The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-07-01
BROAD, HIGH AND MIGHTY
ARE THE GATES OF HE'LL. As DE-
SCRIBED BN THE REV. DIR.
TALHAGE,

And Alleged 20 BE Four in Number;
the Gate of Impure Litern of
the DiSsOIute Dance, of Indiscrect
Apparel, and of Alcoholic Bever-
age. All Most WILDLY Portrayed
and LurfdIy Set Forth for the.
warming Of sinners Generally.
New York. June 30-In his sermon for
to-day Dr. Talmage chose a momen tous
and awful topic: The Gates Of HELL
the text selected being the familiar pas
sage in Matthew 1G:1s: 1.-THE safes OF
he'll shall not prevail against it,"
Entranced. until we could endure no
more Of the splendor, we have often gazed
at the shining gates. .ac 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-German
war was going on, that stood one day in
Paris looking at the gates OF the Tuilleries,
and 1 was so absorbed in the sculpturing
at the top OF the gates-the masonry and
the bronze-that forgot myself. and after
awhile, looking down, I saw that there
were officers of the law scrutinizing me,
eupposing, no doubt, 1 was a German,
and looking at those gates for adverse
purposes But, my friends, we shall not
stand looking at the outside of the gates
of hell. In this sermon I shall tell you
of both sides. and l shall tell you what
those gates are made of. With the ham
mer of Gods truth shall pound on the
brazen panels. and with the lantern Of
Gods truth shall flash a light upon the
shining hinges.
Gate the first: Impure literature. An
thony Comstock seized twenty tons OF bad
books. plates and letter press, and when
our Prof Cochran. of the Polytechnic
Institute, poured the destructive acids on
those plates, they smoked in the righteous
annihilation. And yet great deal of the
bad literature of the day is not gripped OF
the law IT is strewn in your parlors; IL
is in your libraries. Some Of your chill
dren read II at night after they have re-
tired, the gas-burner swung as near as
possible TO their pillow. Much of this lit
erature is under the title of scientific in
FORMATION. a UDoh agent Win OllN VI NtiNoN
internal books CLOSED over with scien-
tific nomenclature, went into a hotel and
sold in one day a hundred copies and
sold them all to women! II Is appalling
that men and women who can get through
their family physician all the useful in
formation they may need, and without
any contamination, should wade chin
deep through such accursed literature un-
der the plea of getting useful knowledge,
and that printing presses. hoping 10 be
called decent, lend themselves to this IN
fanny Fathers and mothers be not de-
ceived 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 Phil
adelphia. 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 ! suppose there may
be good novels that are short, and so
there may be a good novelette, But 1t
is the exception. No one-mark
this-no one systematically reads
the average novelette, of this day and
keeps either integrity of virtue. The most
of these novelties are written by broken
down literary men for small compensa-
ton, on the principle that, having failed
IN literature elevated and pure, they hope
10 succeed in the tainted and the nasty
oh! this is a wide gate of hell. Every panel
is made out of bad book or newspaper
Every hinge is the interjointed type of a
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 a million men and women in the
United States to-day reading themselves
into hell When, in one of our cities,
prosperous family fell into ruins through
the misdeeds of one of it's members, the
mn za1 70 ba of1aav NJ TIM
law: why, l never supposed there was
anything wrong. l never thought there
could be anything wrong" Then she sat
weeping in silence for some time, and said
"Oh! l have got it now. l know, l
know 1 found in her bureau after she
went away a bad book That's what slew
her" These Ieprous booksellers have gath
cred up catalogues of all the male and
female semnaries in the United States,
catalogues containing the names and rest
dences of all the students. and circulars
of death are sent to every one. without
any exception. Can you imagine anything
more deathful? There is not young per-
son, male or female or an old person,
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 your parlor CEN
ter table, or coiled amid the toilet set on
the dressing case. l adjure you before
the sun goes down to explore your family
libraries with an memorable scrutiny. Re
member, that one bad book or bad picture
may do the work for eternity / want TO
arouse all your suspicious about novel
cites. want to put you on the watch
against everything that may seem lie
eurrepetitious correspondence through the
postofice l want you to unders tand that
impure literature is one of the broadcast,
highest, mightiest gates of the lost.
Gate the second: The dissolute dance.
You shall not divert me to the general sub
ject of dancing. Whatever you may think
of the parlor dance or the methodic motion
of the body TO sounds of music in the
family or the social circle, l am not now
discussing that question. l want you 20
unite with me this hour in recognizing the
fact that there is a dissOlute dance. You
know of what / speak. It is seen not only
In the low haunts of DEATH but in ele-
CANT mansions. 1t is the first step to
eternal ruin for a great multitude of both
sexes. You know, my friends, what pos
lures and attitudes, and figures are sug-
gested of the devil. They who glide into
the dissolute dance glide over an inclined
plane, and the dance is swifter and swift
er, wilder and wilder, until with the
speed of lightning they whirl off the edges
Of decent life into a fiery future. This
gate of hell swings across the Administer
Of many a fine parlor and across the ball
room of the summer watering place You
have no right, my brother, my sister-vou