Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1897-12-04
THE FLYING ROLL"
REV. DR.. TALMAGE AND THE RE-
LlGloUS NEWSPAPERS MISSION.

REV. DR.. TALMAGE AND THE RE-
LlGloUS NEWSPAPERS MISSION.
Tho "Flying Roll" Zechsr;ah Saw and tho
Modern "FIying Rolls"-Journals That
Drop Denedictions Upon the Nation-De-
roInInatIonal Differences.
tcopyright. 1897, by American Press Asso-
ciation.l
WASHINGTON, Nov. 2S.-In previ-
Gus discourse DR.. Talmage, having
lAown the opportunities Of the secular
r-ess, in this discourse speaks of tho
mission Of religious newspapers His
text is, "Then I turned and lifted up
mine eyes and looked, and behold q fly
ingiroll" (Zcchariah V, y.
In q dream the prophet saw some
thing rolled up advancing through the
heavens 1t contained divine message.
1t moved swiftly. as on wings. 1t had
much to do with the destiny of nations.
But if you will look up you will see
many flying rolls. They come with
great speed and have messages for all
the earth. The flying rolls of this cen
fury arc the newspapers. They carry
messages human and divine. They will
decide tho destiny Of the hemispheres.
There are in the United States about
90 600 newspapers. The religious news
paper of which 1 am the editor was
born 10 years ago, but born again
years ago. In this brief time it has
grown to about 200, 900 circulation,
and, by the ordinary rule of calculating
the readers of paper, it has about
l, 900, 900 readers. Our country was
blessed with many religious journals,
edited by consecrated men, wttle their
contributors were the ablest and best of
all professions and occupations. Some
of those journals for half a century had
been dropping their benedictions upon
the nation, and they live on and will
continue to live on until there will be
no more use for their mission, the world
itself having become flying roll on
the tempests of the last day, going out
of existence. There will be no more
use for such agencies when the world
ceases, because in the spiritual state we
shall have such velocity that we can
gather for ourselves all the news Of
heaven, or, seeing some world i'll coll
flagration, may go ourselves in an in
slant to examine personally the scene
of disaster.
All Regiments In One Army.
Was there room for another religious
journal in this land, already favored
with the highest style of religious jour
nalism? Oh, yes, if undenominational,
plenty Of rooml Nothing can ever take
the place of the UNCONVENTIONAL newspa-
per. When the millennium comes'in, it
will find as many denominations as there
are now. People according to their
temperaments will alwa' prefer this
or that form of church government, this
or that style of worship. You might
as we'll ask US all to live in one
house as to ask us all to worship in one
denomination or to abolish the reei-
1nents of an army in order to make them
one great host.
Each denomination must have its own
journal, set apart especially to present
the charities, explain the work and for
ward the interests of that particular
sect. The death of one UNCONVENTIONAL
journal is calamity to all the other de-
nominations. I would almost feel that a
great misfortune had happened me If
The Christian Intelligencer of the Re-
formed church (my mother church) did
not como to my house every week, for L
was brought up on it, and it has become
q household necessity. Such denoml-
national journal had better be edited by
some one who, rocked in the cradle OF
that church and ordained at her affairs,
having become venerable in her service,
sits specialized and wise and with heart
full of sacred memories addresses the
living of today. In the most sacred crypt
of our memory stands the statue of the
religious editors Abel Stevens and
Joshua Leavitt, and the royal family OF
the Primes-Irenaus and Eusebius-
while others linger on the banks of the
Jordan, where they will not have long
to wait for Elijah's chariot, and when
they go up, if we still be sitting at our
editorial desks, we will cry out in the
memorable words, "My father, my IA
Their, the chariot of Israel and the horse
men thereof"
But, then, there are great movements
in which all denominations wish to join,
and we want moro undenominational
newspapers to marshal and advance and
inspire such movements. Yet such jour-
mails have difficult task, because all
Christian men, if they have behaved
well in their denominations, for some
reason preferred the one of their natural
and spiritual nativity, and even looking
off upon the general field and attempt
ing wider work will be apt to look at
things through denominational prefer
ence and to treat them with demon
national twist.
In the issuing of the religious jour
nal whose seventh anniversary preach
that difficulty has been met and over
come by the fact that its publisher is
Methodist, and in its editorial rooms
there are a Presbyterian, an Episcopa-
liam and Congregationalist, and line
of denominations prejudice in editorial
or rcportorial column would run against
immediate protest. Against John Wes-
ley's free grace or Calvin's eternal de-
crees or Bishop McIlvaine's canonicals
or DR.. Dowling's Baptistery from year
end to years end not G word is written
or printed. On all these subjects We
have convictions, but undenom!national
journalism is not the place to state
them. He who tells all he knows and
presses all he thinks Oh all occasions