The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1888-06-27

an Improvement on the old-time Sunday
newspaper as one hundred is more than
twenty five; in other words, above Is pc,
cent. Improvement. Who knows but
that by prayer and kindly consultation
with our literary friends we may have it
lifted into positively religious sheet
printed on Saturday uight and only dis.
tributed, like the American Messenger,
or the Missionary Journal, or the Sun.
day School Advocate, on Sabbath morn.
ings.
''All things are possible with God, and
my faith is up until nothing in the way
of religious victory wo1lld surprise me-
All the newspaper printing presses of the
earth are going to be the Lords and tele
graph anu telephone and type will YET
announce nations born in day. The
first book ever printed was the Bible, by
Faust and his son-in-law, Schoeffer, In
1850, and that conservation of type to the
Holy Scriptures was prophecy of the
great mission Of printing for the evange
lization of all the nations.
"Again: We shall secure the secular
press as a mightier reinforcement oi
religion and the pulpit by making oul
religious differences more interesting and
spirited, andthen the press will reproduce
them. On the way to church, some fifteen
years ago, a journalist said thing that
has kept me ever since thinking. 'Are
you going to give Us any points to-day:
what 90 you mean? Iasked. He said
Il mean by that anything that will be
striking enough to be remembered.
Then / said to myself, what right have
we in our pnlpits and Sunday school tc
take the time of people if we have
nothing to say that is memorable?
"Tbe tendency Of criticism in the
theological seminaries is to file off from
our young men all the sharp points and
make them too smooth for any kind oi
execu ion. What we want, all of us
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 teaches, reformes, young
men aud 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 q
hundredfold more dead when it is laid
out in cold rype.
"Now, as you all have something to
do with the newspaper press, either IN
issning paper or in reading it, either
as produces or patrons, either as sellers
or purchasers OF the printed sheet,
propose on this Sabbath morning, June
II, 1855, treaty to be signed between
the church and the printing press, q
treaty to be ratified by millions of good
people if we rightly fashion it; treaty
promising that we we will help each other
in our work of trying to illumine and
felicitate the world, We by voice, you by
pen; We by speaking only that which is
worth printing, you by printing only
that which is fit to speak. You help us
and we will help you. Side by side be
these two potent agencies until the
Judgment day, when we must both be
scrutinized for our work, healthful OF
blasting. The two worst of men in that
day will be the minister OF religion and
the editor if the editor if they wasted
their opportunity. Both Of us are engl,
neers OF long express trains OF influence,
and We will run them into q depot OF
light or tumble them off the embankmets'
GOVERNING A scoFFlNG REPORTER.
"About thirte en- years ago a represen,
ative of an important newspaper took hlf
seat in this church one Sabbath night
about five pews from the front Of this
pulpit. He took out pencil and reporters
pad, resolved to oaricature the whole
scene. when the music began he began,
and with his pencil he derided that, and
then he derided the prayer, and then de.
rided the reading of the Scriptures, and
then began to deride the sermon. But.
he saws, for some reason his hand began
to tremble, and he, rlllying himself,
sharpened his pencil and started again,
but broke down again, and then put
pencil and paper in his pocket and his
head down on the front OF the pew and
began to pray. At the close of the
service he came up and asked for the
prayers of others and gave his heart tc
God, and though still engaged IN news
paper work, nais an evangelist, and hires
a hall at his OWL expense and every Sab
bath afternoon breaches Jesus Christ to
the people.
"Ald the men of that profession are
going to come in body throughout the
country. know hundreds OF them, and
more genial or highly educated class Of
men it would be hard to find, and, though
the tendency of their profession may be
toward skepticism, an organized, com
nonsense Gospel invitetion would fetch
them to the front of all Christian endeav.
or. Men OF the pencil and pen, in all
departments, you need the help OF
Christian religion. In the day when
people want to get their newspapers al
three cents, and are hoping for the time
when they can get any Of them at one
cent, and, as Consequence, the attaches
of the printing press are by the thou
sand ground under the cylinders, you
want God to take care of you and your
families. Some of your best work is as
much unappreciated as was Millions
Paradise Lost, for which the author re-
ceived s25; and the immortal poem,
'Hohenlinden,' of Thomas Campbell,
when he first offered it for publication,
and in the column called Notices to
Correspondents appeared the words
TO T. C.-The lines commencing, "On
Linden when the sun was low, are not
up to our standard. Poetry is not L.
C.'s forte
"Oh, men of the pencil and pen, amid
your unappreciated work you need en-
conranement and YOU can have it.