Mental Inebriates
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Those who have indulged the habit of racing through exciting sto-
ries, are crippling, their mental strength, and disqualifying themselves
for vigorous thought and research. There are men and women now
in the decline of life who have never recovered from the effects of
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intemperate reading. The habit, formed in early years, has grown with
their growth and strengthened with their strength; and their efforts to
overcome it, though determined, have been only partially successful.
Many have never recovered their original vigor of mind. All attempts
to become practical Christians end with the desire. They cannot be
truly Christlike, and continue to feed the mind upon this class of liter-
ature. Nor is the physical effect less disastrous. The nervous system
is unnecessarily taxed by this passion for reading. In some cases,
youth, and even those of mature age, have been afflicted with paralysis
from no other cause than excess in reading. The mind was kept under
constant excitement, until the delicate machinery of the brain became
so weakened that it could not act, and paralysis was the result.
When an appetite for exciting, sensational stories is cultivated,
the moral taste becomes perverted, and the mind is unsatisfied unless
constantly fed upon this trashy, unwholesome food. I have seen young
ladies, professed followers of Christ, who were really unhappy unless
they had on hand some new novel or story paper. The mind craved
stimulation as the drunkard craves intoxicating drink. These youth
manifested no spirit of devotion; no heavenly light was shed upon their
associates, to lead them to the Fount of knowledge. They had no deep,
religious experience. If this class of reading had not been constantly
before them, there might have been some hope of their reforming; but
they craved it, and would have it.
I am pained to see young men and women thus ruining their use-
fulness in this life, and failing to obtain an experience that will prepare
them for an eternal life in heavenly society. We can find no more fit
name for them than “mental inebriates.”
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Intemperate habits of reading exert a pernicious influence upon the
brain as surely as does intemperance in eating and drinking.
The best way to prevent the growth of evil is to preoccupy the
soil. The greatest care and watchfulness is needed in cultivating the
mind and sowing therein the precious seeds of Bible truth. The Lord,
in his great mercy, has revealed to us in the Scriptures the rules of
holy living. He tells us the sins to shun; he explains to us the plan of