The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1904-12-23

gest We should think Il mcn veg
silly who said: 81 want to make ny
self physical giant. | am therefore
going to eat enough food for ten mel
AT breakfast | VIII have the CO.'S
bring to me three 'polnds Of becfJte-k
and a dozen e5gs ana half bus-el OF
mashed potatoes, and l Will st there
and try to eat them all. When dinner
comes around l will try to eat wAo.e
leg of mutton, and when supper comes
a great big roast Of beef What
would happen? His digestive organs
would revolt His body would be rack
ed with pain. Perhaps reGitoni,-a
would set in, and death would lie The
result of his folly.
Literary Commands.
Now, as sJme gormanls abuse their
stomachs with to- much eating, 50
some Commands for mental fool abuse
their brains with too much reading.
They stuff their minds with Whole
piles of indigestible literary food. They
read AMI they read and they read.
They keep on reading and never think
or care about what tLey are reading.
They read until at last tEeir brains alb
solutely refuse to do any inde0cnlclf
thinking. Their brains become Ike a
great sponge flied with water, sod~el
and heavy and inactive, of no earthly
use to anybody or anything. What you
ought to do is not to see how many
books you can skim through but low
many books you can master.
"LoolS out" says tie old adage, 'for
the man who is master Of one look"
Look out, say l, for tie master of a
few great books. Too much reading
truly becomes a wearinc3s to tie flesh.
Mr.. Sturgeon in one of his sermons
quotes the invective which Lucian in
Disraelis "Curio5it.es Of Literature
makes against those men Whose prize
is in large library which they never
properly read and therefore cannot
profit by. "Such a man is Ike a pilot
WHO has never learned tie art OF navi-
cation or cripple WHO wears eLlGroid-
cred slippers and cannot stand upright
in them. Willy do you buy 50 many
)
chase a COMB. You are blind, ami you
must need buy fine mirror. You are
deaf, and you will have the best music
al instruments" But tie foolisl-ueSs Of
buying a library Of books for tie shelf
50 that you can look upon tier hand
some findings is not to lie Compared in
is evil effects to The sin against tie
brain by too much promi5cuous read
ing. l protest against tie examining
processes we Lave in our pubic schools.
l protest against the 'craMmlng' proc
eSse3 we have in our cole es protest
against the lightning rapidly with
which men and women glnop through
their books in an evenings reading.
Buy fewer books. Master those books.
Read item over and over again ami
make item integral PARIS of your
selves. The discorIant voices around
the tower of label could not have
been more Helpless to do good than are
tie bdbbling tongues of many books
which lave been hastily read. BettcI,
far better. master few great books
than have Il mere speaking acquaint-
ance with a thousand different looks.
Myr.ads Of books are coming forth
with oltstIetched hands, Gaining our
we come. We can on.y afford to take
few to orr hearts. How important,
therefore, it is for us not to invite into
our sanctuary a bad book Low I'M
portant it is for Us not to let Our chill
d1en read any bad books! And, above
all, how important it is not to haze
any bad books at all upon our library
shelves or our sitting room table. But
though all OF US are very careful never
to have a battle of arsenic or strych-
nine or laudanum OF carbolic acid in
our medicine closet un-es5 it is con-
spicuously and clearly labeled Poi
son." yet many will allow tie most
deadly of all mental, moral and spirit
ual poi5ons to come into our homes il
the shape of bad book, unlI5eied With
any danger signal. We will suIer tie
evil virus Of that poisonous BOOK not
only to be inoculated into our own
hearts, but also into the Learts of our
loved ones.
The influence of Book.
How many men have been ruined fcf
time and eternity by tie influence Of
one bad book! Am l describing the
Of any Of you Wien | imag-
inc a scene Of demoniac S eye and con-
quest? For many years Satan was
trying to batter down tie DOORS OF
your fathers Christian home. Again
and again lie had charged upon that
guarded stronghold to cap
ture your heart, but again and again
he had failed. Satan would come up
to that front door and he would hear
the family singing at evening and
prayers, and he could not get
in. He tried to entice you away from
the straight path of virtue, but your
Christian parents had surrounded you
with 50 many pious influences that it
was almost an impossibility to break
them down.
At last Satan became completely dis
of all his fiends to plan for your de-
Plot after plot was gone
over and pushed aside as useless. But
just as the Satanic demons were about
to scatter III utter dismay an arch fiend
spoke up ana said: LET me try flank
on that home. Instead of
sending any more of our stalwart ennis
saries of flesh and blood to that Chris
tian household let me write a bad book
and slip it in through the crack of the
opers door into that young mans hands.
In that bad book l will open that
young mans eyes to the pleasures of
sin. l will excite all his evil passions.
Before that young mans eyes l will