The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-04-18
THE ToILERs OF THE PRESS.
Rev. DR.. Talmage breaches on "The Tri-
ais Of the Newspaper Profession"
lie Ranks the Newspaper Next to the Bible in
Elevation Of the Race. and Deplores
Lack of Sympathy and Appreciation.

Elevation OF the Race, and Depl0res
Lack Of Sympathy and Appreciation.
On Sunday morning. April H. Rev. T. Dewitt
Talmage, D. D., preached before vast congre-
CATION. The opening hymn begins:
Before Jehovah's awful throne
Ye nations bow with sacred JOY"
After expounding passages In reference to the
spread of knowledge all over the world. the elo-
ouent speaker announced his text: Zacharah v,
l, ''Behold flying roll" DR.. Talmage said:
This winged sheet of the text had on 1t 8
prophecy. The flying roll to-day Is the newspa-
per. In calculating the influences that affect So
8iety you can no more afford to ignore 1t than
you can ignore the MONDAY sun or the Atlantic
ocean.
1t is high time that I preach a sermon express
ing my appreciation of what the newspaper press
has done and is doing. No man. living or dead,
Is or has been so indebted to it as am, for it
gives me perpetual audience In every city, town
and neighborhood of Christendom, and / take
this opportunity before God and this people to
thank the editors, and publishers and type-set-
ters the world over. and give fair notice that
shall take every opportunity Of enlargine
this field, whether by stenographc report on
Che Sabbath, or galley proofs on Monday, or
previous dictation. / have said again and
again to the officers of the church, whoever else
are crowded, don't let the reporters be crowded.
Each responsible and intelligent reporter is ten
Or fifteen churches built on to this church
Ninety-fv per cent. of the newspapers are now
my friends, and do me full justice, and more
than justice, and the other Eve of the hundred
are such notorious liars that nobody believes
them. 1t was in self defense that, sixteen years
ago, employed an official stenographer OF my
own, because of the appalling misrepresenta-
tions Of myself and church. From that things
have miraculously changed. until now ii Is Just
as appalling in the marvellous Opportunity
opened.
The newspaper is the great educator of the
nineteenth century. There is no force COM
pared with it. II is book, pulpit platform,
forum, all in one. And there is not an interest
religions, literary. commercial, scientific, agri
cultural or mechanical-that Is not within its
grasp All our churches, and schools. and col
leges, and asylums, and art galleries feel the
quaking of the printing press.
The institution of newspapers arose in italy.
In Venice the first newspaper was published, and
monthly, during the time that Venice was war
ing against Solyman II In Dalmatia. 1t was
printed for the purpose of giving military and
commercial information to Venetians The first
newspaper published in England was in 1888,
and called the English Mercury. Others were
styled the Weekly Discoverer, the Secret Owl,
Heraclitus, Ridens. etc.
Who can estimate the political, scientific com
mercial and religious revolutions aroused up in
England for many years past by Bells Weekly
Dispatch, the Standard, the Morning Chronicle,
the Pose, ana the London IimeSf
was in 1851, by physician, who published
the News, for the amusement and health
Of his patients. The French nation I'M
derstood fully how to appreciate this
wrote articles for the press and SO early as in
1929 there were in Paris 169 journals. But in
che United States the newspaper has come to
unlimited sway. Though in l775 there were but
thirty seven in the whole country. the number
afV otadTN IL
sands and to-day-we may as we'll acknowledge
It as nct--the religious and secular newspapers
are the great educators of the country.
/ had no difficulty in accounting for the
worlds advance. For centuries ago, in Ger
many, in courts of justice men fought with their
fists to see who should have the decision of the
court; and if the judges decision was unsatisfac-
tory. then the judge fought with counsel. Many
of the lords could not read the deeds of their
own estates. What has made the changel
Books you say
No. sirl The vast majority of citizens do not
read books. Take this audience, any other
promiscuous assemblage. and how many histories
have they read? How many treatises on consti-
sciencei How many elaborate poems or books
OF travels How much of Boyle, or De Tocque-
vile, Xenophon. or Herodotus. or Percivall Not
many.
In the United States the people would not
average one such book year for each individual.
to talk about all themes, secular and religious,
this acquaintance with science and art, this pow
or to appreciate the beautiful and granda Next
to the Bible the newspaIar-swift-w winged. and
everywhere present. flying over the fences,
showed under the door, tossed into the counting
house, laid on the work bench, hawked through
the cars All read it-white and black, German,
1rishman. Swiss, Spaniard, American, old and
young, good and bad, sick and well, before
breakfast and after tea, Monday morning Sat
urdav night. SUNDAY and week dav
now declare that consider the newspaper to
be the grand agency by which the gospel is to be
preached. ignorance cast out, oppression. de-
throned, crime extirpated, the world raised,
heaven rejoiced, and God gloriied.
In the clanking of the printing press, as the
sheets fly out, | hear the voice of the Lord
Almighty proclaiming to all the dead nations of
She earth, Lazarus, come forth" and
s'Ilet there be lightw In many of our city
newspapers. protesting more than secular in
formation, there have appeared during the past
ten years some of the grandest appeals in behalf
of religion, and some Of the most effective in
terpretations of Gods government among the
nations
There are only two kinds of newspapers--the
one good, very goodj the other bad, very bad. A
newspaper may be started with an undecided
character, but after it has been going on for
years, everybody finds out just what it is; and it
Is very good or it is very bad. The one
paper is the embodiment of news,
the ally of virtue, the foe of crime,
the deleotation of elevated taste, the mighties
agency on earth for making the world betterl
The other paper is brigand among mora
forces, ID Is . beslimer of reputation, 1t is the
right arm OF death and hell, it is tho mightiest
agency in the universe for making the world
worse and battling the cause of God. The one
an angel OF intelligence and mercy; the other a
fend of darkness. Between this archangel and
Bhts fury Is to be fought the Ct eat battle which
Us to decide the fate of the world If you have any
doubt as to which is to be victor, ask the prophe
cies, ask God; the chief batteries with which He
Jwould vindicate the right and thunder down the
wrong, have not yet been unlimbered. The
great Armageddon OF the nations is not to be
fought with swords, but with steel pens; not
with bullets, but with type; not with cannon,
but with lightning perfscting presses; and the
Eumters, and the Moultres, and the Pulaskis,
and the Gibraltars of that conflict will be the
editorial and reportoria rooms of our great n xs-