Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1900-08-08
SERMONS Of THE DAY
Preached by Rev. Dr.. Talmage
Subject: Profiisate Literature-Evii Pnb
nratioDs the Greatest ScourEe OF the
world-It Fills the Prisons and In.
sane Asylums-POwer of the Press.
Copyright 1900.

Copyright 1901
WASHINGTON, d. CDR Talmage sends
the following report of a discourse, which
Will be helpful to those who have an ap-
petite for literature and would like some
rules to guide them in the selection oi
books and newspapers; text. Acts xix
| l9 Many of them also which used curl
GUS arts brought their books together and
| burned them before all men, and they
! cpU1ted The price OF them and found it
5000 pieces of silver"
| 1aul had been stirring up Ephesus with
some Lively sermons about the sins of that
| pace. Among the more important results
was the fact that the citizens brought out
their bad books and in public place made
bonfire of them. l see the people coming
out. with their arms full of Ephesian liter
! ature and tossing it into the flames.
hear an economist who is standing by
| saying ''Stop this waste. Here are S7j1I
worth of books. Do you propose to burn
them all up? If you don't want to read
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 oi
the cities is a great bonfire of bad books
and newspapers. We have enough fue
| to make a blaze 200 feet high. Many oi
| the publishing houses would do well tC
! throw into the blaze their entire stock ot
| goods. Bring forth the insufferable trash
! and put it into the fire and let it be
known in the presence of God and angel,
and men that you are going to rid youI
| homes of the overlapping and underlying
course of prohigate literature.
| The printing press is the mightiest agcn
| cy 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 publisher. AT
| what distant point of time, at what far
| out cycle of eternity. will cease the in.
! tluence of Henry j. Raymond or a IIor-
/ ace Greeley, or a James Gordon Bennett
| or a Watson Webb, or an Erastus Brooks
or Thomas Kinsella? Take the over.
whelmfng statistics of the circulation oi
| the aaily and weekly newspapers and then
cipher, if you can how far up and how fan
down and how far out reach the infu-
| 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 and evangelization, 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 literature trumphing over, tramp
ling down and crushlrg out forever that
which is depraved. The only way to
overcome uncl' - literature is by scatter
ing abroad thA which is healthful May
God speed the cylinders of an honest, in
telligent, aggressive Christian printing
press!
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 scourge has been that of unclean liter
ature. This last has its victims in all
occupations and departments. 1t has
helped to fill insane asylums and pene-
tentiaries and almshouses and dens OF
shame. The bodies of this infection lie
in the hospitals and in the graves. while
their souls are being tossed over into a
lost eternity! The London plague was
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
was not long enough or large enough to
carry the beastliness and the putrefaction
which have been gathered mp in bad books
and newspapers in the last twenty years.
Now, it is amid such circumstances that
l put a question of overmasterlng impor
tance to you and your families. What
books and newspapers shall we read:
You see / group them together. news
paper is only a book in n 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
rything that an author has mind to
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 filed with pollution and shame:
Shall we mire in impurity and chase fan
tastic will-o' the -wsps across the swamps
when we might walk in the blooming
gardens of God? Oh no. For the sake
of our present and everlasting welfare we
must make an intelligent and Christian
choice
Standing as we do in chin-deeD ficti-
tious literature, the question that young
people are asking is, ''Shall we read nov
elsy' l 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 L believe that
seventy-hve out OF 100 novels IN this day
are baleful and destructive to the last
degree. A pure work of fiction is history
and poetry combined. 1t Is history oi
things around us, with the licenses and
/ the assumed names OF poetry; The world
can never pay the debt which 1T owes to
such writers of fiction as Hawthorne and
Mckenzie and Landon and Hunt and
Arthur and others whose names are famil-
lar to all. The follies OF high life were
never better exposed than by Miss Edge
worth; the memories of the past. We're never
more faithfully embalmed than in the writ,
ings of Walter Scott. Coopers novels are
healthfully redolent with the breath OF
the seaweed and the ar OF the American
forest. Charles kingsIey has Smitten the
morbidIty OF the world ana LED great
many to appreciate the poetry OF sound
health, strong muscles ana 1resh arr
Ihackeray did a grand work IN caric2tnr-
ing the pretenders TO genilllty ana hlgh
blood Dickens has punt ms own monu-
ment IN ms DOCKS, whlch are pea lor ths
poor ana the anathefha on lhJlstlce, h%nu %
there are score oi noFel,Stlc pens ,o,,aS
aolhg hiieh's "orN loi 0oo anu iisii''o"'
Now. 1 saw. books like these. read at
right times and read in right proportion
with other books. cannot help but be en-.
nobling and purifying but, alas. for the
loathsome and impure literature that has
come in the shape of novels like freshet
overfowing 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