Savannah courier. (Savannah, Tenn.) 1885-1979, 1900-09-07
ON WHAT TO READ.
Talmage, the Noted Divine, Gives
Some Timely Suggestions.
The Greatest blessing of n Nation IL
an Elevated Literaturei Its
Greatest Curse, an Im-
pure Literature.
copyright. 1900, by Louis Klopsch.l

few days in ST. Petersburg, sends
the following report of a discourse
which will be helpful to those who
have an appetite for literature and
would like some rules to guide them
in the selection of books and newspa-
pers: Text, Acts 1919: "Many of
them also which used curious arts
brought their books together and
burned them before all men, and they
counted the price of them and found 1T
10000 pieces of silver"
Paul had been stirring up Ephesus
with some lively sermons about the
sins of that place. Among the more i'm
portant results was the fact that the
citizens brought out their bad books
and in public place made a bonfire
of them. see the people coming out
with their arms full of Ephesian lit
erature and tossing it into the flames.
! hear an economist who is standing by
saying: stop this waste. Here are
$500 worth of books. Do you propose
to burn them all up? If you don't want
to read them yourselves, sell them and
let somebody else read 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 a world
of harm, and they shall never do others
HARM" Hear the flames crackle and
roar!
Well, my friends, one of the wants of
the cities is a great bonfire OF bad
books and newspapers. We have
enough fuel to make blaze 200 feet
high. Many of the publishing houses
would do well 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 overlapping and underlying
curse of proAigate literature.
The printing press is the mightiest
agency on earth for good and for evil.
The minister of the Gospel, standing
in a pulpit, has responsible position,
but do not think it is as responsible
as the position of an editor or pub
Usher. At what distant point of time,
at what far-out cycle of eternity, will
cease the influence of Henry j. Ray
mond, or a Horace Greeley, or James
Gordon Bennett, or a Watson Webb,
or an Erastus Brooks, or a Thomas
Kinsella? Take the overwhelming sta
tistics 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
influences of the American printing
press.
What is to be the issue of all this? ]
believe the Lord intends the printing
press to be the chief means for the
worlds rescue and eyangelization, and
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 litera.
ture triumphing over, trampling dowh
and crushing out forever that which
is depraved. The only way to overcome
unclean literature is by scattering
abroad that which is healthful. May
God speed the cylinders of an honest
intelligent, aggressive, Christian print
ing press.
have to tell you that the greatest
blessing that ever came TO the nations
is that Of an elevated literature, and the
| greatest scourge has been that of un
clean literature. This last has its vic
tins in all occupations and depart
ments. 1t has helped to fill insane
asylums and penitentiaries and aims
houses and dens of shame. The bodies
of this infection lie in the hospitals ant
in the graves, while their souls are be
ing tossed over into a lost eternity. al
avalanche of horror and despair! TIL,
London plague was nothing toi it. Tha
counted its victims by thousands, bu
this modern pest has already shovelet
its millions into the charnel house o
the morally dead. The longest raj
train that ever ran over the tracks wa
not long enough or large enough t,
carry the beastliness and the putrefac
ton which have been gathered u
in bad books and newspapers in tn
last 20 years.
Now, it is amid such circumstance
that put question of overmasterin,
Importance to you and your families
What books and newspapers shall W
read? You see ] group them together
A newspaper is only book in a swifte
and more portable shape, and the sam
rules which will apply to book readin
will apply to newspaper reading. Wha
shall we read? Shall our minds be tn
receptacle of everything that an at
thor has mind to write? Shall Their
be no distinction between the tree G
life and the tree of death? Shall W
stoop down and drink out of tn
trough which the wickedness of me
has filled with pollution and shame
Shall we mire in impurity and chas
fantastic will-o't he-wisps across tn
swamps, when we might walk in tn
blooming gardens of God? Oh, nc
For the sake of our present and eve
lasting welfare we must make an int
ligent and Christian choice.
Standing as we do, chin deep in fl
titious literature, the question tn;
young people are asking is: "Shall W
read novels?' Ireply: There are no
els that are pure, good, Christian, ell
waiting to the heart and ennobling I
the life. But still have further to sa
that / believe that rs out of the 100 n O
els in this day are baleful and destru
tive to the last degree. A pure work
fiction is history ano poetry combine
It is history of things around US vii