Influence of Pernicious Literature.
By Editor
ANTHONY COMSTOCK says of this class of reading that it has a more debasing influence than all other evils combined. In an article in the Homiletic Monthly, he says: "You editors don't know a millionth part of this terrible business of bad reading. A lad in Massachusetts wrecked a train because he had read of such 'glorious' work done by 'Road Agents.' Another boy, after such reading, quarreled with a playmate, and exclaiming tragically, 'Jim, this must be washed out in blood'! drew a revolver from his pocket and shot Jim dead. I could recite incidents like these all day. Those who have to do with crime know that I do not exaggerate the awful facts. A judge recently told me that half the criminals, men and women, are under twenty years of age. It's the bad reading that poisons a majority of the young criminals. That's the quickest moral poison in the world. . . . . I tell you that this deluge of pernicious and damning publications will drown the whole land unless you preachers help put a stop to it." The preachers, many of them, are trying to put a stop to it; but since those interested in scattering this stuff are more numerous than the preachers, and, in many instances, are more active in their work, the prospect is not very encouraging. We believe that "evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse," until the earth is ripe for destruction.