Scriptures Make You Wise


 




 TO AVOID BAD BOOKS.



THERE are many such books. They teach nothing useful. They give false ideas of life. They, set the passions on fire. They make vice appear attractive. They make boys ashamed of what ought to be loved and honored. 

They take modesty away from the heart of girls. They create a dislike for the quiet pleasures of the home. They beget a distaste for the Bible, for the Sabbath-school, and the sanctuary.

Avoid such books. They smut the character like coals. They defile like pitch. They poison like arsenic. They lead astray like a false guide. And, in many cases, they blight like a disease, and ruin like a destroyer.

Beware of books you would blush to have your mother see in your hands, which your father would not tolerate, and which set your own conscience reproving you. That is a bad book for you, no matter how highly recommended, which makes you less inclined to take hold of your common duties and perform them with real interest. 

That is a good book which prompts you to something nobler and better than you have been doing. 



Myrtle.



BITTER WORDS. 



A single bitter word may disquiet an entire family for a whole day; while a smile, like a gleam of sunshine, may light up the darkest and weariest hours. Like unexpected flowers, which spring up along our path, full of fragrance and beauty, so do kind words and gentle acts make glad the home where peace and blessings dwell.