The Olneyville times. (Olneyville [Providence, R.I.]) 1887-1917, 1900-08-03
DIR. TALMAGE'S SERMON.
SUNDAYS DISCOURSE BY THE NOTED
DIVINE.
Subject; Pronigate Literature-Evii Pub.
licstions the Greatest scourge of tho
worId-It Fills the Prisons and In
sane AsyIums-Power of the Press.
Convrisht IsDal


sane AsyIums-Power of the Press.
fConvri0ht Isoal
WASHINGTON, ID. C.-Dr Talmagc sends
the following report OF a discourse, which
will be helpful TO those who have an APP
petite for literature end would like some
rules 10 guide them IN the selection OF
books and newspapers; text, Acts xix,
10 Many OF them also which used curl
Gus 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 important results
was the face hat 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 liter
ature and tossing It into the ilamcs. ]
hear an economist who X standing by
saying stop this waste, Here are $500
worth OF books. Do you propose 20 burn
them all up? II 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
Wei, my friends, one OF the wants OF
the cities is n 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 insuilcrable trash
and put il 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
course OF proilgatc literature.
The printing press Is the miRhticst agen-
cy on earth for good and for evil. The
minister of the gospel standing IN the
pulpit has q responsible position, but !
do not think II 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
fucncc of Henry j. Raymond or a llor-
ace Greeley, or a James Gordon Bennett,
or a Watson Webb, or an Erastus. Brooks,
or Thomas Kinsellay Take the over
whelming statistics of the circulation of
the Galy and weekly newspapers and then
cipher, If you can, how far mp and how far
down and how far out reach the intu.
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
will not be fought with swords and guns,
but with types and presses, a purified and
gospel literature triumphng over, tramp
ing down and crushing out forever that
which is depravcd. The only way TO
overcome unclcan literature is 10y scatter
ing abroad that which is heathiul 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 ls that
of an elevated literature and the great
est scourgc has been that of unclean liter
ature This last has it's victims in all
occupations and departments. II has
helped TO hll insane asylums and penc-
tentarics and almshouses and dcns of
shame. The bodies of this infection lie
IN the hospitals and in the graves while
their souls are being tossed over into
lost cternityl The London plague was
nothing TO It. That counted its victims 10y
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 20
carry the bCaStlinCss and the putrCiactiou
which have been gathered up in bad books
and newspapers in the last twenty years
Now, IL is amid such circumstances that
/ put a question of ovcrmastering impor-
tdntt 10 YOU anu your ldllllltNs w nat
books and newspapers shall we read
You see | group them together. \ news.
paper il only n book IN a swiitcr and
more portable shape and the same rules
which apply TO book reading will apply
10 newspaper reading. What shall we
read? Shall our minds be the receptacle of
everything that an aIthor has a mind to
write Shall there he 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 wickeduess of
men has filled with pollution and shamcy
Shall we mire IN impurlty and chase IAN
tastic willo o'the-wisps across the swamps
when we might walk in the blooming
gardens of Godg 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-deep tioti-
tious literature, the question that Young
people are asking is. "Shall we read nov
elsY" | reuly there are novels that are
pure. good. Christian, elevating to the
heart and enobling 10 the life. but | have
still further TO say that | believe that
seventy-five out of 100 novels IN this day
are haleful and destructive TO the last
degree. A pure work of fiction is history
and poetry combined. IL is history ot
things around us. with the licenses and
the assumed names OF poetry. The world
can never naN Ine hcht winch " OWES lN
such writers Of fiction as Hawthorne and
Mckenzie and Landon and Hunt and
Arthur and others whose names are famil-
lar 90 all. The folhes 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. Coopcr's novels are
healthfully redolent with the breath of
the seaweed and the air OF the American
forest. Charles Kingsley has smitten the
morbidty of the world and led a great
many 20 appreciate the poetry Of sound
health. strong muscles aud fresh air
Thackeray did n grand work in caricatur.
ing the pretonders 90 gentility and high
blood. Dickens has huilt his own monu-
ment in his bool .. which are n plea for the
poor and the ana.hema of injustice. and
there are n score Of novelistic pens today
doing mighty work for God and righteous.
ness.
Now. I say. books like these. read at
right times and read in right proportion