—A good book—who can estimate its power? Benjamin Franklin said that his reading of Cotton Mather's "Essays to Do Good" in childhood gave him holy aspirations for all the rest of his life. Oh, the power of a good book! But, alas! for the influence of a bad book.
We see so many books, we do not understand what a book is. Stand it on end. Measure it, the height of it, the depth of it, the length of it, the breadth of it. You cannot do it. Examine the paper and estimate the progress made from the time of the impressions on clay and then on to the bark of trees, and from the bark of trees to papyrus, and from papyrus to the hide of wild beasts, and from the hide of wild beasts on down until the miracles of our modern paper manufactories, and then see the paper white, pure as an infant's soul, waiting for God's inscription. A book! Examine the type of it. Examine the printing of it and see the progress from the time when Solon's laws were written on oak plans, and Hesiod's poems were written on tables of lead, and the Sinaitic were written on tables of stone, on down to Hoe's perfecting printing-press. It took all the universities of the past, all the martyr fires, all the civilizations, all the battles, all the victories, all the defeats, all the glooms, all the brightness, all the centuries to make it possible. A book! It is the chorus of the ages—it is the drawing room in which kings and queens and orators and poets, and historians and philosophers come out to greet you. If I worshiped anything on earth I would worship that. If I burned any incense to any idol I would build an altar to that. Thank God for good books, healthful books, inspiring books, Christian books, books for men, books for women, Book of God. It is with these good books that we are to overcome corrupt literature.
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