New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1900-04-02
CHRTSTIANITY AND PERS.

We print elsewhere in this mornings paper a
letter from Christian minister strongly dis
senting from our comments upon the newspaper
enterprise Of the Rev. Mr.. Sheldon at Topeka,
Kan. The chief point he seeks to make Is
that have misunderstood Mr.. ShedOn's
motive That motive was he tells us. not to
run paper as Jesus would run it'-that is,
with Divine infalibility-but simply "as he be-
lieved Jesus would do It," Now that, with all
respect to our correspondent, seems to be beg
ging the question. Mr.. Sheldon, as reverent
Christian man, must believe Jesus would edit
a paper faultessly, with Divine infallibility.
Then, if he himself attempts to do it las he be-
Iieves Jesus would do it," does he not undertake
to do it faultlessly, with Divine infallibity?
That has been the ground of our criticism of the
enterprise from the beginning. Our objection is
to the attempt to identify the perfection of God
with the imperfection of man. If Mr.. Sheldon
had undertaken to edit the paper las he thought
a Christian man should do it," there would have
been no cause for serious complaint He would
have been doing Just what hundreds of other
men have done and are doing to-day But when
he directly coupled the name of Jesus the Christ
with his work-it matters not whether 1t was
'as Christ would do it, las he believed
Christ would do it,; the difference between the
two is that between tweedledum and tweedle
dee-it seemed to us he was guilty of gross and
almost sacrilegious presumption. We quite
willing to believe that he acted in good faith
from the purest of motives But man may do
that and yet commit tremendous mistake.
Our correspondent further says that the as
sumption that a daily secular newspaper can
and ought to be conducted in harmony with
Christian principles. and that an editor ought
to carry his religion into the sanctum, is per-
In tbot fI1ll nyx-tl
And we beg to assure him that precisely that
very thing is being done in nnumerable cases
all over the land. in spite of those who now and
then PROFOUND the questions Can an editor be
a ChrStianT and Can an editor be saved?'
There is no more incompatibility between prac-
teal Christianity and newspaper work than
there is between it and keeping a drygoods
shop or cultivatinC a farm. More than that
there is as much practical Christianity In the
newspaper business as there is in any other
business, and there no more occasion for
Mr. Sheldon to show how paper should be run
on Christian principles than to show how n
drygOOds shop or farm should thus be run
We suppose there are plenty of Christian dry
goods dealers who carry their religion into their
shops in spite of those trickSters who sell
shoddy for all wool. We suppose there are
plenty of Christian farmers whose lives are gov
erned by their religion, in spite of those bucolic
knaves who put the small potatoes at the bot
tom and the big ones at the top of the barrel
And we beg our correspondent and also the
Rev. Mr.. Sheldon to exercise enough of the
charity that 'thinketh no evil to believe that
in spite of the offenders against truth and de-
cency who excite their righteous rage there are
plenty of editors who Christians and who
sincerely endeavor to be guided in their work
by the principles of their religion. 1t is not to
Christianity in Journalism that we object; no.
but to the assumption that all the Christian
men who are editing newspapers are hypocrites,
and further, to the assumption that any one
man has special mission to show to the world
precisely how Jesus would edit q newspaper