The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1897-12-03

in its time. but nxyw we prefer ves-
tibulsd limited express. Because a
thing Is pious il need lot therefore be
dull The printing press may beat the
Argus Of mythology. for that fabulous
being had only a hundred eyes, while
the newspaper has a thousand eyes.
and a thousand ears. and a THOUSAND
rms The secular newspaper gives the
secular news and does not pretend to
give its religious meaning. The relig-
Gus press ought to put all rhe events
Of the day in companies, regiments and
brigades and show us in what direction
that divinely disciplined host is march
ing and let us know thai victories for
Gcd ard righteousness they Will win.
The Christianized printing press is to
do in our tine on a large scale what
the battering ram did in oiden times 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 ii backward and forward
until, getting under full momentum. it
would strike into awful demolition the
wall beseiged. Ged 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
'ON WIN especial sNlCISN III anu one
ness Of purpose. and that, having pull
ed it Jack for one mighty assault. we
may altogether rush it forward, crush
ing into everlasting ruin the last wall
Of opposition n the last fortress of
iniQuity.
EDITORIAL RESPONSIBILITY.
And now let all CT 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 contributors
column, for every type we set, for every
press we move and for the style of Sc
cular or religious we patron
ize or encourage. In Ezekiel's pro-
phecy the angel Of God. supposed to be
Christ, appears with an inkhorn hung
at his side, as an attorneys clerk in
olden time had an inkhorn at his side.
And 1 have no doubt the inkhorn will
have an important part in the day of
Judgment, those who have used il we'll
to receive eternal plaudit n those
who AVE misused it to receive con-
domination.
Piled up in all the worlds printing
offices, secular and religious, are the
p~ubllcatlCns of past years, bound UP
year by year, and in those offices they
a tell just what they printed any
day for the last twenty years, and in
the great day of judgment all that We
nave ever written or printed will be
revealed from the mighty volumes of
eternity. All those who have ruthless
ly prled into the secret of unhappy do
nestle life and despoiled homes, come
to Judgment! ALI those who have by
the pen assassinated character, come to
judgment! All those who have had
anything to do with ~salacious and de-
PRAYED literature, come to judgment!
All those who have produced pictures
administrative of vice, come to judg-
men! No one will then dare say. Il
knew it. was not true. and 1 only in
tended 1t for a joke" or, Il a to
my living, and the paper that 1
for paid me in proportion to
The startling nature of the stuff 1 pre-
pared,' or, Il corrected the falsehood
n the next ISSUE" or, Il felt my pow
er in the editorial chair, having oppor-
unity to address such multitudes week
week, and I wanted to keep the
and the world in w of he" |
On that great day of judgment all the |
power we have had on earth will be |
Insignificant compared with the power |
nat Will pronounce our rapture or u |
loom and that which might have been |
considered a joke in the COMPOSING |
'oom," because it Inundated an enc |
will be no joke at all amid the |
wreck of mountains and seas, and the
nkhorn will there tell of all we wrote
and under the imperson- |
llity of a newspaper, Is we'll as tha
Which was signed with our name. But |
a beautiful day for a Frances
1avergal, when she gets rewarded for
III the kind things she ever wrote with
ears Of her invalidism, or when the
,uthorS n authoresses of all lands
nd ages are told how many came to
Ieaven through their instrumentalities. |
nd for all those w'hO use the influence
I the press to correct the errors and
Vtlrpate the wrongs and break the
of mankind!
Then the inkhorn by the side of the
NIGEL Of the new will speak
ut and tell of what it had to do with
letters Of kindness written, with all
Droc1amations, with all
and repOrtorial eulogies of
good, with all the messages of SAL
alton to a lost world. Better in that
will it be to have set UP the type
Or n line of Christian ENCOURAGE
lent. or written one paragraph of USE
III sentiment, or published one page
{ helpful truth than to have written
OOks as big as Gibbons five large VOL
mes concerning THE Decline and
all Of the Roman EMPIRE" if these
put Christianity at a disad-
or as brilliant as Voltaire's
Oiscourses Upon Man." if they in
llcate injurious theories, or as
lythmic as Byron's Don juan" il it
lcriiced the decencies. On that day
ie flying roll which Zechariah of the
xt saw thousands of years ago, and
le rolls which we see flying over all
IT towns and cities, and flying from
swiftest printing presses that were
'er invented, will be found to contain !
essages Irvine n satanic. Not only |
e inkhorn which Ezekial saw, but all
e inkhorns will come to Judgment.
And 1 saw the dead. small and great, \
and before God, and the books were
s
The AnglO-Egyptian forces have oc- I