The St. Mary banner. (Franklin, Parish of St. Mary, La.) 1889-1931, 1900-09-01
TALMAGE SERMON.
SUNDAYS DISCOURSE BY T-4t i3lF o..
VINE
Subject: Profligate Lterature-EvIl Pub
H. ations the Greatest Scourge of the
W"rlh-It Fills the Prisons and In.
sane Asyiums-POwer of the Press

| cupJeCt: IrOItGate Iiterature-Evll Pub
liz ations the Greatest Scourse Of til.
W"rld-It Fills the Prisons and In.
sane AsyIums-Power of the Press.
copyright l9eo.l
NAsHINGTON, D. C.-Dr Talmage sends
the following report of discourse, which
VIII be helpful to those who have an ap-
petite for literature end would like some
rules to guide them in the selection of
books and newspapers; text Acts xix,
| - Many of them also which used curi-
Gus arts brought their books together and
burned them before all men, and they
counted the price of them and found it
$1,000 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 fact that the citizens brought out
their bad books and in public place made
a bonfire of them. | see the people coming
ont with their arms full of Ephesian liter
ature 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: If yon 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
flames cracke and roar,
| Wei, my friends, one of the wants of
the, cities is great bonfire of bad books
and newspapers. We have enough fuel
| to make blaze 200 feet high. Many of
| the publishing houses would do wcp TO
| throw into the blaze their entire stock of
| goods Bring forth the insufferable trash
and put it 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 Overcoming and underlying
course of profiSate literature
The printing prcss is the mightiest agen-
cy on earth for good and for evil. The
minister OF the gospel standing in the
pulpit has responsible position, but l
do not think it is as responsible as the
position of an editor or publisher. At
what distant point of time, at what far
i'uence of Henry J. Raymond or Hor-
ace Greeley, or a James Gordon Bennett,
or Watson Webb, or an Erastus, Brooks,
or Thomas kinsella: Take the over
Whelmlng statistics OF the circulation of
the aaily. and weekly newspapers and then
CIPHER, If YOU can. how far up and how far
down and how far out reach the inhu-
What is to be the issue of all this.
l believe the Lord intends the printing
press to be the chief means for the worlds
rescue and evangeliyation, ard | think
that the great last battle of the world
will not be fought with swords and guns
but with types and presses, a purified and
gospel literature triumphing over, tramp
ling down and crushing out forever that
which is depraved The only way to
overcome pnclean literature is by scatter-
ing abroad that which is healthfuI May
God speed the cylinders of An honest in
te!igent, aggressive Christian printing
press
have to tell YOU that the greatest bless
ing that ever came to The nations is that
OF an elevated literature. and the great
est scourge has been that of unclean liter
ature. This last has its victims in all
occupations and departments. 1t has
helped to fill insane asylums and pene-
tentiarics and almshouses 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 a
nothing to it. That counted its victims by
thousands, but this modern pest has al
ready shoveled its millions into the csr-
nal house of the morally dead. The long
est train that ever ran over the tracks
was not long enough or large enough to
carry the beastliness and the putrefaction
which have been gathered up in bad books
Now, it is amid such circumstances that
| put question of overmastering impor
tance to you and your families. What
books and newspapers shall we read?
You see | group them together. A news
paper is only book in swifter and
more portable shape. and the same rules
which apply to book reading will apply
read? Shall our minds be the receptacle of
everything that an author has a mind to !
write? Shall there be 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 wickedness of
men has filed with pollution and shameg
Shall we nlre, in impurity and chase fan.
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, in chin-deep fcti
tious, literature, the question that Young
people are asking is. ''Shall we read nov |
els?" l reply there are novels that are
pure. good, Christian, elevating to the |
heart and enobling to the life. but / have
still further to say that | believe that |
seventy-ive out of 100 novels in this day |
are baleful and destructive to the last |
degree. A pure work of fiction is history |
ana poetry cOmnlneQ. IL Is history Vi
things around us, with the licenses and |
the assumed names Of poetry. The world |
can never pay the debt which it owes to |
such writers Of fiction as Hawthorne and |
Mckenzie and Landon and Hunt and |
Arthur and others whose names are famil- |
lar to all The folies of high life We're ,
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. Cooper's novels are |
healthfuly redoent with the breath of |
the scaweed ard the air Of the American |
forest Charles Kingsley has smitten the
of the world and led great !
many to appreciate the poetry OF sound |
health. strong muscles and fresh air |
Thackcrav did grand work in caricatur
ing the pret enders to gentility and high |
blood Dickens has built his own monu-
ment in his books, which are plea for the
poor and the anathema Of injustice. and
there are u score Of noveistlc pens day |
doing mighty work for God and righteous
ness.
Now. l saw. books like these. read at
right times and read in righ. proportion
with other books. cannot help but be en-
nobhng and purifying, but, alas, for the
!oathsome and irapure literature that has
come in the shape of novels like freshet
overhowing ali the banks of decencv and
common sense, They are coming from
some OF the most celebrated publishing
-, +ol