Connecticut western news., 1901-03-07


fit to speak. You help lis. 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, healthful or blasting. 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 express
trains of influence, and we Will run
them into depot of light or tumble
them off the embellishments.
What useful life and what glori-
Gus departure was that of the most IA
nous of all American printers. Benja-
min Franklin, whom infidels In the
penury Of their resources have often
fraudulently claimed as their own, but
the printer who moved that the Phila-
delphia convention be opened with
prayer, the resolution lost because a
majority thought prayer unnecessary,
and who wrote at the time he was vi
ciously attacked, MY rule is to go
straight forward in doing what ap-
pears to me to be right, leaving the
consequences to Providence" and who
wrote this quaint epitaph showing his
hope of resurrection, an epitaph that j
hundreds of times read while living in
Philadelphia:
THE body of Benjamin Franklin,
Printer Qike the cover Of an old book,
its contents torn out and stripped of its
lettering and gliding, lies here food for
worms. Yet the work itself shall not
be lost, for 1t will (as he believed APP
pear once more in a new and more
beautiful edition, corrected and amend
ed by the Author"
sco6er Remained to Pray.
That Providence intends the profess
sion of reporters to have a mighty share
In the worlds redemption is suggested
by the fact that Paul and Christ took
a reporter along with them, and he re-
ported their addresses and their acts.
Luke was reporter, and he wrote not
only the book of Luke, but the Acts of
the Apostles, and without that report
er's work we would have known moth
ing of the Pentecost, and nothing Of
Stephens martyrdom, and nothing of
Tabithas resurrection, and nothing of
the falling and unjailing of Paul and
Silas, and nothing of the shipwreck at
Melita. Strike out the reporters work
from the Bible, and you kill large
part Of the New Testament. 1t makes
me think that In the future of the king
dom Of God the reporters are to bear a
mighty part.
About % years ago representative
Of an important New York newspaper
took his seat In my Brooklyn church
f0l,t Hox Gvn fxofr
the front Of the pulpit. He took out
pencil and reporters pad, resolved 10
caricature tho whole scene. When the
music began, he began, and with his
pencil he derided that, and then derid-
ed the prayer, and then derided the
reading of the Scriptures, and then be-
gan to deride the sermon. But, he says,
for some reason his hand began to
tremble, and he, rallying himself,
sharpened his pencil and started again,
but broke down again and then put
pencil and paper In his 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 a
hall ut his own expense and every
Sunday afternoon breaches Jesus
Christ to the people.
And the men of that profession are
going to come In a body throughout
the country. l know hundreds OF
them, and a more genial or highly edu-
Gated 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 In
vitation would fetch them to the front
Of all Christian endeavor.
Men Of the pencil and pen In all de-
partments, you need the help of the
Christian religion. In the day when
people 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 n consequence the attaches
of the printing press are by the thou
sand ground under the cylinders, you
want God to take care of you and your
families. Some of your best work Is
as much unappreciated as was Millions
Paradise Lost" for which the author
received 500, and the immortal poem
'Hohenlinden" of Thomas Campbell
when he first offered 1t for publication
and In the column called Notices to
Correspondents" appeared the words:
''To T. C.-The lines commencing ON
Linden when the sun was low are not
up to our standard. Poetry Is not T.
CTS forte"
For RiGhteousness.
o men Of the pencil and pen, amid
| your unappreciated work you need en-
couragement, and you can have 1t.
Printers of all Christendom, editors, re-
porters, compositors, pressmen, pub
fishers and readers of that which Is
| printed, resolve that you will not write,
set up, edit, issue or read anything that
! debases body, mind or soul. In the
name Of God, by the laying ON of the
bands of faith and prayer, ordain the
printing press for righteousness and
liberty and salvation. All Of us with
| some influence that will help In the
| right direction, let us put our hands to
the work, imploring God to hasten the
| contamination. In a ship with hun
| dreds of passengers approaching the
South American coast the man on the
lookout neglected his work, and in a
few minutes the ship would have been
| dashed to ruin on the rocks. But a
| cricket on board the vessel that had
made no sound all the voyage set up a
| shrill call at the smell of land, and the
| captain, knowing that habit of the in
| sect, stopped the vessel in time to
| avoid an awful wreck. And so insig-
nifcant means now may do wonders,
and the scratch Of pen may save the
| shipwreck of soul.
Are you all ready for the signing Of
the contract, the league, the solemn
treaty proposed between journalism
and evangelism? Let 1t be Christian
marriage of the pulpit and the printing
| press. The ordination of the former on