Marietta daily leader. (Marietta, Ohio) 1895-1906, 1898-08-20
A WORD
To Parents and Teachers From the
Rev, DR.. Josiah Strong.

The following timely warning from
one who is known to be leader OF
Christian work ought to be read with
interest and needed with care by ev-
cry parent and every teacher. 1t is
from the Voice:
Editor of The Voice-During the
past year my duties as secretary OF the
Evangelical Alliance have brought me
into contact with the pastors of near
ly two-score cities. In almost every
city they have spoken to me of the de-
plorable prevalence of vice among the
children and young people. Facts have
been brought to light which are shock
ing in the last degree, I am not
speaking of children of the slums
whose heredity and environment have
both been vicious, but of children who
belong to good homes, often Christian
homes, whose parents refuse to be-
lieve evil of them until confession
forces conviction.
Statements have come to me from
California, Minnesota, Michigan, Ohio,
Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Con-
neticut which indicate that this cor
ruption is widespread and exceptional
at the present time.
The exceptional cases of it would
seem to be the wide circulation of vic
ions literature. Salacious French fic-
tion whose sale has long been crime
in England, and is now outlawed even
in Paris, may legally corrupt Ameri-
can youth. But doubtless the worst
source of contamination is the obscene
literature, often illustrated with pho
tographs, which, tho for bidden by law,
finds easy access to the mails, and is
surreptitously distributed by hand
often on the platforms of railway sta
tions, sometimes on the Fairgrounds
Of children.
One who has never seen this obscene
literature can form no notiong of it.
A Christian imagination simply cam
not conceive it. 1t might have come
from the cesspool of perdition. This
poison has repeatedly been found in
public schools, academies and coll
leges. In some cases every boy and
girl in the school has contest to hav-
ing read it; and the vice which pastors
are deploring is the perfectly natural
result.
Two things, it seems to me, can be
done, and ought to be. First, let par
ents and teachers break the conspir-
acy of silence, into which they seem
to have entered. Rare are the parents
who do not leave their children to
learn from vicious companions the
most sacred facts of hteir physical life
l do not believe that one father in 20
does his duty by his boy, in this par
ticular. If he does not know how to
speak on so delicate and difficult sub
ject, let him put into his boys hand a
judicious book like What a Young
boy ouSuI W huOW, Oue Vi series
of dollar books by Sylvanus Stall, D
D., of Philadelphia, admirably adapted
to meet the needs of parents and
teachers, and which has received eri-
nent Endorsement everywhere.
Secondly, the curfew ordinance
which has been adopted in many
Western cities with admirable results
would thow shield around the child
rem during the hours of greatest temp
tation.
Pastors who have seen the working
of this ordinance tell me that it has
wrought great reformation where it
has been adopted, and city officials are
loud in its praise.
If we give our children less liberty |
and more light, there will be less vice.
New York. JOSIAH STRONG.