The enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 188?-1899, 1898-02-23

published. If you should gather all
the editors and the reporters of this
country in one great convention, and
ask OF them what kind of paper they
would prefer to publish, believe they
would unanimously say, "We would
prefer to publish an elevating paper"
So long as there is an iniquitous de-
mand, there will be an iniquitous sup
ply. l make no apology for a de-
bauched newspaper, but / am saying
these things in order to divide the re-
sponsibility between those who print
and those who read.
Another temptation of the newspa-
per profession is the great allurement
that surrounds them. Every occupa-
tlon and profession has Temptations PEE
culiar to itself and the newspaper pro-
fession is not an exception. The great
demand, as you know, is on the nerv-
GUS force, and the brain is racked. The
laundering political speech must read
well for the sake of the party, and so
the reporter, or the editor, has to make
it read we'll, although every sentence
were catastrophe to the English Ian
guage. The reporter must hear. all
that an inaudible speaker, who thinks
1t is vulgar to speak out, says, and it
must be right the next morning or the
next night in the papers, though the
night before the whole audience
sat with its hand behind it's ear,
in vain trying to catch it. This man
must go through killing night work.
he must go into heated assemblages
and into unventilated audience rooms
that are enough to take the life out of
him. He must visit court rooms, which
are almost always disgusting with rum
and tobacco, He must expose himself
at the. fire. He must write in foetid
alleywaYs. Added to all that, he must
have hasty mastication and irregular
habits. To bear up under this tremen-
dous nervous strain, they are tempted
to artificial stimulus, and how. many
thousands have gone down under their
pressure God only knows. They must
have something to counteract the wet,
they must have something to keep out
the chill, and after scant nights
sleep they must have something to re-
ylve them for the mornings work. T..
This is what made Horace Greeley
such stout temperance man. l said to
him: III Mr., Greeley, why are you more
eloquent on the subject of temperance
than any other subject?" He replied:
i have seen so many of my best
friends in journalism go down under
lntemperance," Oh, my dear brother
OF the newspaper profession, what you
cannot do without artificial stimulus,
God does not want you to do. There is
no halfway ground for our literary
people between teetotalism and dissi-
patton. Your professional success, your
domestic peace, your eternal salvation
will depend upon your theories in re-
gard to artificial stimulus. 1 have had
SO many friends go down under the
temptation, their brilliancy quenched,
their homes blasted, that cry out this
morning in the words of another,
Look not upon the wine when it is
red, when it giveth it's color in the cup,
when 1t moveth itself Alright; for at the
last it biteth like serpent and it
stingeth like an adder"
And now before l close this sermon,
thankfully commemorative of the "Two
Thousandth" publication, 1 wish more
fully to acknowledge the services rem
dered by the secular press in the matt
ter of evangelization. All the secular
newspapers of the day-for am not
speaking this morning of the religious
newspapers-all the secular newspa-
pers of the day discuss all the questions
of God, eternity and the dead, and all
the questions of the past, present and
future. There is not a single doctrine OF
theology but has been discussed in the
last ten years by the secular newspapers
OF the country. They gather up all the
news of all the earth bearing on relig-
ious subjects and then they scatter the |
news abroad again. The Christian
newspaper will be the right wing of |
the apocalypic angel. The cylinder of |
the Christianized printing press will |
be the front wheel of the Lords |
chariot. take the music of this day,
and do not mark it diminuendo-Il
mark it crescendo. A pastor on Sab
bath breaches to. few hundred or a
few. thousand people, and on Monday
or during the week, the printing press
will take the same sermon and preach
it to millions of people. God speed the |
printing press Godisav the printing
press! God Christianize the printing
press! ...,...s,. ,,.,.t
When / see the printing press stand
ing with the electric telegraph on the
one side gathering up material l;5and the
express train on the other
side Waiting for the tons of folded
sheets Of newspapers, L pronounce. it
the mightiest force in our civilization,
So Icommend you to pray for all those
who manage the newspapers Of the /
land for all typesetters, for all editors,
for all publishers, that, sitting or
standing in positions of such. great
influence, they may give all that in
auence for God and, the better
ment of, the human race. An aged
woman making her, living by knitting
nnwound the yarn from the ball until
she found in the center of the ball
there was an old piece of paper. She
opened it and read an advertisement
which announced that she had become
heiress to large property, and that
fragment of newspaper lifted her up
from pauperism to aff1uence. And do