The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1895-07-16
THE EAGLE AND THE PREACHERS

/ ana from the very Necessity VI inc
| case being on an amlcaDle footing
with his readers, any effort to mis-
represent his position or TO misin-
terpret the spirit of his words or con-
| victions, must fail.
From various rumors reahcing US
touching declarations said to have
been made in some of the pulpits Of
this city within ten days past, a few
words, in not being out of place, may
lead to better understanding
might possibly instruct even if they
fail to edify.
The time was when writers and
orators made reference to the pulpit
and the press as the great educa-
tors, and leading influences, of the
present age. The words of refer
ence have been reversed. They now
stand the press and the pulpit
While the Eagle has no inclination
TO treSpaSS upon the realm of the
preacher, the pulpit cannot invade
the field of the press, even were it SO
disposed. That time is past. The
paper and the preacher can, however,
work in harmony, in many directions,
for the uplifting of humanity, and in
the conservation of the good and the
pure; nevertheless, it is a fact that
their mutality is in no sense equal
or reciprocal. The pulpit cannot cur
tail much less cripple the power of
the press. The press can do much
TO uphold and sustain the pulpit
With these few observations as to
the status OF the controversy we will
proceed with what we started out to
say:
There is a Christian church, of
many denominations, and secular
press, in Wichita. The one IS de-
voted TO mans spiritual well-being,
the other TO his material welfare.
The one stands for the things of time,
the other for the things Of eternity.
When either attempts TO invade the
arena of the other the resultant ten
dency can hardly be harmony or that
peace" which it was said Il leave
with you"
In other words, the Eagle is for
Wichita, for all it is, all that it has,
and all that it hopes to be. Wichita
cannot be the city and market me-
tropolis of the vast region of which it
is the center, and at the same time be
only a quiet nice little county seat
town, of temperance and of high
moral character; cannot be a center
Of big churches, big charities and
schools, big business and power, and
at the same time conform to the
petty type and poverty stricken re-
lision Of the sleepy country village
of starved preachers and threadbare
teachers. Wichita is going to be Just
enc or the other of these things.
Wichita is either too big, or it is too
little, right now. The Eagle holds
that it is too little and wants to make
it bigger. In making it bigger we
will have bigger preachers and big
ger churches and more of them; big
ger asylums and bigger charities and
more of them, bigger schools, and
factories and business houses and
bigger everything and more Of them.
Wichita will never have these things,
Will never be anything but Il mere
nothing among the aggregation of no.
where's, if she is to fall under the
irOn-band rule of pesSimiSt;c narrow
ness. Even those who claim q COM
parative pulpit-bigness here, and
now; and those institutions which we
view as of commendable magnitude,
the first will leave us for bigger
places of bigger sins and the others
will shrink into nothingness and into
forgottenneSs.
There is an eternity" but this is
time" and while ''time" furnishes
the opportunity 10 preach of 'eter-
nifty" the preacher will want some
body TO preach to. Under a country
village policy within a few years
one preacher would be all that Wich-
tia could support or care to hear. To
be city Of big churches and of big
preachers. of vast enterprises and |
far-reaching influence we must ex-
pect and accept all that goes with a
big city, its greater good with it's in
cumbent evils. There would be no |
opportunity 10 do good were there |
no evil. Where sin abounds grace
will much more abound
Now Il few words as To the appre- |
hension expressed by some of our !
dear good church friends Of the pos |
sible disadvantage TO the Eagle in |
pulpit opposition The Eagle has /
been here a good while and will be /
here until the town in fourishing
again shall regain that of which it /
has been partially robbed. Being of I
the Eagle will only goodwin |
in the event Of Wichita'S going down
In the meanwhile we shall hardly /
stand idly by and see anybody pull /