The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1888-06-27

from an injustice could go into any ed
itorial or reportorlal room in the United
States and be set right. And so could any
well-known Christian man. Why then
does not our glorious Christianity en-
brace the opportunity opened? 1 have
before me subject Of first and last i'm
portance. How shall we secure the secu-
lar newspaper press in mightier reinforce
ment for religion and the pulpit? First,
by cessation of indiscriminate hostility
against newspaperdom. You might as
well denounce the legal profession be-
cause there are shysters, or the medical
profession because there are quacks, or
commerce because there are fraudulent
bargain makers as to denounce news
papers because there are recreant
editors and unfair reporters and unclean
columns. Instead of fighting newspapers,
il We will take the length of time so de
voted, and the vehemence, and employ
them marshaling for help all those influ-
ences, we will be as much wiser as the
man who asks railroad superintendent
for the privilege of fastening his car at the
rear of a rail train is wiser than the man
who runs up the rail track with wheel
barrow, proposing TO drive back the Chi
cago limited express. The silliest thing a
man ever does is to fight newspapers, for
the man may have the floor for utterance
one day OF the week, while the newspa-
per has the floor for utterance seven DAYS
of the week. Do not fight newspapers.
Attack provokes attack. Wait until the
excitement has blown over, and then go
In and get justice, and get it you will if
you have patience and common sense and
equipoise of disposition. It ought TO be a
mighty sedative that there is an
enormous amount of common sense
abroad in the world, and every man comes
70 be taken for just what he is worth, and
you cannot be pulled up and you cannot
be run down. III you are the foe Of
society, the fact will come out, and if you
are the friend of good society the fact will
come out. l know of what am speak
ing. for / can draw little from my own
experience. While all respectable news
papers, so far as | know, are my friends
now, there are persons here who can re-
member the time when / was the most
outrageously and meanly and continuous
ly attacked man IN this country. For ten
years, by the power of the grace of God,
] kept silent. But the work went on.
What said was perverted or twisted into
Just the opposite of what l said. My
person was maligned. ] was represented
as Gorgon. Persons who had never seen
me described me as a mOnstrosity in body,
mind and soul. There are millions OF
people in this country who
thought we had in this pulpit a
large sofa, and that while the
congregation were singing / was accus-
toned to lie down on the sofa. nv feet
dangling over the end of it. Lying New
York correspondents kept up the misrep-
resentation year after year, but after a
while people from all parts of Christen-
dom came and they saw with their own
eyes and heard with their own ears, and
found out the magnitude of the falsehoOds
in regard to myself and in regard to this
church, and 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 has ever lived mas been so indebted
TO the newspaper press for the opportunity
of preaching the gospel as am indebted.
Young men in the ministry, young men in
the law, young men in all professions and
occupations, wait You can afford 10
wait Justice will after a while be
done. Again, II we would secure the
secular printing press in mightier
reinforcement for religion and the
pulpit we must make it more thoroughly
the avenue for religious information.
have no words of admiration with which
I can express my appreciation of the relig-
ious newspapers of this country and the
work they are doing. While | have the
highest appreciation of the religious print
ing press, suppose you give religious facts
and statistics and information to the re-
ligious press, the average of circulation
less than ten thousand, what do you do as
compared with giving the religious facts
spd statistics and information to the Sec
ulA7 press whose subscribers are counted
by the hundreds of thousands2 The
world goes so fast now that news week
old Is stale. Give US all the church facts