Chapter 59—Suitable Reading for Children
Dear Brother E,
I have just read the Review and Herald and have seen 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 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
in our papers 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, and
have an article all prepared, cautioning our youth in this very matter.
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 storybooks 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
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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
storybooks that fascinate the senses and thus destroy their relish for the
word of God. Do not, my dear brother, throw everything that comes
into your mind into the Review and Herald, but write guardedly. If
the Spirit of Christ moves you to write, then use your pen, feeling
the burden of souls, weeping between the porch and the altar, crying:
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