Democratic messenger. [volume] (Snow Hill, Md.) 1869-1973, 1904-12-24

tian household let me wri e n bad book
and slip ii in through the crack of the
open door into that young mans hands.
In that bad book | will open that
young mans eyes 10 the pleasures of
sin will excite all his evil passions.
Before that young mans eyes I will
halo sin in as Fascinating language as
Lord Byron ever did in his autobiog
raphy of Don Juan. In that book
through garden of fragrant roses |
will lead that young man up to the
very gates of hell. | will make him
think he is approaching the gates Of
heaven. Then. just at The right mo-
ment. when that tempting book is
working its charms. we will give that
young man shove and push him into
the flames of the bottomlesS pit"
Aha cried the demons exultingly.
AHA. We will capture that young man
through the influence Of a bad book"
0 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 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 revel in scenes of wicked
ness and riot conjured 10 by the imag-
nation of some licentious author?
There you associate with characters of
that writer's creation Sc vile that you
would shrink from contact with them
If you were introduced 20 them In the
flesh. but you are fascinated by the
glamour with which they are clothed in
his pages.
What Is Your Boy Readings
But the fiendish heart of bad book
is not satisfied with staying one men,
Der Of family Like the fatal coils
of the serpent of a LAGOON. 1t would
crush out the life of 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 the same deadly fangs7
What is your boy doing in the next
room? He is reading" is your an
swer What is he reaing? "Only q
book" What kind of book is he
reading: Where did he get that book?
oh" you answer. Il do not know.
let my boy select his own literature to
read believe he said he borrowed
that book from one OF his compan-
ions" DO you not know what your
boy is reading? After your own awful
experience many years ago in reading
bad book. from the evil effects Of
which l hope you may have recovered.
are you going to let your boy continue
to read that book? Would you. II you
could prevent it, 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 cesspools of
our great cities? You are doing some
thing as bad as that o father. you
are allowing an unprincipled author to
show your boy sin In its most attrac
tive form, Can you not see there is
something wrong in your 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
harvest of tares. which Satan and
his demOniac hirelings alone will gath
er. o God, help US to come to the
firm. Christian decision of never inten
tionally reading a bad book nor Of al
lowing bad book to be placed in the
hands of our loved ones!
do not mean by this that the books
We admit to our hearts and homes
must he limited to distinctively reli-
gious books. We must read for instruc-
ton and for entertainment. Because a
book is not distinctly religious book
that is no reason why necessarily it
should be debarred from coming to our
reading chairs. Some books we should
select because they are books of travel,
some because they are the biographies
Of men and women who were the great
leaders and makers of the worlds his
tory. The higher the mountain peak
upon WHICH you Stanu tne Wlder the
range of your horizon. We should Sc
lect some books because they teach us
the geographical and geological or as
Economical or atmospheric or biological
construction Of the animal. vegetable or
mineral kingdom. whether these studies
be inside of the world or above the world
or upon the surface Of the world. I'm
the beginning God created the heavens
and the earth. the sea and all that In
them is" 1t is our duty to learn as
much as possible about Gods creations
II we can do SO without curtailing the
work for which God created u.s. But
though we should select books Of travel
and Of fiction. If the right kind of fic-
ton. we should also eelect certain books
as lifetime companions because first
and last and intrir sically they were
written to teach us the duties Of the
spiritual life. We should read them
because they were written to teach us
how to love the Lord our God with all
our heart and soul and mind and
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