The Atlanta constitution. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1885-19??, 1888-06-19
PULPIT AND PRESS.
Or. Talmage's Sermon at the
Brooklyn Tabernacle.
"The Children OF this World are, in. Their
Generation Wiser Than the Chill
dTen of Light"

Rev. L. Dewitt Talmage, d. d., took for the
subject OF his discourse, 'Pulpit and Press
Made Allies" His text was Luke xvi, v. s:
"The children of this world are in their gener-
alton wiser than the children of light" He
said:
Sacred stupidity and SOLEMN incompetency
and sanctiiied laziness are here rebuked by
Christ. He says worldlings are wider awake
Tor opportunities than are Christians. Men of
the world grab occasions while Christian peo-
pie let the most valuable occasions drift by
unimproved, That is the meaning of our Lord
when he says: "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
religion TO take possession of the secular print
ing press. The opportunity is open and has
Tor some time been open, but the ecclesiastical
courts and the churches and ministers of relig-
Ion are Tor the most part allowing the golden
opportunity to pass unimproved. That the
opportunity is open l declare from the
tact that all the secular newspapers are
glad of any religious facts or
STATISTICS that you present them. Any ami
themes they would gladly print. They thank
you for any information in regard to churches.
Ii 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 Dedca-
ton services, ministerial ordinations and pas
toral installations cornerstone laying of
church, anniversary of a charitable society,"
will have reasonable space i'll any secular Jour
nal If it have previous notice given. If l had
some great injustice done me, there is not an
editorial or reportorial room into which
could not go and get myself set right, and that
is true of any well-known Christian man. AL
ready the daily secular press during the
course of each week publishes as much religl-
GUS information and high moral sentiment as
does the weekly religious press Why then
does not our glorious Christianity embrace
these magnificent opportunities? 1 have be-
fore me a subject Of Hrst and last Importance:
How shall we secure the secular press as a
mlghtier reinforcement to religion and the
pulpit?
The first thing toward this result is cessa-
tion of indiscriminate hostility against news
paperdom. You might well denounce the
legal profession because of the shysters, or the
medical profession because of the quacks, or
merchandise because of the swindling bargain
makers, as to slam-bang newspapers because
there are recreant editors and unfair reporters
and unclean columns. Gutenberg, the in
ventor of the art of printing was about to de-
gtroy his types and extinguish 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 over
type and the intelligence of all following ages.
But there are many today in the depressed
mood of Gutenberg with uplifted hammer
wanting to pound to pieces the type,
who have not reached his better mood
IN which he saw the art of printing to be the
rising sun of the worlds illumination. If,
instead OF fighting newspapers, we spend the
same length of time and the same vehemence
in marShalling their help in religious direc-
tious, we would be as much wiser as the man
Nv IN re nf mi,
ent to fasten car to the end of q rail-tran
shows better sense than he who runs his wheel
barrow up the track TO meet and drive back
the Chicago limited express. The silliest thing
that man ever does is to fight a
newspaper, for you may have the floor for ut
terance perhaps one day in the week, while
the newspaper has the floor every day in the
week. Napoleon though mighty man had
many weaknesses, and one of the weakest
things he ever did was to threaten that if the
English newspapers did not stop their adverse
criticism of himself he would, with four hun
dred thousand bayonets, cross the channel for
their chastiSement
Don't fight newspapers. Attack provokes
attack. Better wait TIL 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 enor-
NOUS 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 society that fact
will come out, and if you are the friend of
good society that fact will be established. I
know what am talking about, for l can draw
on my own experience. All the respectable
newspapers, as far as L know, are my friends
now. But many of you remember the time
when | was the most continuously and
meanly attacked man in this country. God
gave me grace not to answer back, and 1 kept
silence for ten years, and much grace is re-
CURED What | said was perverted and
twisted into just the opposite of what did
say My person was maligned and was pre-
scented as gorgon, and was maliciously de-
seen me as a monstrosity in
body, mind and soul. There were
millions of people who believed that there was
3 large sofa in this pulpit, although we never
had anything but chair, and that during the
singing by the congregation was accustomed
to lie down on that sofa and dangle my feet
over the end. Lying New York correspond
ents for ten years misrepreSented our church
services, but we waited and people from every
neighborhood of Christendom came 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 over praise as
once we had under appreciation, and no man
that ever lived was so much indebted to tho
newspaperIpress for opportunity to preach tho
gospel as am Young men
In the ministry, young men in all
professions and occupations, wait. You can
afford to wait. Take rough Misrepresentation
rs Turkish towel to start up your languid
circulation, or system of massage or Swedish
movement, whose pokes and pulls and twists
and thrusts are salutary treatment. There is
only one person you need to manage and that
Is yourself. Keep your disposition sweet by
communion with the Christ, who answered
not again, the society of genial people, and
walk out in the sunshine with your hat off
and you will come out all right. And don't
Soin the crowd of people in our day who spend
much of their time damning newspapers.
Again, in this effort 10 secure the secular
press as a mightier reinforcement of religion
and the pulpit, let us make it the avenue Of re-
dgious information. If you put the facts of
churches and denominations of Christians
only into the column of religious rapers
which do not in this country have an average
of more than ten thousand subscribers, what
have you done as compared with
what you do if you put these facts
through the daily papers which have hundreds
Of thousands of readers. Every little denom-
maton must have its little organ supported at
great expense, when with one-half the outlay
column or halt a column of room might be
rented in some semi-omnipotent secular publ
cation and so the religious information would
be sent round and round the world. The