LETTER OF
The GOSPEL TRUTH CHARLES G. FINNEY
1871
To Philo Carpenter
25 October 1871
[MS in Finney Papers, microfilm, roll 6, #2136]
Oberlin 25th Oct. 1871
My Dear Br. Carpenter.
Yours of the 19th is recd.
Is it in your thought to publish
the Cynosure here as a
national organ of the
Society, or to have a paper
published here independent
of the Association? I believe the
paper well conducted & issuing
from this place would be
well sustained & the great
number & character of our
students would do much
to extend its circulation
& influence. Could Br.
Hall come & edit it.
We have a press & all that
is needed for its publication
It could not take the place
of our political county paper
[page 2]
but it might be published
by the same press. Our
Faculty are too full of labor
to be depended upon as
writers except perhaps
occasionally. I have not
consulted them. I have
conversed with the young
man who has purchased
the press & takes possession of it
the middle of next month.
He is opposed to Masonry & to
all secretism but is not used
to editing & is not well enough
posted upon the subject
to take charge of such a
paper as you need.
It strikes me that Br. Hart
should be at least one
of its editors whenever
it is published.
You will remember
[page 3]
that we have before had
the pledge that Br. B's
personal difficulties
& personal hits should
not appear in the cynosure.
We have suffered severely
in this region, I mean
our cause has from so
much of this kind of
thing in that paper.
Every hit of the kind
makes enemies & grieves
& alienates friends of
the reform. The paper
must itself be reformed
or it can not go far in
reforming others.
Chicago must be after all,
a far more elligible place
to publish the paper than
village
a mere Village. It might
do well here, but it ought
[page 4]
to do better at Chicago.
Can it not be put into
hands that will attract
rather than repel the
cooperation of the press
more extensively?
Br. Blanchard is a blessed
man but certainly does
not appreciate the harm
done by his personal
hits. Shall we not
see the paper again
ere long. You do not
say how much you have
lost by the great fire.
The moral effect of the
great fire is really more
than a compensation for
the material loss. That is
to the world at large.
God bless you
C. G. Finney
Footnotes:
This letter is not in the Finney Papers, but Carpenter had apparently written to Finney: "some friends here have thought the Cynosure might be published at Oberlin. What would the friends there think of it?" (Finney to Charles A. Blanchard, November 2, 1871, Finney Papers, microfilm, roll 6, # 2139)
Jonathan Blanchard
On Sunday and Monday, the 8th and 9th of October, a disastrous fire had swept through Chicago leaving three square miles of the city in ashes, and hundreds of thousands of people homeless. ("Charred Chicago" The Lorain County News [12 October 1871], p. 2; "Chicago a Year After the Fire" ibid. [17 October 1872], p. 1.)