THE PULPIT AND THE PRESS.

Evening Star, Issue 4317, 28 December 1876, Page 3

THE PULPIT AND THE PRESS.

The Rev. J. J. Smalley, of Napier, was recently taken to task by the local ‘ Telegraph ’ for certain remarks relative to the Press made by him at a public meeting in Wellington. In reply, the rev. gentleman asserts that he was misrepbrted, and that what he did say was as follows:—“ The daily newspaper is a very powerful educator. The minister of religion finds in it valuable co-operation through the habits of reflection and observation which it induces iu the community. It helps the tradesman to fortune, and the caterer for public amusement is impotent without it. The daily newspaper is one of the marvels of modern science and civilisation, and one of the greatest boons which

a community can possess. Those who the d lily press perform rr-xa-tioua and thankless task—ill-paid, and calculated to shorten life. The newspaper is ever ready to commend, often when it is not due, and when censure is deserved, performing the task with mildness and reluctance. It is therefore to be deplored that the secular newspaper is so often found in a position antagonistic to Christianity and churches. Editors seem in many instances to regard ministers of religion as their natural enemies, and deem it their mission to lose no opportunity of getting a fling at the pulpit. They would probably make answer that they are censors, not of Christianity, but of hypocrisy and cant; not of true preachers, but of men who have no qualification or right to the sacred office. Be it so. And while we confess the inestimable advantages of the Prers, the University, and the School as sources of knowledge and instruction, we claim supremacy for the pulpit, an office heaven-inspired and heaven-sustained, and which can never be superseded or ignored, whose mission it is to improve, instruct, and exhort, with genial love and steadfast courage; God himself has set it on the monarch, and it dare not abdicate its throne.” The addition of the words in italics constitutes the chief correction of the report, and is certainly an important qualification.