The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1904-12-25
DR.. TALMAGE'S SERMON.


De WITT TALMAoE. Q. @.
baa never learned the art Of navigation
or a cripple who wears embroidered Slip
pers and cannot stand upright in them.
Why do you buy so many books2 You
have no hair, and you purchase a comb.
You are blind, and you must need buy a
fine mirror. You are deaf, and you will
have the best musical Instruments But
the foolishness of buying a library of
hooks for the shelf so that you can look
upon their handsome buildings Is not to
be. compared in its evil effects to the sin
against the brain by too much promis-
cuous reading. ] protest against the
"cramning'' processes We have In our
public schools. 1 protest against the
"cramming'' processes We have In our
COLLEGES. l protest against the lightning
rapidity with which men and women gall
lop through their books in an evenings
reading Buy fewer books. Master those
books. Read them over and over again
and make them integral parts of your
selves The dscordant voices around the
tower of Babel coul not have been more
helpless to do good than are the babbing
tongues of many books which have been
hastily read Better, far better. master
a few great books than have a mere
speaking acquaintance with a thousand
different books.
Myriads of books are coming forth with
outstretched hands, claiming our welcome
We can only afford to take a few to our
hearts. How important. therefore, it is
for us not to invite into our sanctuary
a bad bookl How important 1t is for us
not to let our children read any bad
booksi And, above all. how important 1t
is not to have 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 bottle of ar
senic or strychnine or laudanum or car
bolic acid in our medicine closet unless it
is conspicuously and clearly labeled
Poison" yet many will allow the most
deadly of all mental, moral and spiritual
poisons to come into our homes in the
shape of a bad book, unabeed with any
danger signal We will suffer the evil
virus of that poisonous book not only
to be inoculated into our own hearts, but
also into the hearts of our loved ones
Influence of a Book.
How many men have been ruined for
time and eternity by thu influence of one
bad book! Am I describing the exper-
fence of any of you when l imagine a
scene of demoniac siege and conquest?
For many years satan was trying to
batter down the doors of your father 8
Christian nome. Again and again he had
charged upon that carefully guarded
stronghold to capture 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 even
ing and morning prayers, and he could
not get in He tried to entice you away
from the straight pain OF virtue, but
your Christian parents had surrounded
you with so many pious influences that
Il was almost an impossibility to break
them down.
At last satan became completely dis
couraged. He called a council of war
of all his fiends to plan for your de-
struction. Plot after plot was gone over
and pushed asiue as useless. But Just as
the satanic demons were about to scat
ter in utter dismay an arch fend spoke
up and said LET me try a flank
movement on that home Instead of
sending any more of our stalwart ennis
sarfes of flesh and blood to that Chris
tion household let me write bad book
and slip II in through the crack OF the
open door into that young mans hands.
In that bad book l will open that young
mans eyes to the pleasures of sin. Will
excite all his evil passions. Before that
young mans eyes l will halo sin in as
fascinating language as Lord Byron ever
did in his autobiography of Don Juan.
In that book through a garden of fra
grant roses | will lead that young man
up TO the very gates OF hell. l will make
him think he Is approaching the gates of
heayon Then, Just at the right moment,
when that tempting book is working its
charms, we will give that young man a
shove and push him into thes, flames OF
the bottomess pit" "AhavT cried the
demons exultingly. "Ahal We will cap
ture that young man through the infiu-
enc of bad book" o man, am | going
beyond the truth when l state that your
eyes were first opened to the sins OF this
world through the influence OF a bao
book? And am l going beyond my right
when I state that one of the reasons, ano
the chief one. that you are not what you
ought to be in Christian character is be-
cause every little while you allow your
self to revel in scenes of wickedness and
riot contured up by the imagination OF
some licentious author2 There you asso-
ciate with characters of that writer's cree
alton so vile that you would shrink from
contact with them If you We're introduced
to them in the flesh, but you are fasci-
mated by the glamour with which they are
clothed In his pages.
What Is Your Boy Reading?
But the fiendish heart of = bad book is
not satisfied with Staying one member OF
family. Like the fatal coils of the SER
pent of LAGOON, Ii would crush out
the life of a father and the lives of his
children also. o man, your spiritual life
may be poisoned by bad books! Have
you ever stopped to think that your chill
dren's spiritual lives may be in the pro-
cess of being poisoned by the same dead
ly fangs? What is your boy doing in the
next room? He is reading Is your an
swer. What is he reading? only a
book" What kind of book is he read
ing? Where did he get that book2 "Oh,
you answer, II do not know | let my
boy select his own literature to read.
believe he said he borrowed that book
from one of his companions" Do you not
know yhat your boy Is reading? After
you own awful experience many years
ago In reading a bad book, from the evil
effects of which / hope you may have re-
covered, are you going to let your boy
continue to read that book? Would you,
If you could prevent 1t, allow your boy
to go with evil companions? Would you
knowingly allow him at his tender age to
wander down into the vile haunts and
look upon the immoral oesspools Of our
great cities? You are doing something as
bad as that. o father, you are allowing
an unprincipled author to show your boy
sin in its most attractive formi Can you
not see there Is something wrong In the
boys book? Look at his CLASSY eye and
flushed cheek and labored breathing.
There are seeds of infamy being sown
now In that young mans heart which, II
not stamped out at once, may grow up
into a harvest of stares, which Satan