The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1901-03-20
dr,o heavily. The great final battle be.

drug heavily. Inc great nnal battle be.
tween truth and error, the Armageddon, !
think, will not be fought with swords and
shells and guns. but with pens quill pens.
steel pens, gold pens, fountain pens and
before that the pens must be converted.
The most divinely honored weapon of the
past has been the pen, and the most d.
vinely honored weapon of the future will
be the pen-prophet's pen, and evangel.
lists peni and apostles pen, followed by
editors pen and authors pen and report.
ers pen. God save the pen! The wing
of the Apocalyptic angel will be. the
printed page. "he, printing press will roll
But" some one might ask, would you
make Sunday newspapers also REINFORCE
ment?" I have learned 30 take things as
thev are. I would like to see the much
scoffed at old Puritan Sabbaths come back
again. do not think the modern Sunday
will turn out any better men and women
than were your grandfathers and grand
mothers under the old-fashioned Sunday.
To say nothing of other results, Sunday
newspapers are killing editors. reporters,
compositors and ,pressmen; Every man,
four hours of nothing to do. If the news.
papers put on another set of hands, that
does not relieve the editorial and reDor.
torial room of its cares and responsible
ties. Our literary men die fast enough
without killing them with Sunday work.
All things are possible with God, and
nv faith is up until nothing in the way Of
religious victory would surprise me: All
the newspaper printing presses OF the
graph and telephone and type will yet an
nounce nations horn in dav; The first
book ever printed was the Bible, by Faust
and his son-in-law, Schoeffer, in 1850. and
that conservation of type to the Holy
Scriptures was prophecy OF the great
mission of printing for the evangel1ation
of all the nations. The father of the
American printing press was clergyman,
Rev. Jesse Glover, and that was pro:
sphecy of the religious use that the gospel
ministry in this country were to make OF
the types.
The tendency of criticism in the theo-
logical seminaries is to file off from our
young men all the sharp points and make
them too smooth for any kind of execu-
ton. What we want, all of us, is more
point, less humdrum. If we say the right
thing in the right way, the press will be
glad and echo and re-echo it. Sunday
school teachers, reformers, young men
and old men in the ministry, what we all
want if we are to make the printing press
an ally in Christian work is that which
the reporter spoken Of ,suggested-polnts:
sharp points, memorable points. But if
the thing be dead when uttered by living
voice it will be hundredfold more dead
when it is laid out in cold type:
Now, as you all have something to do
with the newspaper press, either in issu.
ing a paper or in reading it, either as pro.
ducers or patrons, either as.sellers or pur-
chasers of the printed sheet, / propose on
this Lords day a treaty to be signed be-
tween the church and the printing press,
treaty to be ratified by millions OF good
people if we rightly fashion it, treaty
promising that we will help each other in
tate the world, we by voice, you by pen;
we by speaking only that which is fit to
speak. You help us, and we will help you.
Side by side be these two. potent agencies
until the Judgment day, when we must
both be scrutinized for our work. health
full or blasting. The two worst off men in
that day will be the minister of religion
and the editor if they wasted their oppor..
tunity. Both of usi are the engineers OF
long express trains of influence, and We
will run them into a depot of light or tum-
BILE them off the embankments.
What useful life and what glorious
departure was that of the most famous OF
all American printers, Benjamin Franklin.
whom infidels in the penury of their re.
sources have often fraudulently claimed
as their own, but the printer who moved
that the Philadelphia convention be
opened with prayer, the resolution lost be-
cause a majority thought prayer unneces-
sary, and who wrote at the time he was
viciously attacked, "My rule is to go
straight forward in doing what appears to
G BE rsht Leaving sDG gwsS the %pee I
quaint epitaph showing his hope of resur:
rection, an epitaph. that I hundreds of
times read while living in Philadelphia:
That Providence intends the profession
of reporters to have mighty share Ill the
worlds redemption is suggested by the
fact that Paul and Christ took reporter
along with them, and he reported their
addresses and their acts.
Luke was a reporter, and he wrote not
only the book of Luke, but the Acts Of
the Apostles, and without that reporters
work we would have known nothing OF
the Pentecost, and nothing of Stephens
martyrdom, and nothing of Tabitha's res;
direction, and nothing Of the jailing and
unjailing of Paul and Silas, and nothing
of the shipwreck at Melita.
Strike out the reporters work from the
Bible, and you kin large part of the
New Testament. 1t makes me think that
in the future of the kingdom OF God the
reporters are to bear mighty part.
About twenty-five years ago represen-
tative of an important New York news.
paper took his seat in my Brooklyn church
one Sunday night about five pews from
the front Of the pulpit. He took out pen
Gil and reporters pad, resolved to carica-
ture the whole scene. When the music be-
gan, he began, and with his pencil he de-
rided that, and then derided the prayer,
and then derided the reading Of the
Scriptures, and then began to deride the
sermon. But, he says, for some reason
his hand began to tremble, and he, rally.
ing himself, sharpened his pencil and
started again, but broke down again and
then put pencil and paper in hie pocket
and his head down on the front pew and
began to pray. At the close of the service
he came up and asked for the prayers OF
others, and gave his heart to God. And,
though still engaged in newspaper work,
he is an evangelist and hires hall at his
own expense and every Sunday afternoon
breaches Jesus Christ to the people.
And the men OF that profession are
going to come in body throughout the
country. I know hundreds of them, and
more genial or highly educated class of
men it would be hard to find, and, though
the tendency of their profession may be
toward skepticism, an organized common
sense gospel invitation would fetch them
to the front of all Christian endeavor.
Men of the pencil and pen in all depart
ments, you need the help of the Christian
T., &ho dow ,,,hon poon1o 1vopt>fn