The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1897-12-10

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his own desk for his heirs and assigns
they can stand it better than we. /
once gave seven dollars to hear Jenny
Lind sing; / never will give a 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 religion in the
dampneSs of a cellar as in the breath
of an apple orchard in blossom week.
What a victory David got over himself
when he closed the Psalms with six
chapters of Praise we the Lord" say
ing it over and over again, until, in
any other book, it would have become
monotonous. If in our diaries, and
our family records, and our religious
newspapers we would write two honest
catalogues, the one catalogue of
blessings, and the other 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
they have the right spirit, each one
does as much good as five, or so, or 200
churches. What are the 500 or 1900
people making up Sabbath audience
compared with the 10. 600, or so, 600, or
200, 600, that the religious journal adj
dresses? Such journals are pulpits
that preach day and night. They reach
weekly those who, through invalidism,
or through indifference, never enter
churches. They reach people in their
quietude, when their attention is not
distracted, as in church, by the fine
millinery that appeals to the eye, or
the rustic of attire that attracts the
ear. It will always be our duty and
our privilege, not to forsake the as
sembling of ourselves together, but I
believe the consecrated printing press
is the chief agency under God to save
the world.
And now, let all of us who are con-
nected with either secular or religious
journalism remember that we will be
called into final account for every
word we write in editorial, or reporto-
rial. or contri butors' column-for every
type we set, for every press we move,
and for the style of secular or religio us
newspapers we patronize or encourage.
In EzekiePs prophecy the Angel of God,
supposed to be Christ, appears with an
ink-horn hung at his side, as an attor-
ney's clerk in olden time had an ink
horn at his side. And have no doubt
the ink-horn will have an impor tant
part in the day of Judgment. Those
who have used it well to receive eter-
nal plaudit, and those who have mis-
used it to receive condemnation.
Di1o6 in Ill tho xxynrI1sS
offices, secular and religious, are the
publications, of past years, bound up
year by year; and in those offices they
can tell just what they printed any day
for the last 90 years; and in the great
day of Judgment all that we have ever
written or printed will be revealed
from the mighty volumes of eternity.
All those who have ruthlessly
pried into the secret of un-
happy domestic life and despoiled
homes. come to Judgment
All those who have had anything to
do with salacious and depraved litera-
ture, come to Judgment All those
who have produced pictures admins
trative of vice, come to Judgment No
one will then dare say: Il knew it
was not true and 1 only intended il
for JOKES" or, Il had to make my liv-
ing. and the paper that 1 worked for paid
me in proportion to the startling ma
ture of the stuff L prepared" or, 81
corrected the falsehood in the next is
sue;" or, Il felt my power in the edi-
torial chair, having opportunity to ad-
dress such multitudes week by week,
and wanted to keep the church and
the world in awe of me-" On that
great day of judgment all the power
we have on earth will be insignificant
compared with the power that will pro-
nounce ourrapture or our doom, and that
which might have been considered a
joke in the composing room," because
it humiliated an enemy, will be no joke
at all amid the wreck of mountains and
seas; and the inlk-horn will there tell
of all we wrote anonymous and under
the personality of a newspaper, as we'll
as that which was signed with our
own name. But what a sbeautiful
day for Frances Havergal, when
she gets rewarded for all the kind
things she ever wrote with the tears
of her invalidism; or when the authors
and authoresses of all lands and ages
are told how many came to Heaven
through their instrumentalities; and
for all those who use the influence of
the press to correct the errors, and exc
tirpate the wrongs. and break
the serfdom of mankindl Then
the ink-horn by the side of the
Angel of the New Covenant viii
speak out and tell of what it
had to do with all letters of kindness
written, with all emancipation procla-
nations, with all editorial and repor-
torial eulogies of the good, with all the
messages of salvation to a lost world.
Better in that day will it be to have
set up the type for one line of Chris
tian encouragement, or written one
paragraph of useful sentiment, or pub
lished one page of helpful truth, than
to have written books as big as Glib
bon's five large volumes concern
ing 1.-THE Decline and Fall OF
the Roman Empire" if these volumes
put Christianity at disadvantage; or
as brilliant as Voltaire's .sDiscourses
Upon Man." if they inculcated in
furious theories; or as rhythmic as By
ron's don juan" if it. sacrificed the
deceneies. On that day the flying roll
which Zechariah of the text saw thou
sands of years ago, and the rolls
which we see flying over all our
towns and cities, and flying from the
swiftest printing presses that were
ever invented, will be found to con-
tain messages Divine or satanic. Not
only the ink-horn which Ezekiel saw,
but all the ink-horns will come to iudg
ment. And I saw the dead, small and
great, stand before God; and the books
were opened"