Daily Kennebec journal., 1894-11-16
THE OTHER SIDE.
Rev. Robert A. Holland Speaks Good Word
for the Sunday Papers.

befJac ths Episcoal Congress at Boston,
We lnesday evening; &
liter an entertaining review O. the
growth and purposes and the faults and
merits Of newspapers, Mr.. Holland said:
ALREADY the arm Of the newspaper is
lifting that inward opening door from its
hinges. The liberal compass Of mans
warm embrace closes about the misery
that leans right against his heart. Caste
will ere long be impossible. No house
no spirit can shut out the life Of human
ity, high and low, rich and poor, that
with the newspaper enters every door and
leaves it wide open. No matter what the
rea1er likes, the headlines run so clos
together that he has to see sorrow at the
elbow of gaiety and birth upon the breast
Of death, while sob and laugh, shout and
wall, blessing and cursing and prayer all
blend into an undertone, which his bust
est thought end purpose cannot hush. He
is what he reads and his character is rich
er and more harmonic because with life's
higher tones the lower too are heard, "a
the alto of their soprano, the bass Of their
tenor, in ull-choircd humanity.
Ia all this perhaps the newspaper has no
ethical intention. Profit may be its chief
and only aim, but profits require sale.
Unsold its news would be the puff checked
winding Of cracked and silent horn,
ana in order to sell, it must supply the
intelligence which men want, and mems
wants because they are human. are neccs-
'arily ethical and meet in ethical scales
whenever brought to knowledge that can
not avoid comparison and Judgment.
J,,t h., hichnr, tn, tha
joos black world and looks around and
ICES how immense it is, what wrongs of
,ou.s venerate policeman club more
than crosier. He wonders why this
world is not theirs why perhaps they have
no idea of a soul, much less of a shepherd
of the soul, and why, If they knew no
Shepherds voice, they should not follow
the voice of thieves. So likewise the boot
black gets glimpse now and then of a
bishop and marvels what sort of a thing
a bishop is, and on learning that he is "A
shepherd of souls, marvels, further, if
boot blacks have souls and if such souls
are anywhere in and about their bodies,
md if the shepherding of souls might in
any way pasture wretched bodies so the
bishop cducates the boot black and the
boot black educates the bishop in that one
humanity whose mutual needs are mutual
lutics and whose universal law is cnIiesh-
mcnt of spirit incarnation. This is the
spcl of the newspaper.
The most significant note of this gospel
is in its daily reading.
In the daily newspaper, man lives the
whole worlds life throb by throb. The
newspaper gives him a world conscious
ncsi During the day he buys and sells
ny an almost constant appraisal of the
worlds markets; he watches the stages of
an international regatta while it sails; he
;ocJ cholera spread from house to houst
along the back streets of II transoccanic
town; he attends the debate of a Reich
stag whose vote may precipitatc a contin-
entail war; and all the while he feels his
private values and schemes flicker like
a pulse through which flows the blood of
the whole worlds market. Day by day;
each day between two nights distinct life
between Il birth and a death; the day that
has no newspaper losing that much OF tpe
worlds life from consciousness; today's
newspaper back number tomorrow, an
obituary, an order of death and the sep
ulchrc. Bodies must lie abed some day
and so must minds, but bcd-ridden day
are no more healthy to minds than to bod
les, and life Is fullest, richest, best when
its consciousness is most completely alert.
What then of the one day in seven called
the Day Of Rest? Shall the worlds con
sciousncss sleep then or be more than ever
awake Will it grow more aware OF I'M
mortality and God by lessening or by en-
larging its sense of the life that now Is,
and the magnifcencc of Gods image in
Il. Iii, l. ,f,,,, bod
of the spirit as more cucharstic than
spirit wine that stimulates and gladdens,
For myself, | must hold Sunday to be III
truth to its name, a day of the sun, ana
that observance of it to be holiest which
is most sunny, most alive with light
1t is day of liberty not of constrnint, OF
rejoicing not of penancc high festival
rather than solemn fast. 1t cannot be
kent by irksome rest. which is no rest; by
service which. when unwillingly rendered
is withheld; by fidelity of fear that chains
fbe soul to a galley oar, whose regular dip
reminds it that it is the convict OF its creed
Blessed is the step or wing beat that
lifts any life above its work day sell
blessed the park to the dweller in the tcne-
,ncut house; blessed the open library to
the book lover, too poor to own DOCKS
blessed the museum and gallery of arts to
pent minds without hope of travel and
with no glimpse of beauty in their homes
blessed. too, the Sunday newspaper, which,
without detaining the few that seek the
HIGHEST heaven and enjoys it no less for
the larger views of earth had on their up
ward way. saves millions of poor souls
from listless stupor or ignorant pastlme by
drawing their interest in the world $
daily life to an ampler reading than days
of work. permit, about that LIES pro
gress. it's science its art its literature,
its politics. its religion. These millions
in the Sunday newspaper their one
hook. their sole library, their museum,
their pantheon of contemporary genius
There the great discoverers tell the secrets
of their search and findings; the great IN
vcntors disclose what craft wrought the
miracles of modern machinery; the great
novelists turn their kinetoscopes OF photo
yraphcd conduct the great preachers
p-each to congregations that meet uhder
no temple roof while poets of many lands
chant together the dawn of that new DAY
which all Sundays herald as the resurrec-
ton of man.
If works of necessity and mercy are eN-
emnt from sabbath law, surely TINS WORK
is both more merciful and more necessary