Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1888-06-29
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
The Weekly Discusses of the Great
Brooklyn Preacher.
Subject: "PuIpit and Press
Made AIIies.''

| Christ. He says workings are wider awake
for opportunities than are Christians Men
of the world grab occasions while Christian
people let the most valuable occasions drift
! by unimproved. That is the meaning of our
! Lord when he says: 1.-THE children of this
world are in their generation wiser than the
children of light
A marked illustration of the truth of that
maxim is in the slowness of the Christian re-
| ligion to take possession of the secular print
ing press The opportunity is open, and has
for some time been open, but the ecclesasti-
cal courts and the churches and the ministers
of religion are for the most part allowing the
golden opportunity to pass unimproved.
That the opportunity is open / declare from
the fact that the secular newspapers are glad
of any religious facts or statistics that you
present them. Any animated and stirring
article relating to religious themes they
would gladly print. They thank you for any
information in regard to churches. Ii a
wrong has been done to any Christian
church or Christian institution you
could go into any newspaper of the land
and have the real truth stated. Dedica-
ton services, ministerial ordinations and
pastoral installations, corner stone laying Of
a church. anniversary of charitable society
will have reasonal lie spice in any secular
Journal, if it have previous notice given. IL
/ had some great injustice done me there is
not an editorial or areportorial room in the
United States into which | could not go and
get myself set right, and that is true of any
well known Christian. Already the daily
secular press during the course of each week
publishes as much religious information and
high moral sentiment as does the weekly re-
ligious press Why then does not our glori-
Gus Christianity embrace these magnificent
opDortunities? / have before me subject OF
first and last Importance. How shall we Sc
cure the secular press as mlghtler re-en-
a. 70 1inrfnT or
The first thing toward this result is cessa-
tion of indiscriminate hostility against news
paperdom You might as well denounce the
legal profession because Of the shysters, or
the medical profession because of the quacks,
or merchandise because of the swlndllng lar
gain makers, as to slambang newspapers be-
cause there are reCreant editors and unfair
reporters and unclean columns Gutenberg,
the inventor of the art of printing, was about
TO DESTROY his types and extingush the art
because it was suggested to him that print
ing might be suborned into the service of the
devil. but afterward he bethought himself
that the right use of the art might more than
overcome the evil use OF It, ana SO ne
shared the type and the intelligence of all fol-
lowing ages. But there are many to day in the
depressed mood of Gutenberg with uplifted
hammer, wanting to pound to pieces the
tvne who have not reached his better mood
in which he saw the art of printing to be the
rising sun of the worlds illumination. Ii IN
stead of fighting newspapers we spend the
same length of time and the same vehemence
in marShaling their help in religious dlrec-
tions. we would be as much wiser as the man
who gets consent of the railroad superin-
tendent to fasten a car to the end OF rail
train, shows better sense than he who runs
his wheelbarrow up the track to meet and
drive back the Chicago limited express. The
silliest thing that a man ever does is to fight
II axyat n or
utterance perhaps one day in the week, while
the newspaper has the floor every day or the
week. Napoleon, though mighty man, had
many weaknesses, and one OF the weakest
thin gs he ever did was to threaten that if the
English newspapers did not stop their ad-
verse criticism of himself he would with four
hundred thousand bayonets cross the channel
for their chastisement
Don't FIGHT newspapers. Attack provokes
attack. Better wait till the excitement blows
over and then go in and get justice, for get
it you will if you have patience and common
sense and equipoise of disposition. 1t ought
to be a mighty sedative that there is an
enormous amount of common sense in the
world, and YOU will eventually be taken for
what You are really worth, and you cannot
be pulled up and you cannot be written
down, and if you are the enemy of good So
ciety that fact will come out and If you are
the friend of good society that fact will be
established. / know what l am talking
about, for | can draw on my own experience.
All the responsible newspapers as far as
know are my friends now. But many of
you remember the time when | was
the most continuously and meanly at
tackled man in this country. God gave
me grace not to answer back, and kept
silence for ten years, and much grace is
required. What said was perverted and
twisted into just the opposite of what did
say. My person was maligned, and l was
presented as gorgon, and was maHclouSly
described by persons who had never seen me
as a monstrosity in body, mind and soul
There were millions of people who believed
that there was a large sofa in this pulpit, al
though we never had anything but a chair,
and that during the singing by the congrega-
ton was accustomed to Lib down on that
sofa and bangle my feet over the end. Lying
New York correspondents for ten years
misrepresented our church services, but
we waited and people from every neighbor-
hood of Christendom came here to find the
magnitude OF the falsehoods concerning the
church and concerning myself. A reaction
set in and now we have justice, full justice,
more than justice and as much oVerpraise as
once we had under appreciation, and no man
that ever lived was SO much indebted to the
newspaper press for opportunity to preach
the Gospel as l am. Young men in the min
istry, young men in all professions and occu-
pations, wait. You can afford to wait.
Take rough misrepresentation as Turkish
towel to start up your languid circulation,
or a system OF massage or Swedish move
ment, whose pokes and pulls and twists and
thrusts are salutary treatment. There is
one person you need to manage and that is
| yourself Yeep your disposition sweet by
communion with the Christ who answered
not again, the society of genial people, and
walk in the sunshine With your hat Oil and
| you will come out all right. And don't join
| the crowd of people in our day who spend
much of their time damning newspapers.
| Again, in this effort to SECURE the secular
press as mIghtier reinforcement OF religion
and the pulpit, let us make it the avenue Of
religious information. If you put the facts
| of churches and denominations of Christians
only into the columns of religious papers,
| which do not in this country have an aver
age of more than ten thousand SUBSCRIBERS,
! what have you done as compared With what
YOU do il Won put these facts through the
| daily papers which have hundreds of thou
sands of readers! Every little denomination
must have its little organ, supported qt great
| expense, when, with one half the outlay, a col
umn or half column of room might be
rented in some semi omnipotept secular pnb
LEGATION, and so the religious information
would be sent round and round the world
| The world moves so swiftly to-daY that nows
q week old is stale. Give us all the great
church facts and all the revival tidings the
next morning or the same evening. My ad
vice, often given to friends who propose tC
start newspaper, is; "Don't Don't! EN-
ploy the papers already startedN The big
gest financial hole ever dug in this American
Continent is the hole in which good people
throw theiF money when they start q news
paper. 1t is almost as good and as quick {
way of getting rid of money as buying stock
in gold mine in Colorado. Not more print
ing presses, but the right use of those already
established. All their cylinders, all theil
steam power, all their pens, all their types
all their editorial chairs and repoPtoria
rooms are available ii you would engage
them in behalf of civilization and Chris
| tianity