Milford chronicle., 1888-06-22
PRESS AND PULPIT.
SUNDAY MORNING SERVICES IN THE
BROOKLYN TABERNACLE.

Rev. DR.. Talmnge Would Secure the Secu
lar Press as a Re-enforoement of Re
ligIon and the Pulpit-The Modern Sun
day Newspaper.
BRooKLYN, June 17.--At the service in the
Tabernacle this morning, the Rev. T. d.
Witt Talmage, D. D., took for the subject o.
his discourse, Pulpit and Press Made Allies.
His text was Luke xvi, 8; "The children
Of this world are in their generation wiser
than the children of light" He said;
Sacred s~pidity and solemn incompetency
and sanctifed laziness are here rebuked by
Christ He says worldings are wider awake
for opportunities than are Christians. Mer
of the world grab occasions while Christian
people let the most valuable occasions drift
by unimproved That is the meaning of ou
Lord when he says; 1.-THE children Of thi:
world are in their generation wiser than the
children of light"
A marked illustration of the truth Of that
maxim is in the slowness of the Christian re
ligion to take possession of the secular print
ing press The opportunity is open and has
for some time been open, but the ecclesiasti
cal courts and the churches and the ministers
Of religion are for the most part allowing the
golden opportunity to pass unimproved.
That the opportunity is open | declare from
the fact that the secular newspapers 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. If a
wrong has been done to any Christian
church or Christian institution you
could go into any newspaper of the land
and have the real truth stated. Dedica-
tion services, ministerial ordinations and
pastoral installations, corner stone laying of
a church, anniversary of a charitable society
will have reasonable space in any secular
journal, if it have previous notice given. If
had some great injustice done me there is
not an editorial or a reportorial room in the
United States into which l could not 60 and
get myself set right, and that is true of any
well known Christian Already the daily
secular press during the course of each week
publishes as much religious information and
high moral sentiment as does the weekly re-
ligious press Why then does not our glori-
ous christianity embrace these magnificent
opportunities have before me a subject OF
first and last Importance. How shall we Sc
cure the secular press as a mightier re-en-
fcrcement to religion and the public9
The first thing toward this result is cessa-
tion of indiscriminate hostility against news
paperdOm You might as well denounce the
legal profession because Of the shysters, or
the medical profession because of the quacks,
or merchandise because of the swindliug bar
gain Makers as to slambang newspapers be-
cause there are recreant editors and unfair
reporters and unclean columns Gutenberg,
the inventor Of the art of printing, was about
to destroy his types and eKtinguish the art
because it was suggested to him that print
ing 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 it, and so he
spared the type and the intelligence of all fol-
lowing ages. But there are many today in tho
depressed mood of Gutenberg 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. If in
stead of fighting newspapers we spend the
same length of time and the same vehemence
in marshaling their help in religious direc-
tious, we would be as much wiser as the man
who gets consent Of the railroad superin.
tendent to fasten a car to the end of a rail
train, shows better sense than he who runs
his wheelbarTow up the track to meet and
drive back the Chicago limited 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 has 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 that if the
English newspapers did not stop their ad
hundred thousand bayonets cross the channel
for their chastisement
Don't fight newspapers. Attack provokes
attack Better wait till the excitement blows
over and then go in and get justice, for get
it you viii 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 in the
world, and you will eventually be taken for
what you are really worth, and you cannot
be puffed up and you cannot be written
down, and If you are the enemy Of good so
ciety that fact will come out, and if you are
the friend Of good society that fact will be
established. know what am talking
about, for can draw on my own experience.
All the respectable newspapers as far as
know are my friends now. But many Of
you remember the time when l was
the most continuously and meanly at
tucked man in this country God
gave me grace not to answer back. and
kept silence for ten years, and much grace is
required. What 1 said was perverted and
twisted into just the opposite Of what did
sRy My person was 'maligned, and was
presented as gorgon, and was maliciously
described by persons who had never seen me
as q monstrosity in body, mind and soul
There were millions Of people who believed
that there was a large sofa in this pulpit, al
though we never had anything but chair,
end that during the singing by the congrega-
zion l was accustomed to lie down on that
sofa and dangle my feet over. the end. Lying
New York correspondents for ten Year,
misrepresented our c..urch services, but
we waited, and people from egery neighbor.
hood Of Christendom came here to find the
magnitude Of the falsehoods concerning the
church and concerning myself A reaction
set in and now we have justice, full justice,
more than justice and as much overpraise AZ
once we had under appreciation, and no man
that ever lived was 50 much indebted to the
newspaper press for opportunity to preach
the Gospel as am Young men in the min
istry, young men in all professions and occu.
lpations wait. You can afford to wait
Take rough Misrepresentation as a Turkish
tovEel To start up your ianeuid circulation.