THE GRAPPLE WITH BAD BOOKS

Seventh-Day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Thursday, June 24, 1880

FromAdvent Review and Sabbath Herald, Vol. 56, No. 1

THE GRAPPLE WITH BAD BOOKS.

EVERYBODY is agreed that there are few greater evils, so far as the rising generation is concerned, than the tendency to read bad books. And by “bad books” we mean, not merely books that are positively corrupt, but books that are mentally and spiritually debilitating—books, for example, that present an unreal view of life, and lead to an idle expectancy of great opportunities, instead of a manly performance of daily duties.

What shall be done to save our children from these bad books? We answer:—

1. We must realize the vast importance of doing something—the magnitude of the evil we are called to encounter—the severity of the death-grapple in which we are involved.

2. We must resort to the freezing-out process. It is not enough to take bad books away from our children. We may take them away; but we cannot keep them away, unless we fill their place with something better. The youthful mind is active. It demands food. Our children will read; and if we do not supply them with reading, somebody else will. The divinely appointed antidote for bad reading is good reading.

3. We must exercise a sanctified common sense in this matter. We must realize that a fairly good book that will be read is better than the very best book that won’t be read. It should be our aim gradually to educate our children to a taste for the very purest and noblest type of literature. The Bible, doubtless, is the best of books. But if a boy will not read the Bible, give him something harmless and nutritious that he will read. Do not let it be understood that Satan has a monopoly of all the books that are naturally attractive to the childish mind.

4. Parents must exercise a careful supervision over their children’s reading. No book or paper should be read by any child without the parent’s approval. That approval should not be lightly withheld; but it should be sought in every instance, and withheld upon reasonable occasion. Meanwhile, the parent, while forbidding the perusal of a bad book, must be prepared to recommend a good book in its place. There are hosts of such books, in the varied departments of history, biography, travel and adventure, and popular science—books of intensest interest, but books that are something better than merely harmless. The judicious parent will spare no pains to find out what those books are; and (do you really feel that bad books are a terrible evil, Christian parent?) spend money freely to procure them for his children.

5. Pastors, superintendents, and religious editors, must be on the watch for suitable books for home reading; must clearly and emphatically recommend them; must freely lend them, when they own them; must devise means for getting not merely religious books, but thoroughly good books that make no pretense to being religious, into the hands of the people. There is a grave duty—a magnificent field of usefulness—a terrible responsibility here.—The Baptist Teacher.