Connecticut western news., 1897-12-02

there be a ghastly woodcut of the fam inc stricken in India, in the next col umn have list of contributions for al- deviation of the suffering or picture of B ship carrying kreadstuffs. If i'll one column there be the death of an old minister of the gospel whom we cannot spare, in the next put the name of some young Elisha who can wear the mantle of Elijah.
 More and More Sunshine.
 If some evil of society is depicted in one column, in the next show the gos- pei machinery that is to drive it back into the perdition from which it ascend ed More and more sunshine let there be in religious journalism. Publish in it more sermons on texts like "Oh, give thanks unto the Lord for he is good, and fewer on texts like, "Out of the depths of hell have cried unto thee, O Lord" " If any one has anything gloomy to say, let him say it to himself. If he must write it, let him not send it to ed- itorial rooms, but put it ill the pigeon hole of his own desk for his heirs and assigns to read it further on, for prob ably they can stand it better than we. I once gave $7 to hear Jenny Lind sing. I never will give cent to hear man groan. Up with the blinds and throw back the shutters and let the morning light come in. There is not so much re- ligion in the dampness of cellar as in the breath of an apple orchard in blos- som week. What a victory David got over bimself when he closed the Psalms with six chapters of Praise ye the Lord" saying it over and over again, until, in any other book, it would have become monotonous. If ill our diaries and our family records and our religious | newspapers we would write two honest ! catalogues, the one catalogue of bless | ings and the other catalogue of trou- I bles, the former would be five times ' larger than the latter.
 Pray for the religious newspapers of I America, because of the fact that, if I they have the right spirit, each one does | as much good as 5 or 90 or 200 churches. l What are the 800 or 5000 people mak- | ing up Sabbath audience compared with the 10, 900 or 1000 or 200, 900 that the religious journal addresses? Such journals are pulpits that preach day and night. They reach weekly those | who, through invalidism or through in- ! difference, never enter churches. They reach people in their quietude, when l their attention is not distracted, as in church, by the fine millinery that ap- peals to the eye or the rustic of attire that attracts the ear. It will always be our duty and our privilege not to for sake the assembling of ourselves to- gether, but believe the consecrated printing press is the chief agency under God to save the world.
 | Pens Dipped In vitriol.
 | Pray also for the religious newspapers of America, that they may resist the I temptation to become acerb, harsh and damnatory of those who think different | ly from themselves In all denomina- tions there are disappointed people who put mean things in religious newspapers about ministers and other prominent | Christian workers. Unsuccessful men and women never like successful men and women. There are editors and re- porters who. instead of writing with ink, dip their pens in oil of vitriol or lampblack. When a religious newspaper does lie, it beats all secular journalism in contemptibility. As Adam Clarke, the commentator, said, "Some people serve the Lord as though the devil were in then." That only Is helpful news paper which, as we fold it up after read ing, leaves us in mood to pray for all men and in a spirit that wishes prosper ity for all Christian workers, whether | fhax nfh and we feel as though the angel, flying through the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach, had with the Tapping of his wing stirred the air on our cheek and forehead.
 Pray also for religious journalism, that it may be alert-not abreast of the times, but ahead of the times. In this day, when by cablegram we seem to get from Europe news five hours before it starts, we do not want in our religious columns information scissored out of afl old newspaper or information sent by means of letter which comes to us through the dead letter postoffice be- cause it was misdirected, nor do we want it to take the pace of religious journalism as it was in 1915, when Ma ! per called The Recorder, or when The Watchman was born in 1919, or when The Christian Register made its first appearance in 1891. The canalboat drawn by mules on towpath did well in it's time, but now we prefer the ves- tibuled limited express. Because 8 thing is pious it need not therefore be dull. The printing press may beat the Argus of mythology, for that fabulous being had only 100 eyes, while the newspaper has 1000 eyes and 1,00C ears and 1, 1000 arms. The secular news l paper gives the secular news and does not pretend to give its religious mean. ing. The religious press ought to put all the events of the day in companies, I regiments and brigades and show us in what direction that divinely disciplined host is marching and let us know what victories for God and righteousness they will win. The Christianized printing press Is to do in our time on large scale what the battering ram did in old. en time on smaller scale. That old war machine was a stout timber, hung
 by chains to beam supported by posts, and many men would lay hold of the stout timber and swing it backward and forward until, getting under full mo. mentum, it would strike into awful demolition the wall besieged. God grant that all of us who have anything to dc
 with the mighty battering ram of ou, century, the printing press, may be clothed of God with especial strength and oneness of purpose and that, having pulled it back for one mighty assault, we may altogether rush it forward
 crushing into everlasting ruin the last
 wall of opposition and the last fortress of iniquity!
 The Inkhorn at Judgment.
 And now let all of us who are con