The commonwealth. (Scotland Neck, N.C.) 1896-1929, 1898-03-24
TALMAGE ON
NEWSPAPERS.
POWER IN THE SECULAR PRESS.
Who Cares for Newspaper Men?
Ill.

Another trial of this profession Is
the fact no one seems to care Tor their
souls. They feel bitterly about it,
though they laugh. People sometimes
laugh the loudest when they feel tie
worst. They are expected to gather up
religious proceedings and to discuss
religious doctrines in the editorial col
umns, but who expects them to be
saved by the sermons they stepograph
Or by the doctrines they discuss in the
editorial columns? The world looks
| upon them as professional. Who
breaches to reporters and editors?
| Some of them came from religious
| BONES, and when they left the parental
roof, whoever regarded or disregarded,
| they came off with fathers benedlc-
ton and a mothers prayer. They
never think of those good old times
but tears come into the eyes, and they
| move through these great cities home
SICK. Oh. if they only knew what a
helpful thing it is for man to put his
weary head down on the bosom OF a
sympathetic Christ He knows how
nervous and tired you are. He has
heart large enough to take in all your
interests for this world and the next.
Oh, men OF the newspaper press, you
sometimes get sick of this world, it
seems too hollow and unsatisfying Ii
there are any people In all the earth
that need God, you are the men, and
you shall have him, if only this day
you implore his mercy!
A man was found at the foot OF canal
street, New York. As they picked him
up from the water and brought him to
the morgue they saw by the contour OF
his forehead that he had great mental
capacity. He had entered the news
paper profession. He had gone down in
health. He took to artificial stimulus.
He went down further and further, un-
; Til one summer day, hot and hungry
and sick and in despair, he flung him
self off the dock. They found In his
pocket reporters pad, a lead pencil, a
', photograph of some one who had loved
him long ago. Death as sometimes 1T
will, smoothed out all the wrinkles
that had gathered prematurely on bis
brow, and as he lay there his face was
as fair as when seven years before he
left his country home and they bade
him good-by forever. The world looked
through the window of the morgue and
said, "It's nothing but an outcast," but
God said it was gigantic soul that
perished because the world gave him
no chance.
Let me ask all the men connected
with the printing press that they help
us more and more in the effort to make
the world better. I charge you in the
name of God, before whom you must
account for the tremendous Influence
YOU hold in this country, to consecrate
yourselves to higher endeavors. Ior
are the men to fight back this invasion
of corrupt literature. Lift up YOU
right hand and swear new allegiance
to the cause of philanthropy and re
igion. And when at last, standing or
the plains of judgment, you look ou
upon the unnumbered throngs owe
whom you have had influence, may i
be found that you were among tn
mightiest energies that lifted men upo1
the exalted pathway that leads..to tn
renown of heaven. Better than t.
have sat In editorial chair, from which
with the finger of type, you decide
them wrong, that you had been som
dungeoned exile who, by the light
window iron grated, on scraps OF Me-
Testament leaf, picked up from tn
.. earth, spelled out the story OF hlr
who taketh away the sins OF the worlt
In eternity Dives is the beggar. Wei
80 nv friends, we will all soon get throug
- writing and printing and proof-readin
ri and publishing. What then? "
life is a book. Our years are tt
cbapters. Our months are the par
~ graphs. Our days are the sentence
=, Our doubts are the interrogation point
49, our imitation of others the quotatlo
bo marks, our attempts at display das
~ death the period, eternity the peror
=, ton. O God, where will we spend
- Have you heard the news, mo
in startling than any found In the Jonrns
- of last six weeks? It Is the tldln
that man is lost. Have you heard II
- news. the gladdest that was ever
How TO GET THE SYSTEM READY Fl
5n' THE SPRING.
L