Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1897-11-29


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 sui
ferers from drought OF food or earth
quake or cruelty should be the Christian
heart Therefore let the pages Of rell-
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
be fed and no more ignorance to be edu
Gated and no mere nakedness to be
clothed and no more suffering to as
suage. In trying to do that practical
thing the religious paper whose ami
versary I celebrate has during the past
seven years raised and distributed over
$4OO,OOO for the relief Of physical dis
tresses.
Again, on this seventh anniversary OF
a religious publication ] Iotice that
there is an especial missicn for reli-
gious journal truthfully optimistic. The
most optimistic book ] 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 desert but am by the old
book reminded that it will "blossom
like as the rose" I cannot in a menag-
erie look upon q lion and a leopard but
I am reminded that "a little child shall
lead them. I cannot see a collection of
gems in q jewelers. window without
thinking of heaven afiash and ablaze and
incarnadined and empurpled with all
manner of precious stones. [ 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-
BILE Of it's own without our giving them
an extra dose in the shape of religion.
This world is going to be saved, and if
you do not believe it you are an infidel.
None of us wants to get on board
train which instead of reaching the de-
pot is surely going down the embank-
ment All aboard for the millennium
For the most part in religious journal
let the editorials be cheerful and the
pictures cheerful. If in one column
there be 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 q picture of
ship carrying breadstuffs. II in 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. 1u
More and More Sunshine.
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 sunshine let there
be in religious journalism. Publish in
it more sermons on texts like ooh, give
thanks unto the Lord, for he is good, 7"
and fewer on texts like, "Out of the
depths of hell have cried unto thee, @
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 III 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 81 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 a cellar as in
the breath of an apple orchard in bios
som week. What victory David got
over himself 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 in 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 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
they have the right spirit, each one does
as much good as or 30 or 200 churches.
What are the 500 or 5000 people MAX
ing up a Sabbath audience compared
with the 10000 or $4,000 or 900, 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