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

o,,,. w noh JoAh the crowd of people in |
our Gay who spend much of their time
o'hhlhg newspapers.
AGAIN; in this effort to secure the sec
OF religion and the puk,it. let MS wake
u the avenue of religious information.
II you put the facts of churches and de-
nominations of Christians only into the
coItmn,of religious papers, which do
not In this country have an average of
more IMAM l0,OOO subscribers, what have
you zone as compared with what YOU do
II you put these facts through'the daily
papers, which have hundreds of thou
SANDS OF readers? Every little denomi-
nation must have its little organ, sup
pofsea at great expense, when with one
halt'the outlay column OF half col
umn OF room might be rented in some
semf- omnipotent secular publication,
and SO the religious information would
be sent round and roundsthe world. The
world moves so swiftly to- day that news
week old is stale. Give us all the
great church facts and oil the revival
'tldlngs the next morning or the same
evening. My advice, often given to
friends who proposetto start new pa
per, is: Don't! Don't! Employ the
papers already started" The biggest
financial hole ever dug in this American
Continent is the hole in which good
people throw their money when they
start q newspaper. 1t is almost as good
and as quick a way of getting rid of
money as buying stock in q coal mine in
Colorado. Not more printing presses
but the right use of those already estab-
lished. All their cylinders, all their
steam power, all their pens, all their
types, all their editorial chairs and re-
portorial rooms are available if you
would engage'them in behalf Of civiliZa-
ton and Christianity.
Again: if you would secure the secu-
lar press as a mightier re- enforcement
of religion and the pulpit. extend widest
and highest Christian courtesies to the
representatives. of journalism. Give
them easy chairs and plenty of room
when they come toreport occasions. For
the most part they are gentlemen Of edu-
cation and refinement, graduates of col
leges, with families to support by their
literary craft, many Of them weary with
the push of q business that is precarious
and fuctuating, each one of them the
avenue of information to thousands of
readers. their impression Of the services
to be the impression adopted by multi
tudes. They are connecting links be-
tween q sermon or a song or q prayer
and this great population that tramp up
and down the streets day by day and
year by year with their sorrows uncom-
forted and their sins unpardoned. More
than eight hundred thousand people in
Brooklyn. and less than seventy-tive
thousand in churches, so that our cities
are not so much preached to
by ministers Of religion as
by reporters. Put all Journalists into
our prayers and sermons. OF all the
hundred thousand sermons preached to-
day there will not be three preached to
journalists, and probably not one. Of
all the prayers offered for classes of men
innumerable, the prayers offered for
, this most potential class will be SO few
and rare that they will be thought a
preachers idiosyncrasy. This world
will never be brought to God until some
} revival of religion sweeps over the land
and takes into the kingdom of God
editors and reporters, compositors,
!; pressmen. and newsboys. And if you
have not faith enough to pray for that
and toll for that you had better get out
of our ranks and join the other side, fol-
YOU are the unbelievers who make the
wheels of the Lords chariot drag heavily.
The great final battle between truth and
error. the Arnageddon, think, will not
be fought with swords and shells and
guns, but with pens, quill pens, steel
pens, gold pens. fountain pens: and be-
!, fore that, the pens must be converted.
The most divinely honored weapon of
the past has been the pen, and the most
} divinely honored weapon of the future
: will be the pen, prophets pen and evan
by editors pen and reporters pen and
authors pen. God save the pen! The
wing of the Apocalyptic angel will be
the printed page. The printing press
will roll ahead of sChrists chariot to
clear the way.
But" some one might ask, would
, you make the Sunday newspapers also O
: re- enforcement" Yes, would. I have
) learned to take things as they are.
would like to see the much-sc offed- at
: old Puritan Sabbaths come back again.
do not think the modern Sunday will
turn out any better men and women than
} We're your grandfathers and grandmoth-
, ers under the old fashioned Sunday. TIC
!, saw nothing Of other results, Sunday
newspapers are killing editors, report
ers. compositors, and pressmen. Every
man, woman, and child are entitled to
| twenty-four hours of nothing to do. II
the newspapers put on another set OF
| hands that does not relieve the editorial
, and reportorial room of it's cares and
responsibilities. Our literary men die
: fast enough without killing them with
Sunday work. But the Sunday newspa:
| per has come to stay. It will stay good
, deal longer than any of lis stay. What
: then shall we do? Implore all those
who have anything to do with issuing il
7 to fill it with moral andtreligious infor-
! nation; live sermons and:facts elevatin,g
7 Urge them that all divorce cases be
dropped and instead thereof have good
7 advice as to how husbands and wives
: ought to live lovingly together. Put il
small type the behavior of,the swindline
! church member and in large type the
} contribution of some Christian man !, TO- e
/ ward an asylum for feeble-minded chill.
dren or seaside sanitarium. Urge al!
| managing editors to put meanness and
/ impurity in,type pearl or agate and char
| ity and fidelity and Christian consist
5 ency in BREWER and bourgeois. Ii We
:, cannot drive out the Sunday newspaper
a Let us have: the Sunday newspaper con-
verified. The fact is that the modern
e sunday newspaper is a great improve
! meut on the old Sunday newspaper
| What.a beastly thing was the Sunday
: newsnaper thirty years ago! 1t was