The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1898-03-04
AN ALLY OF THE PULPIT
The Power of the Newspaper Press
Described by DR.. Talmage.
For Good or for Evil the Power of the
rress WIelds Tremendous Influence
Newspaper Men Have Their
Trials and Temptations.

to the mighty hosts outside the walls
of his church. The text is:
| They shall seem like torches; they shall run
like lightaings Nahum il, l.
Express, rail train and Geographic
communication are suggested if not
| foretold in this text. and from it | start
to preach a sermon in gratitude to God
and the newspapeI press for the fact
that | have had the opportunity of de-
| livering through the newspaper press
1000 sermons or religious addresses, so
that / have for many years been al
lowed the privilege of preaching the
| Gospel every week to every neighbOr-
hood in Christendom, and in many
lands outside of Christendom. Many
| have wondered at the process by which
| it has come to pass. and for thc first
time in public place l state the three
causes. Many years ago, a young man
! who has since become eminent in his
| profession, was then studying law in a
distant city. He came to me,
and said that for lack of
I funds he must stop his study
/ ing, unless through stenography l
1 would give him sketches of sermons,
| that he might by the sale of them Sc
cure means for the completion of his
| education. l positively declined, be-
| cause it seemed to me an impossibility,
! but after some months had paased, and
! ] had reflected upon the great sadness
| for such brilliant young man to be
! defeated in his ambition for the legal
profession, l undertook to serve him;
/ of coure, free of charge. Within three
/ weeks there came request for those
/ stenographic reports; from many parts
J of the continent. Time passed on, and
. some gentlemen of my own profession,
evidently thinking tlIt there was
( hardly room for them and for myself
in this continent, began to assail me,
/ and became 50 violent in their assault
+ that the chief newspapers of
/ America put special correspondents
in my church Sabbath by Sabbath,
To take down such reply
as 1 might make. never made reply,
except once, for about three minutes,
| bat those correspondents could not
waste time and so they tele-
graphed &c sermons to their particu-
lar papers. After awhile, DIR. Louis
klopSch. of New York. svstematiZed
the work into syndicate until through
that and other syndicates he has put
the discOurses week by week before
more than 2O.OOOOOO people on both
sides OF the sea. There have been so
many gucsses on this subject, many of
them inaccurate, that l now tell the
true story. l have not improved the
opportunity as | ought, but | feel the
time has come when. as a matter of
common justice to the newspaper press,
l should make this statement in a SER
mon commemorative of the two thou
Sandth full publication of sermons and
religious addresses. saying nothing of
fragmentary reports, which would run
up into many thousands more.
There was one incident that l might
mention in this connection showing
how an insignificant event might in
flueucc US for lifetime. Many years
ago, on a Sabbath morning, on my
way to church in Brooklyn, a rep
resCntative of prominent newspaper
met me and said: Are you going to
give us any points tO-day?' l said:
~ hat do you mean by 'pOints?'" He
rep led: Anything we can remem-
Der " ! said to myself: We ought to
be making points all the time in our
pulpits. and not deal in platitudes and
inanities." That one interrogation put
to me that morning started in me the
desire of making points all the time
and nothing but points.
Ald now. how can l more apprOpri-
atciy commemorate the two thousandth
publication than by speaking of the
newspaper press as an ally to the
,1117,i+ and yDaDtiopiDcr C1,,a Of +Io
trials of newspaper men.
The newspaper is the great educator
Of the nineteeth century. There is no
force compared with it. 1t is book.
pulpit, platform, forum. all in one And
there is not an interest-religious
literary, commercial, scientific, agri-
cultural or mechanical-that Is not
within its grasp. All our churches,
and schools, and colleges, and asylums,
and art gale les feel the qual1ing of
the printing press.
The institution of newspapers arose
in Italy. In Venice the first newspa-
per was published, and monthly, dur
ing the time Venice was warning
against Solyman the Second in Dalma-
tia, it was printed for the purpose of
giving military and commercial infor-
nation to the Venetians. The first
newspaper published in England was
in 1888, and called the English Mercury.
WHIP can estimate the political, scien-
tifiG, commercial and religious revolu- |
TORS reused up in England for many
years past by the press?
I he first attempt at this institution /
in France was in 1851, by physician, |
4, II 4. Il r -.
ment and health of his patients. The |
French nation understood fully how to !
appreciate this power. So early as in |
1920 there were in Paris 100 journals. !
But in the United States the newspaper /
has come to unlimited sway. Though I
in I775 there were but 81 in the whole /
country, the number of published jour |
mails is now counted by thousands; and |
to-jay-we may as well acknowledge it /
as not-the religious and secular news /
papers are the great educators of the |
cCLntry.
hut alas! through what struggle the !
has come to its present de- |
velopment. just as soon as it began to /
demonstrate its power, superstition
and tyranny shackIed it. There is
4tOtlAAlAS IAttat us lltCtntA4 - luut1 1CdAS
and hates as the printing press. A
great writer in the south of Europe de-
clared that the king OF Naples had |
made it unsafe for him to write on any
subject save natural history. Austria
could not bear kossuth's journalistic
pen pleading for the redemption of
Hungary. Napoleon L., wanting to
keep his iron heel on the neck OF ma
tiCns, said that the newspaper was the
regent of kings, and the only safe place