The Banner-Democrat. [volume] (Lake Providence, East Carroll Parish, La.) 1892-current, 1896-05-02
A DIVINE MISSION.
Rev. DR.. Talmage So Declares That
Of the Newspaper Press.
It's Wonderful InHucnce for Good or Evil
THE Most Potent Agent of Cfsiii-
ration A Blessing AZ an Evan
kelistlc influence.

kelistlc influence.
The following discourse eulcgisSic of
the American newspaper press was de-
livered hy Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage be-
fore his Washington congregation. 1t
was based on the texts:
and the wheels were full OF eyes, Ezekiel,
X, IL, For oil the Athenians and strangers
which were there spent their time In nothing
else but either to tell or to hear some new
thing."-Acts, xviii, 81
What Is preacher TO do when he
finds two texts equally good and
suggestive? In that perplexity take
both, Wheels full of eyes? What but
the wheels of a newspaper printing
press? Other wheels are blind. They
roll on, pulling or crushing. The man
ufacturer's wheel; how 1t grinds the
operator with fatigues; and rolls over
nerve and muscla ahd bone and heart,
not knowing what it does. The sew
ing machine wheel sees not the aches
and pains fastened to it-tighter than
| the band that moves it, sharper than
the needle which Il plies. Every mo-
ment of every hour Of every day OF
every month OF every year there are
hundreds of thousands of wheels of
mechanism, wheels of enterprise,
wheels 81 hard work, in motion, but
they are eyeless. Not so the wheels
of the printing press. Their entire
business is to ioak mt re-
port. They sre full of optic
nerves, from axle to periphery. They
are like those spoken of by Ezekiel as
full of eyes. Sharp eyes, nenr'sighted,
far-sighted. Trey look up. They
look down. They look far away. They
take in the next street and the next
hemisphere. Eyes of criticism, eyes
ofinvestigation; eyes that twinkie vitR
mirth, eyes glowefing with indigna-
ton, eyes tender with love; eyes of
suspicion, eyes of hope; blue eyes.
black eyes, green eyes; holy eyes, evil
eyes, sore eyes, political eyes, literary
eyes, historical eyes, religious eyes;
eyes that see everything: And the
wheels were full OF eyes"
But IL My second text is the world S
cry for the newspaper. Paul describes
a class of people in Athens who spent
their time either in gathering the news
or telling it. Why especially in Athens?
Because the more intelligent people be-
come, the more inquisitive they are
no. about small things, but great
things.
The question then most frequently
is the question now most frequently
|hsked-What is the news? To answer
that cry in the text for the newspaper
the centuries have put their wits to
work. China first succeeded, and has
at Pekin a newspaper that has been
printed every week for Loco Years
printed on silk. Rome succeeded by
publishing the "Acta Diurna," in the
same column putting fires, murders,
marriages and tempests. France sueA
ceeded by physician writing out
the news OF the day for his pa
tients. England succeeded under
queen Elizabeth in first publishing the
news of the Spanish Armada, and
going on until she had enough enter
prise, swhen the battle of Waterloo
was fought, deciding the destiny of
Europe, to give it one-third of a
column In the London Morning
Chronicle" about as much as the news
paper of our day gives of a small fire.
America succeeded by Benjamin Har-
ris' first weekly paper called Public
Occurrences" published in Boston in
1890, and by the first daily, the ''Amer-
lean Advertiser" published in Phila-
delphia in 1854.
The newspaper did not suddenly
spring upon the world, but came grad;
hally. The genealogical line of the
newspaper is this: The Adam of the
race was circular Of Newsletter, ere.
ated By Divine impulse in human ma
ture; and the circular begat the
pamphlet, and the pamphlet begat the
quarterly, and the quarterly begat the
weekly, and tho weekly begat the semi
weekly, and the semi-weelxly begat the
daily. But alas. by what a struggle
it came to its present development!
No sooner had its power been dem.
onstrated than tyranny and supersti
ton shackled it. There is nothing
that despotism so fears and hates
as printing press. 1t has toe
many eyes in it's wheel. A great
writer declared that the king Of Ma
pies made 1t unsafe for him TO write
anything but natural history. Aus
tria could not endure Kossuth's jour
ualistic pen, pleading for the redemp
ton of Hungary. Napoleon l., tryini
to keep his iron heel on the neck O.
nations, said: Editors are the regent.
Of sovereigns and the tutors of ma
lions, and are only fit for prison.:
But the battle for the freedom of the
press was fought out inthe court rooms
of England and America, and decided
before this century began by Hamil
tons eloquent plea for ]. Peter Zenger',
Gazette" in America, and Erskinei
advocacy of the freedom of publication
In England. These were the Mara
thon and Thermopyl@ in which tn,
freedom of the press was established
in the United States and Great Brit
ain, and all the powers of earth and
hell will never again be able to put or
the handouts and hopples of literary
and political despotism. 1t is netabie
that Thomas jefferson, who wrote
the Declaration OF American indie
pendence, wrote also: ''If / ha(
to choose between government
without newspapers or newspaper
without government, should prefer
the latter" Stung by some base fab