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What Shall Our Children Read?
109
its powers, leaving no place for low, debasing thoughts. Restrict
the desire for reading matter that does not furnish good food for
the mind. The money expended for story magazines may not seem
much, but it is too much to spend for that which gives so much that
is misleading, and so little that is good in return. Those who are in
God’s service should spend neither time nor money in unprofitable
reading.
Worthless Reading
The world is deluged with books that might better be consumed
than circulated. Books on sensational topics, published and circu-
lated as a money-making scheme, might better never be read by
the youth. There is a satanic fascination in such books. The heart-
sickening recital of crimes and atrocities has a bewitching power
upon many, exciting them to see what they can do to bring them-
selves into notice, even by the wickedest deeds. The enormities, the
cruelties, the licentious practices, portrayed in some of the strictly
historical writings, have acted as leaven on many minds, leading to
the commission of similar acts.
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Books that delineate the satanic practices of human beings are
giving publicity to evil. These horrible particulars need not be lived
over, and no one who believes the truth for this time should act a
part in perpetuating the memory of them. When the intellect is fed
and stimulated by this depraved food, the thoughts become impure
and sensual.
There is another class of books—love stories and frivolous, ex-
citing tales—which are a curse to everyone who reads them, even
though the author may attach a good moral. Often religious state-
ments are woven all through these books, but in most cases Satan
is but clothed in angel robes to deceive and allure the unsuspicious.
The practice of story reading is one of the means employed by Satan
to destroy souls. It produces a false, unhealthy excitement, fevers
the imagination, unfits the mind for usefulness, and disqualifies it
for any spiritual exercise. It weans the soul from prayer and from
the love of spiritual things.
Readers of frivolous, exciting tales become unfitted for the duties
of practical life. They live in an unreal world. I have watched