Bradford opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1874-1881, 1874-10-17
AT the Methodist church |;

sabbath, the keV. MI. fultOn
preached a sermon from the text,
"Why all this waste y in which he
took occasion 10 refer to the man
agement Of the recent fair here, the
press, &C., in manner which has
caused much comment and cOnsid-
cradle feeling. He conveyed tho i'm
preston to the nearer that very
large portion of the money spent at
the fair was wasted or thrown
away, and that instead OF good, evil
resulted from such gatherings
While we take exceptions to what
he said in reference to the fair, we
do not propose to pick up the gaunt
let thrown before the managers, be-
lieving they can take care of them
selves. But as the reverend gentle.
man has several times within q few
months made reference in his ser.
mons to the sensational character
of the press at the present day, we
propose respectfully, but briefly, to
submit our views upon the press
question.
If a sermon is to benefit certain
class of persons it must be heard or
read by that class. So with pa
per. The paper must in some way
reach all classes to benefit and in
struct all classes. Consequently the
family paper should contain little
of all kinds of reading, excluding
of course every thing immoral. BY
occupying portion of the first
page of the OPINION with u Glove"
story and the remainder with good
wholesome historical, scientific and
moral reading, we believe ten per-
sons peruse the page where one
would if it was devoted specially to
any one of the above subjects. There
must be something to interest and
instruct in paper as we'll as in
sermon. Papers of today must be
more or less sensational in order to
have subscribers. What would
have been thought of a paper that
entirely ignored the Brooklyn scan
dial and not have mentioned the
matter in its columns 1t would
have been set down as behind the
times, and lost half of it's subscri
bers in a week. The people demand
such news and they will have it and
all the preachers in christendom
cannot change public opinion on
this matter. The only way for the
controllers of the press to do is to
print this 'sensation news" as Mr..
Fulton styles it, in as brief space
as possible, and fill the remainder of
the paper with good, wholesome
reading, which will counterfeit, in a
great measure, the evils, if any,
which may possibly grow out Of
such publications.
Again ; we believe that good may
come to the youth from the publica.
ton of the results of crime and the
fact that justice, sooner or later,
will overtake the wrong dOer. On
this point we reason as does the
reverend gentleman when he depicts
in eloquent. language the terrible
sufferings of the drunkard's family
and the horrible scene of the drunk
ards death bed. In both cases the
same object is kept in view, viz:
the showing to the nearer or reader
the direful results of evil doing,
hoping that thereby they may be
warned from pursuing the same
course.
a word more in relation to the
sermon, and we will let the matter
rest. 1t seems to us that Mr.. Full
ton was unfortunate in his text
A careful perusal of verses 6 to 10,
inclusive, of the Goth chapter of
Matthew will convince any one that
the Saviour intended to teach that
money spent in such a way as to af-
ford comfort and pleasure to man.
kind was not only proper but CON-
Hence, he said to his
disciples when they complained of
the waste of the ointment, She hath
good work upon me-
That is she has done that which
had added to his comfort, we may
also infer from what he says that
there are other purposes to which
riches may be put besides aiding
the poor and destitute, whether
people or churches. Now, then, if
the men, women and children who
wasted" their money to go to the
Fair received pleasure as we'll as
profit from the investment, we do
not see any thing reprehensible in
The act of SO spending it.