What shall our children read? is a serious question, and demands a serious answer. I am
troubled to see, in Christian families, periodicals and newspapers containing continued stories
that leave no impress of good upon the mind. I have watched those whose taste for fiction has
been thus cultivated. They have had the privilege of listening to the truths of God's word, of
becoming acquainted with the reasons of our faith; but they have grown to mature years destitute
of true piety. These dear youth need so much to put into their character building the very best
material,--the love and fear of God and a knowledge of Christ. But many have not an intelligent
understanding of the truth as it is in Jesus. The mind is feasted upon sensational stories. They live
in an unreal world, and are unfitted for the practical duties of life. I have observed children
allowed to come up in this way. Whether at home or abroad, they are either restless or dreamy,
and are unable to converse, save upon the most commonplace subjects. The nobler faculties,
those adapted to higher pursuits, have been degraded to the contemplation of trivial or worse than
trivial subjects, until their possessor has become satisfied with such topics, and scarcely has
power to reach anything higher. Religious thought and conversation has become distasteful. The
mental food for which he has acquired a relish, is contaminating in its effects, and leads to
impure and sensual thoughts. I have felt sincere pity for these souls as I have considered how
much they are losing by neglecting opportunities to gain a knowledge of Christ, in whom our
hopes of eternal life are centered. How much precious time is wasted, in which they might be
studying the Pattern of true goodness.
I am personally acquainted with some who have lost the healthy tone of the mind through
wrong habits of reading.
They go through life with a diseased imagination, magnifying every little grievance. Things
which a sound, sensible mind would not notice, become to them unendurable trials,
insurmountable obstacles. To them, life is in constant shadow.
Those who have indulged the habit of racing through exciting stories, 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 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 literature. 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 usefulness 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."
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 salvation, and points out the way to
heaven. He has inspired holy men to record, for our benefit, instruction concerning the dangers
that beset the path, and how to escape them. Those who obey His injunction to search the
Scriptures will not be ignorant of these things. Amid the perils of the last days, every member of
the church should understand the reasons of his hope and faith,--reasons which are not difficult
of comprehension. There is enough to occupy the mind, if we would grow in grace and in the
knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
We are finite, but we are to have a sense of the infinite. The mind must be brought into
exercise in contemplating God, and His wonderful plan for our salvation. The soul will thus be
lifted above the mere earthly and commonplace, and fixed upon that which is ennobling and
eternal. The thought that we are in God's world, in the presence of the great Creator of the
universe, who made man after His own likeness, will lead the mind into broad, exalted fields for
meditation. The thought that God's eye is watching over us, that He loves us, and cared so much
for us to give His dearly beloved Son to redeem us, that we might not miserably perish,
is a great one; and he who opens his heart to the acceptance and contemplation of themes like
these, will never be satisfied with trivial, sensational subjects.
If the Bible were studied as it should be, men would become strong in intellect. The subjects
treated upon in the word of God, the dignified simplicity of its utterance, the noble themes which
it presents to the mind, develop faculties in man which cannot otherwise be developed. In the
Bible, a boundless field is opened for the imagination. The student will come from a
contemplation of its grand themes, from association with its lofty imagery, more pure and
elevated in thought and feeling than if he had spent the time in reading any work of mere human
origin, to say nothing of those of a trifling character. Youthful minds fail to reach their noblest
development when they neglect the highest source of wisdom,--the word of God. The reason why
we have so few men of good mind, of stability and solid worth, is that God is not feared, God is
not loved, the principles of religion are not carried out in the life as they should be.
God would have us avail ourselves of every means of cultivating and strengthening our
intellectual powers. We were created for a higher, nobler existence than the life that now is. This
time is one of preparation for the future, immortal life. Where can be found grander themes for
contemplation, a more interesting subject for thought, than the sublime truths unfolded in the
Bible? These truths will do a mighty work for man, if he will but follow what they teach. But
how little the Bible is studied! Every unimportant thing is dwelt upon in preference to its themes.
If the Bible were read more, if its truths were better understood, we should be a far more
enlightened and intelligent people. Angels from the world of light stand by the side of the earnest
seeker after truth, to impress and illuminate his mind. He who is dark of understanding may find
light through an acquaintance with the
Scriptures.--"Christian Temperance and Bible Hygiene," pp. 123-26, 1890.