Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1886-04-21
Tabernacle Sermon.
THE Trials of the Newspaper Profession. "
A Discourse by DR.. Talmage.

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'The Trials of the Newspaper Profession"
A Discourse by DR.. Talmage.
BROOKLYN, N. Y, April 11.-Rev. T.
De Witt Talmage, D. D., preached before
a vast congregation this morning. The
opening hymn begins
"Before Jehovahs awful throne
Ye nations bow with sacred joy ~
After expounding passages III reference
to the spread of knowledge all over the
world the eloquent speaker announced his
text: Zachariah, v. l., 'tBehold flying
roll" DR.. Talmage said:
This winged sheet of the text had on it
prophecy. The flying roll to-day is the
newspaper. In calculating the influences
to ignore it than you can ignore the noon
day sun or the Atlantic ocean.
1t is high time that 1 preach a sermon
expressing 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 per-
petual audience in every city, town and
neighborhood of Christerdom, and take
this opportunity before God and this people
to thank the editors, and publishers, and
compesitors and type-setters the world
over, and 1 give fair notice that l shall
take every opportunity of enlarging this
field, whether by stenographic report OIL the
Sabbath, or galley-proofs on Monday, or
previous dictation. 1 have said again and
again to the officers of this church, who
ever else are crowded, don't let the report
ers be crowded. Each responsible and in
telligent reporter is ten or fifteen churches
built On to this church. Ninety five per
| cent. of the newspapers are now my friends,
| and do me full justice and more than JUS
tice, and the other five of the hundred are
such notorious liars that nobody believes
| them. 1t was in self-defence that sixteen
years ago l employed an official stenogra-
pher of my own because Of the appalling
Misrepresentation Of myself and church,
From that things have miraculeusly chang
ed until now it is just as appalling in the
marvellous opportunity opened.
The newspaper is the great educator of
the nineteenth century. There is no force
compared with it. 1t is book, pulpit, plat
an interest-religious, literary, CONNER
cial, scientific, agricultural, or mechanical
that is not within its grasp. All cur
churches and schools, and colleges, 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, duling the time
that Venice was warning against Solyman
the Second il Dalmatia. 1t was printed
for the purpose of giving military and COM
mercial information to the Venetians. The
first newspaper published i'll England was
in 1888, and called the English Mercuy-
Others were styled the Weekly Discover,
the Secret O,Ol, Heraclitus Riden, etc.
Who can estimate the political, scientific,
commercial and religious revolutions reused
up in England for many years past by
Bells Weekly Dispatch, the Standard, the
Morning Chronicle, the Post, and the Lon
don Times?
The first attempt at this institution in
France was in 1881, by physician who
published the NeWs for the amusement and
health of his patients. The French nation
understood fully how to appreciate this
power. Napoleon, with his own hand,
wrote articles for the press, and so early as
in 1899 there were in Paris 100 ,iourGa Is p
But in the United States the newspaper
1775 there were but thirty seven in the
whole country, the number of published
journals is now counted by thousands; and
to day-we may as well acknowledge it as
nOt-the religious and secular newspapers
are the great educators Of the country.
1 find no difficulty in accounting for the
worlds advance. -Four centuries ago, in
Germany, in courts of justice, men fought
with their fists to see who should have the
decision of the court; and if the judges de-
cision was unsatisfactory, then the judge
fought with counsel. Many lords could not
read the deeds of their own estates. What
has made the change?
''Books," you say.
No. sir The vast majority of citizens
do not read books. Take this audience, OF
any other promiscuous assemblage, and
how many histories have they read? How
many treatises on constitutional law, Or
political econ, my, or works of science -
How many elaborate poems or books of
travel? How much of Boyle, Or De Tocque-
vile, Xenophon, or Herodotus, or Perciv-
al? Not many! In the United States the
people would not average one such book a
year for each individual
Whence, then, this intelligence-this Ca
pacity to talk about all themes, secular and
religious-this acquaintance with science
and art this power to appreciate the beau
|
newspaper-swift-w winged. and everywhere
present, flying over the fences, showed un-
der the door, tossed into the counting
house, laid on the workbench, hawked
through the cars All read it-white and
black, German, Irishman, Swiss, Spaniard,
American, old and young, good and bad,
sick and we'll, before breakfast and after
tea, Monday morning, Saturday night, Sun
day and week day.
| | now declare that consider the news
paper to be the grand agency by which the
Gospel is to be preached, ignorance cast
out, oppression dethroned, crime extirpated,
the world raised, Heaven rejoiced, and
God glorified.
In the clanking.o of the printing press as
the sheets fly out hear the voice of the
Lord Almighty proclaiming to all the dead
nations of the earth, ''Lazarus, come
forth n' and to the retreating surges of
darkness, 'Let there be light - In many
of our city newspapers, protesting no more
than secular information, there have ap-
peared during the past ten years some of
the grandest appeals in behalf of religion
and some of the most effective interpreta-
tions of Gods government among the
nations.
There are only two kinds of newspapers
the one good, very good, the other bad,
very bad. A newspaper may be started
with an undecided character but after it
has been going on for years every body finds
out just what it is; and it is very good or it
is very bad The one paper is the embodi-
ment of news, the ally of virtue, the foe of
crime, the delectation of elevated taste, the
mightiest age 1cy on earth for making the
world better. The other paper is brig
and amid moral forces, it is a beslimer of
reputation, it is the right arm of death and
hell, it is the highest agency in the universe
for making the world worse and battling
the cause of God. The one an angel of in
telligence and mercy; the other a friend of
darkness. Between this archangel and this
fury is to be fought the great battle which
is to decide the fate of the world. If you
have any doubt as to which is to be victor,
ask the prophecies, ask God; the chief bat
teries with which He would vindicate the
right and thunder down the wrong, have
not yet been unlimbered. The great Ar
mageddon of the nations is not to fought
with swords, but with steel pens; not