The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-02-21
PRINTING PRESS AND PULPIT.
TALMAGE TELLS OF THE PUBLICA-
TION OF HIS SERMONS.

tury-Vcnice the birthplace oil the
Nevvspaper-The Early struggle
Against Superstition and Tyranny.
WASHINGTON, Feb. 20.-For the first time,
DR.. Ta.mage in this discourse, tells in
what way his sermons have come TO a
multiplicity of publication such as has
never in any other case been known since
the art of printing was invented. Text;
Nahum "a: They shall seem like torches;
they shall run like the lightnings.
Express. rail train and Geographic com
munication are suggested if not foretold
in this text, and from it I start to preach
a sermon in gratitude to God ana the news
paper press for the fact that l have had
the opportunity Of delivering through the
newspaper press two thousand sermons or
religious addresses, so that have for
many years been allowed the privilege of
preaching the Gospel every week to every
neighborhood in Christendom, and in many
lands outside of Chrstendom. Many have
wondered at the process by which 1t has
come to pass, and for the first time in pub
lie place 1 state the three causes. Many
years ago, young man who has since
become eminent in his profession, was
then studying law in a distant city. lie
came to me- and said that for lack of funds
he must stop his studying, unless through
stenography 1 would give him sketches of
sermons. that he might by the sale of
them secure means for the completion Of
his education. 1 positively declined, be-
cause it seemed to me an impossibilty,
but after some months had passed, and
had reflected upon the great sadness for
such a brilliant young man to be defeated
in his ambition for the legal profession, 1
undertook to serve him; of course, free of
charge. Within three weeks there came
a request for those stenographic reports
from many parts of the continent. Time
passed on, and some gentlemen of my own
profession evidently thinking that there
was hardly room for them and for myself
In this continent began to assail me, and
became so violent in their assault that the
chief newspapers of America put special
correspondents I'm my church Sabbath by
Sabbath to take down such reply as
might make. 1 never made reply, ex-
cept once for about three minutes, but
those correspondents could not waste their
time and so they teegraphed the sermons
to their particular papers. After a while,
DR. Louis Klopsch of New York, systema-
tized the work into a syndicate until
through that and other syndicates he has
put the discourses week by week before
more than twenty million people on both
sides the sea. There have been so many
guesses on this subject, many of them in
accurate that, now tell the true story.
have not improved the opportunity as /
ought, but l feel the time has come when
as a matter of common justice to the news
paper press. should make this statement
IN sermon commemorative of the two
thousandth full publication of sermons,
and religious addresses, saying nothing of
the fragmentary reports, which would run
up into many thousands more
There was one incident that / might
mention in this connection, showing how
an insignificant event might influence us
for lifetime. Many years ago on a Sab
bath morning on my way to church in
brooklyn, representative of prominent
newspaper met me and said: Are YOU
going to give us any points to-day?" l said.
What do you mean by points," He re-
pied, Anything we can remember" I
said to myself 1--WE ought to be making
points all the time in our pulpits and not
deal in platitudes and inanites." That
one interrogation put TO me that morning
started IN me the desire of making points
all the time and nothing but points
And now, how can I more appropriately
commemorate the two thousandth publi-
cation than by speaking of the newspaper
press as an ally of the pulpit, and men
tioning some of the trials of newspaper
men,
The newspaper is the great educator of
the nineteenth century. There is no force
compared with it. 1t is book, pulpit. plat
form, forum, all in one. And there is not
an interest-religious literary, commercial
scientific, agricultural, or mechanical
that is not within it's grasp. All our
churches, and schools, and colleges. and
asylums, and art galleries feel the ouak-
ing of the printing-press.
The institution of newspapers arose In
Italy. In Venice the first newspaper was
published, and monthly, during the time
Venice was warning against Solyman the
Second in Dalmatia il was printed for the
purpose of giving military and CONNER
cial information to the Venetians The
first newspaper published in England was
i'm 1888, and called the English Mercury.
Who can estimate the political scientific
commercial and religious revolutions rous-
ed up in England for many years past by
the press?
France, was in 1851, by a physician. who
published the News, for the amusement
and health of his patients The French
nation understood fully how TO appreciate
this power. SO early as in 1929 there were
in Paris 1859 journals. But in the United
States the newspaper has come to unlim-
tied sway. Though in ITS there We're but
thirty-seven in the whole country, the
number of published journals is now count
ed by thousands; and to-day-we may as
Wen acknowledge 1t as not-the religious
and secular newspapers are the great ed
ucators of the country
But, alasi through what struggle the
newspaper has come to its present devel.
opment. just as soon as it began TO dem
onstrate its power, superstition and tyr
amy shackled it, There is nothing that
despotism so much fears and hates as the
printlng-press. great writer in thC
South of Europe declared that the Kne
of Naples had made it unsafe for aim Il
write on any subject save natural history
Austria could not bear Kossuth's journal.
istic pen pleading for the redemption OF
Hungary. Napoleon /, wanting to keef
his Iron heel on the neck of nations, saiC
that the newspaper was the regent OF
kings, and the only safe place to keep M
editor was In prison. But the great BAT.
tie for the freedom of the press was fough
in the court rooms of England and The
United States before this century began
D 4.