Patronizing and Circulating Religious Books and Papers.
LECTURING and preaching are great things, but they are not the greatest. They can do something which the press cannot do; but the press can do much which they cannot do. Printed leaves can go everywhere. They never blush—know no fear—never stammer—never die. They can be multiplied without end. Books and tracts can travel at little expense. They want nothing to eat. They require no lodgings. They run up and down like the angels of God, blessing all, giving to all, and asking no gift in return. You can print them of all sizes, on all subjects, in all places, and at all hours. And they can talk to one as well as a multitude, and to multitudes as well as to one. They require no public room to tell their story in. They can tell it in the kitchen or the shop, the parlor or the closet, in the railway carriage or the omnibus, on the broad highway or in the footpath through the fields; and they dread no noisy or tumultuous interruption. They take no notice of scoffs, or jeers, or taunts; of noisy folly, or malignant rage. They bear all things, suffer all things. They can talk even when the noise is so great as to drown all other voices. No one can betray them into hasty or random expressions. And they will wait men's time, and suit themselves to men's occasions and convenience. They will break off at any point, and begin at any moment where they broke off.