Sunday Newspapers Versus Sermons
THERE is a conflict of opinion in this country as to whether the Sunday sermon or the Sunday newspaper is the most conducive to the mental health of the public, and as to which in the end will illustrate the inexorable law of “the survival of the fittest.” As to the survival features of the question, I think the sermon and the Sunday newspaper are here to stay, at least so long as in either case the thing is a paying speculation. The serious phase of the subject is that the preachers are attempting to suppress the Sunday paper on purely religious grounds, that is, that its publication is an enemy of the Christian Sabbath, because thousands find pleasure in reading the Sunday editions instead of going to church. The editors of the secular press think they have as much right to deliver their papers on Sunday as the preachers have to deliver their sermons. This is a matter of greater importance to all classes and all sects than it seems on its face, for the reason that if the ministers should succeed in suppressing Sunday newspapers, the suppression of other great public necessities would follow, as, for instance, the street-cars, cable lines, ferry-boats, etc.—Jewish Times and Observer.