The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1900-08-08
TALNAGE on BOOKS
The Noted Divine Gives Practical
Hints on
WHAT TO REAo.
The Greatest Blessing OF a Nation
Is an Elevated LiterafuFs; It's
Greatest Curse, an I'M
WHAT TO READ.
The Greatest Blessing Of a Nation
pure Literature.

pure l!ESIalGle.
DR., Talmaee, who has been spending
few days il St. Petersburg, sends the
following report Of a discourse which
will be helpful to those 1ho have an
appetite for literature and would ike
some rules to guide them IL the selec-
ton of books and newspapers; text,
Acts xix, 10. Many of them also
which used curious arts brought their
books together and burned them pc
fore al men. and they counted the
price of them aud fouoo It '0,ooV'
pieces of silver.
Paul had been stirring UP Ephesus
with some lively sermons about the
sins of that place. Amorg the more
important results was the fact that the
citizens brought ous their bad books
and in a public place made oonhre
of them. see the people coming cut
with their arms full Of Ephesian !ltera-
ture and tossing il into the flames i
hear sa economist who is stardlDg by
saying: Stop this waste: Here are
$500 worth Of books. Do you pro-
pose to burn them all up? lfyou don t
want 10 read them yourselves, sell them
and let somebody else read them:
''Nc," said the people; If these books
are not good for US, they arc rot 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 crackie ana
roar!
Well, my friends, one Of the wants
of the cities is great bonhre OF osG
books and newspapers. We have fuel
enough 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
insuferable trash and put it into the
FIRE and let it he known IN the presence
of God aud angels and men that you
are going to lid your homes Of the over
topping and underlying curse of proh!-
gste literature.
The printing press is the mightiest
agency On earth for good and for evil.
The minister of the gospel, standing IN
pulpit, has responsible position, but
do not think it is IS responsible as
the position of an editor OF a publisher.
At what distant point Of time, st what
farout cycle Of eternity, will cease the
influence of Henry J. Raymond, or 8
Horace Greeley, or James Gordon
Bennett, or a Watson Webb, or an
Erastus Brooks, or Thomas hlnsellaI
Take the overwhelming statistics of the
circulation of the daily and weekly
newspapers and then cipher If you can
how far up and how far down aud how
far ont reach the influences Of the
American printing press.
What is to be the issue Of ali this?
Ibelieve the LORD intends the printing
press to be the chief means fer the
worlds rescue and evsngelization, 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 triumph
ing over, trsmpling down and crushing
out forever that which is depraved.
The only way to overcome unclean lit
erature is by scattering abroad that
which is healthful. May God speed
the cylinders of Sd honess, Intelligent,
aggressive, Christian printing 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
unclean literature. This last has its
victims in all occupations and depart
ments. It has helped to fill insane
asylums and penitentiaries aud aims
houses 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 lost eternity. an
avalanche of horror and despair! The
London plague was nothing to it. That
counted its victims by thousands, but
this modern pest has already shoveled
It's millions into the "tarnel house Of
the morally dead. 'She longest rail
train that ever rao over ,hs tracks was
rot long enough or large enough t"
carry the beastliness and the pu:retac
ton which have been gathered ~ Il
bad books and newspapers IN the last
20 years.
Now, it IS amid such circumstances
that [ put question of oVermasteslrg
importance to you and your families.
What books and newspapers shall We
read? You see group them together.
A newspaper is only book in a s8ifter
and more portable shape, and the sane
rules which will apply to book reading
will apply to newspaper reading. WHAT
shall we read? S2sll our minds be the
receptacle Of everything that an author
has mind to write? Shall there be
no distinction between the tree of life
aad the tree of death? Shall We stoop
down and drink out Of the trough which
the wickedness Of men has filed with
pollution and shame? Shall we mire
in impurity and chase fantastic will-o'-
the-wisps 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, chin deep in 6c-
ritious literature, the question that
young people are asking is, Shall We
read novels?" I reply, There are
novels that ere pure, good, Christian,
elevating to the heart and ennobling to
the life. But I have still further to
say that I believe that IS out Of the
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 a history of things
around US with the licenses and the as
sumed names Of poetry. The world can
never pay the debt which it owes to
e 2 q ,