The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1898-01-06
NO. As.

own. without our giving them an ex-
ira dose in the shape of religion. This
world is going to be saved, and il YOU
do not believe it you are an infidel.
None OF us want to get on board a
train which, instead of reaching the
depot, is surely going down the en-
bankment All aboard for the millen-
mum! For the most part, in religious
journal, let the editorials be cheerful
and the pictures cheerful. Ii in one
column there be a ghastly woodcut of
the famine-stricken in India, in the
next column have a list of contribu-
tions for alleviation of the suffering,
or picture of ship carrying bread
stuffs. If in one column there be the
death of an old minister of the Gospel
whom we can not spare, in the next
put the name of some young
Elisha who can wear the mantle
of Elijah. If some evil of so
ciety is depicted in one column, in
the next show the Gospel machinery
that is to drive it back into the perdi.
ton from which it ascended. More
gious journalism. Publish in it more
sermons on texts like 20, give thanks
unto the Lord, for He is good" and
fewer on texts like "Out of the depths
of hell have Icried unto Thee, o Lord"
And now, let all of 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 reporto-
rial, or contributors column-for every
type we set, for every press we move,
and for the style of secular Or religious
newspapers we patronize or encourage.
In Ezekiels prophecy the Angel of God,
supposed to be Christ appears with an
ink-horn hung at his side, as an attor-
ney's clerk in olden time had an ink
horn at his side. Aud have no doubt
the ink-horn will have an important
part in the day of Judgment. Those
who have used it well to receive eter-
nal plaudit and those who have mis-
used it to receive condemnation.
Piled in all the worlds printing
Offices, secular and religious, are the
publications, of past years, bound up
year by year; and in those offices they
can tell just what they printed any day
for the last 20 years; and in the great
day of judgment all that we have ever
written or printed will be revealed
from the mighty volumes of eternity.
ALI those who have ruthlessly
pried into the secret of un-
happy domestic life and despoiled
homes, come to Judgment!
All those who have had anything to
do with salacious and depraved litera-
ture. come to judgment! ALI those
who have produced pictures admins
trative OF vice, come to judgment! No
one will then dare say: Il knew 1t
was not true and l only intended it
for joke;" or, Il had to make my liv-
ing, and the paper that worked for paid
me in proportion to the startling ma
ture OF the stuff l prepared" or, II
corrected the falsehood in the next is
sue;;" or, Il felt my power in the edi-
torial chair. having opportunity to adj
dress such multitudes week by week,
and l wanted to keep the church and
the world in awe of me-" On that
great day of Judgment all the power
we have on earth will be insignificant
compared with the power that will pro-
nounce our rapture or our doom, and that
which might have been considered
| joke in the composing room," because
it humiliated an enemy, will be no joke
| at all amid the wreck of mountains and
seas; and the ink-horn will there tell
l ~ ii tvo xvrnfo nnrvrnono ord ,,nln~
the personality of newspaper, as well
as that which was signed with our
own name. But what sbeautiful
day for Frances Havergal, when
| she gets rewarded for all the kind
| things she ever wrote with the tears
| of her invalidism; or when the authors
and authoresses of all lands and ages
are told how many came to Heaven
through their instrumentalities; and
for all those who use the influence Of
the press to correct the errors, and ex-
tirpate the wrongs, and break
the serfdom of mankind! Then
the ink-horn by the side of the
Angel of the New Covenant will
speak out and tell of what il
had to do with all letters of kindness
written, with all emancipation procla-
nations, with all editorial and repor-
torial eulogies of the good, with all the
messages of salvation to a lost world.
Better in that day will it be to have
set up the type for one line OF Chris
tian encouragement, or written one
paragraph of useful sentiment, or pub.
lished one page of helpful truth, than
to have written books as big as Glib
bon's five large volumes concerns
ing "The Decline and Fall Ol
the Roman Empire" if these volumes
put Christianity at a disadvantages; o,
as brilliant as Voltaire's "Discourses
Upon Man." If they inculcated in,
furious theories; or as rhy thmic as BY.
ron's Don JUAN" if it sacrificed tht
decencies. On that day the flying rol
which Zechariah of the text saw thou
sands Of years ago, and the roll
which we see flying over all ou
towns and cities, and flying from tn,
swiftest printing presses that wer
! | ,y;n bn fo,,~J o.~,,