I am a companion of them that keep thy precepts.--Psalm 119:63. -------- Here is the opportunity and duty of newspapers. James Russell Lowell says: "What a pulpit the editor mounts daily, sometimes with a congregation of fifty thousand within reach of his voice, and never so much as a nodder, even, among them! and from what a Bible can he choose his text--a Bible that needs no translation, and which no priestcraft can shut and clasp from the laity--the open volume of the world, upon which with a pen of sunshine or destroying fire the inspired Present is even now writing the annals of God!" [Illustration: PROMINENT IN THE RELIGIOUS LIFE OF LOUISVILLE] [Illustration: PRESBYTERIAN THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY] But has the editor no mission other than to tell us of partisan political measures? To be a simple annalist who shall bring before us the events of the day, but who creates no perspective along which we may tread to better customs, better men and better times? He never leaves us in doubt--"Let us do the best we can, and leave the rest alone." In God's name, is there not something better? "Let us go up and possess the land." Standing on the mountain height up there we shall all see fairer lands below. The inspired editor not only sees the battle from afar, but also the coming of the imperial guard of righteousness with victory. There is that in the heart of every man that responds to the ideal. No leader has ever succeeded in having an evil reformed who wanted an ideal. Napoleon, when he said, "Beyond the Alps lies Italy," was appealing to that sentiment--to something beyond--to something in the future. When Cortez drew an imaginary line before his men, who had become mutinous, and said "On this side lies danger, death, duty and glory; on that, safety, shame and infamy. Choose ye whether you will step this side of the line or remain where you are," he was appealing to something in their hearts--put there by the Almighty himself. Editors should not think it their only mission to mirror forth things as they occur, but say to their 50,000 readers, "Let us go up and possess the land" of truth, purity and righteousness. This is not weakness on their part but evidence of the profoundest philosophy. Fifty years ago we had senatorial utterances that would reach across the continent. The secret power of those utterances was that they were ideal. In the days when boys spoke pieces in school we declaimed them, and we feel their influence today. -------- Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits. When wilt thou comfort me?--Ps. 119:82. Love worketh no ill to his neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.--Rom. 13:10. --------