Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1900-08-03

THE EMINENT DIvINE's soNDA
DISCOURSE.

subiect: Prof1igate Literature-Evii fup'
IIcations the Greatest scourge of the
world-It Fills the Prisons and In
sane AsyIums--Power of the Press.
copyright 1901
WASHINGTON, d. CDR. Talmage sends |
the following report of discourse, when |
will be helpful to those who have an APP |
petite for literature and would ike some
rules to guide them In the seiectioh OF
books and newspapers; text, Acts NIX
10 MANY. of them also which USED curl curl
Gus arts brought their books together ana
burned them before all men, and they
counted the price of them and found II
$4,000 pieces of silver. -,
Paul had been stirring up Ephesus WIN
some lively sermons about the SINS OF Cna'
place. Among the more important results
was the fact that the citizens brought out
their bad books and in public place MADE
bonfire of them. | see the people coming
out with their arms full OF EpheSlan hter
allure and tossing it into the names.
hear an economist who is standing by
saving "Stop this waste Here are $75OO
worth of books Do you propose to burn
them all up? If you don't want to read
them yourselves. sell them" mo" 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; anu 'ney
shall never do others harm. Hear the
flames crackle and roar!
We'll. nv friends, one of the wants OF
the cities is a great bonfire of bad books
and newspapers We have enough fuei
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 insufferabie trash
and put it into the fire and let IL DE
known in the presence of God and angels
and men that you are going TO ria your
homes of the overlapping and underlying
course of prohigate literature
The printing press is the mightiest ag e;
CIV on earth for good and for evil: Inc
minister of the gospel standing IN the
pulpit has responsible position, put l
do not think it is as responsible as the
nos;tion of an editor or publisher. At
what distant point of time, at what TAR
ont cycle of eternity. will cease the IN
fuence of Henry J. Raymond or Hor-
ace Greeley, or a James Gordon Berlnett'
or Watson Webb, or an Erastus Brooks,
or a Thomas Kinsella? Take the. over.
whelming statistics of the circulation, OF
the Gaily and weekly newspapers and then
c;nher. il YOU can. how far up and how far
down and how far out reach the infiu-
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 world s
rescue and evangelization, and ] think
that the great last battle OF the, worio
will not be fought with swords and guns;
but with types and presses purlhed anu
cospel literature triumphing over, tramp
ing down and crushing out forever that
which is depraved The only way to
overcome unclean literature is by scatter
inc abroad that which is healthful. May
Cod speed the cylinders of an honest, IN
telligent, aggressive Christian printing
pressi ,,oss.
ing that ever came to the nations Is tha'
of an elevated literature, and the great
est scource has been that of unclean Inter-
ature. This last has its victims IN al
occupations and departments. 1t has
helped to fill insane asylums and pene
tentiaries and almshouses and dens O
shame. The bodies of this injection ~
in the hospitals and IN the graves; VIM
their souls are being tossed over INTO
lost eternity! The London plague wa
nothing to it. That counted its victims D,
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 track
was not long enough or large enough I
which have been gathered up in bad book
and newspapers in the last twenty years
Now. it is amid such circumstances ina
7 nut a question of overmastering lmpoi
lance to YOU and your families. VIVA
hooks and newspapers shall we read
You see I group them together. news
paper is only book in swlfter an
more portable shape; and the same rult
which apply to book reading Will app
To newspaper reading. What shall W
read? Shall our minds be the receptacle
everything that an author has mind I
wr;te9 Shall there be no distinction b'
tween the tree of life and the tree
death? Shall we stoop down and drln
ont of the trough which the wickedness
men has filled with pollution and shame
Shall we mire in impurity and chase 1al
taste will -thewisps across the swami
when we might walk in the bloomln
gardens of God? Oh, no! For the SAX
of our present and everlasting welfare
must make an intelligent and Chrlstia
choice.
Standing, as we do, in chin deep fict
tous literature, the question that your
people are asking is, Shall we reao no
pure. GOOD, Christian, elevatlng to tf
heart and enobling to the life: but l hay
still further to say that L belleve tni
seventv-fve out of 100 novels in this da
are baleful and destructive to the la
degree. A pure work of fiction Is hlstol
aud poetry combined. 1t Is a history
things around us, with the licenses an
the assumed names of poetry; Inc worj
can never paw the debt which 1T owes
sucb writers of fiction as Hawthorne an
Mckenzie and Landon and Hum, an
Arthur and Others whose names are lam
lar to all. The follies of high lie " we
never better exposed than by Miss Edg
worth; the memories of the past were new
more faithfully embalmed than in the wrl
incs of Walter Scott. Cooper's novels a
BEAUTIFULLY redolent with the breath
the seaweed and the air OF the Americi
forest Charles Kingsley has smltten u
morhdity of the world and led gre
many to appreciate the poetry OF soui
health strong muscles and fresh al
Thackeray did a grand work in caricatu
ing the pretenders to gentility and hit
blood. Dickens has built his own mon
rlent in his books, which are plea 1or u
poor and the anathema OF injustice, al
there are score of novelistic pens. tod
doing mighty work for God and rlghteot
ness.
Now. | say. books like these, read
right times and read in right proportl'
with other books, cannot help but be e
nobling and purifying, but, alas, Tor 7
Ioa1bsome and impure literature that n
come in the shape of novels like fresh
oyerAowing all the banks of decency al
common sense! They are, coming ire
some Of the most celebrated publisshi
house houses: they lie on your centre table
curse your children and blast, with tn tn
internal fires generations unborn. Y
find these books in the desk of the scht
miss, in the trunk of the young man, IN I
steamboat cabin, on the table OF the no
recention room. You see light in 20
cbild's room late at night. You sudder
90 in and say, What are you dong
Fl am reading" "Wbat are you reading
"a Ill 0INhere did Won get it,