, 1878-12-05
AN ANSWER TO lNGERS0LL.

IN WlnCn Hc Hiuuo SpVN'"A'J Va ~
tacking the writings of Moses.
We append a few extaacts from
an answer by the Rev. DR.. Van Box
leIen. DR.. Van B. is rector of Trim.
ity Church, of Buffalo, and is a
brother of our townsman, Major J.
J. H. Van Bokkelen. His answer
was delivered in two sermons, and
was published in the Buffalo SEX.
press" We have not room for the en-.
tire publication, although it abounds
m the richest and most elevated
thought. We simply give few of
the most important passages:
HEBREWS III; II: Take heed.
brethren. lest there be In You an evil heart
OF unDelief
wish to say something about the
words spoken last Sunday evening as they
were given to me and thousands OF other
persons on Monday morning. I am sure
will not be charged with using strong
words when say the lecture was, unless
all photographers err, positively blasphe-
nous. 1t delided what good men revere,
and what the State recognizes as the fuun-
dation of the sanctity of an oath, on
which our whole system of law depends.
1t was an outrage against God and soci-
ETY., AMI surely it is a very great mistake
to do or say what the concurrent voices of
wise men declare must work harm to our
selves, our families, our country. True,
the bad thoughts were spoken in as good
language as the average sermon or lecture;
delivered with more than the average
charms OF elOcution. and emphasized with
graceful gesture. Spoken by man of in
tellect, a man OF that personal magnetism
which attracts and holds the attention, a
man ready with a joke, prompt with the
wit that cXctcs a laugh, fertile with the
repartce that always secures noisy ap-
plause--not the magnetism Of logic, not
the wit that comes of wisdom and holds
the mind because 1t publishes truth; not
the pathos which sinks into the heart
because it calls up tender sympathies-
none of these, nothing but the sensation
of the variety show as it sweeps from
grave to gay, from pathetic to ridiculous,
from shallow wisdom to profound folly. =,
Take the lecture which was heard by ''a
large and intelligent audience" divest the
thoughts Of their smooth language, take
away what some persons style culture, Il
mistake II is certain In the Use of the word.
take away tile 9TH words and the we'll
dressed man, and there remains nothing
more than YOU can hear every day IN the
lowest haunts Of vice. aud generally spo-
ken with most emphasis when men are
most drunk. What was said last Sunday
night is the profanity OF dissolute places
offered In polite idiom; it was blasphcny
sugar-coated, and would have been as vile
as the refuse of the sewer to the ears which
heard IL had it come from the mouth of
some poor. wrctchcd inebriate, who knew
hot what he said. Here was great mis-
take OF those who listened. Here ''cir-
cumstances do not alter eases" Vice is
vice wherever 1t exists, blasphemy is bias
phemy, whoever utterS 1t. Here was an
otherigreat MISTAKE to count vice less Vi
ciOns, profanity less proiane, because the
dcformity is hidden by clean dress; and
n yet GREATER MISTAKE that intelligence
should lend itself TO strengthen and be-
come the proWgandlst Of wckedness.
Oh, how can educated men deceive them
selves in this matter? How can they go
Gown into the mire and keep themselves
clean? know not which Is the more Ia
mentable, that one man derided God, or
that a large and Intelligent audience could
listen. The one may have had mo-
tive In that it is his trade, and like man
of enterprise he strives TO make the most
OF 1t, but how cin we comprehend why
in this beautiful city. favored Of God. such
teachings should bring any price other
than what experience and the Bible teach
In the words, The wages of sin Is death?
Those listeners made sad MISTAKE, for
what they heard will stick to them and
torture them like the cloak Of Nessus
What when first heard startles and as
tounds. often by becoming familiar, is
pleasing to tile eur. Here was fearful
MISTAKE. For,
''Vice il a monster OF such hid ols mein,
That to be hated it need but he seen;
Bat seen too Oft, familiar with its face,
We first endure, then pity, then embrace. v
God places no manaccs, no fetters, no
clogs upon the reason which is His grand
est gift to man. but he COunsels US, and 1t