The southern sentinel. (Winnfield, La.) 1883-1910, 1904-12-29
I'M SOUTHERN SENTINEL, WINFlEID La, DECEMBER %, 1904

- y
tiaii Household let me write bad bool
land slip It in through the crack OF tn
open door into that young man's hands
I'm TINT bad book l will open tina
young mans eyes TO the pleasures O
sin I will excite all his evil passions
BEFORE that young mans eyes | vii
ihalo sin In as fascinating language al
raphy OF Don Juan. In that boob
Through n garden of fragrant rDses
will lead that young man NJ to the
very gates of hell will make hin
think he IL approaching the gates Of
heaven. Then, inst at the right mo
ment, when that tempting book IS
working it's charms, we will give that
young man n shove and push him into
the danes of the bottomiess pit.
t..Aha" cried the demons exuitingly
-Aha. We will capture that young man
through the influence of bad book. >
| O man. am | going beyond the truth
when | state that your eyes were first
opened to the sins OF this world
through the influence OF bad book
And am l going beyond my right when
state that one OF The reasons. and the
chief one, that you are not what you
ought to be in Christian character is
because every little while You allow
yourself to reyel In scenes of wicked
ness and riot conjured up by the mag
nation of some iicentious authori
There you associate with characters of
that writer's creation so vile that yon
would shrink from contact with them
IL you were introduced TO them In the
flesh. but you are fascinated By the
glamour with which they are clothed In
bis pages.
What is Your Boy RcadfnEf
But the tiendish heart of n bad book
Is not satisfied With staying one men,
Der OF a family. Like the fatal coils
of the serpent OF a LAGOON. 1t 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 children's spiritual
lives may be In the process Of being
poisoned By tho same deadly fanss2
What IS your boy doing IN the next
room: lie Is reading" Is your an
swer What is he reading. "only I
book" What kind Of book Is be
re.Iings Where DID lie get that book
''Oh. yon answer, II 10 not know.
let my boy select his own literature to
read. | believe be said he borrowed
that book from one OF his compan
ions" DO you lot know what your
boy Is leading7 After your own awful
experience many years ago i'll reading
q bad book, from the evil effects OF
which | hope you may have recovered,
are you going to LET your boy continue
TO read that book! Would you. II you
could prevent II. allow your boy 10 go
with evil eompanionsf Would you
knowingly allow him ut his tender ago
to wander down into the vile baunts |
and look iipon the immoral cesspoois Of |
our great cities: You are doing some
thing as bad ms thai o father. you |
ire allowing an unprincipled author to |
show your boy sin la its most attrac- |
i've form. Can you not see there Is /
wrong In your boys book |
Look at his CLASSY eye and flushed /
heck ana labored breathing. There
ire seeds of infamy being sown now In
hat young mans heart which, IL not
stamped out at once, may grow up into I
| harvest OF tares, which Satan md
lis demoniac htrelings alone Will gath
r. o God. help us to come to the
lrm, Christian decision of never inten-
fonally reading bad book nor of al
owing bad book to be placed In the
lands of our loved ones.
do not mean by this that the books
sc admit to our hearts and homes
aust be limited to distinctively reii-
ious books. We must read for instruc-
ion and for entertainment. Because q
ook Is not distinctly religious book
hat is no reason why necessarily It
hould be debarred from coming to our
eadfng chairs. Some books we should
elect because they are books Of travel,
ONE because they are the biographies
men and women who were the great
,aders and makers of the worlds his
Dry. The higher the mountain peak
pom which you stand the wider the
ange OF your horizon. We should Sc
ct some books because they teach us
re geographical and geological or as
'onomical or atmospheric or biological
Of the animal, vegetable or
ineral kingdom, whether these studies
} inside of the world or above thsworld
upon the surface Of the world. I'm
e beginning God created the heavens
I'd the earth. the sea and all that In
'em is" It Is our duty to learn as
uch as possible about Gods creations
we can do so without curtailing the
ork for which God created US. But
ough we should select books Of travel
ID OF fiction, IL the right kind OF &c
IN. we should also select certain books
lifetime companions because first
ID last and intrinsicalIy they were
ritten to teach us the duties of the
ritual life. We should read them
cause they were written to teach us
W to love the Lord our God with all
= heart and soul and mind ana =
rength. and our neighbor as our . !.
Ives. 9
TAe Books For Laymen. =
Limit my reading TO books written