Connecticut western news., 1901-03-07
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WASHINGTON, March 3.-In this dis
course DIR. Talmage calls for a warm
friendship between those who preach
the gospel and those who make news
papers, the spoken word and the print
xvi, =, THE children of this world are
in their generation wiser than the chill
dren Of light"
Sacred stupidity and solemn incom-
potency and sanctified 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
unimproved. That is the meaning of
our Lord when he says, 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 possession of
the secular printing press. The oppor-
tunity is open and has been for some
and the churches and the ministers of
religion are for the most part allowing
the golden opportunity to pass unim-
proved. That the opportunity is open
declare from the fact that all the sec
ular newspapers are glad of any reli-
gious facts or statistics that you pre-
sent them. Any animated and stirring
article relating to religious themes they
would gladly print. They thank you
for any information in regard to
churches. If wrong has been done
to any Christian church or Christian
institution, you could go into any news
paper office of the land and have the
real truth stated. Dedication services,
ministerial ordinations and pastoral in
stallations, cornerstone laying of
church, anniversary Of q charitable So
ciety viii have reasonable space In any
secular journal If it have previous no
tice done 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 Christian man.
Why, then, does not our glorious Chris
tianity embrace these magnificent OPP
portunities? l have before me sub
ject of first and last Importance: How
shall we secure the secular press as
mightier reinforcement to religion and
the pulpit?
The Art of Printing.
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
profession because of the quacks or
merchandise because of the swindling
bargain makers as to slambang news
papers because there are recreant ed
itors and unfair reporters and unclean
columns. Gutenberg, the inventor of
the art of printing, was about to de-
stroy his types and extinguish the art
because 1t was suggested to him that
printing might be suborned into the
service of the devil, but afterward he
bethought himself that the right use
the evil use of 1t, and SO he spared the
type and the intelligence Of all follow
ing ages. But there are many today 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 prinNing to be the rising sun Of
the worlds Illumination
If, instead of lighting newspapers,
81 nd
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 a 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 Chicago
limited express. The silliest thing that
a man ever does is to fight a newspa-
per, for you may have the floor for ut
terance 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 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 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 dis
position. 1t ought to be mighty soda
tive 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 cannot be written
down, and IL you are the enemy of
good society that fact will come out,
and If you are the friend of good So
ciety that fact will be established.
Full Justice From the Press.
I know what am talking about, for
/ can draw on my own experience. All
the respectable newspapers, as far as
l know, are my friends now. But
many of you remember the time when
l was the most continuously and mean
ly attacked man in this country. God
gave me grace not to answer back, and
i KEPT SiituCe LUZ ten years, anu lnucu
grace was required. What said was
perverted and twisted into just the OPP
posite of what l did say There were
millions OF people who believed that
there was q large sofa in my pulpit
although we never had anything but a
chair, and that during the singing by
the congregation l was accustomed to
lie down on that sofa and dangle my
feet over the end. Lying New York
correspondents for ten years misrepre-
sented our church services. But we
waited, and people from every neigh
borhood Of Christendom came there, to
find the magnitude of the falsehoods
concerning the church and concern
Ing myself. A reaction set In, and soon
we had justice, full justice, more than
justice, and as much overpraise as
once we had interpretation, and no
man that ever lived was so much In
dabtqd IN tho DauySno nor prosc FOR on