Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1898-02-26

stimulus, and how many thousands
have gone down under their pressure
God only knows. They must have some
thing to counterfeit the wet, they must
have something to keep out the chill
and after a scant nights sleep they
must have something to revive them for
the morning work. This is what made
Horace Greeley such stout temperance
man. said to him, "Mr. Greeley, why
are you more eloquent on the subject of
temperance than any other sub.sct?'
He replied, II have seen SO many Of my
best friends in journalism go down IN
der intemperance.
Oh, my dear brother Of the newspaper
profession, what you cannot do without
artificial stimulus God does not want
you to dol There is no half way ground
for our literary people between teetotal-
ism and dissipation. Your professional
success, your domestic peace, your eter-
nal salvation, will depend upon your
theories in regard to artificial stimulus.
1 have had so many friends 60 down un-
der the temptation, their brilliancy
cuenched, 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 its color in the
cup, when it moveth itself Alright, for
at the last it biteth like serpent and
it stingeth like an adder"
Who breaches to Reporters?
Another trial of this profession is the
fact no one seems to care for their souls.
They feel bitterly about it, though they
laugh. People sometimes laugh the loud
est when they feel the worst. They are
expected to gather up religious proceed
ings and to discuss religious doctrines
in the editorial columns, but who ex-
poets them to be saved by the sermons
they stenograph 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
homes, and when they left the parental
roof, whoever regarded or disregarded,
they came off with fathers benedic.
tion and a mothers prayer. They never
think of those good old times but tears
come into their eyes, and they move
through these great cities homesick.
Oh, if they only knew what helpful
thing it is for man to put his weary
head down on the bosom of sympa-
thetic 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 so hollow and
unsatisfying If 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 meroyl
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 newspaper
profession. He hadgone down in health.
He took to artificial stimulus. He went
down further and further, until one
summer day, hot and hungry and sick
and in despair, he flung himself off the
dock. They found in his pocket re-
porter's pad lead pencil, a photograph
of some one who had loved him long
ago. Death, as sometimes it will,
smoothed out all the wrinkles that had
gathered prematurely on his brow, and
as he lay there his face was as fair as
when seven years before he left his
country home and they babe him good
by forever. The world looked through
the window of the morgue and said,
"It's nothing but an outcast, F" but God
said twas gigantic soul that persisted
because the world gave him no chance.
Let me ask all men connected with
the printing press that they help us
more and more in the effort to make the
world better. 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. You are the men to
fight back this invasion Of corrupt liter
allure. Lift up your right hand and
swear new allegiance to the cause of
philanthropy and religion. And when
at last. standing on the plains of judg-
ment, you look out upon the unnum-
bered throngs over whom you have had
influence, may it be found that you
were among the mightiest energies that
lifted men upon the exalted pathway
that leads to the renown of heaven.
Better than to have sat in editorial
chair, from which, with the finger of
type, you decided the destinies of en-
rires, but decided them wong, that you
lad been some dungrc ! exile who.
by the light Of window iron grated, on
scraps of New Testament leaf, picked
up from the earth, spelled out the story
of him who taketh away the sins of the
world. In eternity Dives is the beggar.
Well, my friends, we will all soon get
through writing and printing and proof
reading and publishing. What then?
Our life is book. Our years are the
chapters Our months are the para
graphs. Our days are the sentences.
Our doubts are the interrogation points,
our imitation Of others the quotation
marks, our attempts at display adash,
death the period, eternity the perora-
ton. o God. where will we spend 1t?
Have you heard the news, more star
Ting than any found in the journals OF
the last six weeks? 1t is the tidings that
man is lost. Have you heard the news,
the gladdest that was ever announced,
coming this day from the throne Of
God, lightning couriers leaping from
the palace gate? The news-the glorious
news-that there is pardon for all guilt
and comfort for all trouble! Set 1t up
in double loaded columns and direct it
to the whole race.
Acknowledgements to the Secular Press.
And now before close this sermon,
thankfully commemorative Of the 1.-TWO
Thousandth" publication, I wish more
fully to acknowledge the services rem