St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1900-09-01
ON WHAT TO READ.
Talmage, the Noted Divine, Gives
Some Timely Suggestions.
The Greatest Dlesslng OF Nation In
an Elevated Literature; Its
Greatest Curse, nm Inn.
pure Literature.
Copyright. 1900. by Louis Klopsch.l
Washington,

Copyright. 1900. by Louis Klopsch.l
Washington.
Or. Ta.mage, who has been spending
few days in st. Petersburg, sends
the following report of 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 ncwspa-
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 il
$4,000 pieces of silver"
Paul had been stirring up Ephesus
with some lively sermons about the
sins of that place. Among the more inn
portant 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 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? Ifyou 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 fol-
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 orackle 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 a 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 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 overtopping and underlying
curse of profligate 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 l 90 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 Horace Greeley. or James
Gordon Bennett. or a Watson Webb
or an Erastus Brooks. or 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 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 litera'
ture triumphing over, trampling down
and crushing out forever that which
Is depraved. The only way to overcome
uncfean literature is by scattering
God speed the cylinders of an honest
intelligent. aggressive, Christian print
ing press.
l 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 and
in the graves, while their souls are be
ing tossed over into lost eternity. ar
London plague was nothing it. Tha,
counted its victims by thousands. but
this modern pest has already shovelet
its millions into the charnel house oi
the morally dead. The longest raj
train that ever ran over the tracks was
not long enough or large enough te
carry the beastiiness and the putrefac
tion which have been gathered uI
in bad books and newspapers in the
last 90 years.
Now, it is amid such circumstance.
that put question of overmasterins
Importance to you and your families
What books and newspapers shall VIZ
read? You see l group them together
A newspaper is only book in a swiftel
and more portable shape. and the same
rules which will apply to book reading
will apply to newspaper reading. Wha'
shall we read? Shall our minds be tn.
receptacle of everything that an au
thor has mind to write? Shall ther,
be no distinction between the tree O
life and the tree of death? Shall W,
stoop down and drink out of tn,
trough which the wickedness of mel
has filled with pollution and shame
Shall we mire in impurity and chas'
fantastic will-o'the-wisps across tn,
ewamps, when we might walk in th'
blooming gardens Of God? oh. no
For the sake of our present and ever
lasting welfare we must make an intel
| ligent and Christian choice.
Standing as we DO. chin deep in fic
titious literature, the question tha
young people are asking is: "Shall W
read novels?' reply: There are nov
els that are pure, good. Christian, ele
waiting to the heart and ennobling t.
the life. But l still have further to sa.
that believe that IS out of the 100 nov
els in this day are baleful and destruc
tive to the last degree. a pure work Q
fiction is history ano poetry combined
1t is history of things around us witt
the licenses and the assumed names
poetry. The world can never pay III
debt which it owes to such writer's 0
fiction as Hawthorne and Mchenzi
| and Land-n and Hunt and Arthur an
| Others whose names are familiar to II
The follies of high life were never bet
ter exposed than by Miss Edgewortt
The memories of the past were neve
more faithfully embalmed than in tn
writings of Walter Scott. Cooper
| novels are healthfully redolent with tn
| rvooI rS1 tho ir N