SUITABLE READING FOR CHILDREN.
Mrs. E. G. White, in “Testimonies for the Church,” DEAR BROTHER E: I have just read your article giving a list of good books for our youth. I was much surprised to read your recommendation of “Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” “Robinson Crusoe,” and such books. You are in danger of becoming somewhat careless in your writing. It would be well to give thought and careful study to whatever is to be immortalized in print. I am really surprised and alarmed to see that your spiritual eyesight is not more clear in the matter of selecting and recommending reading for our youth. I know that the recommendation . . . of such infatuating books as “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” will in many minds justify the reading of other books which are nothing but fiction. . . . This recommendation will make taxing work for those who are laboring to persuade the youth to discard fictitious reading. I have repeatedly seen the evil of reading such books as you recommend. . . . Be sure, my brother, not to lead away from the searching of the Scriptures. It has been revealed to me that the purchase and sale by our brethren of story-books such as are commonly circulated in Sunday-schools is a snare to our people, especially to our children. It leads them to expend money for that class of reading which fevers the imagination, and unfits them for the real duties of practical life. You may be assured that this recommendation of yours will be acted upon. The youth need no such sanction or liberty; for their taste and inclination are all in this direction. But I hope no more such recommendations will appear. You must be getting away from Jesus and his teachings, and do not realize it. It is Satan’s work to present to our youth newspaper stories, and story-books that fascinate the senses, and thus destroy their relish for the word of God. . . . If you fancy that such reading will develop firm, unspotted principle, you are mistaken. . . . There are many of our youth whom God has endowed with superior capabilities. He has given them the very best of talents; but their powers have been enervated, their minds confused and enfeebled, and for years they have made no growth in grace and in a knowledge of the reasons of our faith, because they have gratified a taste for story-reading. They have as much difficulty to control the appetite for such superficial reading, as the drunkard has to control his appetite for intoxicating drink. These might to-day be connected with our publishing houses, and be efficient workers, to keep books, prepare copy for the press, or to read proof; but their talents have been perverted until they are mental dyspeptics, and consequently are unfitted for a responsible position anywhere. The imagination is diseased. They live an unreal life. They are unfitted for the practical duties of life; and that which is the most sad and discouraging is, they have lost all relish for solid reading. They have become infatuated and charmed with just such food for the mind as the intensely exciting stories contained in “Uncle Tom’s Cabin.” That book did good in its day to those who needed an awakening in regard to their false ideas of slavery; but we are standing upon the very borders of the eternal world, where such stories are not needed in the preparation for eternal life. The only safety for any of us is to be thoroughly converted, and to be conversant with the truth as it is revealed in the word of God, that we may be able to give to every man that asks us a reason of the hope that is in us, with meekness and fear. The special effort of ministers, and of workers all through our ranks, for this time should be to turn away the attention of the youth from all exciting stories, to the sure word of prophecy. The attention of every soul striving for eternal life should center upon the Bible. It seems wonderfully strange to me, considering all I have written in regard to the reading of exciting stories, to see a recommendation from your pen to read “Robinson Crusoe,” “Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” and “Æsop’s Fables.” My brother, you made a mistake. . . . If these books are among those which you have for sale, I beg of you never to offer them again to our youth. It is your duty to call their attention to the Bible; do not become their tempter by offering to them attractive story-books, which will divert their minds from the study of the Scriptures. We must ourselves be drinking of the water of life, else we will be constantly hewing out for ourselves broken cisterns which can hold no water. There are a thousand ways and plans that Satan has of creeping in to unsettle the minds of youth; and unless the soul is firmly and fully stayed upon God, and conscientiously guarded upon the very point of keeping the mind employed in searching the Scriptures, and becoming grounded in our faith, they will surely be ensnared. We can not be off guard for a moment. We can not allow ourselves to move from impulse. We must set a guard about our minds, and the minds of our children, that they may not be allured by Satan’s temptations.