The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1900-08-15
DIR. TALMAGES SERMON .
SUNDAYS DISCOURSE By THE NOTED
DIVINE.

Subject: Proflgate Llterature-Evil Pub
lIcntions the Greatest Scourge OF tho
World-It Ellis the Prisons and In
sane Asylans-Powsr OF the Fzess.
copyright lsuOl
WASHINGTON, D. CDR. Talmage sends
the following report of discourse, which
l. will be helpful to those who have an ap-
petite for literature and would like some
rules to guide them in the selection OF
books and newspapers; text. Acts XIX
10 MANY of them also which. used curl,
burned them before all men, and they
counted the price of them and found it
$4,000 pieces of silver" -,
Paul had been stirring up Ephesus with
some lively sermons about the sins OF that
place. Among the more important results
was the fact that the citizens brought out
their had books and in public place made
q bonfire of them. see the people coming
out with their arms full of Ephesian liter.
hear an economist who is standing by
saying "Stop this waste! Here are $500
worth of books. Do you propose to burn
them yourselves sell them" NO" said
the people; IF these books are not good
for US, they are not good for anybody
else, and we shall stand and watch until
the last leaf has burned to ashes. They
have done US world Of harm, and they
| shall never. do Others harm" Hear the
flames crackle and roar!
Well, my friends. one OF the wants of
| theScitses ista great bonfire of bad books
and newspapers We have enough fuel
to makesa blaze 200 feet high. Many of,
| the pubGshing houses would do we'll to,
| throw into the blaze their entire stock Of
goods. Bring forth the insufferable trash
and put it into the fire and let it be
known in the presence of God and angels
and men that you are going to rid your
homes of the overtopDing and underlying
course of profligate literature.
The printing press is the mightest agen-
CIV on earth for good and for evil. The
minister of the gospel standing in the
pulpit has a responsible position, but
do not think it is as responsible as the
position of an editor or a publisher At
what distant point of time, at what far
out cycle of eternity. will cease. the in
ace Greeley, OF James Gordon Bennett.
or a Watson Webb, or an Erastus. Brooks,
or a Thomas Kinsella? Take the over.
whelming statistics of the circulation of
the daily and weekly newspapers and then
cipher, if YOU can. how far up and how far
down and how far out reach the infiu.
ences of the American printing presses
What is to be the issue Of all this?
I believe the Lord intends the printing
press to be the chief means for the worlds
rescue andi evangelization, and I think
that the great last battle of the world
will not be fought with swords and guns.
but with types and presses, purified and
gospel literature triumphing over, tramp.
ling down and crushirg out forever that
which is depraved. The only way to
overcome unclean literature 'is by scatter
ing abroad that which is healthfui5 May
God speed the cylinders of an honest, lnf-i
telligent, aggressive Christian printing
press! r.s,,-s
have to tell you that the greatest bless
ing that ever came to the nations is that
of an elevated literature, and the great
est scouree has been that of unclean liter.
ature This last has its victims in all
occupations and departments. It has
helped to fill insane asylums and pene..
tentiaries and almshouses and dens of
shame The bodies of this injection lie
in the hospitals and in the graves, while
their souls are being tossed over into a
nothing to it. That counted its victims by
thousands, but this modern pest has al
ready shoveled its millions into the car.
nal house of the morally dead. The long
est train that ever ran over the tracks
was not long enough or large enough to
carry the beastliness and the putrefaction
which have been gathered up in bad books
and newspapers in the last twenty years.
Now, it is amid such circumstances that
I put question of overmastering impor-
tance to YOU and your families. What
books and newspapers shall we read?
You see group them together. A news
paper is onlya book in a swifter and
more portable shape. and the same rules
which apply to book reading will apply
to newspaper reading What shall we
read? Shall our minds be the receptacle OF
write? Shall there be no distinction be.
tween the tree of life and the tree of
death? Shall we stoop down and dring
out Of the trough which the wickedness of
men has filled with pollution and shame?
Shall we mire in impurity and chase fan
tastic will-o' '-thewsps across the swamps
when we might walk in the blooming
gardens of God? Oh, no! For the sake
of our present and everlasting welfare we3
must make an intelligent and Christian
choice.
Standing. as we do. in in-deep ficti-
Gus literature, the question that young
people are asking is, "Shall we read nov
esq | reDly there are novels that are
pure. good, Christian, elevating to the
heart and enobling to the life. but have
still further to say that / believe that
.seventy-fve out of 100 novels in this day
are baleful and destructive to the last
degree. A pure work of fiction is history
aud poetry combined. 1t is history OF
things around us, with the licenses and
the assumed names of poetry: The world
can never pay the debt which it owes to
such writer's of fiction as Hawthorne ana
Mckenzie and Landon and Hunt and
Arthur and others whose names are faml-
lar to all. The folles Of high life were
never better exposed than by Miss Edge
worth: the memories of the past were never
more faithfully embalmed than in the writ
ings of Walter Scott. Cooper's novels are
the seaweed and the air of the American
forest. Charles Kingsley has s;nitten the
morbdity of the world and led a great
many to appreciate the poetry Of sound
health strong muscles and fresh air.
Thackeray did grand work in caricatur-
ing the pretenders to gentility and high
blood. Dickens has built his own monu-
ment in his books, which are plea for the
poor and the anathema of injustice, and
there are score of novelstic pens to-day
doing mighty work for God and righteous
ness.
Now, I say, books like these. read at
right times and read in right proportion
with other books, cannot help but be en-
nob!ing and purifying, but, alas, for the
loathsome and impure literature that has
come in the shape of novels like freshet
overhowins all the banks of decency and
common sense! They are coming from
some of the most celebrated publishing
houses; they lie on your centre table to
curse your children and blast with their
Internal fires generations unborn. You
find these books in the desk of the school