Criticized The Newspapers

Rëv. Reed Stuart, of Detroit, delivered au interesting lecture in the Uinity Club series last e veiling, and one that proved profitable to the limited audiorice that the inclement weather penmitted to be present. His subject "was "Literature and Life." The miain tliread of his discource is contained in the following epitome : Mucli 'is being said at the present time of the influences thair mold life. Some diavO attempted to construct a pliilosophy of civilization. Heredity, climate and niany otlier factors do nmcih to imfluence the course of liïe, but literature must not le left out of conisdderation. How lifce a miracle is the transmission of ideas froin one mind to nuother ! ThO spoken word is perishable. To guard against tliis, the writtem woïd was invented. How it ivas invented we can not teil. It was proba bl y leaa-ned at different times and at different places. But li o wever it beg"an, written langu a ge maiked Itlie beginning of a new era. As the fern leaf leaves irte delicate structure in the rock, so words have left Greek customs in history. The flower oí modest y of a Greek glrl te preserved "to-day, colored by the flusli that spread o-ver her cheek. We open ome book and we are in Tüiebes ; ainother and we lift cmr hat, to1 let Queem Dido pajss ; a.nother and we talk with. Sócrates in Athens ; stUl anotüier and we walk with Jesus in Galilee. The .reader is the citizen of the world. Ability to' write pa-esupposes ability to Write nonsense. Man may find his theme among the heights of thought oi' in the lures oí lowest deeires. AVlieoi one reads he is alt liberty make a choice. There are métier so ricli flowers in the woods as in the fields of literature. Wise is the youth that comes home in the. cvening with his hands full oï thein. Such power is there in books that one "raises a -mortal to the skies, anaaiother drags an angel down." Much o'f onr literature is intected with that pheno'menon that deals with facts rather than with principie. Our writei-s jot down. the facts of life. But they clLng to the sniallest facts. Zola., Maupaissant and Tolstoi are among them. They eeem to think their duty present the material swle of life. The cry is, "Enough !" More than enough is said about the glitters, let us eee the green fields. Xever before has ithere been such a reading age. Pedhaps there is too much Xewspapers are read too mueh. by some people. There is no moire nense in reaxüng three iicwspapcrs, than in eating three breakfasts. And there is less sense im reading all that 1 in a newspaper than in eating all tliere is onla table. The pulpit has more power than the prcss. It is sta-ojiger than the courts. [t i.s doing more than amything clse to üiiu public opinión. The pulpit is always telling what editors should do. TíhO editor oever Hrtens aaid never gets ïnad. To get even, howeTer, 'he primts a cut of the preacher. Tlie editor refers to the latest scanlal as "social rot" and then prints thrco oí" four columns of it. It is of but little impoitante to anyone ut üiimself that Kev. Woodenhead has gone to Milan to lecture and will be back in time to preach nest Sunday. It is better to have no news than tliis trivial or lad news. An editor tondemns a thing in one column and describes itt in anotlier. We xpect better things of the newspaer. We don't want it to come ntO' our homes bringing the saloon, brothel and prize fight with it. Newsjapers ought to lead the highest : i ment. Literature is a corrector of ] ment. It broadiens .aind deepens the intelleetual sympathies. True real) tem deals wltih. spiritual renlitics. Many books eoime Ito us thai we cnu get alomg witJiout. May Ave find t,he few tliat have Boimetimes feit the breath of the Great Spirit movidg over their pages.