The Monitor-register., 1897-12-03

train which instead of reaching the de-
pot is surely going down the embank-
ment. All aboard for the millenpianf-
For the most part in a religious journal
let the editorials be cheerful and,the'
pictures cheerful. If in one column
there be a CHASTITY woodcut of the fam
inc stricken in India, in the next col
umn have a list of contributions for al
deviation of the suffering or a picture of
a ship carrying breadstuffs. If in n
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. 3
More anazEIoSsesanshfne.
If some evil of society is depicted in
one column, in the next show the Cos
pei machinery that is to drive it back
into the perdition from which it ascend
ed. More and more sunshinelet there
be in religious journalism. Publish in
it more sermons on texts like "Oh, give
thanks. unto the Ford, fofszSBgoodss''
and fewer on texts like, "Out of the
depths of hell have cried unto thee, o
any one has anythiussgloomy
to say, let him say it to himself. ff he
must write it, let him not send it to ed
itorial rooms, but put it in the pigeon
hole of his;own desk for his heirssand
Hssfgds TO read it further on, for prob
ably they can stand it better than we.
I aResSapSG$75to hear Jenny Lind sing.
7 Hever will give a cent to hear a man
Up with the blinds and throw
back the shutters and let the morning
light come in. There is not SO much re-
iigien in the dampness of a cellar as in
Hthe breath Of an apple orchard in bios
som week. What "a victory David got
over himself whenhe 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
and our family records and our religious
newspapers we would write two honest
catalogues.xthe one4a catalogue of bless
Thgs and the OTHER a catalogue of trou-
bles, the former would be five times
larger than the latter.
Pray for the religious newspapers of
America, because of the fact that, if
the right7spirit, each ne'dees
as much good as 8 or SO or 200 churches.
What are the 500 or g. 900 people max
ing up q Sabbath audience compared
with the 10, 600 or $4,000 or 200, 600
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
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. 1t will always be
our duty and our privilege not to for
sake the assembling of ourselves to-
gether, but l believe the oonsecrated
printing press is the chief agency under
God to save the world.
Pens Dipped In vitrioI.
Pray also for the religious newspapers
Of America, that they may resist the
temptation to become acerb, harsh and
damnatory of those who think different
ly from themselves. In all denomina-
lions 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 yitriol or
lampblack. When a religious newspaper
does lie, it beats all secular journalism
in contemplating. AS Adam Clarke,
the commentator, said, "Some people
serve the Lord as though the devil were
in Them" That only is a helpful news
paper which, as we fold it up after read
ing, leaves us in a mood to pray for all
men and in a spirit that wishes prosper
ity for all Christian workers, whether
they work our way or some other way,
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 u religious
columns information scissored out of an
old newspaper or information sent by
means of a 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 1916, when Ma
thaniel Wilson started his religious pa
per called The Recorder, or when The
| Waterman was born in 1919, or when
The Christian Register made its first
| appearance in 1924. The canalboat
drawn by mules on a towpath did well
In its time, but now we prefer the yes-
tibuled limited express. Because @
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 1000
ears and 1000 arms. The secular news
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,
| 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 OIL a large
| scale what the battering ram did in old
en- time on a smaller scale. That old
| war machine was a stout timber, hung
by chains to a 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 do
| with the mighty battering ram of our
| 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 iniquityl
The InkEorn at Judgment.
And low let all of us who are con-
| uected with either secular CT religious
| journalism remember that we will be
-nl ;,+o G,,o1 oooo1,pt for axrorxy u,orJ