It is taken for granted that, when a paper or other periodical will admit a controversial article of argument, admission is earnestly to be sought for it. But facts shortly stated tell best, at least in the general newspaper press; and particular care should be taken at all times to suffer no hostile statement or article to pass without its correction or answer. It is always undesirable, in a labour of this kind, to allow any evil impression to settle down undisturbed on the public mind. It may not look formidable at first, but it festers and ferments, and by and by comes to bulk large, or explodes in a formidable way. In an arduous Edinburgh struggle some years ago, the author knows that three gentlemen, in a manner, beat the town, by meeting every day, with every newspaper laid before them, and following up every statement with an instant answer and exposure—a sort of incessant battery against which nothing can stand. So annoyed was one worthy opponent by the clatter, that, fastening on the obnoxious three, he said, “There will be no rest for the toon, till H., B., and C, are hanged on a gallows on the Castlehill!” The power of the newspaper press is infinite. It is like the caloric of nature; it overspreads the whole face of society; it insinuates itself into the darkest and coldest, and penetrates the most obtuse, regions. The ever-recurring “article” is like the water-drop, which, small and light in look, will, oft repeated, pierce the hardest rock. To the religious press the obligations of the friends of this cause are unspeakable; and the irreligious helps it too, if not by its violence, at least by its constrained spreading of intelligence, for, with exceptions, the newspaper press at large is fair. 3. Let it be a rule at the headquarters of each of the contested railways—the town where its meetings are held—to keep a list of the Sabbath friends in all the other towns, in each of which it is very important to have some one known leader, or medium of communication; {31} and during the interval between half-yearly meetings, care should be taken, by mutual interchanges, to keep them one and all in full information of every important thing that happens, or suggestion that occurs, in any place. Lists also should be kept of _all the friends_ in the different places; and the way to secure this is for every one, when he hears of a new Sabbatarian, to dot down his name on the instant, and send it every where. This is an excellent freemasonry.