St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1901-04-06
CHURCH AND PRESS.
A Warm Friendship Should Exist
Between Them.

A Warm Friendship Should Exis
Between Them.
Or. Talmage Says That the spokeu
Word ana the Printed Word should
O. SIDE By side-God and
the Printing Press.
tCopyrigAt, 1901. by Louis klopsch.l
Washington,
In this discourse DIR. Talmage calls
for warm friendship between those
who preach the Gospel and those who
make newspapers, the spoken word
and the printed word to go side by
side; text, Luke 16-S: 'sThe children
OF this world are in their generation
wiser than the children Of light"
Sacred stupidity and solemn incom-
potency and sanctified laziness are
here rebuked by Christ. He says
worldlings are wider awake for op-
portunities than are Christians. Men
Of the world grab occasions, while
Christian people let the most valu-
able occasions drift by unimproved.
That is the meaning of our Lord
when He says: 1.-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 pos
session of the secular printing press.
The opportunity is 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 allow
ing the golden opportunity to pass
unimproved. That the opportunity
is open l declare from the fact that
all the secular newspapers are glad
of any religious facts or statistics
that you present them. Any animat-
ed and stirring article relating to re-
ligious themes they would gladly
print. They thank you for any in
formation in regard to churches. If
wrong has been done to any Chris
| tian church or Christian institution
you could go into any newspaper Of
fee of the land and have the real
truth stated. Dedication services,
ministerial ordinations and pastoral
installations, cornerstone laying Of
. church, anniversary of charitable
society. will have reasonable space in
any secular journal if it have previ-
Gus notice given. If I had some
great injustice done me, there is not
an editorial or a reportorial room
in the United States into which I
could not 60 and get myself set
right. and that is true of any we'll
known Christian man. Why, then,
does not our glorious Christianity
embrace these magnificent opportuni-
ties? l have before me a subject of
first and last Importance: How shall
we secure the secular press as a
mighty Reinforcement to religion and
the pulpit?
The first thing toward this result
is cessation of indiscriminate hos
tility against newspaperdom. You
might as well denounce the legal pro-
fession because of the shysters, or
the medical profession because Of the
quacks, or merchandise because Of
the swindling bargain makers, as to
slambang newspapers because there |
are recreant editors and unfair re-
porters and unclean columns. Guten- |
berg, the inventor of the art of print |
ing. was about to destroy his types
and extinguish the crt because it was |
suggested to him that printing might |
be suborned into the service Of the |
devil, but afterward he bethought |
himself that the right use of the art ,
might more than overcome the evil I
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 Gutenberg,
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
If. instead Of fighting newspapers.
We spend the same length Of time and
the same vehemence in marshaling
their help in religious directions We
would be as much wiser as the man
who gets consent of the railroad super
intendent to fasten q car to the end
Of a rail train shows better sense than
he who runs his wheelbarrow up the
track to meet and drive back the Chi
pago limited express. The silliest thing
that man ever does is to fight news
paper, for you may have the floor for
utterauce perhaps for one day in the
week, while the newspaper has the
floor every day in the week. Napoleon.
though mighty man, had many weak
nesses, and one Of the weakest things
he ever cid was to threaten that il the
English newspapers did not stop their
adverse criticism of himself he would.
with 100000 bayonets, cross the chan
mel for their chastisement. Don't
fight newspapers. Attack provokes at
tack. Better wait until the excite
nent blows over and then 60 in and get
Justice. for get it you will il you have
patience and common sense and equi-
poise of disposition. It ought to be a
mighty sedative that there is an enor- l
nous amount of common sense in the I
world. and you will eventually be taken K
Tor what you are really worth, and you
be puffed up. and you cannot
Ne written down, and II you are the
enemy of good society. that fact will !
come out. and II you are the friend of {
yood society that fact will be estab-
ished. &
know what am talking about, for
can draw on my own experience. All
he respectable newspapers, = far AZ
know. are my friends now. But many q
If you remember the time when I was {
he most continuously and meanly at 6
acked man in this country. God gave I
ne grace not to answer back, and I j
Iept silence for ten years, and much I
yrace was required. What said was ]
and twisted into Just the {
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