Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1902-11-14
ACHURCH LECTURE.

| Rev. Thomas SlmmS, being the last III
the series of "Helps and Hindrances to
Manly Living" contains so much that is
of practical nature that it is given in
full. The text is from Ecclesiastes
1912: "Of making many books there is
no end"
THE Reading Habit"
Reading is, or comes to be, with many
people habit. They early form a
strong taste for reading. Books become
their daily companions, through which
they associate with the choicest minds
and lives of the world. Next to pro-
lection, food, friends and clothes comes
books. Before carpets or pictures or
tapestries in proper order should stand
books.
lam not sure but that | have made
mistake in this arrangement. Books
ought to come before great deal of our
food and the fineness of dress. Better
to live on meal and milk and wear coarse
garments with books for companions
than to live the life of an epicurean with
out them. Next to ones personal init
mate friends are these silent companions
of our daily lives. These friends who,
though they do not always agree with
us, never talk back, hold no grudges,
are not given to unkindness. Few bless
ings have ever come to man for which
he should be so devoutly Thankful as for
books. The printing press is the great
conqueror of the world, the leveler of
mankind, in that it lifts the humblest of
mortals up into the companionship of
the best minds and noblest lives of earth.
Books are the sweet, rich voices of the
distant and the dead, speaking as audibly
to us as though at our sides. We are
permitted to invite Milton to cross our
threshold and sing to US, Franklin to
speak of practical wisdom, Emerson and
Carlisle in graphic and epigrammatic
sense, Ruskin with vividness and
beauty, and Shakespeare to open the
world of Imagination and human nature.
Burns sings to me of humble life,
Chaucer entertains me on a pilgrimage
with short tales, Dickens takes me to
the haunts of the poor, Stanley guides
me through torrd Africa and KEENAN,
through frigid Siberia, Mill, Berkeley
and Butler stimulate my reasOn-set me
to thinking, Webster, Henry and Pitt
sway me with their speech, and Brooks,
Drummond and Isaiah lift me heaven
ward, giving visions as real, of holy
living, as Paul saw on his famous jour
ney, and as John beheld on Patmos.
Professor Richardson writes of the
"Frendshp of Books" and what won.
derful friends they are. The best minds
of every nation and age, giving us their
best thoughts, clothed in the finest of
linguistic garments. The gentle Ad-
olson, the vigorous Pope, the sanity
Bunyan, the scholarly Burke, the rhe-
torical Everett, the loquacious johnson 4;
Milton with his stateliness, Bacon with
wondrous wisdom, Carlisle with cutting
blade, and Shakespeare, the incompar-
able; no simple star in this bright firma-
ment, but shining alone as the sun itself
shines. What delightful company this
is! How they help US to forget lfe's
vexations, disappointments and losses
How they enrich and gladden. us. For
we are truly rich when Milton crosses
our threshold and sings of Paradise,
when Bunyan awakens our aspirations,
or Campbell kindles our hopes.
Better hut and cold beans in such
company, than a palace with the sense
less CHATTER of society's tongues. When
johnson was asked, "Who is the most
miserable MANI" he Willingly and with
much truth replied, "He who cares not
to read on rainy day" Gibbon once
ure and glory Of my life: would no
}. exchange 1t for the glory of the Indies.
Fenelon declares that "If the crowns o.
8 all kingdoms were laid at my feet il
= exchange for my books and my love O.
reading l would spurn them ALL" ant
Sir John Herschel says: "If | were t
pray for a taste that would stand me il
= stead under all circumstances, as
source of happiness, a shield agalns
life's Ills, it would be a taste for read
ing" So much for the value of tn
reading habit as one of Gods choices
and most serviceable blessings.
Notwithstanding all that we may sal
e in favor of the reading habit, it is tru
that like all other gifts it has its attend
ing evils. First, of course, is that relat
ing to the quality Of The books The yer.
floodtide of literature which now flood
our land, promising no abatement, de
mands that we discriminate between tn
truly good and the bad books. Tn
prominence given in many periodical
and books, to crime and scandal, tn
portraying of base and sinful men a
heroic the books which make light O