Newspaper Page Text
January 20, 1909. THE PRESBYTERI^
THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER.
In a recent issue of The Central Presbyterian, by an
oversight, there appeared a partial prospectus of a daily
paper announcing special Sunday features for the year.
It is needless to say that we are not favorable to the
Sunday newspaper, and are not disposed to favor its
circulation. In some secular journals there are some
articles suitable for Sunday reading, but the great mass
of the contents of the Sunday paper is at best of purely
secular interest, and much of it is ok questionable moral
influence.
The evils nf ^hikIdv in,," 1 1 ?
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some of them of an indirect or reflex nature. The
working of employes in printing shops, the distribution
and circulation of papers on the day of rest, and the deliberate
profanation of the day for the sake of getting
gain, purely as a business proposition, are clear violations
of divine law, and in many cases of the statutes
of the State. The issue of special Sunday editions and
the running of special Sunday mail trains indicate the
gigantic proportions that this particular form of Sabhath
secularization has assumed.
From the purely Christian standpoint the evil is aggravated,
multiform and alarming. It is a formidable
barrier to the progress of Christian thought and activity.
All over our land there are multitudes of homes in
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vvuii.il pcrsuiis wno nave Deen trained to reverence the
Lord's day and the ordinances and institutions of the
Church, entertain themselves with the morning paper,
while public worship is in progress in the churches. Attendance
on public worship is diminished, and the very
element of the people who need the Gospel most are
withheld from its influences. There are others who
read the paper through and then hurriedly, and with little
serious thought, resort to the place of public worship
their minds preoccupied'with sensational or purely secular
themes, and practically impervious to spiritual
truths. Such persons refuse to give their souls a fair
chance to be "nourished in the words of faith and of good
doctrine." Robust character cannot he develnnerl whero
secular affairs monopolize the thought throughout the
seven clays of the week... A man with Christian convictions
should shun the secularization of the Lord's
day as he would flee from a pestilence. As he loves
his family, the peace and purity of his home, the integrity
and nobleness of his children, their reverence
for sacred things, their maintaining a pure and enlightened
conscience, their culture in the refinements
of life, their moral excellence and beauty, their growth
in spiritual symmetry and strength, he should guard
well their privilege of hallowing the Lord's day and
cherishing the day as an inestimable heritage that must
not be taken from them.
To cope with the acpressirm^ of the ^nnrlav n#urc.
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paper is a problem that challenges the best, most prayerful
effort of the Church in these modern times. That
it is one of the established institutions of the age does
not relieve its menace nor the magnitude of its injury.
If we are to approximate Scriptural standards of spiritual
life, we must approximate Scriptural standards of
keeping his day "holy unto the Lord."
lN OF THE SOUTH. 5
NOTES IN PASSING.
By Bert.
The Divine origin of the Bible can be settled in many
ways that arc satisfactory to the believer, there is one
argument, however, which seems to be sufficient, that is,
its forehanded meeting of emergencies. "There hath
no temptation taken you but such as is common to man"
is a plain word, and plainly teaches that all present
troubles have been already foreseen and provided for.
If you will fully equip yourself with the facts of Scrip
ture you will in the lives of men who lived and acted
their parts long ago he able to reconstruct your own ;
and if you will largely drink in the inspiration of Scripture
you will find always at hand an antidote for every
poison sin may instill into the heart. "That which is
to be hath already been." The present day problems
have long since been solved and the answer as big as
infinity lies before you. If God calls you to give up
something that you greatly love to or for him. you are
standing with Abraham on Mount Moriah with your
Isaac on the altar. You can judge what yielding or
withholding means by the act of the patriarch. When
wordly honor or Christ's cause is the stake, place Daniel
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your life has already been lived as it should have been,
you have only to follow copy.
The world cannot receive the Spirit of Truth "because
it seeth him not, neither knoweth him." In order to
see clearly there must be appropriate organs of sight,
and these must be in the best condition. A blind man
cannot see anything, a man with two eyes can see only
imperfectly if his eyes be imperfect. You cannot dis
unguisn any particular color it you look through glasses
of that color. Neither can a heart in love with sin
understand the riches of the Spirit's gifts or the inspiration
of his presence. And yet the heart can feel its
need of something to bring it into contact with the
heavens. If any man will do himself the justice
to acknowledge to God this need and will call upon the
Spirit to open his blind eyes, he will become a living
witness to the truth that miracles are not yet ended.
Probably the most appalling loss of life from earthquake
shocks in historv is to be charged arrainst
recent catastrophe in Sicily and the southern portion
of Italy. Considerably over one hundred thousand persons
are believed to have perished. The shore line has
been SO chanced as tr> nnrprnomi^ahlp nnrl if ic c^i/4
the depth of the straits of Messina has been reduced several
hundred feet. The whole civilized world was shocked
at the disaster, but what counts for more, the whole
civilized world is coming to the relief of the stricken t
land. The ready and abundant expressions of practical
sympathy from near and far are a wholesome evidence
that the great heart of humanity beats true. There
is much that is sordid and unlovely about us, much that
we would be richer without, at the same time the spark
of Divine fire, our original birthright, has not yet ceased
to burn.