The Canton times. (Canton, Miss.) 1893-1906, 1895-07-12
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
The Gates of Hell and of What
They Are Made.
Empure Liter ature, tho Dissolute Dance
Indiscreot Apparel and Alcoholic
Beverages All Passags-
ways to PerditiOn.

hewitt Talmage on "The Gates o.
Hell~ was delivered ut Mason City, Ia,
1t was based on the text:
The gates Of hell shall not prevail against il
Matthew xvi. is.
Entranced, until we could endure nc
more of the splendor. we have often
.waxed at the shining gates, the gates
ar pearl, the gates of Heaven. But we
IRE for awhile to look in the opposite
direction, and see swinging open and
shut the gates OF hell.
remember, when the Franco Ger
IMAM war was going on. that l stood
ore day in Paris looking at the gates
OF the Tuilleries and was SO absorbed
In the sculpturing at the top OF the
wates-the masonry and the bronze
chat forgot myself, and after awhile,
rocking down, | saw that there were
officers of the law scruitinizing me,
supposing. no doubt, was German,
and looking at those gates for adverse
purposes. But, my friends, we shall
mot stand looking at the outside OF the
rates of hell. In this sermon shall
teu you of both sides, and l shall tell
YOU what those gates are made OF.
With the hammer of Gods truth
shall pound ON the brazen panels, and
with the lantern of Gods truth shall
flash light upon the shining hinges.
Gate the first: Impure literature.
Anthony Comstock seized twenty tons
q 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 annihilation.
And vet great deal of the bad litera-
<Hre of the day is not gripped OF the
law. 1t is strewn in our parlors: 1t is
In your libraries. Some OF your chill
dren read it at night after they have
retired, the gas-burner swung as near
rs possible to their pillow. Much OF
this literature is under the title of sci
entific information. A book agent
with one of these Internal books,
glossed over with scientific nomen-
ciature, went into hotel and sold in
one day hundred copies, and sold
them all to womenl 1t is appalling
that. men and women who can get
through their family physician all the
useful information they may need. and
without any examination, should wade
chin deep through such accursed liter
azure under the plea of getting
useful knowledge. and that print
ing 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 from the lost world, though they
may have ON them the names of the |
publishing houses of New York, Chi
cago 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
II suppose there may be good novels
that are short, and so there may be |
rood novelette,, but it is the exception. |
No one mark this-no one system |
atically reads the average novelette, OF
sahkEs day and keeps either integrity or |
virtue. The most of these NOVELTIES |
are written by broken-down literary |
men for some compensation. on the |
urinciple that, having failed in litera- |
bare elevated and pure. they hope to
aucceed in the tainted and the
nasty. Oil this is wide gate
of hell. Every panel is made
out of q bad book, or newspaper.
Every hinge is the interjoined type OF
q corrupt printing press Every bolt
or lock of that gate is made out OF the
pyate of an unclean pictorial In other
words, there are million men and
women in the United States to-day
reading themselves into hell! When.
In one of our cities, a prosperous fam
aiy fell into ruins through the mis-
deeds of one of its members, the
amazed mother said to the officer OF
che law: "Why, Ineyer supposed there
svas anything wrong. never thought
there could be anything wrong" Then
she sat weeping in silence for some
time, and said: .'Ohi l have got it
novi know, I knowi found in her
bureau, after she went away, q bad
book. That's what slew her." These
teprous booksellers have gathered up
che catalogues of all the male
and female seminaries In the
United States, catalogues contain
ing the names and residences OF all
che students, and circulars of death
are sent to every one. without any ex-
eeption. Can you imagine anything
more dreadful? There is not young
person, male or female. or an old. per-
.sou. who has not had offered to him or
her a bad book or a bad picture.
Scour your house TO find out whether
there are any Of these adders coiled on
vour parlor comfortable, or coiled
-. - s,-sI.t ct on. the dressino-