The Brookhaven leader., 1888-06-28
TALMAGES SERMON.
A Discourse on the "Pulpit and
Press as Allies"
The Power OF tho Press for Good or Evil
The Folly OF AntagonixIng It-A
Force that should be CuItI-
vated and Promoted

Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage preached Q
sermon in Brooklyn Tabernacle on the |
| Pulpit and Press Made Allies" taking
for his text:
| The children OF this world are in their gener-
| ntion wiser than the children OF light Luke,
| xvi, 8.
He said: Sacred stupidity and solemn
| incompetency and sanctified laziness are
here rebuked by Christ. He says world
lings are wider awake tor opportunities
than are Christians. Men of the world
grab occasions while Christian people
let the most valuable occasions drift by
rnimproved. This is the meaning Of our
Lord when He says:
| { The children OF this world are in their genera
zion 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 printing press. The oppor-
| tunity is open and has for some time been
| open, but the ecclesiastical courts and
| the churches and the mir listers OF re-
| ligion are for the most part allowing the
| golden opportunity to pass unimproved.
| That the opportunity is open l declare
from the fact that all the secular news
papers 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 wrong has been
| done to any Christian church or Chris
| tian institution, you could go into any
newspaper of the land and have the real
| truth stated. Dedication services, minis
terial ordinations and pastoral instala-
tions, corner stone laying OF church,
anniversary OF a charitable society, will
| have reasonable space in any secular
| journal, il it have previous notice given.
| If ] had some great injustice done me,
| there is not an editorial or reportorial
room in the United States into which
could not go and get myself set right, and
| that is true Of any we'll known Christian
man. Already the daily secular press
during the course Of each week publishes
ns much religious information and high
moral sentiment as does the weekly re-
ligious press. Why then does not our
glorious Christianity embrace these mag
nificent opportunities: / have before me
subject of first and last importance:
How shall we secure the secular press as
q mightier re enforcement to religion and
the pulpit?
The first thing toward this result is
cessation of indiscriminate hostility
against newspaperdom. You might as
we'll denounce the legal profession be-
cause of the shyster, or the medical pro-
fessiOn because of the Quacks, or mer-
| chandiSc because of the swindling bar
gain makers, as to lam-bang newspa-
| pers because there are reCreant editors
and unfair reporters, and unclean col
umns. Gutenberg, the inventor Of the
art of printing, was about to destroy his
types and extinguish the art because it
was suggested to him that printing 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 ii, and so he
spared the type and the intelligence of
all following ages. But there are many
to-day in the depressed mood OF Gutten-
berg, 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. II instead of
fighting newspapers we spend the same
length of time and the same vehemence
In marshaling their help in religious
directions, we would be as much wiser as
the man who gets consent Of the railroad
superintendent to fasten car to the end
of rail-train shows better sense than
he who runs his wheelbarrow up the track
10 meet and drive back the Chicago linn
tied express. The silliest thing that a
man ever does is to fight a newspaper,
for you may have the floor for utterance
perhaps one day in the week, while the
newspaper hts the floor every day of the
week. Napoleon, though a mighty man,
had many weaknesses, and one of the
weakest things he ever did was to threaten
l 4hA Tn oh 1nt
stop their adverse criticism of himself he
would, with 100000 bayonets, cross the
channel for their chastisement.
Don't fight newspapers. Attack pro-
vokes attack. Better wait till the excite
ment blows over and then go in and get
justice, for get it you will If you have pa
| thence 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 can not be
puffed up and you can not 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. know
what l am talking about, for I can
draw on my own experience. All
| tuc ISSpSCtuplO newspapers 10 ldI as
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 l 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 per-
son was maligned ana was presented as
Gorgon, and l was maliciously de-
scribed 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 large sofa in this
pulpit, although we never had any thing
but a chair, and that during the singing
by the congregation was accustomed to
lie down on that sofa an d dangle my feet
over the end.
Lying New York correspondents for ten
years misrepresented our church services,
but We waited and people from every
neighborhood of Christendom came here
70 find the magnitude Of the falsehoods
concerning the church and concerning
myself. A reaction set in and now
We have justice, and as much overpraise
as once we had under appreciation, and
NO man that ever lived was so much in
de eOted TO the newspaper press for oppor-
tunity to preach the Gospel as l am.
Young men in the ministry, young men in
all professions and occupations, wait.
You can afford TO wait. Take rough mis-
representation as Turkish towel to start
rp your languid circulation, or a system
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