Fayette County herald. [volume] (Washington [Washington Court House], Fayette County, O. [Ohio]) 1860-1???, 1874-05-28

Of youth away from maiden's face
When their lives spring time has passed away,
In their hearts may its freshness ever stay.
For the Herald
Mission Of the Press as Moral
Power.
All superior intelligences regard the
origination and universal application
of the art of printing as power of
immense and never ending value. By
it, the world is fast becoming illumin-
ated with scintillations of wisdom, and
with the principles of spiritual re-
publicanism. By it, the early alteration
in the Church became widely diffused-
an alteration, which, owing principal
ly to educational convictions, the
Catholic Church stigmatizes as the
great "Heresy" But all Protestants
know, from the various sources of civ
il religious experience derived there
from, that the alteration alluded to
was a decided improvement or "Ref-
ormation'' in all matters pertaining to
Christianity.
Printing first enlightened the peo-
pie concerning the irreligion and afro
cious ceremonies practic ed by the ear
ly Church. And the world has at last
come to see that religious reformation
is both possible and beneficial. This
conviction has attained high place
in nearly all well educated and healthy
minds. Changes and consequent i'm
prOYements IN almost every depart.
ment of human interests, are conf
IDENTIFY expected by those who live in
the Nineteenth Century. While those
who are confessedly mortgaged to
dogmatic organizations of old opin
ions, cannot bring their minds to con-
template reformations in anything as
possible without being accompanied
by some overwhelming disaster either
in the Church or state The enlight-
ened and clear-seeing intellects, how.
ever, can read the events of this
epoch,-recOgnizing plainly, in the
long, well-defined shadows which ap-
approaching changes cast before chem
the peculiar crisis or interregnum tha
is certain to precede the establishment
of higher form of ecclesiasticism an6
a nobler type of republicanism and re
ligious freedom. Religious reforma
ton is demonstrated to be both prac
tical and beneficial to mankind. Deep
! ly impressed with this conviction, ant
believing also that the highest point O
improvement, in social arrangement
and religious institutions and faith
has not yet been reached by man, an(
in order to accomplish this, and ena
BILE the race to reach the summit O
moral perfection that they are destiu
ed to attain on earth, it will, of course
require the use of adequate means il
addition to the moral force Of the pul
pit. One of the most important, be
meath whose power thrones must crum
bic into fragments, despots fall, mana
cles break, and tyranny die, is th
Press! Yes, the moral power of tn
press is already the great CO workin
companion with the Gospel of Christ
Before this instrument, as to it's ide
was invented by the immortal Faustus
what was the condition of the worlC
so far as its Christian character wa
concerned? ? Let the ignorance, crue
ty, bloodshed, and gloom of the dar
ages send back the answer. Wher
then, I ask, was the Bible? 1t wa
not seen by the millions of our race
Its written manuscripts, here and the1
a copy, were with the Pope, the BisE
op, the Priest, shut out from the ligt
of day in some cloister's dark recess
or vault. 1t was the strong arm {
the press that tore away the bolts an
bars of its prison, demolished i
doors, snatched from it's secret and s
lent tomb, and flung it to the hearth
the cottage, to the poor widow in b,
st solitude, to the lonely orphan, to Il
prisoner in his dungeon, flung it
}, world, as the worlds RICHEST treasure
The Press! That mighty engine
= power and light tyrants feared, faster
ed upon it tyrant's chain, denied
5 restrained its liberty. But in YouI
America and Old England it was bro
!, en- loose. 1t is unchanged, and befo
its awful power, tyrants this nome
tremble, and their thrones shake
filings out its sheets by millions, al
/ showers them over the globe. T.
$, water, the steam,-yes, the lightnir
of heaven-the electric power tn
~ moves the globe, have lent it their al,
1 had almost said that the Creator ht
lent it his own omnipresence in t
he telegraph dispatch! 1t has millio
of eyes, and beholds all things th
are done under heaven, and it's millol
of tongues, to speak alike to the CO
n tager and king, and it speaks witho
K fear. 1t is in motion, and beneath
10, frood fha o1oha eboi-aa ~ ;ka ,a,,t,