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False and the True in Education
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is that which leads young men and young women to be Christlike,
that fits them to bear life’s responsibilities, fits them to stand at the
head of their families. Such an education is not acquired by a study
of heathen classics.
Sensational Literature
Many of the popular publications of the day are filled with sensa-
tional stories that are educating the youth in wickedness and leading
them in the path to perdition. Mere children in years are old in a
knowledge of crime. They are incited to evil by the tales they read.
In imagination they act out the deeds portrayed, until their ambition
is aroused to see what they can do in committing crime and evading
punishment. To the active minds of children and youth the scenes
pictured in imaginary revelations of the future are realities. As revo-
lutions are predicted and all manner of proceedings described that
break down the barriers of law and self-restraint, many catch the
spirit of these representations. They are led to commit crimes even
worse, if possible, than these sensational writers depict. Through
influences such as these, society is becoming demoralized. The
seeds of lawlessness are sown everywhere, and a harvest of crime is
the result.
Works of romance, frivolous, exciting tales, are, in hardly less
degree, a curse to the reader. Authors may profess to teach a moral
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lesson, they may interweave religious sentiments throughout their
work, but often these serve only to veil the folly and worthlessness
beneath.
The world is flooded with books that are filled with enticing
error. The youth receive as truth that which the Bible denounces as
falsehood, and they love and cling to deception that means ruin to
the soul.
There are works of fiction that were written for the purpose of
teaching truth or exposing some great evil. Some of these works have
accomplished good. Yet they have also wrought untold harm. They
contain statements and highly wrought pen pictures that excite the
imagination and give rise to a train of thought that is full of danger,
especially to the youth. The scenes described are lived over and over
again in their thoughts. Such reading unfits the mind for usefulness