Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1899-05-07
people object to them, but are their
objections well taken?

One hears clergymen say that their
reduced congregations are due in part
to the Sunday newspapers. / suppose
there is some basis of fact in this
statement, but I,imagine that not more
than five amongsa hundred readers are
kept from church by the Sunday Jour-
mails, and it is a question with me
whether the good doiae to the remain
ing ninety-fve does not more than off,
set the loss sustained by the five who
are kept from church services by the
journals. Tat is, are not the hundred
readers better off than they would be
if the five went to church, and the
ninety-five did not have the benefits of
the journals? Our Sunday papers are
spreading considerable sermonic litera-
ture, and most clergymen are glad to
make use of the press, for by it they
by the way, is the best-filled pew now
adays.
The cause of religion finds an ally in
the secular press. Where the strictly
religious journal reaches one reader the
secular journal reaches fifty readers,
and as the number of secular journals
is so much greater than the number of
strictly religious journals, it is probable
that the amount Of religious matter
printed in the secular press exceeds
that printed in the religious press.
CHURCH INDEBTED TO THE
PRESS.
1t is the secular, not the religious
press, that carries the message of the
church to the masses. The reputa-
lions of our well-known clergymen
were made, not through their denom-
national organs, but through the col
umns of the daily press. The people
know about the Rev. DR.. Blank largely
through the daily journals, and his
message reaches their homes through
the columns of the same.
II is well to bear in mind that the
Sunday newspaper need not prevent
anybody from going to church; that a
great many church-goers are interested
readers of the Sunday papers; that the
church can WOO the five from their pa
pers at church time if it give them
something which interests them more.
We must take things as we find them,
and make that condition our starting
point, and we find that the majority of
people are not churchgoers. These
and if it be in the public libraries, or
at the art galleries, or in their homes
reading the newspapers, how much bet
ter occupied they are than they might
otherwise be. | repeat, for the sake of
emphasis, that something must be done
for the people who do not go to church.
Shall it be through the channels of
amusement or of instruction? If in
struction, the Sunday journals can do
much. Such journals are here to stay,
and it remains with the reading public
to determine TO a very great extent,
what their character shall be- Editors,
taken as a class, desire to have clean
and helpful sheets. Their pens are Of
ten welded in the cause of practical
reform, and many blessing has come
to a community through the untiring
efforts of an editorial len enlisted in
behalf of the people.
TOO GOOD TO MISS.
The Sunday edition of the newspaper
is, generally, the best of the week. 1t
is usually larger treats a greater range
of topics, and | rarely see a Sunday
newspaper that does not have much
helpful reading in it, and many of these
papers serve up matter which is too
valuable to be cast aside after reading
Some of the matter is so valuable that
if one were to subscribe for five Sun
day journals and clip dntelligently from
them for a year or two he will find,
when he comes to classify his clippings
that he has a fund of information Of
great value.
Among the papers Of the week the
Sunday paper is the one most read. 1t
is doubtful if it would be wise to stop
it, if it were possible to do so. 1t is
wiser by far to encourage it in the
splendid work which lies before it, the
elevation of the home life.
Americas hope lies very largely in
the quality of her press. 1t is a mighty
power for enlightment and its rays
illumine the poorest homes. 1t is the
daily instructor of the nation. It's aid
enlisted on the side of any issue for a
sufficient length of time means victory
for the cause. Fraud pursued by it
will be unearthed. Injustice defeated
and right enthroned. Men who WELD
the pen undertake a responsible task,
for the measure of a peoples progress
can be inferred by the intellectual
standard Of the press, and every COM
munity should count, among its great