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

temperance ana judgment to come, nor
the English king any difficulty in re-
~membering what the court preacher said
when, during the sermon against sin,
the preacher threw his handkerchief into
the kings pew to indicate whom he
meant.
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 n kind of execu-
ton. What we want, all of us, is more
point, less humdrum. II we say the right
thing in the right way, the press will be
glad to echo and re-echo il. 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-points,
sharp points, memorable points. But il
the thing be dead when uttered by living
voice it will be q hundredfold more dead
when it is Laid out in cold type.
The Church and the Press.
Now, as you all have something to 10
with the newspaper press, either in issu-
ing q paper or in reading il, either as pro-
ducers or patrons, either as sellers or
purchasers of the printed sheet, l propose
on this Lords day a treaty to be signed
between the church and the printing
press, a treaty to be ratified by millions
Of good people if we rightly fashion it, a
treaty promising that we will help each
other in our work Of trying to illumine
and felicitate the world, we by voice, you
by pen, we by speaking only that which
is worth printing, you by printing 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 judg-
ment day, when we must both be scru-
tinted for our work, healthful or blast
ing. The two worst off men in that day
will be the minister of religion and the
editor if they wasted their opportunity.
Both Of US are the engineers of long ex-
press trains of influence, and we will run
them into a depot of light or tumble them
off the embankments.
What a useful life and what a glorious
departure was that of the most famous
of all American printers, Benjamin
Franklin, whom infidels in the penury of
their resources have often fraudulently
claimed as their own, but the printer
who moved that the Philadelphia conven-
ton be opened with prayer, the resolution
lost because a majority thought prayer
unnecessary, and who wrote at the time
he was viciously attacked, My rule is to
go straight forward in doing what ap-
pears to me to be right, leaving the con-
sequences to Providence" and who wrote
this quaint epitaph showing his hope of
resurrection, an epitaph that [ hundreds
of times read while living in Philadel-
phia:
1.-The body of Benjamin Franklin,
printer Qike the cover of an old book, it's
contents torn out and stripped of its let
tering and g%ilding), lies here food for
worms. Yet the work itself shall not be
lost, for it will (as he believed) appear
once more in q new and more beautiful
edition, corrected and amended by the
Author"
The Disciples AZ Reporters.
That Providence intends the profession
of reporters to have a mighty share in
the worlds redemption is suggested by
the fact that Paul and Christ took a re-
porter 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 Apos-
ties, and without that reporters work
we would have known nothing Of the
Pentecost and nothing of Stephens mar
tyrdom, and nothing of Tabitha's resur-
r~ection, and nothing of the failing and
unjailing of Paul and Silas, and nothing
of the shipwreck at Melita. Strike out
the reporters work from the Bible anG
you kill a large part of the New Tesla
ment. 1t makes me think that in the
future of the kingdom of God the re-
porters are to bear a mighty part.
About 25 years ago a representative OF
an important New York newspaper took
his seat in my Brooklyn church n Sun
day night about five pews from the front
of the pulpit. He took out pencil and re-
porter's pad, resolved to caricature the
whole scene. When the music began, he
began, and with his pencil he deridcd
that and then derided the prayer and
then derided the reading of the Scrip
lures and then began to deride the SER
mon. But, he says, for some reason his
hand began to tremble, and he, rallying
himself, sharpened his pencil and start
ed again, but broke down again and then
put pencil and paper in his pocket and
his lead down on the front Of the pew
and began TO pray. st the close of the
service he cane ~ and asked for tie
prayers OF others and gave his heart to
God. and. though still engaged in news
paper work, he is an evangelist and hires
a hall ct his own expense and every Sun
day afternoon breaches Jesus Christ to
the people.
And the men of that profession are go
ing to come in q body throughout the
country. l know hundreds of them. ard
a 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, COM
mon sense gospel invitation would fetch
them to the front of all Christian en-
| deavor.
Men of tie pencil and pen in all de-
partments, you need the help Of the
Christian religion. In the day when peo-
pie want to get their newspapers at 2
cents and are hoping for the time when
they can get any of them at 1 cent and
as a consequence the attaches Of the
| printing press are by the thousand ground
under the cylinders you want God to
take care Of you and your families. Some
Of your best work is as much unappre-
ciated as was Milton's paradise Lost"
for which the author received $25, and
| the immortal Doem "Hohenlindeno of