GOODY-GOODY BOOKS

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jan 20, 1887

GOODY-GOODY BOOKS.

IT has fallen to our lot lately to read quite a number of volumes which evidently have been written for young people, and many of which seem to have been intended for the shelves of our school libraries. . . . Each of these volumes now in mind has a religious tone, and is intended to stimulate Christian thought and life. But some inculcate a mere pious sentimentalism, others confuse moral distinctions, others exhibit such ignorance of good manners and the proprieties of life as to be objectionable, and yet others preach to the reader in long moralizings as insipid as they are well meant. Instead of picturing a strong, cheery, healthy piety, they portray a namby-pamby goodness which is enough to sicken the average boy or girl. Instead of a sensible and practical gospel, they recommend a sickly, goody-goody type of religion. . . .

It is high time that a stop were put to such an evil. A higher standard should be adopted generally, as it has been already in some instances. It is a sinful waste of money and of good paper and ink to go on publishing such feeble tales as certain hack writers compose—some of them apparently at the rate of three or four yearly—merely because they are offered for publication, and have a pious flavor. It is no sufficient answer to say that such books are demanded and sell rapidly. That only proves what everybody knows, that many persons do not realize what poor stuff they are reading, and would welcome an improvement, even though they do not ask for it in terms, and probably suppose that they are receiving the best which can be had.

It does not lessen the solemn responsibility of those who publish such books. They are bound to furnish a proper quality of literature, and not to be content to sell feeble books merely because some people know no better than to buy them. The sort of books which inculcate goody-goody piety ought to be kept out of the hands of our young people. To be an accessory to the development of a flaccid, ill-balanced type of piety, when it is possible to aid in the cultivation of a sturdy and judicious type, is a sad mistake, if not also an actual sin.—Congregationalist.