The Monitor-register., 1897-12-03

vention the 645, 566 Episcopalians, the
1,420, 905 Lutherans, the 1,460, 346
Presbyterians, the 4, 1853, 857 Baptists,
the 1868, 2S9 Methodists, putting unto
them the following questions, we would
get unanimous answer in the af1rma-
tive: Do you believe in a God, good,
holy, just, omnipotentP Do you believe
in Jesus Christ as a Saviour? Do you
believe in the convicting, converting
and sanctifying power Of the Holy
Ghost? Do you believe that the gospel
is going to conquer all nations? If you
should put these questions to those assem-
bled millions on millions, while there
would not besassa]itary negative, there
swonldabszan aye, aye, ayei loud enough
to make the foundations Of the earth
trembles aeas arches Of the heavens
resound. Let there be platforms, let
there be great occasions, let there be
undenominational printing presses to
thunder forth the unity Of all Christen-
dom. One Lord. One faith. One bap-
tism. One God and Father. One Jesus
Christ. One cross. One heaven.
Liberty Against All Oppression.
So also there is room for a religious
Journal that stands for liberty as
against all oppression. No authority,
political or ecclesiastic, must be per-
mitted to make us believe this or that.
Liberty of the Armenian to worship
God independent of the Turkish gov.
eminent. Liberty of Cuba as against
Spanish domination. Liberty of Hawaii
as against all monarchical authority
which it has thrown off. Civil liberty.
Political liberty. Religious liberty.
The religious journal on whose sew
enth anniversary I preach has had for
its owner and publisher one who in his
ancestry experienced just the opposite.
His father, an exile from his native
land because of his opinions, his prop
erty co~nfiscated, his life imperiled,
landed on American soil bereft Of ev-
erything that foreign oppression could
rob him of. Naturally his son knows
right well how to appreciate liberty.
The most Of US are descended from
those who imperiled all to gain their
natural and religious rights. Let the
type and the printing presses and the
editorial chairs be overthrown which
dare to surrender to any attempt again
to put on the shackles. The movement
has started for the demolition of all the
tyrannies of church and state. Reli-
gious newspapers must stand shoulder
to shoulder, in-sthis mighty march for
God ,ana<she worlds rescue.
Arosa m @hic coro,+b oprixyorcor,
say there is room for a religious paper.
charged with old fashioned evangelism.
0taars styl1es OF religious newspaper:.
may aof for advertising purposes, or for
the presentation of able essays on elab-
crate themes, but if this world is ever
brought to God it will be through un-
F,apaIiadsapaaaNAserated nnmhxedkszas
mfsfakab1e evangelism. 1t was astound-
ing that the Lord Almighty should
have gone into great bereavements, subj
hitting to the loss of his only Son, that.
Son stepping off the doorsill of heaven
into a darkness and an abysm that no
plummet has ever yet been able to faith,
om,. and through that funeral OF the
heavensslifesis offered%o-sEr world, but
uON W Ecu LIZ UluluSo " GAL pCOP4OJ
and in such all attractive way that they
wilfsfake hold Of them is the absorbing
question. The human voice can travel
only a few feet away, and the world
wants something further and wider
reaching, and that is the newspaper
press, and as the secular press must
necessarily give itself chiefly to secular
"a ffoirc Lat f1o ro1inin1C narrcnor nfra
itself to the present and everlasting sal
walton of all who can read, or, if not
able to read, have ear to hear others
read. II thsge. be an opportunity higher.
deeper, grander, than that offered to
newspaper evangelism, name it and
guide us to it, that we may see its al
tars, its pillars, its domes, its infinitude.
The Tender Christian Heart.
Again, on this seventh anniversary of
The Christian Herald I notice there is
room for a religious paper thoroughly
humanitarian. The simple factist the
majority of the human race have not
enough to eat or veal. The ma
jority OF the human race are in trou-
BILE. How to multiply leaves of bread
and increase the fuel and heal the
wounds and shelter the homeless are
questions that Christ met equally as
soon as he did spiritual necessities. The
first heart to respond to the cry of suf-
ferers from drought or flood or earth
quake or cruelty should be the Christian
heart. Therefore let the pages of reli-
gious Journalism spread out the story of
all such woes and collect relief and dis
burse aims all around our suffering
world. Religious journalism ought to
become the aqueduct through which the
Christian charities Of the. world should
pour until there is no more hunger to
be fed and no more ignorance to be edu,
Gated and no more nakedness to be
clothed and no more suffering to as
suage. In trying to do that practical
thing the religious paper whose ami
versary 1 celebrate has during the past
seven years raised and distributed over
$500, 900 for the relief of physical dis
tresseS.
Again, on this seventh anniversary of
a religious publication I notice that
there is an especial mission for a reli-
gious journal truthfully optimistic. The
most optimistic book I know of is the
Bible, and its most impressive authors
were all optimists-David an optimist,
Paul an optimist, st. John an optimist,
our blessed Lord an optimist. I cannot
look upon a desert but I am by the old
book reminded that it will blossom
like as the rose." I cannot in a menag-
erie look upon a lion and a leopard but
I am reminded that "a little child shall
lead them" I cannot see a collection of
gems in a jewelers. window without
thinking of heaven afash and ablaze and
i~ncarnadined and empurpled with all
| manner of precious stones. I cannot hear
a trumpet but I think of that one which
| shall wake the dead. All the ages of
time, bounded On one side by the para
| disc in which Adam and Eve walked
and on the other side by the paradise
| which st. John saw in apocalyptic
| vision.
The Scriptures optimistic and their
authors optimistic, all religious news
papers ought to be optimistic. Not on
ly should all ministers and all religious
editors have their heart right, but their
| liver right. The world has enough trou-
TUE NDFKnRN