Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1878-11-08
INGERSOLL ANSWERED.
The Blatant Republican Infidel
Dissected 80 The Lecture of
Hon. q. r. Vending at Pitts
bufgh.

From the Pittsburgh Post.
Mr.. Vending is Il lawyer oi Peoria,
Illinois, not over thirty three years OF
age. His voice and style of address are
most attractive. He began by saying
that ii any had come TO hear Ingcrsoll
personally abused, or 10 be amused, they
would be disappointed. He said Inger-
soils views affected our political struc-
lures. ! come as business man; a law
yer, As politician ii YOU please; come
as man OF the world 10 talk with men
OF the world. | champion no creed or
sect Humanity is above all creed, above
all religious partisanship. According TO
lngersoll Jesus Christ was nothing but
IN enthusiast, the Bible sham, and i'm
mortality mere fancy. The great sub
jcct OF political economy is involved in
this question. According To lngersoll
every church Spirc in the land is monu-
Ilent OF financial folly.
lngcrsOlPS lecture on the Gods is the
type OF all his lectures. Its opening
sentence contains the sOphism which is
the basis OF all his argument. 1t is this:
Each nation has created a God, and
We have done the same" This thought
has unsettled the faith of many The
conviction which we most need is the
belief in the existence OF personal God.
The pulpit is too much given to take
thisg for granted Websterdcfnes God to
be the object of worship, the Supreme
Being, the Eternal Spirit, the Supreme
Ruler OF the world. Ingersolps
statement applies only to idols; he
- -, Al Al
of idols, and hence this ialacy
in his argument. In all nations
exist the traces OF one Supreme God,
one eternal and all powerful God. The
Greeks had this conception OF the one
God in their Zeus. CONTIGUOUS, 500
years before the Christian era, address,
ed in prayer the one Supreme God.
The ancient Nedas and the Shasters OF
ZorrOster recognize the one Supreme
God. In Egyptian mythology we find
in Osiris the one God. The Teutonic
races had Odin, the one God. In the
Pentatcuch We learn that the Jews be-
lievcd and wOrshipped the one God,
Jehovah. The North American Indian
had the one Great Spirit So in all
nations you will find clear traces OF the
one supreme God. This is tue as his
tory.
The metaphysical argument of Ingcr-
soil that Man has no ideas and can
have but those suggested by his sur
rOundings," is the strong argument of
rationalists. am prepared to concedc
the truth oil lngersoll's assertion
Whence then comes the idea which is
common to all the ages, the one God, if
the one God does not exist? IOu can
not possibly imagine Il thing which can
not be. Think OF this. You can only
imagine new combinations Of old matcri-
al. Our wicrleSt imaginatiOns are thus
dissolved into things which actually ex-
list. The idea OF Liva, Brahama, of Grit
fins and Satyrs may all be dissolved into
hands and arms and heads and skulls
This cannot touch the idea OF the one
living God. There is no combination
here. This must be the reflection OF
a fact, else it could not exist in the mind
The speaker referred TO Cudworth and
Cooke argument Us to the eye and ear:
before the creation OF these there must
have preceded the thought which
Fought the idea oi seeing and hearing
krth.
: He argued very conclusively that the
torld as il exists in man must have had
teacher. Who shall we take a. our
moral teacher? The church alone can
supply the ideal. The church is, I'M
dcrst:nd it is, the aggregate teaching
which derives its authority from the
Bible. We cannot take Plato, nor Pliny,
nor Seneca, all those taught that re-
vcnge, cruelty, suicide, murder and
many other iniquities were right on GER
tain occasions. Ancient Ingersollian
broodcd over the heather world, and all
was darkness, but Il bright light dawned,
coming from Judca.