Good Reading for the Young.
By Editor
Probably few parents are aware of the pernicious influence exerted on the minds of the young by light, trashy reading. It is not merely a waste of time to read dime novels and story papers, not merely a failure to store the mind with that which is good and valuable, but it enervates the mind and disqualifies the person for critical study and close application. Many a parent has been deceived with the plausible declaration that there is nothing bad in such or such a novel or story; that it has no immoral or indecent allusions, and no horrifying scenes to arouse the blood of youth. But novels are open to this general objection, that they induce a dreamy state of the mind, leading the readers into a romantic or unreal world, unfitting them for the realities of life and its duties. We appreciate the evil by an unfortunate experience. We contracted the habit of novel reading in the Sunday-school in very early boyhood, and from the Sunday-school library we resorted to the "Circulating Library," and read everything in the line of novels which we could find, not excepting the flimsy nonsense of Captain Marryatt. At the age of twenty-three we broke off the habit entirely, stopping in the middle of a popular novel which we never finished to this day. And now, after nearly two-score years we are sensible of the effect of this habit on our mind. It has been a detriment to us in our study from that day to the present. We believe that the effects of habits formed before the age of twenty are never fully effaced from the mind. And believing this we urge the necessity of laying a foundation for a useful life—for strong manhood and womanhood—in the formation of right habits in early youth. But children and youth want something interesting and entertaining to read. Of course they do; and in general they will have it. If it is not furnished by the parents they will procure it for themselves. If they do not find that which is useful they will find that which is useless or injurious. It becomes, then, an important duty for parents to see that the good is furnished before a taste for the bad is formed. We can recommend "Sabbath Readings," four volumes, as the very best reading for youth that we have seen. No bad taste or319wrong habit can possibly be formed by reading them. They are put up in neat boxes, and sold for $2.50, together with a beautiful picture—the most beautiful of the kind we have ever seen—as a premium. This picture has the Lord's Prayer as its central or main part, with a border containing the ten commandments illustrated. The ten commandments and the Lord's Prayer are the most fitting of all things for the parlor ornament of a Christian home. Send to the office of the Signs of the Times and obtain these books and the valuable premium. Your children will thank you, and you will have the satisfaction of knowing that you have conferred a real blessing upon them. It is scarcely necessary to say that the parents will read the books with as great interest as do the young. You all want them.