The Iola register., 1886-04-23
TALMAGE's SERMON.
Discourse on the Trials Of Newo-
paper Editors and Reporter.

Discourse on the Trials Of Newn.
paper Editors and Reporters.
The shans They See snd the rsmptatisas
They Meet In Their ssareh for News.
"A ondsrpaid Glass, - Rule. saa
Their Souls Nobody's Care.
Rev. +. DEWITT Talmage, In . recent
sermon, took up the cudgel for the news.
paper men, Illustrating their trials, temp.
tations and almost ceaseless labors in the
fight for current news in forcible man.
ner. He took for his text:
Behold flying rolli-IZachariah WI.
DR.. Talmage said: This winged sheet Of
the text had on 1t a prophecy. The flying
roll to-day is the newspaper. In calcu-
lating the influences that affect society
you can no more afford to ignore il than
you can ignore the MONDAY sun or the
Atlantic Ocean.
1t IL high time that preach . 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
perpetual audience in every city, town
and neighborhood of Christendom, and I
take this opportunity before God and this
people to thank the editors and publishers,
and compositors and type-setters the
world over, and give fair notice that I
shall take every opportunity Of enlarging
this field, whether by stenographic report
on the Sabbath, or galley proofs on Mon
day, or previous dictation. I have said
again and again to the officers Of this
church, whoever else are crowded, don't
let the reporters be crowded. Each re-
sponsible and intelligent reporter is ten
or fifteen churches built on to this church.
Ninety-five per cent. Of the newspa-
pers are now my friends, and
do me full justice and more than justice,
and the other Ave 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 misrep.
resentatiOns Of myself and church. From
that things have miraculously changed,
until now it is just rs appalling in the
marvellous opportunity opened.
The newspaper is the great educator Of
the nineteenth century. There is no force
compared with it. It is book, pulpit, plat
form, forum, oil in one. And there is not
an interest-reiigious, literary, CONNER.
cial, scientific, agricultural or mechanical
that is not within its grasp. All our
and schools, and colleges, and
asylums, and art galleries feel the quak.
ing 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 warning against Solyman
the Second, in Dalmatia, it was printed
for the purpose Of giving military and
information to the Venetians.
The first newspaper published in England
was in 1883, and called the English Mer.
cary. Others were styled the Weekly Dis
corerer, the Secret O,ol, Heraclitus Ridens,
etc.
Who caE estimate the political, scientific.
and religious revolutions
reused up in England for many years past
by Bells Weekly Dispatch, the Standard,
The MOrn;ny Chronicle, the Post and the
London Times?
The first attempt at this institution in
France was in %ssl. by a physician, who
published the Ne,cs 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 1923 there were in Paris 1O9 journals.
But in the United States the newspaper
mas come to unlimited sway. Though in 1775
there were but thirty-seven in the whole
the number Of published journals
Is now counted by thousands; and to-day
we may as well acknowledge il as not
The religious and secular newspapers are
he great educators of the country.
1 find no difficulty in accounting for the
advance. Fora centuries ago, in
Germany, in courts of justice, men Tough.
with their fists to see who should have the
decision of the court: and if the judges
was unsatisfactory, then the
Judge fought with counsel. Many of the
ords could not read the deeds Of their own
estates. What has made the change?
"Books," you say.
10 not read books. Take this audience, or
my other promiscuous assemblage, and |
low 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 |
ravel? How much of Boyle, of De
Xenophon, or Herodotus, or
'ercival: Not many.
In the United States the people would |
lot average one such book year for each
Individual.
Whence, then, this intelligence-this ca.
'acity to talk about all themes, secular
md religious-this acquaintance with
cience and art-this power to appreciate
he beautiful and grand: Next to the
'ible the newspaper-swift-wi winged and
present, flying over the fences,
hoved under the door, tossed into the
ounting house, laid On the workbench,
awked through the cars. All read it:
rhite and black, German. Irishman, Swiss,
panish, American, old and young, good
nd bad, sick and well, before breakfast
nd after tea, Monday morning, Saturday
light, Sunday and week day.
now declare that consider the news.
aper to be the grand agency by which
ospel is to be preached, ignorance cast
ut. oppression dethroned, crime extir.
ated, the world raised. Heaven rejoiced
nd God glorided.
In the clanking Of the printing press, as
,e sheets fly out, hear the voice OF the
ord Almighty proclaiming to all the dead
ations Of the earth, Lazarus, come
'rthw and to the retreating surges of
"Let there be light" In many
our city newspapers, protesting no more
ian secular information, there have ap.