What We Read | AdventAI

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jan 3, 1871

What We Read.

Few fully realize what a powerful and controlling influence the periodicals we read have over us. They are either a feast of good things to our moral and spiritual natures, or a deadly poison. How many a youth is lost to virtue, purity, and morality, through the influence of a vicious newspaper; and we wonder how it happened! It is characteristic of the human mind to remember longest that which is least likely to benefit it. Who can measure the influence of first impressions in childhood? If your child reads or listens to an immoral or a vulgar sentence, the pure mind of that innocent one may be stained for life. Parents often do not put stress enough on the great importance of placing in the hands of their children a publication which does not corrupt or poison the minds of the young.

No one can tell what an influence for good a wholesome religious paper has in restraining evil passions, purifying the mind, and ennobling the lives of our children; encouraging them to virtue, purity, and truth, and thus shaping the destiny of precious souls. O parents, do not pass over this matter lightly! Be wise in time; for great results often follow small beginnings. A dollar spent for a good paper is the best investment you can make for the spiritual well-being of your children.—Golden Censer.