The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1895-07-12
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
The Gates of Hell and OF What
They Are Made.
Impure Literature. the DissOlute Dance
IndIscrest Apparel and Alcoholic
Beverages All PASSAGE
ways to PerditIon.

L
The gates of hell shall not prevail against It
Matthew xvi. 49,
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.
remember, when the Franco Ger
man war was going on, that l stood
ole day in Paris looking at the gates
of the Tuilleries, and 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, / saw that there were
officers of the law scruitinizing me,
supposing, 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 / shall
tell you of both sides, and l shall tell
you what those gates are made OF.
With the hammer of Gods truth l
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
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 great deal of the bad litera-
& - r.f ha
law. 1t is strewn in our parlors; it is
in your libraries. Some of your chill
dren read it at night after they have
retired, the gas-burner swung as near
as 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,
CLOSED over with scientific nOmen-
clature, went into hotel and sold in
one day a hundred copies, and sold
them all to women! 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
1 suppose there may be good novels
that are short, and so there may be
good novelette,, but it is the exception.
No one mark this-no one system
Rtically reads the average novelette, off
this day and keeps either integrity or
virtue. The most of these novelettes
are written by brol1en-down literary
men for some compensation, on the
principle that, having failed in litera-
ture elevated and pure, they hope to
succeed in the tainted and the
nasty. Oh! this is wide gate
of hell. Every panel is made
out of bad book, or newspaper.
Every hinge is the interjoined type of
pIlhOAuS Lively OOAO
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 HE'LL When,
in one of our cities, n prosperous fam
lily fell into ruins through the mis-
deeds of one of its members, the
amazed mother said to the officer of
the law; "Why, never supposed there
was anything wrong. / 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, know / found in her
bureau, after she went away, bad
book. That's what slew her." These
leprous booksellers have gathered up
the catalogues of all the male
and female seminaries in the
United States, catalogues contain
ing the names and residences of all
the students, and circulars of death
are sent to every one, without any ex-
ception. Can you imagine anything
more dreadful? There is not a young
person, male or female, or an old per-
son, 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 comfortable, 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.
] want to arouse all your suspicious
about novelettes. ] want to put you
on the watch against everything that
may seem like surreptitious CORE
spondence through the post Office.
want you to understand that impure
literature is one of the broadcast, high
est, 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 or
the methodic motion of the body to
sounds of music in the family or the
social circle, am not now discussing
that question. ! want you to unite
with me this hour in recognizing the
fact that there is a dissolute dance.
You know of what speak. 1t is seen
not only in the low haunts of death, but
in elegant mansions 1t is the first step
toeternal ruin for a great multitude Of
both sexes. You know, my friends,
what postures, and attitudes, and fig
ures are suggested of the devil. They
who glide into the dissolute dance