Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1878-12-01

not connected with the future, but that the
prevalent christian idea, soon after Chrst 8
day,was happy, an exultant, hopeful "a "a.
Now the preachers and theologians h /
made the prevalent idea connected with I'm /
mortality one Of fear, which shows how they /
have sunk into pitiiul degradation, for the
belief in immortality is ldll Of hope. and scars
in glorious anticipation, aJoundIng IN exul-
tation. With this expression as to the teach
ers Of religion, who have fallen below the
lofty ideal Of Christ, we can easily fall down /
to Mr. Iugersoll, the laundering critic Of
christianity. He is powerful only when he |
attributes to the bible the wretched errors
and arrogant stupidities Of the theologians.
He says the bible caused the inqustion and |
thousand other atrocities, while the |
creatures who committed those viii
Iainies took advantage of the polit-
cal position they held to forbid the
reading of the bible. That book was con-
cealed, hidden, kept out of the way. The
priests knew that if the people read that |
book they would see how falsehood was put
in the way of the charity and love of Christ.
Yet Iugersoll attributes what was done by
the priest to the bible, which had to be hid to
make their crimes pass. Mr.. lngersoll In |
this shows bis shallowness. He is, however, |
doing good in bringing theologians to the |
test, and so he is helping the cause OF Christ |
by showing up the Lord, Lord" creatures
whom Christ never knew. Reading the
speeches of IngerEou, We see one grand de-
fclency He cannot distinguish the facts
revealed from the form in which they are
given. The chestnut grows in a rough burr,
therefore the chestnut is a pernicious fruit.
The man does not know whether there Is a
God or not, or whether, if there is God, he
occupies the relation of "our Father"
whether there is a future life, or whether we
perish with the pig and the dog. Yet he
proposes that we shall exchange
our knowledge for his ignorance
IN short, Christ's teachings for
shallow Iugersoll bosh. Thank you, Dir. In
gersoll, we can give you credit for your smart
ness, your powers of reparfee, your turn for
ridicule, your wit (if irreverance and ignorance
can be witt, but we will take none ofyours
in ours, thank you. You are too superficial,
too much wantlngin logic, TOO ad cdptGnditm,
too Fourth-of-July -cracker, with no ballet
behind the powder. Paine was too deficient
in profundity to do more than make wave
on the surface, and IngerSoll is too summer
breezy" to do even that. No whitecaps will
show on the sea the Ingersoll breath fingers
over; his effort is powerless and i'll OF odor.
Such is our Judgment, but if we took up the
Ingersoll arguments, should we not be
"Aoored?" We are not theoloRians, and we
i, - Of frr-Al,
fore we have no hesitation IN saying that we
smile at the folly Of the people who accent
the IGgersol forgenes as genuine CON, We
cannot 20 extensively into his crudites, al
though we assert that they can easily be met.
We will take Eis assertion that the language
of the bible shows that the writer knew moth
ing of the real stellar system. nothing of
what geology has taught US; nothing Of what
modern achievements Of knowledge have
made clear TO our understanding. We ac-
knowledge that we are picking out of Mr..
| Ingersoll's argument what we please, but it
| looks to US as If we were taking an argument
/ that is a favorite of his. If he stood beside
! our Gesk at this moment, we would take this
| or any other argument he preferred. We
I take this, however. Expasion in Genesis
| yakiang in the Hebrew-meaIs solid sub
| stance beaten out, as copper is beatee into
| sheets, and so on of other things. Tbs
/ ''beaten-out" idea is exactly the Hebrew
notion, and Ingersol is right, and so he Is IN
| some similar statements. Did the inspirer Of
scripture, therefore, know nothing beyond
/ that idea? Nothing of the expansive air!
| Nothing of the blue void which no hand can
| touch? If Mr.. Ingersoll had understood his
subject, he would not have ventured on so
| silly an assertion as to say that God, who
| knows all that science contains, would talk to
| ignorant man, who knows nothing of sci
ence, in the language of science. Let Mr.,
| Ingersoll learn Ashantee, and 90 to Africa;
will he begin to teach those ignoramuses of
science in the language he understands, or In
the language they understand Greek is
said to be one of the most perfect languages;
/ if Colonel Ingersoll understands Greek, will
| he speak to the Ashantee blacks in Ashantee
or IN Greek? If he wants 10 teach them sci
ence, will he use language consistent with
the Ashantee mode OF thought, OF With the
scientific language familiar to. the American
philosopher? The language of instruction
/ Is uOb SOdkNN " TIC hHONlSNES VI LliC
teacher, but by the ignorance of the learner.
Clear as that fact il, this man that knows bstter
than the bible can teach him, has not been
aole to understand it, yet he can ask the
christian to give up his assurance of heaven,
| his rest in the consolation Of religion, his
assured peace when confding in ''Our Father
who is IN heaven" for the abyss of Ingersoll
| ignorance! We think IngersOll Is uninten-
tIonally doing good, as the Jews brought out
the lOftiness and grandeur of Christ through
their contradiction, but he strikes US as be-
| ing one OF those "smart" specimens of shall
/ lowness that don't amount to much" If
we should ever get something more profound,
more reasonable from his hand, we will give
him credit accordingly; at present he is only
at the outer port of scepticism and biblical
criticism, and throws his disc like an IN
tutored pupil.