Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1904-12-22


ness and riot 'coniured up by the imag-
ination Of some licentious author?
There you associate with characters OF
that writer's creation SO vile that you
would shrink from contact with them
If you were introduced to them In the
flesh. but you are fascinated by the
glamour with which they arc clothed in
his pages.
What Is YOur hoy Rendtngs
But the ilcndish heart of bad book
is not satisfied with Staying one mem
Der of a family. Like the fatal coils
of the serpent OF LAGOON. it would
crush out the life of father and the
lives OF his children also . man.
your spiritual life ruay be poisoned by
bad books! Have you ever stopped to
think that your children's spiritual
lives may he in the process of being
! poisoned by the same deadly fangs2
What is your boy doing in the next
room? lie is reading" is your an
swcr. What is he reading! Only a
! book" What kind of book Is he
reading; Where did he get that book?
"Oh," you answer 81 do not know. l
/ let my boy select his own literature to
read. believe he said he borrowed
that hook 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
! a bad hook 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. if you
could prevent it. allow your boy TO 60
with evil companions? Would you
! knowingly allow him at his tender age
| to wander down into the vile haupts
and look upon The immoral ceSspools OF
our great cities? You are doing some
/ thing as bad rs that. q father, you
are allowing an unprinciplcd author 10
I show your boy sin in its most attraC-
tive form. Can You not soc there is
something wrong in your boys book !:
Look al his CLASSY eye and flushed
cheek and lnbored breathing There
are seeds OF infamy being sown now in
that young mans heart which, if not
stamped out Mt once" may grow up into
harvest OF tarcs. which Satan aud
his dcmoniac hirelings alone will gath
err God. help us to come to the
firm. Christian decision of never inten.
tionally reading II 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
| mn mo liyrit "a, tori oil rcl
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 10 our
reading chairs. Some books We should
select because they are books of travel,
some because they are the biographies
Of men ard women who were the great
leaders and makers OF the worlds his
tory. The higher the mountain peak
upon which you stand the wider the
range of Your horizon. We should Sc
lcct some books because they teach us
the geographical and geological or as
Economical or atmospheric or biological
construction of the animal, vegetable or
be inside OF the world or above the world
or upon the surface OF the world. In
the beginning God created the heavens
aud the earth. the sea and all that in
them is II is our duty to learn ns
much as possible about Gods creations
if we can do SO without curtailing the
work for which God created lis. But
though we should select books of trave
and of fiction, if the right kind of hc
ton We should also select certain books
a. lifetime companions because frs
a d last and intrin8ically they were
written to teach US the duties of I'll,
spiritual lte. We should read then
bHCauSe they were written To- teach u,
how to love the Lord our God with nj
orr heart and soul and mind ant
strength and our neighbor as our
selves.