WE wish a few earnest words with you. We are not given to sensationalism, but we want you to look at matters just as they are, and then help us to save what can be rescued from a sinking craft. The immortal Lincoln once said in the dark days of slavery, “These are bad times, and seem out of joint.” This was true then, but it is doubly so now. Society is rotten to the core; politics is the very essence of corruption; murder and rapine stalk like giants through the land; the rich are growing richer and the poor poorer. Only a short time ago thirty thousand employés of the sweat shops of this city marched passed the SENTINEL office, having struck against the oppression and tyranny exercised over them, and now well nigh a quarter of a million coal miners of the country are arrayed against the greed and injustice of soulless corporations. An unrest has taken possession of the toiling masses that amounts to frenzy; their minds are filled with dreams of rebellion bordering on anarchy. Statesmen look into the future with deep forebodings. Men’s hearts are literally failing them for fear, and the anxious inquiry on all sides is, “Whall [sic.] shall the end be”?
The religious world is fast imbibing the idea that the solution for this intricate problem—the panacea for the gigantic evils that confront us, is to be found in a recognition of God by legal enactment as the ruler of the nation. The devil never invented a greater deception. But nevertheless plans are being laid, stakes set and lines drawn to accomplish this very thing.
Now, as never before, an opportunity is presented to tell the people what all these things mean, and the only avenue of escape from the inevitable ruin that will follow. This can be done in no better way than by inducing them to become readers of the AMERICAN SENTINEL. Will you help us to help the paper in their hands?
Now, for the purpose of introducing the SENTINEL more generally among those not now readers of it, we have determined to make the following unprecedented offer: Any such person can have the paper sent to his address until January 1st next, for only twenty-five cents. This is but little more than the cost of the white paper on which it is printed, and it is made in the hope that every member of the SENTINEL family will lay his plans to send us at least one new subscriber under this special offer, for it is our experience that these short-time subscribers invariably become regular readers. Here is an opportunity to do real missionary work in a worthy cause rarely offered.
Of the future of the SENTINEL, just a word. It will endeavor to keep fully abreast with the times, and keenly alive to its mission. It will deal fearlessly and faithfully with every question within its province. It has in contemplation several substantial improvements, among them being a department called “Religious Liberty for Young People,” which can hardly fail to interest hundreds of our young people who have heretofore paid little attention to the subject.
Can we not count on our friends everywhere for a long pull, a strong pull and a pull altogether for at least five thousand new subscriptions by September 1st?