The Yale expositor., 1896-03-27

text today was: And the wheels were
full OF eyes" Ezekiel x: IL. For
all the Athenians and strangers which
were there spent their time in nothing
else but either to tell or hear some new
thing" Acts xvii: p.
What is a preacher 10 do when he
finds two texts equally good and sug-
gestive? In that perplexitv 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 manufac-
turer's wheel how ii grinds the operat-
or with fatigues. and rolls over nerve
and muscle and bone and heart. not
knowing what II does. The sewing
machine wheel sees not the aches and
pains fastened to it-tighter than the
band that moves 1t. sharper than the
needle which it plies. Every moment
OF every hour of every day of every
month Of every year there are hun
dreds OF thousands of wheels of mech
anism. wheels of enterprise, wheels
OF hard work. in motion, but they are
eyeless. Not so with the wheels of the
| printing press. Their entire business
is to look and report. They are full of
| optic nerves, from axle to periphery.
They are like those spoken Of by EZe-
kiel 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 of investigation; eyes that twinkle
with mirth. eyes glowering with indig-
nation, 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 gather
ing news or telling it. Why especially
in Athens? Because the more intelli-
gent people become, the more inqusi-
tive they are-not about small 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 newspaper that has been
printed every week for one thousand
years, printed Oh silk. Rome succeed
ed by publishing the ActG Diurna. in
the same column putting fires. muir
Gers, marriages and tempests. France
succeeded by physician writing out
the news OF the day for his patients.
England succeeded under Queen Eliza
BETH in first publishing the news vi the
Spanish Armada, and going Oh until
she had enough enterprise, when the
battle OF Waterloo was fought, decidiuu
the destiny of Europe, to give it one
third OF column in the London Morn
Ing Chronicle, about as much as the
newspaper OF our day gives OF small
fire. America. succeeded by Benjamin
Harris first weekly paper, called PUB.
lie Occurrences, published in Boston Ia
1890, and by the first daily, the Amer
lean Advertiser, published in Philauel-
phia in 1884.
The newspaper did not suddenly
spring upon the world, but came grad
ually. The genealogical line OF the
newspaper is this: rhe Adam of the
race was circular or newsletter. ere
ated by Divine impulse in human ma
ture; and the circular begat the PAM
phiet, and the pamphlet begat the quar-
terly, and the quarterly begat the week
ly. and the weekly Degat the SEMI
weekly, and the semi-weekly begat the
daily. But alas! by what a struggle il
came to its present development! No
sooner had It's power been demonstrated
than tyranny and superstition shackled
1t. There is nothing that despotism so
fears and hates as a printing press. ii
has too many eyes in it's wheel. A
great writer declared that the king OIL
Naples made 1t unsafe for him to write
Of anything but natural history. Aus
tria could not endure Kossuth's Jour
nalistic pen, pleading for the redemp-
ton Of Hungary. Napoleon t., trying
to keep his iron heel on the neck OF ma
tions, said: Editors are the regents
of sovereigns and the tutors OF nations.
and are only fit for prison." But the
battle for the freedom of the press was
fought In the court rooms of England
and America and decided before this
century began by Hamilton's eloquent
plea for j. Peter Zenger's Gazette in
America and Erskine's advocacy OF the
freedom OF publication in England.
But discourse now on a subject you
have never heard-the Unreasonable
and everlasting blessing of good news
paper. Thank God for the wheel full
OF eyes. Thank God that we do not
have-like the Athenians-to 60 about
to gather up and relate the tidings of
the day. since the omnivorous news
paper does both for us. Thu grandest |
temporal blessing that God mas given |
to the nineteenth century is the news
paper. We would have better appre-
citation Of this blessing II we know the |