The Hickman courier. [volume] (Hickman, Ky.) 1859-current, 1900-08-03

Ut. laAmdpe, Wuo nde bSOh opthNihe
a few days in ST. Petersburg, send
the following report of a discourse
which will be helpful TO those WHIT
have an appetite for literature AM
would like some rules TO guide then
in the selection Of books and newspa
pers: Text, Acts 1919: MANY Of
them also which used curious art
brought their books together and
burned them before all men, and they
counted the price of them and found II
10000 pieces of silver"
Paul had been stirring up Ephesu'
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 a public place made a 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
20 burn them all up? hyou don't want
10 read them yourselves, sell them and
let somebody else read them" NO, y
said the people; IF these books are
not good for US. they are not good Tor
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 eraekle 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 IL
into the fire and let il be known in the
presence Of God and angels and men
that you are going 10 rid your homes
of the overlapping and underlying
curse Of profiigate 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 a responsible position,
but l DO not think il is as responsible
as the position of an editor or a pub
Usher. At what distant point of time,
at what far-out cycle of eternity. will
cease the influence of a Henry ]. Ray
mond, or a Horace Greeley. or a 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
influences of the American printing
press.
What is to be the issue of all this7 I
believe the Lord intends the printing
press 10 be the chief means for the
worlds rescue and evangelization. and
i think that the great last battle Of
the world will not be fought with
swords and guns. but with types and
presses. q purified and Gospel htera-
ture triumphing over. trampling down
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.
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 I'M
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 frsves. while their souls are be-
ing tossed over into lost eternity, an
avalanche OF horror and despair! The
London plague was nothing TO IL. That
counted its victims by thousands, but
this nodern pest has already shoveled
Its millions into the charnel house Of
the morally dead. The longest rail
train that ever ran over the tracks was
not long enough or large enough 70
carry the beastliness and the putrefac-
tion which have been gathered up
In bad books and newspapers in the
last 20 years.
Now, IL is amid such circumstances
that ! put a question OF overmastering
Importance 10 you and your families
What books and newspapers shall we
read? You see group them together
A newspaper is only book in swifter
and more portable shape. and the same
rules which will apply to book reading
will apply to newspaper reading. What
shall we read? Shall our minds be the
receptacle OF everything that an au-
thor has a mind TO write? Shall there
be no distinction between the tree of
life and the tree of death? Shall we
stoop down and drink out of the
trough which the wickedness of men
has filled 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. mol
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 fc-
titi US literature, the question that
you Y people are asking is: "Shall we
read novelsP reply: There are nov
els that are pure, good, Christian, ele-
waiting to the heart and ennobling TO
the life. But | still have further to say
that believe that rs out Of the 100 nov
els in this day are baleful and destruc-
tive TO the last degree. A pure work of
fiction is history ano poetry combined.
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