St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1886-04-12
Dr.. Talmage Considers the Newspaper the
Great Educator of the Nine
teenth Century;
In Fact, the Grand Agency by Which the
World is to be Raised and
God Glorifed.
A Strikingly Vivid Picture OF the
Trials OF the Men Who Make
Newspapers,
And OF the Reasons why Murders
and Scandals Are Given Such
Prominence.
DIR. TaImage's Sermon.

mage's subject this morning was The News
paper Profession, and his text Zecahriah ",
1: Behold flying roll" He said: This
winged sheet of the text had on it a pro-
phecy. The flying roll to-day is the news
paper. In calculating the influences that
affect society you can no more afford to ig-
more II than you can ignore the monday sun
or the Atlantic ocean. 1t is high time that
preach sermon expressing my apprecia-
tion of what the newspaper press has done
and is doing. No man, living or dead, is
or has been so indebted to it as l am, for it
gives me perpetual audience in every city,
town and neighborhoOd of Christendom, and
l take this opportunity before God and this
people TO thank the editors, and publishers,
and compositOrS and type-setters the world
over. and i give fair notice that shall take
every opportunity of enlarging this field,
whether by stenOgraphic report oil the Sab
bath, or galley proofs on Monday, or pre-
yious dictation. l have said again and
again to the officers of this church, whoever
else is crowded don't let the reporters be
crowded. Each responsible and intelligent
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 justice. and
the other five of the hundred are such no
torious liars that nobody believes them. 1t
was
IN SELF-DEFENSE
that sixteen years ago employed an Official
stenographer of my own because of the ap-
palling Misrepresentation of myself and
church. From that time things have miracu-
lOuSly changed until now it is Just as appal-
ing 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
form, forum, all in one. And there is not
an interest-religiouS, literary. commercial,
scieutide. agricultural or mechanical-that
is not within its grasp. All our churches.
and schools. and colleges. and asylums and
art galleries feel the quaking of the print
ing press. The vast majority of citizens do
not read books. Take this audience, or any
other promiScuOuS aSsemblage, and how
many histories have they read? How many
treatiseS on constitutional law, or political
economy, or works of science? How many
elaborate poems or books OF travel. How
much of Boyle. or De TOcGueville, Keno
phOn, or HerOdotus, or Pereival? Not
many. In the United States the people
would not average one such book year for
each individual. Whence. then, this intel
ligence-this capacity to talk about all
themes. secular and religious; this acquaint-
ance with science and art; this power to
appreciate the beautiful and grand? Next
TO the Bible, the 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, Irishman, Swiss,
Spaniard, American, old and young. good
and bad, sick and well. before breakfast
and after tea, Monday morning, Saturday
night, Sunday and week day. l now de-
clare that l consider the newspaper 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 of the printing press, as the
sheets fy out. hear the voice of the Lord
Almighty prOclaiming to all the dead
nations Of the earth: Lazarus, come
forthr and TO the retreating surges of
darkness: Let there be lightr In many
of our city newspapers, processing 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 embodiment of news, the ally of virtue,
the foe of crime, the delectation of elevated
sa-Na h .sr-frkf s.
making the world better. The other
paper is
A BRIGAND
amid moral forces, it is beslimer of repu-
tation. it is the right arm of death and
hell, it is the mightiest agency in the uni
verse for making the world worse and bat
Ting the cause OF God. The one an angel
of intelligence and mercy, the other fiend
of darkness. What vast progress since the
day when Cardinal WolSey declared that
either the printing press must 90 down or
the church of God must go down, to this
time. when the printing press and the pull
pit are in combination and man on the
Sabbath day may preach the gospel TO 500
people, while on Monday morning, through
the secular journals, he may preach that
gospel to millions. NOtwithing all this
that you have gained in position and infiu-
ence, men of the press. how many words
of sympathy do you get during the course
of a year? Not ten. How many ser
mons of practical helpfulnesS for your pro-
feSsiOn are preached during the twelve
months? Not one. How many words of
excoriation, and denunciation, and hyper
criticism do you get in that same length of
time? About 10, 600. If you are a type
setter and get the type in the wrong fOunt
| the foreman storms at you. If you are a
foreman and cannot surmount the insur-
mountable and get the "forms" ready at
| Just the time, the publisher denounces you.
If you are publisher and make misman-
agement then the owners of the paper will
be hard on you for lack of dividend. If
you are an editor and you announce
AN UNPoPULAR SENTIMENT,
all the pens of christendom are flung at
you. If you are reporter, you shall be
responsible for the indistinctness of public
speakers and for the blunders of type
settlers, and for the fact that you cannot
work quite so well in the fiickering gas
light and after midnight as you do in the
MONDAY. If you are a proofreader. upon
| you shall come the united wrath of editor,
reporter and reader because you do not
properly arrange the periods. and the
semicOlons. and the exclamation points
and the asterisks. Plenty of abuse for
yon, but no sympathy. One of the great
trials of this newspaper profession is the
fact that they are compelled to see more of
the shams of the world than any other
profession. Through every newspaper
Office, day by day, go the weaknesses of
the world, the vanities that want to be
pulled, the reyenges that want to be
wreaked. all the mistakes that want to be
corrected, all the dull speakers who want
to be eloquent. all the meanness that wants
to get its wares noticed gratis in the edi-