The Canton times. (Canton, Miss.) 1893-1906, 1896-04-03
"A DIVINE MISSION.
Rev. DR.. Talmage SO Declares That
or the Newspaper Press
HIS Wonderful Influence for Good or EVIL
The Most Potent Agent of Civili-
xation-A Blessing rs an Evan
gelistic Influence.

gelistic Influence.
W.T. The following dis course eulogistic o
the American newspaper press was de
livered by Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage be
fore his Washington congrega tion. 1
was based on the texts:
..And the wheels were full OF eyes. "-Exekicl
x, lc,. "For all the Athenians and strangers
which were there spent their time In nothing
else but either to tell or TO hear some new
thing.v-Acts, xviii, 81. ~
What is a preacher to do when he
finds two texts equally good and
suggestive? In that perplexity ia Ike
both Wheels full of eyes? What but
the wheels of newspaper printing
press? Other wheels are blind. They
roll on, pulling or crushing. The man
ufacturer's wheel, how it grinds the
operator with fatigues, and rolls over
nerve and muscle and 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 it 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 of hard work. in motion, but
they are eyeless. Not SO the wheels
of the printing press. Their entire
business is to look and re-
port. They are full of optic
nerves, from axle to periphery. They
are like those spoken Of by Ezekiel as
full Of eyes. Sharp eyes, near-sighted,
far-sighted. They 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 twinkle with
mirth, eyes glowering 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 in my second text is the worlds
cry for the newspaper. Paul describes
a class of people in Athens who spent
their time either in gathering the news
or tellingit it. Why especially in Athens?
Because the more intelligent people be-
come, the more inquisitive they are
not about SIN all things, but great |
things
The question then most frequently |
is the question now most frequently |
asked-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 1000 years
printed on silk. Rome succeeded by |
the 'Acta Diurna," in the
same column putting fires, murders,
marriages and tempests France sue
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, 'when the battle of Waterloo
was fought, deciding the destiny of
Europe, to give it one-third of q
column in the London Morning
about as much as the news
paper of our day gives of small fire.
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 1884.
The newspaper did not suddenly
spring upon the world, but came grad
ually. The genealogical line of the
newspaper is this: The Adam of the
race was circular or newsletter, Gre
ated by Divine impulse in human ma
ture; and the circular begat the
and the pamphlet begat the
quarterly, and the quarterly begat the
weekly, and the weekly begat the semi
weekly, and the semi-weekly begat the
daily. But alas! by what struggle
1t came to its present development!
No sooner had it's power been dem
Onstrated than tyranny and supersti-
ton shackled it. There is nothing
that despotism SO fears and hates
as a printing press. 1t has too
many eyes III ITO WhScl' N ShCoS |
writer declared that the king of Ma
pies made it unsafe for him to write
but natural history. Aus
tria could not endure Kossuth's jour
nalistic pen, pleading for the redemp-
ton of Hungary. Napoleon L., trying
to keep his iron heel on the neck of
nations, said: Editors are the regents
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