THE POWER OF THE PRESS

THE POWER OF THE PRESS THE POWER OF THE PRESS
Frank Winters

“Blest be the gracious power that taught mankind To stamp a lasting image of the mind!
Beasts may convey and tuneful birds may sing Their mutual feelings in the open spring.
But man alone has skill and power to send The heart’s warm dictates to the distant friend.
Tis his alone to please, instruct, advise Ages remote and nations yet to rise.”—Crabbe No art ever discovered by mortal man has affected the human race as has the art of printing, and since its invention in the 15th century, no other instrument tality has even approached the printing press in influence upon the the life and history of mankind. A wise one of old has said, “What gun powder did for war, the printing press has done for the mind.” It gave a new element of power to the race, and, from that very hour, in a most especial sense the brain and not the arm, books and not kings, were to rule the world. In no field has this God-given power been more ef-fective than in the Christian religion. Before the Ref-ormation, the suppression of the Bible by the Roman church is well known to us all. But in the Reformation the Bible was freed, and the leaders of this movement sought to have it freely distributed everywhere and made accessible to all men so that they might form their own opinions of the doctrines it revealed. The Bible after the Reformation became the popular book of the world, the book that did more than all other books to change the condition of affairs. This occurred because the art of printing was discovered just before the Reformation, as if in the providence of God, it was designed at that time to give this precious volume again to the world. And so, Agnes Strickland, an eminent English authority, said, “The Reformation was cradled in the printing press and wfis established by no other instrumentality.” The Bible was the first book ever printed and has been ever since that time the most frequently printed of any other book. And, thus, this living word of Cod seems to be waiting for each generation bom into the world. In the Restoration movement, the productions of the press went flying into thousands of places, and though, as they have been described, these printed words, silent as snowflakes, yet more powerful and far-reaching than the preaching of great evangelists. To this good day, for weal or woe, the press is the unequalled power to disseminate the ideas of men.

We suppose that in the heart of almost every member of the church of Christ there has often arisen a burning desire in some way to make known to those of the outside world our distinctive plea for primitive Christianity. Grateful in oui hearts that by the provi dence of God we have come to know the truth in Christ, those truths so essential to the salvation of men; believing that we have found the key to the answer of our Savior’s prayer for Chiistian unity, we all yearn to share this knowledge with our fellow- men. We are so thankful for every faithful preacher of the gospel of Christ and thankful for every spiritual religious paper among us, yet we all know that it is next to impossible to get the outsiders generally to come into our churches to hear the gospel preached and that our religious papers they will not read. It has made us realize the desperate need of some way and means to reach this vast untaught multitude who are with us always; who are the victims of a divided Christendom; who may never know the true way of salvation; and who by the mandate of the great commission are our responsibility.

About twenty-five years ago, the body known as the “Disciples of Christ” held a world convention in Oklahoma City. Thousands of delegates were there from every nation on earth, and the city was exerting great effort to do them homage. Imagine our surprise when, on Sunday morning, we opened our Daily Oklahoman to find the entire front page covered with as fine a treatise as I have ever read on the plea for the restoration of the original church in doctrine and practice. I thought about it many times and of what a wonderful and unique medium through which to bring the truth to those who know it not.

About the beginning of 1943, the radio program of the Culbertson Heights Church of Christ by Brother Banister was cancelled because of the radio needs of the Department of War. I had never forgotten my impression of the newspaper publicity, and when the idea was presented, the elders and our preacher were enthusiastic about trying it out. Your humble speaker was asked to do the writing under the supervision of our elders and minister. But even after we were authorized to do so, I hesitated to begin, feeling my own incompetence for such a responsibility and also not knowing how this would be received by the public, and by the church, and by the newspapers themselves. We printed one article and it was received with so much approbation that we began publishing an article each Saturday on the church page of the Oklahoma City Times and each Thursday in the Daily Oklahoman. It was most graciously received by the brethren everywhere and the other congregations of Oklahoma City gladly joined us with their endorsement and financial support. For more than two and one-half years we ran the articles in the name of the congregations, as my own name, at my suggestion, did not appear. I think the combined circulation of the papers was about 250,000 copies per day. There is a conspicuous place, nicely printed, where “he who runs may read,” was a brief sermon, and our hearts were made glad that so many essential truths, which by the grace of God we had discovered, might also be brought before the nr'nds of a multitude of souls for whom Jesus died as well as us.

I should like just here to pay a word of loving tribute to the preachers of Oklahoma City, every one of them, who so graciously assisted me in every way they could in the preparation of these lessons. The gospel papers also extended a friendly hand everywhere, and we are especially thankful to Brother Hicks and the Christian Chronicle for publishing so many of the articles, as other papers did also, and to all of them we shall be forever indebted.

People of other cities and other states asked permission to print the articles, and to these we tried to lend every assistance. None of the material was ever copyrighted. In the Oklahoman and Times, the Tulsa World, the Wichita Eagle, the Kansas City Star, and others, the brethren published the articles for two years or more, and we have never received from the brethren any report but of commendation, this was not because of any ability of the writer, but of the principles set forth from the word of God. When Brother Willard Collins published the articles in a Nashville paper, he gave my name and address which was not given in the other publications. So from Tennessee, we received a goodly number of warm and dissenting letters from sectarian readers. I think we received letters from the brethren in almost every section of the country and numerous letters from those not members of the church. We printed about 7,000 copies of a booklet containing most of the articles, and they have been widely distributed, practically with-out any charge, where the churches would like to re-produce them in their local papers. In our opinion, they have been reproduced in 100 or more papers in the country. We have never endeavored to carry on a campaign to promote their publication in any way. When, during the war, the newsprint became so scarce that our articles were cut down to almost nothing, we discontinued them, yet we still receive inquiries and send out a few of the remaining booklets for the use of some church in publishing them. If my ship comes in some of these days, we plan to take up again the publication of the booklets and encouraging this method of teaching.

Now, like the radio, it is not possible to obtain great visible results immediately or to measure the good that has been done. We believe its success was all and even more than was expected. We checked enough to believe that almost every denominational preacher read the articles. Tn a multitude of personal inquiries, it seemed as if half of the people were reading them, but this is too great a percentage to be true. One leading Oklahoma evangelist estimated that ten to twenty thousand people in Oklahoma read them each week. We do know that a widespread interest was created in the teaching and in the church. The greatest apparent good was the heartening effect and encouragement it gave the brethren over the country, both the large congregations and particularly the small ones. Everyone knows that outsiders do not know what the church of Christ stands for. It is generally believed to be a backward denomination of some kind, with narrow beliefs and doctrine, inferior to the large groups in learning or the quality of its religion. Many small congregations were thrilled to see the very heart of Bible teaching set out in their papers so that the world might know that back of their simple services in often unpretentious buildings, there was a unique philosophy of true religion, a religion such as those people didn’t know existed. We labored as never before and prayed continually that the lessons might first be true to the word of God, then that they might be practical and effective. They had to be brief, not alone because of advertising rates, but because long articles they will not read. We tried to make them pointed, but not offensive.

Some of the lessons were on first principles, some on church organization, some inspirational and devotional, endeavoring to stress the need of religion. Above all, we desired that they might breathe the Spirit of Christ, as we tried to teach the correct form and doctrine. The press has this advantage of the radio. The in-terested reader may go back and read these words again and again, as many have told us that they did. Many outsiders and innumerable numbers of our brethren made scrapbooks of the articles and have preserved them.

We believe more people are reading religious writings today than ever before. In a world faced with such crises as those with which we are confronted, the interest in religion seems constantly increasing. People seem to be looking and groping for something real and reasonable and genuine in the realm of the spiritual world. And right here, we should like to advance an idea for the most earnest consideration of everyone of you. The years of our lives are slipping rapidly by and we are ever conscious of our bounden duty to make disciples of those about us. But sometimes it seems that we Christians are still for the most part in possession of our one talent. Inasmuch as it is impossible to get the masses of humanity to come into our churches and inasmuch as we have newspapers going into every home in the land, it has seemed to me that we might have a program by individual congregations throughout the brotherhood of publishing our distinctive plea for New Testament Christianity. We think this might eventually lead people away from denominationalism. It could not be done in a day, but it could well be the mustard seed to produce a great tree, and it might almost work a revolution in the religious world. The mourner's bench has disappeared, and such doctrines as total depravity, personal election, and the impossibility of apostasy are no longer believed by a great many people who are members of churches teaching those things. We think a reason is that teaching, largely by our own brethren, has done much to remove these erroneous doctrines. The influence of our published sermons could be brought to bear upon our sectarian friends in their own homes and churches. I know that they must come to Christ in his own appointed way, but this teaching would create a world of thinking and the waves of its influence would surely widen and extend to the eternal shore. The hearts into which these truths might fall could yield a hundredfold in days to come. Reason tells us that multitudes, not reached in any other way, could thus be led to Christ, and our obligation under the great commission to preach the gospel to every creature could be largely fulfilled. The religious press of our own people has always been a mighty power. Only eternity can tell the extent of the good that has been done as able men of God have given unto the world those books and papers that helped us all to keep the faith “once delivered to the saints." When innovations and error threatened, the use of our publications by mighty men of valor has defeated the enemy time and time again, as brethren reasoned together with the word of God in their hand and with the spirit of Christ in their

But, Satan, not to be outdone, knowing the power of the press also, has sometimes tempted good brethren to write and publish some very unjust and hurtful things which make us bow our heads in sorrow and shame. Like all other powers, the press may become an instrument of evil to do great injury to the cause of Christ, and for which every writer must give account when we all stand before the judgment bar of our Father in heaven. Constructive criticism is sometimes necessary, but let us all make sure that it is given in brotherly love.

Love is the greatest thing in our religion by far, but I think it is the most neglected and most needed of all, not by just a few members of the church, but by every last one of us, including preachers and elders and writers as well. On that last beautiful night, when the Lord gave unto his disciples the new commandment of brotherly love, he gave them the spirit of Christianity. He told them, then, that this was to be the badge of discipleship to help them convince and convert the world. It was the magic power accompanying the preaching of the word of God whereby millions in the first age of the church were converted to Christ, and the history of the world was turned around. It was the divine spirit couched in the word of God as it was written down. Its loss was one of the chief causes of the great apostasy. The alarming words of Chrysostom, as he wrote in the Fourth Century, declare that because of a lack of love such as existed in the early church they were unable to convert the heathen in his time. It is significant that this great man, already in the shadow of the dark ages, said that he feared a great calamity from heaven was about to come upon them and attributed its primary cause to the fact that brotherly love of the early church had been, by the professed disciples of Christ, abandoned and forsaken.

I feel sure that it has never been fully restored. I know we have many instances of it, but not that degree of it that originally bound them together more closely than the ties of flesh and blood. Preachers and elders, as one who realizes his own need of love every day and as one who has seen love work wonders in the church, let me say in conclusion: If we are to restore the old paths of Christianity, we must restore, not alone the form of the doctrine important as that is always, but we must restore the old path of brotherly love which is the main thoroughfare in that blessed way of life. When we preachers and elders- preach more and more the love of the 13th chapter of First Corinthians and lead our people into it; when men going out to preach the gospel of Christ to the world have hearts filled with love and are able to inspire with love those who hear them preach; when we who write make sure our writings are such that all men shall know we love one another; we shall behold in the church the Spirit of Christ as it was in the beautiful beginning.