The New York herald., 1870-03-06
Ancient a.d Modern Preachers.

be led to understand and perform their duties
toward each other and toward the Creator
But truth is Of two kinds, natural and re-
vealed-that which relates to matter and that
which relates to spirit OF the former kind
are the truths of science ; of the latter the
holy Scriptures. And as all truth emanates
from God, whether it be written in the stars
above or in the rocks beneath; whether re-
vealed to Moses, Isaiah and John, or to Her.
schell, Laplace or Humboldt, il must always
harmonze and always reflect the character
and goodness of its Author. The presentation
OF religious truth is preaching; but only those
men who are ordained by the Church are re-
ceived as preachers. Under ancient cond itions
Of society, when the world lay in darkness and
ignorance, oral instruction was the best, If not
the only, mode of preaching that could be de-
vised. And from the period when the Church
emerged from the patriarchal roof unto the
present separate class of men have been
devoted to this sacred purpose, and through
their influence and example the world has been
kept from destruction so long. But new
civilization, creating new forms of society and
the progress Of scientific inquiry, has brought
forth other agencies whereby Christian truth
may be presented to the people, so that the
peculiar Office of the preacher is no longer
what it was. The printing press and the cleo
trio telegraph have far outstripped the human
heart and voice in the power Of preaching,
and were they as devoted in their work as
the living preachers they would soon and al
together supersede them They are now and
henceforth to be the true evangelzers OF the
world II matters little whether Christian
nations or societies send two or two hundred
missionaries to heather lands for should
Christendom be depopulated of its religious
professors to send them forth as teachers they
would still be insufficient in numbers, and
would be unable to grapple etfectually with
Pagansm and idolatry in their various forms.
1t is of course proper that Christianity should
seek to reclaim all mankind and bring them
back to the truth but then it must utilize such
agencies as the press and the telegraph to do
its work. These can effect much more good
in shorter space than all the missionaries we
might send abroad.
To-Day the newspaper and printed page
take the place, to a great extent, that the
priest and minister formerly held, but with
this important advantage-namely, that while
the minister addresses hundreds weekly, the
newspaper speaks to thousands daily. And
the newspaper must increase in power and
influence, while the other decreases; for
preaching is no longer the peculiar province
or labor Of one class Of men, and Jehovah has
declared that in the last days He will pour out
His spirit upon all flesh, SO that our sons and
our daughters shall prophesy or teach, and the
young men shall see visions and the old men
shall dream Dreams and even the servants and
handmaids will not be forgotten in those days
Bnt the telegraph, the printing press and the
locomotive must hasten forward this time.
Although of comparatively recent date, their
influence in controlling and deciding the fate
of nations has been wonderful Christian
civilization gave them birth, and they have
reacted with beneficial effect upon Christianity.
They have not only brought together more
closely than ever man to man and thought to
God in affection and desire than they had ever
been before. So that the two leading ideas of
the present century-those that stand out bold
est and most prominent and that direct the
course Of human events-are the Fatherhood of
God and the Brotherhood of Man. And these
ideas are not the results Of preaching, but of
reading. They are the work of the news
paper and the telegraph more than of the |
minister.
In public address made some time ago in |
this city by Chinese missionary he stated |
that he had spent nine years in Foo Chow |
before he had the satisfaction Of receiving a
single convert into the Church, and then his
first one corresponded in character to our
Fourth or Sixth ward ''roughs," who are sup
posed to be the most hopeless class Of society
to labor with. How can it be believed that,
with only the agencies employed in the past,
the Christian Church, at this rate of increase,
shall within the next thirty years reach the mil
lennium, which so many apprehend to be near
at hand, and which none have placed beyond
the year 1900, A. d.? 1t is plain that newer
and more powerful agents Of Christianity must
be applied to this work if this halcyon period
is to come within this or the next century, or,
indeed, at all. And science has discovered
none that can compare with the newspaper
and the telegraph.
In other ages priests made war or peace;
in this age the newspaper does this. But
when we shall have stretched a cable from
San Francisco across the Pacific Ocean to
less than generation, perhaps in less than
decade-for the world progresses more in ten
years now than it did in century before
we shall then have inaugurated harmo-
ina,loIno haturaoxa &la