Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1901-03-08

thought preachers iulosyhciasy', iiN
are MANY journalists in our church mem
berships, but this world will never. be
brought to God until some revival OF re-
licion sweeps over the land and takes into
the kingdom of God all editors, reporters,
compositors, pressmen and newsboys.
And il YOU have not faith enough to pray
for that and toll for that you had better
get out of our ranks. and JON the other
side, for you are the unbelievers. who
make the wheels of the Lords chariot
drag heavily. The great final 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 al;
vinely honored weapon of the future Will
be the pen-prophet's pen, and evangel-
editors pen and authors pen and report
er's pen. God save the pen! The wing
of the Apocalyptic angel will be the
printed page. The printing press will roll
ahead of Christ's chariot to clear the way.
But" some one might ask, would you
make Sunday newspapers also re.enforce-
ment" I have learned to take things as
they are | would like to see the much
scoffed at old Puritan Sabbaths come back
Il
will turn out any better men and women
than were your grandfathers and grand
mothers under the old-fashioned Sunday.
To saw nothing of other results, Sunday |
newspapers are killing editors. reporters,
compositors and pressmen. Every man,
woman and child is entitled to twenty
four hours of nothing to do. IT the news
papers put on another set OF hands, tha1
does not relieve the editorial and repor-
Il -
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 rs~. 49, n 81 ~
the newsnonAr sip fntlng presses OF IN
. earth are going to be the LORD S, ana teie
| graph and telephone and type will yet an
nounce nations born in. day,. The frs
! book ever printed was the Bible, by Faus
:. and his son-in-law, Schoeffer, in l460, ant
that conservation of type to the Hol
Scriptures was a prophecy of the grea
mission of printing for the evangelizatiol
of all the nations. The father of tn
American printing press was clergyman
3 Rev. Jesse Glover, and that was a pre-
t phecy of the religious use that the gospe
: ministry in this country were to make o
e the types.
e The tendency of criticism in the thee
D logical seminaries is to file off from GU
e young men all the sharp points and max
/ them too smooth for any kind of execu
r ton. What we want, all of us, is NOR
: point, less humdrum. If we say the RICH
: thing in the right way, the press will, b
!. glad and echo and re-echo 1T. Sunday
t school teachers, reformers, young me-
: and old men in the ministry, what we a.
t 4 want if we are to make the printing pres
{, an ally in Christian work is that whic
: the reporter spoken of suggested-polnt:
e sharp points, memorable points. But
{ the thing be dead when uttered by Twin
: voice it will be hundredfold more dea
e when it is laid out in cold type.
e That Providence intends the professlo
g of reporters to have a mighty share IN tn
worlds redemption is suggested by tn
c fact that Paul and Christ took a reporte
e along with them, and he reported thei
p addresses and their acts.
s Luke was reporter, and he wrote no
t only the book of Luke, but the Acts 9
q the Apostles, and without that reporter
r work we would have known nothing
v the Pentecost, and nothing of Stephen
e martyrdom, and nothing of Tabitha's res
direction, and nothing of the failing an
s unjailing of Paul and Silas, and nothin
e of the shipwreck at Melita.
Strike out the reporters work from tn
Bible, and you kill a large part OF tn
New Testament. 1t makes me think tina
! in the future of the kingdom of God tn
: reporters are to bear a mighty part.
| About twenty-five years ago represer
tative of an important New York news
q paper took his seat in my Brooklyn churc
one Sunday night about five pews fror
the front of the pulpit He took out per
= Gil and reporters pad, resolved to carlcs
!; ture the whole scene. When the music bt
l gan, he began, and with his pencil he de-
e rided that, and then derided the prayer
3 and then derided the reading of tn
:. Scriptures, and then began to deride tn
sermon. But, he says, for some reaso
his hand began to tremblee, and he, rally
ing himself, sharpened his pencil an
) started again, but broke down again an
,, then put pencil and paper in his poke
and his head down on the front pew an
began to pray. At the close of the servic
:. he came up and asked for the prayers 9
: others, and gave his heart to God. Anot
though still engaged in newspaper work
he is an evangelist and hires a hall at hi
own expense and every Sunday Afternoon
:. breaches Jesus Christ to the people.
q And the men OF that profession ar
going to come in body throughout tn
: country. / know hundreds of them, and
more genial or highly educated class Q
men it would be hard to find, and, thoug
the tendency of their profession may b
: | toward SheDllClSul, oil VI BohlLSu
sense gospel invitation would fetch then
b to the front of all Christian endeavor.
Men of the pencil and pen in all depart
, ments, you need the help OF the Christian
religion. In the day when people want t
get their newspapers at two cents, an
are hoping for the time when they can &c
,, any of them at one cent, and as conse
quence the attaches, OF the printing pres
are by the thousand ground under the cy
finders, you want God to take care of yo
, and your families.
Some of your best work is as much un
, appreciated as was Millions "Paradis
Lost" for which the author received S2s
) and the immortal poem "Hohenlinden'. Q
, Thomas Campbell when he first offered
for publication, and in the column Gale
words. "To r. C.-The lines commencin
. On Linden when the sun was low are no
+ up to our standard. Poetry is not L. g.
, forte"
E o men of the pencil and pen, amid you
= unappreciated work you need encourage
ment, and you have it. Printers of a
} Christendom, editors, reporters, compos
r tors, pressmen, publishers and readers Q
l that which is printed, resolve that yo
will not write, set up, edit, issue or rea
= anything that debases body, mind OF sou
| In the name of God, by the laying on z
the nanQS Oh ldlCu anu PioJSi, Va -
printing press for righteousness and llbeTt
= and salvation. All of us with some inf,
. ence that will help in the right direction
f let us put our hands to the work, impl99l
. inc God to hasten the consummation. L
: ship with hundreds. of passengers al al
{ preaching the South American coast tn
man on the lookout neglected his Worl
and in few minutes the ship would hav
, h been dashed to ruin on the rocks. But
! cricket on board the vessel that had mad
t no sound all the voyage set up shri
. call at the smell of land, and the captalr