EDITORS IN TROUBLE

EDITORS IN TROUBLE.

By Editor

“The newspaper men of this city who are members of churches in ‘good and regular standing’ are disposed to take issue with the action of the Young Men’s Christian Association this week on the subject of Sunday observance; and they will have a great deal of public sympathy. The incident which led to the discussion was this: A gentleman prominently connected with one of the daily papers, having moved from the neighborhood of the church to which he belonged, took a letter to a church of the same denomination, and asked to be admitted. The standing committee refused his application on the ground of ‘Sabbath-breaking’—his business requiring him to spend a portion of each Sunday in preparing matter for his Monday’s paper. There has been a difference of opinion in the church as to the propriety of this action; and one hesitating brother, who raised the question at the meeting of the associations above named, was advised to ‘vote no every time’ on such applications for church-fellowship. The church-going journalists who dissent from this action are asking, with much natural feeling, if the church wants the sympathy and influence of the secular press, and yet none of its brotherhood. Will the church ‘harness the devil as the Lord’s beast of burden,’ and yet proclaim its consistency? It is an issue, they say, that concerns not only the active Christian workers who are employed upon the daily press of Boston, but a host of others, who are being prayed for, that they may be drawn into ‘the household of faith.’ The hearty applause with which the vote above mentioned was received showed the radical temper of the meeting, and opens up a suggestive field of inquiry for those ministers and congregations who like to have their Sunday services reported, and demand all the daily news at Monday’s breakfast.”