The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1888-07-04
More than eight hundred thousand people In

thousand sermons preached 1O'udy, Inero VII!
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 Z;
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 re-
porters, compositors, pressmen and news
boys. And if you have not falth
enough to pray for that and toll for that,
you had better get out OF our RANKS
and join the other side, for you are the un'
believers who make the wheels Of the Lords
chariot drag heavily. The great final battle
between truth and error, the Armageddon,
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 ,pas'
has been the pen. and the most divinely hon
ored weapon Of the future will be the pen
prophets pen and evangelist's pen and apos-
porter's pen and authors pen. God save the
penl The wing Of the Apocalyptic angel will
be the printed page. The printing press will
roll ahead Of Christ's chariot to clear the way.
"But." some one might ask, would you
make the Sunday newspapers also q re-en
forcement?n Yes, would. I have learned
to take things as they are. I would like tc
see the much scoffed at old Puritan Sabbath!
come back again. I do not think the modern
Sunday will turn out any better men ana
women than were your grandfathers and
grandmothers under the old-fashioned Sun
day. To say nothing of other results, Sun
day newspapers are killing editors, reporters,
compositors and pressmen. Every man,
woman and child is entitled to twenty-four
hours Of nothing to do. If the, newspapers
put on another set of hands that does not
relieve the editorial and reportorial room OF
its cares and responsibilities. Our literary
men die fast enough without killing them
with Sunday work. But the Sunday news
paper has come to stay. It will stay a
good deal longer than any Of US stay. What,
then shall we do? Implore all those who
have anything to do with issuing it to fill it
with moral or religious information; live
sermons and facts elevating. Urge the m
that all divorce cases be dropped, and IN
stead thereof have good advice as to how
husbands and wives ought to live lovingly
together. Put in small type the behavior OF
the swindling church member. and In large
type the contribution of some Christian man
toward an asylum for feeble minded children
or seaside sanitarium. Urge all managing
editors to put meanness and impurity in type
pearl or agate, and charity and fidelity and
Christian consistency in BREWER or bour-
geois. II we cannot drive out the Sunday
newspaper let US have the Sunday newspaper
The fact is that the modern Sun
day newspaper is great Improvement on
the old Sunday newspaper What beastly
thing was the Sunday newspaper thirty years
agol It was enough to destroy mans re-
ing out Of his coat pocket What editorials!
What advertisements What picturesl The
modern Sunday newspaper is as much an
on the old time Sunday news
paper as one hundred is more than twenty
Eve; in other words, about IS per cent. Inn.
provement. Who knows that by prayer and
kindly consultation with our literary friends
we may have it lifted into positively re.
ligious sheet, printed on Saturday night and
only distributed, like the Americnn Msssen-
ger, or the Missionary Journal, or the Sun.
daJ School Adrocate, on Sabbath morningsi
Ali things are possible with God,
and my faith Is up until nothing
in the way Of religious victory would sur.
prise me- ALI the newspaper printing
presses Of the earth are going to be the
Lords, and telegraph and telephone and
The first book eyer printed was the Bible by
Faust and his son-in-law, Schoeffer, in 1460,
and that conservation OF type to the Holy
Scriptures was prophecy Of the great mis-.
ZION of printing for the evangelization of all
the nations The father Of the American
printing press was a clergyman, Rev. Jesse
Glover, and that was prophecy Of the re-
ligious USE that the Gospel ministry in this
country were to make of the types.
Again, we shall secure the secular press as
q mightier enforcement Of religion and the
pulpit by making our religious utterances
more interesting and spirited, and then the
press will reproduce them. On the way to
church some fifteen years ago, journalist
,aid thing that has kept mo ever since
thinking. "Are you going to give us any
points to-dayF' "What do you meanp l
asked. He SAID: "I mean by that anything
that will be striking enough to be remem-
oered." Then said to myself: What right
have we in our pulpits and Sunday schools to
.ake the time Of people if we have nothing to
,ay that is memorable7 David did not
nave any difficulty in remembering Nathans
thrust: " Thou art the man." nor Felix
IN remembering Paul's point blank utter.
ance on Righteousness, temperance and
Judgment to come: nor the English King
any difficulty in remembering what the
court preacher said, when during the SER
mon against sin the preacher threw his hand
Serchief into the kings pew to indicate whom
be meant The tendency of criticism in the
theological seminaries is to file of from our
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, reform.
ers, 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 suggested
points, sharp points, memorable points.
But If the thing be dead when uttered by
living voice, it will be hundredfold moro
lead when it is laid out in cold type. -,
Now, as you all have something to DO WIN
The newspaper press either in issuing paper
or in reading it. either as producers or pa
trons either as sellers or purchasers OF the
printed sheet. I propose on this Saooatn
June II, 1888, q treaty to be signed
between the church and the printing press, a
treaty to be ratified by millions of good peo-
pie if we rightly fashion it, q treaty promls-
ing that we will help each other in our work
of trying to illumine and felicltate the
world, we by voice, you by pen, we py
speaking only that which is worth print
ing, you by printing only shat at WIN wnIch hoiS Is
you. Side by 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
editor if they wasted their opportunity.
Both Of US are the engineers of long express
trains of influence, and we will run into
a depot Of light or tumble them or the en-
bankment.
What useful life aud what glorious de.
parture was that Of the most famous Of all
American printers, Benjamin Franklin,
whom infdels in the penury Of their re-
sources have often fraudulently claimed for
their own, but the printer who moved that
the Philadelphia convention be opened With
prayer, the resolution lost because ma
jority thought prayer unnecessary, and who
wrote at the time he was viciously attacked:
"My rule is to 60 straight forward in doing
what appears to me to be right, leaving Cne