confronts the historian when he seeks information and opinions from the press concerning governmental and political activities.
The newspaper maintains an intimate relationship with the Church as an organization and with the leading persons connected
with it. The Church indeed has for many years maintained its own denominational organs that have often been identified by
name with the special denomination represented .19 But the denominational press is becoming each year a less important
factor in the field of the historian. This is in part explained by the breaking down of the barriers that have separated denomina tions and even religions, in part by the growing secularization of
the Church, in part by the growing interest of the secular press in the affairs of the Church . This growing interest of the press has in a measure had a mercenary origin . The verbatim report of the sermons of popular
preachers has increased the circulation of newspapers , as has the publication of the Sunday-school lessons, the reports of Sunday services, and the columns given to church music . The announce ments of church services , of church fairs , suppers, dinners , breakfasts, and socials , of personals relating to clergymen of local or national reputation all help in establishing friendly relation
ships between the press and the Church , increasing friendliness means growing circulation , and growing circulation means expansion of advertisements. Thus it must be frankly recognized that the secular press has been interested in religion less from a
desire to promote the cause of religion than from a wish to further the interests of the press .20 19 The American Baptist, Catholic Witness, The Churchman , The Con gregationalist, The Methodist, The Universalist, are a few illustrations. Probably the first issue of the first distinctly religious newspaper was that of the Herald of Gospel Liberty , September 1 , 1808. It was published at
Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and was edited by Elias Smith . It is inter
esting to note the emphasis the paper placed on the idea of liberty , - in the first one hundred and forty- six numbers, fifty - three articleswere on “ Liberty, " apparently all written by the editor.
J. Pressley Barrett has written The Centennial of Religious Journalism (1808 – 1908 ) .
.. 20 G . H . Hepworth wrote regularly sermons for the New York Herald , they were cabled to the Paris edition of the Herald , and they were brought out weekly in the Chicago Record-Herald , and in many other journals in the
West and South and in Canada. - S . H . Ward , George H . Hepworth , chaps. X , XIV .
