Smyrna times., 1867-03-06
NJ l S CELLANEOUS.
NewSpapers-Good and Bad onss

NeWspapers-GOOd and Bad Ones.
Rev. I. Dewitt Talmage, of Phila., preach.
ed the following sermon on the above subject
Sunday week, 18th ult. We avoid long arti-
cles as rule, but we could not see where we
could scratch" any of this. The text is as
follows
knowledge shall be increased. Dan. XII
And He brought me to the doors of the
court and when | looked, behold, hole in the
Then said He unto me, Son of Man. die
now IN the wall and when had digged in the
wall, behold a door.
And He said unto me 60 in, and behold
the wicked denominations that they do here.
SO | went in and saw and behold, every
form ofcreeping things, and abominable beasts.
and all the idols OF the house of Israel, nor
trayed upon the wall round about. "-Ezekiel
viii; !, 8, 9, and 10.
The first passage is prophecy of the null
Implications, of intelligence, the fulflment of
which shall come chiefly through the Chris
tanned printing press The second passage
represents the prophet as breaking through the
wall that hides the denominations Of ancient .Je.
ruSalem. The first passage will call me to see
what good newspaper will do, and the last
Will call me to dig in the wall that hides much
sin, and confront roll of iniquitous newspa
per-; yet wet from the printing press
Ihe newspaper is the great educator of the
nineteenth century. There is no force to be
compared with it; it is book, pulpit, platform.
and forum, all in one; and there is not an in
terest-religiOus, literary, commercial, scien-
tltlc, agricultural, or mechanical-that is not
within its grasp. All our churches, schools
colleges, asylums, and art galleries, feel the
quaklng OF the printing press. | shall try to-
night to bring to your parlOr tables the peri
OdlcalS that are worthy of the Christian fire.
side, and try tO.toss in the gutter of scorn and
contempt those newspapers that are not fit for
the hand OF your child or the vision of your
wife.
ne institution OF newspapers arose in Italy.
In enlce the flrst newspaper was published,
and monthly during the time that Venice was
warning against SOlyman the Second; in Dal-
malta 1t was printed for the purpose of giving
military and commercial information to the
nenItlans. The first newspaper published in
England was in 1888, and called the EnQIixh
-Hoc"ry., Others were styled the WeeLIy Dis.
corerer, the Secret OrL, HeracItw Rflans,
&c.
Who can estimate the political. scientific
commercial, and religious revolutions reused
up IN England for many years by BeVs Week.
: y DtSPGtch, Stdnddrd, Morning Chronicle,
: L9st, aud that prince of liars" the London
1mFS| The hrSt attempt at this institution
: IN France was in 1851, by physician who nnh.
lshed the News for the amusement and beaItl
OF his patients. The French nation understood
fully how to appreciate this power-Napoleor
with his own hand writing articles for it. s.
early as 1879 there were in Paris l69 journals
e In the United States the newspaper has com,
| Al
but thirty-seyen in the whole country, the mum
ID Der OF published journals is now counted b,
the thousand, and to-day, we may as well con
less 1t as not, the religious and secular news
~ papers are the great educators of PHILADELPHIA
In our pulplts we talk to a few hundreds O
people, while they gather an audience of thre
hundred thousand. If they are right the,
are magniticently right; but if they are wrong
they are awt9lly wrong. The periodicals o
the Presbyterian, Episcopal, Methodist, Bap
tIst ana Lutheran socleties-the Lellger, Press
Inquirer, Erentng Telegraph, Bulletin, Mort
4AnertcGn, Star, Age, DAILY Neacs, Snturj1
Is, Night, Despatch, Mercury Transcri;Dt .S~a
Is. day Morning Times, and others are wieldin,
Is, anlntiuence, the length whereof cannot be esti
rs mated, except by the rod with which Co
- measures the land and the sea.
s. Each OF the clergy breaches two sermons
y week, while the newspaper press breaches on
- million eight hundred thousand in the sam
" time. Ministers deliver each one hundred an
two discOurses year, while the press gives, b
~ their sheets in circulation sixty-seyen million
~ ~ five hundred and forty-two thousand. [ fin
" = no difficulty in accounting for the worlds aC
i. vance. -Four centuries ago, in Germany, in tn
n. courts of justice, men fought with their fists
m see who should have the decision of the cour
and if the Judges decision was unsatisfactory
then he fought with the counsel Many of ii
- lords could not read the deeds of their own e.
tates. What has made the changes? Book
you say. No, sir The vast majority of cit
zens do not read books. Take this audienc
>. or any other promiscuous assemblage, and no
90 many histories have they read? How mar
treatises on constitutional law or political eco
omy, or works of science? How many elab
rate poems or books Of travel? How much
Boyle, DE TOcqneville, Xenophon, Heroditl
or Percival? answer, not many. In IL
United States the people would not average OIL
IOok q year for each individual. Whenc
rc then, this intelligence, this capacity to ia
To- about all themes, secular and religious this
qualntance with science, and art. this mower
appreciate the beautiful and grand Wb
next to the Bible, the newspaper-swift.win
ed and everywhere present, fying over 4
and fence, showed under the door, tossed into h
9TH counting house, laid on the work-bencb n,
hawked through the cars All read ;t"-,mh =
and black-German, Irish, Swiss, Spaniar
ara ara French, and American-old and young co.
civ and bad, sick and well-before breakfast "a q,