The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1886-04-22

ENTERPRISES .-HE HOLDS THAT THE
READERS ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR MOD
ERN sENsATIoNALIsM.-T
WHICH BEsET NEWSPAPER MEN.
BROOKLYN, N. Y, April 11.-Rev. T..
Dewitt Talmage. ID. D., preached before
vast congregation this morning. The
opening hymn begins
s'Before Jehovah's awful throne
Ye nations bow with sacred JOY"
After expounding passages in reference
to the spread of knowledge all over the
world, the eloquent speaker announced
his text; Zacharial ", L: "Behold fly
ing roll ~ DR.. Talmage said:
This winged sheet of the text had on it
a prophecy. The flying roll to-day is the
newspaper. In calculating the influences
that affect society you can no more afford
I to ignore it than you can ignore the noon
day sun or the Atlantic ocean.
1t isEigh 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
take this opportunity before God and this
people to thank the editors, and publishers,
ana compositors and type-setters the
world over, and give fair notice that
shall take every opportunity of charging
this field, whether by stenographic report
Oil the Sabbath, or gallery-proof on Mon
day, or previous dictation. 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 10 on
Is churches built on to this church.
| Ninety five per cent. Of the newspapers
are now my friends, and the other five of
the 100 are such notorious liars that no.
body believes them. 1t was in self
defense that 16 years ago employed an
official stenographer of my own because Of
the appalling misrepresentation of my
self and church. From that time things
have miraculously changed, until now it is
jIst as appalling in the marvellous oppor-
tunity opened.
| The newspaper is the great educator of
the 10Th century. There is no force com
pared with it. 1t is a book, pulpit, plat
form, forum, all in one. And there is not
an interest religious, literary, CONNER
cial, scientific, agricultural or mechanical
THAT is not within it's grasp. All oul
ichurches and schools. and colleges and
asylums and art galleries feel the quaking
Of the printing-press.
The institution of newspapers arose il
Italy. In Venice the first newspaper was
published, and monthly, during the time
that Venice was warning against Solymar
the Second in Dalmatia 1t was printed
for the purpose Of giving military ani
commercial information to the Venetians
The first newspaper published in England
was in 1888, and called the English Mer
cuy. Others were styled the Weekly Dis
corerer, the Secret O,pl, Heraclitus, Ridens
&c.
Who can estimate the political, scien-
tifie, 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
Times
| The first attempt at this institution in
France was in 1851, by physician, who
published the Menus. 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 1929 there were in Paris 1859
journals. But in the United States the
newspaper has come to unlimited sway.
Though in 1775 there were but 81 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.
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 decision was unsatisfactory, then
| the Judge fought with counsel. Many of
the 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,
or any other promiscuous assemblage, and
how many histories have they read ? How
many treaties on constitutional law, or
political economy, or works Of science
How many elaborate poems or books of
trayel2 How much of Boyle, or De Toe
queyille, or Xenophon, or Herodotus, or
Percival? Not many
In the United States the people would
not average one such book year for each
individual
Whence, then. this intelligence this
capacity to talk about all themes, secular
and religious-this acquaintance with
science and art-this power to appreciate
the beautiful and the grand? Next to the
Bible, the newspaper-swift-wlnged and
everywhere present, flying over the fences,
showed under the. door, tossed into the
contingencies, 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 well, before break
fast and after tea, Monday morning, Sat
urdy night, Sunday and week day.
I now declare that I consider the news
paper to be the grand agency by which the
Gospel is to be preached, ignorance cast
out, oppression dethroned, crime extir-
pated, the world raised. Heaven rejoiced
and God glorified.
In the clanking 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" and to the retreating surges of
darkness-'L Let there be light ~ In many
( of our city newspapers, protesting no
more than secular information, there have
appeared during the past 10 years some of
the grandest appeals in behalf of religion
and some of the most effective interpre-
tations of Gods government among the
nations.