Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1901-03-09
lcopynght, Louis Klopsch. 1eo1l


make newspapers the spoken word and
the printed word to go side by side; text,
Luke xvi. S. The children of this world
are in. their generation wiser than the
children of light"
Sacred stupidity aud solemn incompe-
tency and sancti6ed Iaziness are here
rebuked by Christ. He says worldings
are wider awake for opportunities than
are Christians. Men OF the world grab
occasions. while Christian people let the
most valuable occasions drift by unlm-
proved That is the meaning of our Lord
when he says, The children of this
world are in their generation wiser than
the children of light"
a marked illustration of the truth of
that maxim is in the slowness of the
Christian religion to take possession of
the secular printing press. The opportu-
nifty il open and has been for some time
open, but the ecclesiastical courts, and
the churches, and the ministers of re-
ligion are for the most part allowing the
golden opportunity 10 pass unimprored.
That the opportunity is open ! declare
from the fact that all the secular news
papers are glad of any religious facts or
SldkiStiCS Nndl NOh IItnthN tANAA'' ~NNS
animated and stirring article relating TO
religious themes they would gladly print.
They thank you for any information IN
regard to churches. If a wrong has been
done to any Christian church or Christian
institution you could go into any Eewspa-
per Office of the land and have the real
truth stated. Dedication services, minis
terial ordinations and pastoral installa-
tions, cornerstone laying of a church, an
niyersary of charitable society, will
have reasonable space in any secular
journal if it have previous notice given.
If | had some great injustice done me,
there is not an editorial or reportorlal
room in the United States into which l
could not go and get myself set right,
and that is true Of any we'll known Chris
tan man. Why, then, does not our glori-
Gus Christianity embrace these magnih-
cent opportunities? | have before me a
subject Of first and lost Importance. How
shall we secure the secular press as a
mighty reinforcement to religion and the
pulpit?
Indiscriminate Hostility.
The first thing toward this result is
cessation of indiscrminate hostility
against newspaperdom. You might as
well denounce the legal profession be-
cause of the shysters. or the medical pro
fesson because of the quacks. or mer-
senanJiiSe because Of the swindling bar
gain makers as TO slambang newspapers
because there are recreant editors ana
unfair reporters and unclean columns.
Gutenberg, the inventor of the art of
printing, was about TO destroy his types
aud eXtinguish the art because 1t was
suggested to him that printing might be
sIborned into the service OF the devil,
but afterward he bethought himself that
the right use Of the art might more than
overcome the evil use of it, and so he
spared the type and the intelligence of
all following ages. But there are many
to-day in the depressed mood of Guten-
berg, with uplifted hammer, wanting to
pound to pieces the type, who have not
reached his better mood in which he saw
the art of printing to be the rising sun Of
the worlds illumination,
If, instead of fighting newspapers, we
spend the same length of time and the
same vehemence in marshalng their help
in religious directions we would be as
much wiser as the man who gets consent
of the railroad superintendent 10 fasten
car to the end of Il rail train, shows
better sense than he who runs his wheel
barrow mp the track to meet and drive
back the Chicago limited express. The
Eilliest thing that a man ever does is to
fight a newspaper. for you may have the
floor for utterance perhaps for one day in
the week, while the newspaper has the
floor every day in the week. Napoleon,
though a mighty man, had many weak
nesses, and one Of the weakest things he
ever did was to threaten that if the Eng
fish newspapers did not stop their ad-
verse criticism of himself he would, with
400, 900 bayonets. cross the channel for
their chastisement. Don't fight newspa-
peTs. Attack provokes attack. Better
wait until the excitement blows over and
then go in and get justice, for get it YOU
will If you have patience and common
sense and cquipoise Of disposition. 1t
ought to be mighty sedatiye that there
is an enormous amount of common sense
in the world, and you will eventually be
taken for what you are really worth. and
you cannot be pulled mp, and you cannot
be written down. and If you are the en-
envy Of good society, that fact will come
out, and il you are the friend Of good
society that fact will be established
Speaking from Experience.
/ know what / am talking about, for l
can draw on my own experience. All the
newspapers, as far as know,
are my friends now. But many OF you
remember the time when ! was the most
and meanly attacked man In
this country. God gave me grace not to
answer back, and kept silence for ten
years, and much grace was required.
What / said was perverted and twisted
into just the opposite Of what | did say.
There were millions OF people who be-
lieved that there was a large sofa in my
pulpit, although we never had anything
but chair, and that during the singing
BY the congregation ! was accustomed 70
lie down on that sofa and dangle my ieet
0ver the end. Lying New York CORE
snortlents FOR ten years misrepresented
our church services; but we waited, and
peoTh from every neighborhood q
ChrS NeDdom came there 10 find the mag
nituI& u the faisehoods concerning the
chnI and concerning myself. re-
acti{ &set in, and soon we bad justice.