Sturgis advertiser. (Sturgis, Dakota [S.D.]) 1887-1???, 1890-09-18
THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER

The Rev. Dwight L. Moody Pays His Re-
spects to 1t.
Next to few sensational actors, and
possibly to the Rev. Sam Jones, says
the Detroit Free Press, there is no one
within the borders of the United States
who owes so much to the newspapers
as does the Rev. Dwight l.. Moody,
who was raised from the position of an
obscure travelling evangelist to one of
artificial influence and artificial pros
perity by the entirely free advertising
given him by the press of the country
When he began his services he would
have had no hope of doing more than
to attract slender congregations in OBJ
scure chapels had it not been for the
| fact that reporters found him out and,
/ by giving him column after column of
unpaid for space, thrust him into pub
lie notice, until now he is able to go UP
and down through the earth attracting
congregations in every city, and living,
metaphorically, at least, upon the fat
of the land. Even to-day, however,
were he to be dropped" by the press,
it would not be sig months before he
would be a mere Renaissance, or O.
year before he would be as thoroughly
out of sight as is the once celebrated
Edward Payson Hammond. Yet Mr..
Moody, true to the malign instinct
which seems to attack so many pros
porous men in his position, has seen
fit to assail the Sunday newspaper.
He lately conducted series of meet
ings in New York, at one of which he
said:
IT do not believe Gabriel himself
could come down into this pulpit and
preach with power to an audience that
had been busy for two or three hours
reading the Sunday papers. But some
one says: BE mild, Mr.. Moody, or
the papers will pitch into you Let
the papers pitch into me. I think the
time has come for plain speaking.
When ministers and members of the
church buy newspapers on the street
on Sunday morning from little boys
who are kept out of the church and
Sunday schools by selling these papers,
I think some one should speak. I do
not know what the Sunday papers con-
tain. / never read one. I would as
soon touch pitch; but am told that the
editors gather the scum from all over
the world and publish it on Sunday"
There is no reason in the world why
Mr.. Moody should not abstain, if he
chooses, from reading the Sunday
newspaper; there is every reason why
he should abstain from recklessly mis-
representing it, not the least of which
is that the decalogue, of the teachings
of which he is supposed to be the ex-
ponent, forbids the bearing of false
witness against ones neighbor. There
are teachers who teach false doctrines:
there are preachers who are false to
the duties and responsibilities of pri-
vate life; there are teachers who use
one measure to mete out to their con-
gregations and adopt another rule in
dealing with themselves. So there are
Sunday newspapers which print what
is impure, sensational and demoraliz-
ing, but these are in the minority, and
it may be said of the great majority
that they work with intentions as sin
gle to the public good as can any cler-
gyman or any teacher.
The reading of good Sunday news
paper is surely better than the hear
ing of sermon which is either stupid
or false. The Sunday newspaper rep
resents the brains of twenty or fifty
men and women whose average intelli-
gence and sincerity is equal to the av-
erage in any other profession, clerical
or lay. 1t reaches $4,000 or 800, 900
people, where the words of the clergy
man from his pulpit would reach thir-
ty, 300, or at most 1000, were he not
assisted by the very press which he is
too often ready to assail and malign.
1t teaches clean things, it teaches pure
things, it teaches people to think, and
it reaches untold thousands who are
withheld from attendance upon the
services of our churches for one or
another reason. If clergymen were
wise they would hold out the right
hand of fellowship to the strong and
virile collaboration OF the Sunday
press, condemning only what is false
and impure, while giving just and hon.
est recognition to that which is honest
and good.
Servants "Ghara aters.'
The recent decis ion in England of