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

would shrink from conts~t With item
If YOU were introduced to item in Tie
flesh. but you are fascinated by tie
cl2E,our with which they are ciot1cd in
his pages.
What Is Your Boy Reading!
But the flemish Lett OF a L~u BOOK
is not satisfied with Staying one mem
bor of a family Like TIC fetal col
of the serpent Of LAGOON, it Woll
crush out tie life of father and the
lives of his children also. 0 mall
your spiritual Life may be poisoned by
bcd books! Have you ever STOPPED to
think that your clillren's spiritual
lives may lie in the process of being
poisoned by the same deadly fanSsE
What is your boy doing in the next
room? "FIe is reading" is your an
swer. What is he reading? "Cnly a
book" What kind of book is he
reading? Where did lie get that bookE
ooh" you answer, Il do not know. l
let my boy select his own literature to
read. believe he sail lie borroTe |
that book from one of his compan-
ions" DO you not know what Vol
hoy is reading? After your own awfu.
experience many years ago in reading
a bad book, from the eTil c-1ects Of
which | hope you may have recovered,
are Won going to let your boy continue
to read that book? Would yol, if you
could prevent it, allow your boy 70 50
with evil companions? Would you
knowingly allow him at his tender age
to wander down into the vile hAunt5
and look u0on tie immoral &c .s1oo!s OF
our great cities? You are dong some
thing as bal as that O father, yoI
are allowing an unprinclp.cl author ID
show your boy sin i'll its most attrac'
tive form. Can you not see there is
something wrong in your boys DooAE
Look at his CLASSY eye and flushed
check and Iabored bTcSthlnG. Thee
are seeds Of infamy being soTn now ii
that young mans heart which, ii not
stamped out at once, may grow up julo
4 harvest Of tlres, which Satan ana
his Gcmoniac hirelinss alone will gath
err o God, help Us to come to the
firm, Christian decision of never intel
tioually reading a bad book nor Of al
lowing a bad book to be placed Ill the
hans Of our loyeI ones.
do not mean by this that the books
we admit to our EeLrtS and homes
must lie limited to distinctiYely reli-
giou3 books. We must read for instruc-
ton and for entertainment. Because
book IS not distinctly a religious beck
that is no reason wy necessarily it
should be GeOalTed from coming to our
re. ding chairs. Some books we should
select Lecause they are BOOKS Of travel,
some Lecause they are the Biographies
Of men and women WLo. Were the great
leaLecs and makers OF tie worlds his
tory. The higher. the moGnta.n peak
upon which you stand the wider the
range OF y3ur horizon. We should Sc
lect some BOOKS because tLey teach us
tie geographical and geological OF as
trolomical or atmospheric or biological
construction Of tie animal, vegetable or
mineral k.pgdom, w-et-er these studies
be Inside Of tie world or above t-ewOr,d
or upon the surface of the world. In
tie beginning God created the heavens
ard tie earth, the sci ami all that in
them is" 1t is our du,y to learn as
much as possible about Gods creations
il we can do 50 without curtai.ing tie
work for which God created us. But
though we should select books Of travel
and Of fiction, if the right k.nI of fic
ton, we should also select certain books
as Lifeline companions De>ause first
and last and intrinsicaily tEey were
written to teach us the duties of tie
spiritual life. We should read them
because they we:e written to teach Us
how to love the Lord our God with all
our heart and soul and mind and
strength, and our neigLbor as our
selves.
The Books For Laymen.
"Limit MY reading to books written
for spiritual elilllatiOnI" says some
one. THAT is Un"e- son9ble. You Woull
not turn the home sitting room at night
into the class room of a theological pro-
fess7r. You would not tell the whole
they were young men studying for the
m nistry Why should a layman read /
such books as Cotton Mather's Essay |
on Doing Good or Laws Serious Call I
to a Devout and Holy Life or Bun |
vans Pilgrims Progress OF Thomas
a Kempis 'AIeditations,' or Richard /.
Blxter's Saints Everlasting Rest?
The only rest could get from reading |
such books as those would be to go .
sound asleep over them. l might, per-
haps, stay awake for little while in |
reading some of the light religious
books, like Elizabeth Stewart Phelps
Gates Ajar' or Elizabeth Payson's |
Stepping Heavenwood,' but it would .
not be for long. No. l never did like
books. When l read, l read .
for fun and for mental improvement !
You must not expect laymen, and es.
pecially young people, to read the same
books as do the ministers"
Not expect laymen to read the same
kind of literature as ministers? No.
But l would have laymen use common
sense in their selections of books. /
would have them treat the brain in ref
erence to its mental food on the same
principle as we would treat the physic-
al body. You restrict your stomach to
one kind of diet long enough, and you
will starve your physical body to death,
no matter what kind of food you may
take what did your husband die off,"
| asked lady some time ago. from
she answered. "He had an
incurable disease, but that disease did
not directly kill him. We could only
feed him on beefsteak and toast. We