Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1888-06-29

Faust and his son In inw, Sckoeffer, in
1850. and that corf,.araSion Of type to
the Holy Scriptures was prophecy of
the great mission Of printing for the
evangelizatien Of all she nations. The
father of the American printing press
was q Clergyman, Rev. Jesse Glover. and
that wns prophecy of the religious use
that tho Gospel ministry in this country
were to make of the types.
AgaHa. we shall secure the secular
press ITS a migh.ier re- enforcement OF
religion and the pulpit by making our
religious utteranccs more interesting
and spirited, andthen the press will re-
produce them. On the way to church
some fifteen years ago. q journalist said
thing that has kept me ever since
points to-day" What do YOU mean?'
[ asked. He said: Il mean by that any
thing that will be striking enough to be
remembered" Then I said to myself:
What right have We in our pulpits and
Sunday take the time of peo-
pie if we have nothing to say that is
memorable? David did not have any
difficulty in remembering Nathan's
thrust: Thou art the man, nor Felix
i'll remembering Pauls point blank ut
terance on righteousness. temperance,
and Judgment to come, nor the English
King any difficulty in remembering what
the court preacher said. when during the
sermon against sin the preacher threw
his handkerchief into the Kings pew to
indicate what he meant. The tendency
of criticism in the theological semina-
ries is to file Off from our young men all
the sharp points and make them too
smooth for any kind of execution. What
we want, all of us, is more point. less
humdrum. If we'say the right thing in
the right way the press will be glad to
echo and re-echo it. Sabbath school
teachers. reformers. young men and old
men in the ministry, what we all want
if we are to make the printing press an
ally in Christian work is that which the
reporter spoken of uggested-points,
if the thing be dead when uttered by
living voice, it will be hundredfold
more dead when it is laid out in cold
type.
Now. as you all have something to do
with the newspaper press, either in
issuing paper or reading it, either as
producers or patrons, either as sellers
or purchasers of the printed sheet.
propose on this Sabbath morning, June
II, 1888, treaty to be signed between
the church and the printing press, a
treaty to be ratified by millions of good
people if we rightly fashion it, treaty
promising that we will help each other
in our work of trying to illumine and
felicitate the world, we, by voice. you
by pen, We, by speaking only that which
l1,, ,11-
that which is fit to speak. You help us
and we help you. Side 10y side be these
two potent agencies until the Judgment
Day, when we must both be scrutiniZed
for our work, healthful or blasting.
The two worst off men in that day will
be the minister Of religion and the edi-
tor, if they wasted their opportunity
Both of us are the engineers of long ex-
press trains of influence. and we will run
them into depot of light or tumble
them off the embankment.
What q useful life and what glorious
: departure was that of the most famous
of all American printers, Benjamin
Franklin, whom infidels in the penury
of their resources have often fraudu-
lently claimed for their own, but the
printer who moved that the Philadelphia
convention be opened with prayer, the
resolution lost because majority
| thought prayer unnecessary, and who
! wrote at the time he was viciously at.
, tackled: My rule is to go straight for.
: ward in doing what appears to me to be
right, leaving the consequences t.
Providence" and who wrote this quaint
epitaph showing his hope of resurrec.
, ton. an epitaph that hundreds of times
read while living in Philadelphia:
The Body
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, Printer,
like the cover of an old book
Its contents torn out,
And stripped of its lettering and gliding
Lies here food for worms.
Yet the work itself shall not be lost,
For it will Jus he believed appear once more
In Il new
And more beautiful edition.
Corrected and amended
By
The Author.
That Providence intends the profes.
sion of reporters to have q mighty share
in the worlds redemption is suggested
by the factthat Paul and Christ took {
ported their addresses and reported
their acts. Luke was reporter, and he
wrote not only the book of Luke. but the
Acts of the Apostles, and without tina,
reporters work we would have known
nothing Of the Pentecost, and nothing
of Stephens martyrdom, and nothing Of
Tabitha's resurrection, and nothing Of
the jailing and unjailing of Paul ant
Silas, and nothing of the shipwreck Al
Melita. Strike out the reporters worl
from the Bible and you kill q large part
: of the New Testament. 1t makes me
think that in the future of the Kingdom
| of God the reporters are to bear
mighty part. ...
About thirteen years ago q representa-.
tive Of an important newspaper took hi'
seat in this church, one Sabbath night
about five pews from this pulpit. He
J took out pencil and reporters. pad, re-
solved to caricature the whole scene
When the music began he began, ant
with his pencil he derided that, ano
, then derided the prayer, and then de:
rided the reading Of the Scriptures, an6
then he began to deride the sermon
But, he says, for some reason
, his hand began to tremble
and he, rallying himself,
sharpened his pencil and started again
but broke down again, and then put
pencil and paper in his pocket and his
head down on the front of his pew and