THE POWER OF THE PRESS.

Evening Star, Issue 9534, 3 November 1894, Page 4

THE POWER OF THE PRESS.

At the Presbyterian Synod on Wednesday the Rev. R. Waddcll, after acknowledging the complimentary vote for his successful editorship of- the ' Christian Outlook,' made these observations:—

I am afraid wc do not sufficiently realise either the power of the Press or the opportunity which offers itself to us at this moment. It is impossible adequately to estimate the enormous influence of the Press. It is the daily and weekly newspapers -■which are mouliling the thoughts anil actions of men and nations. It is the Press that is translating the thoughts embedded in books and making them the current coin among the multitude. The Press is to the book what fire is to the coal. There lies the coal —a hard, black, inert mass. But the fire takes hold of it, melts it down, liberates the stored up sunset, and in the glow and blaze wo gather heat and build our castles in the air. And so the Press is taking the hard, dry, abstract thoughts of thinkers out of the books, liberating them, and thinning them out with heat and light amid the multitudes of men. The church has only recently begun to appreciate its powers, and our church here, I hope, will realise the possibilities offered to it in this opportunity of a weekly paper. It is a great opportunity. It is one, I feel, which, if we let slip unused, may not return again for many years. Those who, have read Carlyle's ' French Revolution' will remember this pathetic sketch which he gives of the fatal halt of Louis XVI. at Varennes when fleeing from the Revolutionists. He had reached the village, and was on the high road to safety and success. But, unfortunately, the doubts and suspicions of the villagers were aroused. He dallied and delayed when he should have pushed. He was lost. While thus he lingered events were shaping themselves into the grooves of that long procession which ended with the guillotine. And so our delays, or suspicions, or hesitations at this critical moment may produce consequences as irretrievable. Permit ine at this stage to recall the Synod to the great work which is committed to its charge. Wc are here in a new land. We are laying the foundation of a great empire. It has always seemed to me d'fHcult to decide which is the more beautiful spectacle—to watch the mellowing of autumn with its fulfilled glories and presages of coming decay, or the lusty joy and untulfi'led hopes of spring; and so it is difficult to say which is the more desirable sphere of labor—whether to work amid old civilisations, where freedom has broadened slowly down from precedent to precedent, or amid ours, which is inchoate—which is in the making, which is only in the spring tide of its prospects with all the future before it. But we need not discuss the point. It is enough that this is the task given to us in this colony. Wc are here to shape and mould the future of a great raco. Everything depends on the bent we can give character in the plastic stages, in the spring time of our national ex'' l iencc. It is a law of art that as a picture 3a vs nexrer to completion each individual stroke counts for less and less. The first few chalk lines draw a hand out of nothing. They do more than all the rest that follow put together. Soitis in the individual life and the national life.' Kveryone knows how the fi-st few years of a child moulds the bent of its character; how the '. 'y founders of a nation —as the New Fng'and Puritans —make the g ooves iu which the nation's thought and life run for c~ lturics. Well, that is the task committed to us. It is a t.v-'k of great momentousness,and < here fore, I take it, of great honor. Wc have been brought here to hold this land for Clip'st. Those of you who have read Profe'?or Smith's will remember the chapter in which fie refers to the of the future and the disinheriting of Immanuel. Aha/., by the rejection of the prophet's policy, was going to do this. Isaiah told hirn that a child would be born shortly. His name would be Immanuel. It was a name to conjure with. It must have suggested to Ahazthe promised Messiah, the King whose advent was their nation's hope. If so, then Ahaz must have realised the consequences of his action. This child would be born into cramped conditions, into sorry and pitiful limitations of life, lie would be thu because of Ahaz's conduct. Ahaz was mortgaging the future—was destroying the birthright of the Messiah, was disinheriting the Christ. Wc know how signally that was afterwards fulfilled. And that is the danger that besets us here. In the older countries it has actually occurred: the rights of the redeemed have been mortgaged, with Christ disinherited. But here many of these .arc still intact. Providence has committed to us here the patrimony of Christ—His patrimony was 11um3.11 souls—in the laws and institutions of this land, and in the national character of the future. The danger that besets us is that wc should nortgagc the rights of Immanuel and disinherit the Christ. It is ours to lay hold of all these for Him, to make His advent easy, His life and spirit free and unlimited among the peoples where His providence lias placed us. As yet I

The rudiments of empire here Arc plastic yet and warm ; The outline of a mighty world Is rounding into form. Let us marshal every force, and throw all our energies of life and thought into the securing of. this land for Christ Now, one of the greatest of these forces is the Press. An opportunity, as I have said, offers itself to us such as has never been before; such as, if missed, will never return with the same possibilities. Let us rise to the occasion. Let us endeavor to meet evil literature with good literature; worldly thought with Christian thought; secular papers with papers that will voice our convictions and carry the principles of our church and of our King, if possible, into every family of our communion from Auckland to the Bluff —(Loud applause.) Mr Arnold Morley, Postmaster-General, condemns penny postage.