Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1886-05-07
DR. TALHAGE'S SERMON.
THE NEWSPAPER PRESS AN
ALLY OF THEPULPIT.

The winged sheet of the text hal proph-
fcy written on it. The flying roll of to-day
is the newspaper. You can no more ignore
it in calculating the forces that affect society
than you can ignore the monday sun or the
Atlautic ocean. 1t is high time that preach
d sermon apprecatjve Of what the newSrG-
per press has accomplished and is accomplish
jng. No man living or dead has been, or is
so indebted to the newspaper press as myself
because it has given me perpetual audience
in every city, town and neighbOI hood of
Christendom, and | publicly, in the presence
ofGod and this audience, exprossmy thanks to
editors, publishers, Compoitors and type
settlers, and | give fair notice that | shall in
every possible way try to enlarge the field,
whether by stenographic report on the Sab
bath, or galley-proof on Monday, or previous
tllctatiOn. l long ago said to the officers or
this church, "Whoever else are crowded, do
not crowd the reporters Every intelligent
and honest representative of the press who
takes his place in church amounts to ten or
Fifteen other churches built on TO this. Ninety
five per cent. of the newspapers are my
friends, and do me Justice and more than
justice and the other five of the one hundred
are such notorious liars that nobody believes
them. In self-defence, and sixteen years
ago | employed an official stem ographer
Cf my own because of the
appalling Misrepresentation of myself
and church. But things have SO Tiracu-
lou lN ClltIGGb lldb IL Is .uoU uo lst4llll5 III
the marvellous opportunity opened AMI for
which am grateful to God every day. The
rewspaner is the great educator of the CEN
Jury. 1t is book. pulpit, platform and
forum all in one. There is not an interest
religious sci antiiic, commercial, agricultural,
manufacturing, mechanical-but is within
its grasp. All our churches, schools, art
galleries, asylums and great enterprise5-'
reformatory, religious or secu ar-feel the
Cuaking of The printing press. The first
newspaper arose in Italy, while
Venice was at war with S1lyman
In Dalmatia. The paper was pub
lished for the purpose of giving military
and commercial information to the Vene-'
hans. henewspaper arose in Englandn l5SS.'
The first paper was called the MercurB,
and then there came the Weekly Dispatch,
TIE English DiScOrerPr, the Secret OiCt, the
Her1chtuS RidcnS and so on, and so on. In
France the newspaper was tilsj seen IN l63l,
ard was pull lished by q physician for the
heath ard anu g mont of his patients. the
newspaper grew in power until Napoleon [
wrote with his own hand articles for it, and
In 1929 there were in the city of
Paris 1876 journals. TIL newspaper
press however, has had its chief sway il this,
land In 1853 there was but thirty-seven'
journals on all the continent. Now there are,
1900 strong newspapers rolling out copies
In the year by the billions and billions. L
have no difficulty in accounting for the,
worlds advance. Four centuries a go, in
Germany, attorneys in court fought with
their fists as to who should have the firstcaSe,
end the Judge decided for the st OngaSt fist
and TIE stoutest arm ard if the judgess de-
cision was Disputed then he himelf fought
with both the attorneys. Some of the
lords and the wealthest men Of that day,
could not read the ties to their own,
property. Why the change3 Books, you
say, No, sir; people do not read books
1t is exceptional when men read books. Take
any promiscuOus audience in this lard, or in
any land, and how many treati5es on consti-
utional laws have they read? how many
books of srience, low many books in regard
TO navigation, in regard to geology, inregard
TO botany, in regard to any intricate sub Jet!
How much have they heard of Bayle, of
Xenophon, of Herodotus, of Percival! The
people of the United States do not average
reading one book a year to the individual.
How, then, do [ account for the change
and the fact that people are able to
talk on all questions of science and
art. AMI intelligence is everywhere
as the light, and men are intelligent or all
subjects! How do you account for it! Next
to the Bible, tho newspaper, swift-winged
and everywhere present. Flying over the
fence, showed under the door, put on the work
bench, tossed into the country room, hawked
through the cars. All read it, white, black,
German. French, Italian, English, American,
Swiss, well, sick, Monday morning, Saturday
night, before breakfast after tea, Sunday,
week day, I declare that the newspaper
printing press is to be the mighty agent by
which the gospel is to be preached, crime eX-
tirpated, oppression dethroned, the world
raised, heaven reioiced. God glorifed. To
the clanking of the printing press,
as the sheets fly ont, hear
the voice of the Lord God Almighty saying
to the dead nations of the earth: Lazarus,
o,,J 10 +bO
darkness: LET there be light" How many
of the newspapers of city and town during
the past ten years have hal mighty pleas in
behalf Of the Christian religion and have
given some Of the most effective interpreta-
tions of Gods providence among the nations!
There are only two kinds of newspapers.
The good, the very goOd-the bad the very
bad. When a newspaper starts it may for
while have no especial reputation either
for virtue or in amy; but in q little
while people decide for themselves, and
they say, sit is good" and it is good and Kit
is bad and it is bad The one Dewspar er is
the embodiment of news, it is the ally of
virtue, it is the foe of crime it is the delecta-
ton OF elevated taste it is the mightes5
agency for saving the world. The other is
q bri; and among moral forces, it is the be-
sinner of renut ton it is the foe of all that
is good, it is the mightiest agent of earth
for battling the cause of God and driving
back christianity, if it could be driven back.
The one influence is angel of light, the other
influence is a fiend of darkness, and between
that archanTel and that fury is to be fought
the Eattle that is to decide the destiny Of the
human race. The Armaggedde of nations is
not to be fought with swords
but with with steel pens, not with b4I-
let but with type, not with
cam" n hut with lightning -nerferting press,
and the Sumnters and the Moultias and the
Gihraltars of that conflict are to be the edi-
torial and reportorial rooms of our great
newspaper establishments. Men of the press
and men interested in its prosperity, up'n
YOU come down the most tremendous respon-
sibilitieS of the earth Men in oil departments
need to he good, and most of all. men OF the
press Oh, how great the change from the
time when Peter Shoefer inventel cast-matal
type, and because two books were alike they
were pronounced to be the work of the devil
Hooks were printed on striDs of bamboo,
and the Common Council Of the city of New
York solemny voted the offer of forty
pounds to any printer who would come and
live there, and the Sneaker of the House of
Commons Indignantly denounced the print
ing press because it had dared to notice their
proceedings-on to this time in which we
live, when the printing press is welding sIch
a vast row for good or for evil. The tele-
graph and the printing press go down into
the harvest field end the telegraph says to
the printing press, "Ill rake while you
bind" and the telegraph puts its
iron teeth down at one end
the harvest field and they are drawn
clear across and then the inf rmation i,
gathered up in shoave5, and the printing
press puts one sheaf on the breakfast table
in the shape of morning news and puts
another sheaf on the tea table in the shape {
evening news, and that man who neither
takes nor reads newspaper is a curl 1sity.
What vast change from the time when
cardinal Woolsey publicly declared that
either tile printing press must go down or the
Church of God must go down. To this time
when the pulpit AMI the printing press are in