be good novels that
cftn mn eD no "a ,of1rs /
elctte, but it is the exception. No one
mark this-nO one systematically reads the
average novelette, of this day and keeps
either integrity or virtue. The most Of
these nOvelettes are written by broken
down literary men for small compensa-
liOn on the principle that having failed
N literature elevated and pure they hope
% succeed in the tainted and the nasty.
Oh, this is u wide gate of hell Every
PANEL is made out of bad book or news
PAPER Every hinge is the interjoined type i,
If a corrupt printingpross, Every bolt or :
ock of that cato is made out of the plate
# an unclean pictorial In other words, !
here are a million men and women in tie +,
United States today reading themselves !
nto hell
When in ono Of our cities prosperous =
amily fell into ruins through the misdeeds :,
f one Of its members, the amazed mother
aid to tho officer of the law: "Why, /
ever supposed there was anything wrong.
never thought there could be anything j.
7rong" Then she sat weeping in silence u
)r some timo and said: "Oh, have got Il
now l know, 1 know l found in her 81
uaeau after she went away q bad book II
hats what slew her " These leprous cl
ooksellcrs have gathered up the catalogues Ct
{ all the male and female scminarics in Il
le United States, catalogues containing pl
10 names and residences of all the stu SC
EMS, and circulars Of death are sent to -
lery one, without any exception. Can 10
lu Imagine anything more deathfuli IN
here is not a young person, male or fe- 70
ale, or am old person, who has not had I'll
Tered to him or her a bad book or n bad W
cturo. Scotr your house TO find out TO
neither there are any Of these addcrs coiled m
your parlor center table or ooiled amid OF
e toilet set on the dressing case. l adiure Ia
III before tho sun goes down to explore TO
ur family libraries with an ineSorable
rutiny. Remember that one bad book an
bad picture may do the work for eter. Tn
ty. l want to arouse all your suspicion otl
out novelettes l want to put you Oh we
G watch against everything that may su
I'm like surroptitious correspondence on
rough the postotlice. l want you to un. su
rstand that impure literature is one Of yo
e broadcast, highest, mightiest gates Of an
3 lost. by,