The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1901-03-15

Lnc SpOhch WOIu duu lut DTlulcu worn 10
20 side by side; text, Luke xvi, 8, 1.-The
children of this world are in their genera
ton wiser than the children of light"
Sacred stupidity and solemn incompe-
tency and sanctifed laziness are here
rebuked by Christ. He says worldlings
are wider awake for opportunities than
are Christians. Men Of the world grab
occasions, while Christian people let the
most valuable occasions drift by unim-
proved. That is the meaning Of our Lord
when he says, THE children of this
world ere 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 is open and has been for some time
open, but the ecclesiastical courts, and
the churches, and the ministers of reli-
gion are for the most part allowing the
golden opportunity to pass unimproved.
That the opportunity is open / declare
from the fact that all the secular news
papers are glad Of any religious facts or
statistics that you present them. Any
animated and stirring article relating to
religious themes they would gladly print.
They thank you for n information in
regard to churches. If n wrong has been
lone to any Christian church or Christian
institution you could go into any newspa-
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
niversary of a charitable society, will
have reasonable space in any secular
Tnrrnnl - ~ have rn-inv1r -4+Son n,-n,
If 1 had some great injustice lone me,
there is not an editorial or a reportorial
room in the United States into which l
could not go and get myself set right,
and that is true of any well known Chris
tian man. Why, then, does not our glori-
Gus Christianity embrace these magnifi-
cent opportunities? / have before me 4
subject of first and last 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 indiscriminate hostility
against newspaperdom. You might as
well denounce the legal profession be-
cause of the shysters, or the medical pro-
fession because of the quacks, or mer-
chandise because of the ~swindling bar
gain makers as to slambang
because there are recreant editors and
unfair reporters and unclean columns.
Gutenberg, the inventor of the art of
printing, was about to de-sroy his types
and ~extinguiSh the art because it was sug-
gested 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 use of it, and so he
spared the type and the intelligence of
all following ages. But there are many
today in the depressed mood of Guten-
berg, with uplifted hammer, wanting 10
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 yehemence in m~arshaling their help
in religious directions we would be as
much wiser as the man who gets consent
or the railroad superintendent to fasten
q car to the end of a rail train, shows
better sense than he who runs his wheel
barrow up the track to meet and drive
back the Chicago limited express. The
silliest thing that a man ever does is to
ASAk u CnSpopO " sOu may haN lhC
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
lish newspapers did not stop their adj
verse criticism of himself he would, with
100000 bayonets, cross the channel for
their chastisement. Don't fight newspa-
pers. 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 eQuipoise of disposition. 1t
ought to be q mighty sedative 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 up, and you canno
be written down, and if you are the enemy
Of good society, that fact will come out,
and if you are the friend of good society
that fact will be established.
Speaking From Experience.
I know what l am talking about, for l
can draw on my own experience. All the
respectable newspapers, as far as | know,
are my friends now. But many of you
remember the time when / was the most
continuously and meanly attacked man in
this country. God gave ne grace not to
answer back, and / kept silence for ten
years, and much grace was required.
What I said was perverted and twisted
into just the opposite Of what ! did say.
There were millions of people who be
keved that there was a large sofa in my
pulpit, although we never had anything
but a chair. and that during the singing
by the congregation / was accustomed to
lie down on that sofa and dangle my feet
over the end. Lying New York cor
respondents for ten years misrepresented
our church services; but we waited, and
people from every neighborhood of
Christendom came there to find them mag
nitude OF the falsehoods concerning the
church and concerning myself. a re-
action set in. and soon we had justice,
full justice. more thar justice. and as
much overpraise as once We had under
appreciation. and no man that ever lived
was so much indebted to the newspaper
press for opportunity to preach the Cos