St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1886-05-30
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SUNDAY JOU RN ALISM.

Slowly but surely the lines on which hui
man life moves forward are broadening and
men are broadening with them. An evil
dence of this is found in most excellent
article contributed to the June number of
The Forum by Rev. JULIUS H. WARD,
in which that eminently clear-minded the
oiogian makes strong argument in support
of Sunday journalism. Instead of follow
ing the pharasaical example of some of
his stiff-necked brethren in the min
istry. who turn their faces against
everything that does not conform to the
blue light ideas which prevailed centuries
ago, DR.. WARD treats Sunday journalism
as a new force which has arisen in the de-
velopment of modern society and which is
destined to be an active agent in bringing
the different classes of society into more in
innate relationship with one another in the
activities of life. The Sunday paper is a
wide departure from the traditions of the
New England Sabbath, and if viewed from
the standpoint of the days of JONATHAN
EDWARDS, the clerical view might have
right on its side. But the social
world has been wonderfully en-
larged since the times of JONATHAN
EDWARDS. There has been marvellous
progression in both secular and ethical in
terests. Society has been reorganized and
there has been reconstruction of theolog-
zeal doctrines. The arbitrary line between
things sacred and things secular is being
obliterated. The human mind is awaken
ing to the belief that the religious world
and the secular world were created by the
same power and that there is an intimate
relation between the two. Christianity is not
so much regarded now as it was taught fifty
years ago-a mere abstract conception of
personal duty. an arbitrary and doctrinaire
system. 1t is because so many OF the clergy
sink back in their sanity repose and refuse
to teach Christianity as method by which
divine truth is revealed to men in and
through the practical experience of life that
they are left to complain of an unchurched
community. The age has swept by
them. and that is why they can
not reach the masses. 1t is in
recognition of this fact that DR.. WARD
makes an appeal in behalf of Sunday jour-
nalism. The Sunday newspaper supplies
the place of the pulpit in influencing the
masses. 1t gives the freshest and best
thought of the day, and IS that sort of in
fiuence which controls the lives of men. 1t
is the worlds university. in which the people
have at least one whole day of the week to
be educated. 1t is not partisan, nor is it Sec
tartan. It can never be the instrument of
instructions, religious or secular, that go
against the interests of the people. There
is to-day no other agency through which the
American public can be so effectively and
so entirely reached as the Sunday news
paper. Everybody reads it, and, as DIR.
WARD says, those who do not buy it on
principle borrow it of their neighbors and
are instructed by its utterances.
1.-THE daily journal is the photograph Of
yesterdays world says DR.. WARD, 'but the
Sunday journal is the photograph of yester-
days world on a larger and more comprehen-
sive scale. The workngman turns to it and
adjusts himself to the latest thought of lead
ers of the day; the professional man feels in
editorials, cablegrams and universal intell-
gence the pulsation of the aggregate civiliza-
ton of the world; the religious teacher learns
through its columns the direction in which
the thoughts of men are moving, and ascer-
tains how to adjust the spiritual truth to the
new social order; the statesman feels in it
the currents of universal life that play be-
tween the nations as they play between
classes in larger communities