trees, and from the
bark of trees to papyrus, and from papyrus to the hide of wild beasts,
and from the hide of wild beasts on down until the miracles of our
modern paper manufactories, and then see the paper, white and pure as an
infant's soul, waiting for God's inscription. A book! Examine the type
of it; examine the printing, and see the progress from the time when
Solon's laws were written on oak planks, and Hesiod's poems were written
on tables of lead, and the Sinaitic commands were written on tables of
stone, on down to Hoe's perfecting printing-press. A book! It took all
the universities of the past, all the martyr-fires, all the
civilizations, all the battles, all the victories, all the defeats, all
the glooms, all the brightnesses, all the centuries, to make it
possible. A book! It is the chorus of the ages--it is the drawing-room
in which kings and queens, and orators, and poets, and historians, and
philosophers come out to greet you. If I worshiped any thing on earth, I
would worship that. If I burned incense to any idol, I would build an
altar to that. Thank God for good books, helpful books, inspiring books,
Christian books, books of men, books of women, books of God. The
printing-press is the mightiest agency on earth for good and for evil.
The minister of the Gospel standing in a pulpit has a responsible
position, but I do not think it is as responsible as the position of an
editor or a publisher. Take the simple statistics that our New York
dailies now have a circulation of 450,000 per day, and add to it the
fact that three of our weekly periodicals have an aggregate circulation
of about one million, and then cipher, if you can, how far up and how
far down and how far out reach the influences of the American
printing-press. I believe the Lord intends the printing-press to be the
chief means for the world's rescue and evangelization, and I think that
the great last battle of the world will not be fought with swords or
guns, but with types and press--a purified Gospel literature triumphing
over, trampling down, and crushing out forever that which is depraved.
The only way to right a bad book is by printing a good one. The only way
to overcome unclean newspaper literature is by scattering abroad that
which is healthful. May God speed the cylinders of an honest,
intelligent, aggressive, Christian printing-press.

I have to tell you this morning that I believe that the greatest scourge
that has ever come up