Year: 1875

From the Cedar Rapids Times


Under the above caption. the press
is just now publishing and commend
ing the following extract from SER
mon, preached by the Rev. DR..
Thomas, of Chicago, few Sabbaths
since:


$50 long as the world is sinful, a
paper that did not publish its crimes
would not be a truthful record of the
world as it is. Its murders, its rapes,
it's burglaries should be given along
with its good deeds. They may not
be pleasant reading; neither are they
pleasant facts; but until the facts can
be changed, let the people know them
as they are. The Bible is priced as
faithful record, and saved from the
suspicion of unfairness simply be-
cause it gives the life of its time as
that life then was. 1t records the
adultery of David as well as his
songs; the lechery of Solomon as
well as his proverbs; and the swear
ing of Peter and the disputes among
the apostles as well as their devotion
and their work. When the press ex-
poses the false character of clergy
man or public man, it is simply do
ing its duty; neither is it doing harm,
but good"


Yes; and it is just such preachers
as the Rev. DR.. Thomas, and just
such sentiments as the above which
give license to the publishing of the
most disgusting details and picturing
with minutest accuracy scenes, acts
and incidents which a parent would
not dare recite in his family, or aman
or woman exhibit to any friend for
whom they entertained the slightest
respect. Just such sentiments as
those have made the metropolitan
newspapers of the country moral
scavengers, to carry into the homes
Of the American people the filth and
garbage of society, serving it in SO
attractive manner that young and
old feed upon it with never satisfied
appetite, and think over it with an
intense desire for more


Nothing is "news" that is not sen
sational, and the lower the type of
sensation the more interesting the
''news," and the more minute the dis
gusting details, with greater avidity
is the "news" sought atter.-"Ncither
is it doing harm, but good" accord
ing to the Reverend Doctors theory!
Can man habitually swear in his
family and expect his children to not
follow bis example? Can father
give utterance to impure thoughts or
recitc incidents of an impure charac-
ter in his family and expect his sons
and daughters to be pure minded?
Would a pure minded mother tolerate
in her family a domestic who enter
tained her daughters with tales SINH
lar to the Beecher-Tilton scandal or
stories of the Moulton-Proctor type?
And why not? Simply because they
know the contaminating influence of
such things; they realize the terrible
moral blight produced by such asso-
Citations, and they guard their families
against them as they would a conta-
gious disease. And yet these same
fathers and mothers will bring into
their families newspapers and books
reeking with moral contamination
ten times worse than the influences
alluded to; read them themselves and
permit their sons and daughters to
read thcm-and the Rev. DIR. Thomas
says "neither is it doing harm, but
goodw Out upon such doctrine!
Away with such teaching. He'll is
populated with writhing souls sent
there by the moral blight of familiar
associations with bad men and bad
women, and not more from associat-
ing with them personally than III
books and newspapers; and just such
teachers as the Rev. DR.. Thomas are
doing good work in aiding books
and newspapers to send cmigrants to
his Satanic Majesty's dominions.


The sooner preachers realize the
necessity OF trying to elevate the
tone Of the secular press instead of
encouraging it to continue to pander
to the vitiated tastes and depraved
moral appetites Of society, the sooner
will we believe that they mean what
they say when they pray that the
time may soon come when ''right-
cousness will cover the earth rs the
waters cover the channels of the great
deep" We believe that society and
the Christian religion has more to
fear from the secular press of the day
than from all the teachers of hetero-
doxy and infdelity in the land-the
Rev. Doctor Thomas to the contrary,
Notwithstanding.