The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1879-07-24
COL. INGERSOLL'S TRIBUTE TO
ADEAD CLERGYMAN.
WAUpAcA EEpuRLICAN.

kev. Alexander Clark, OF PIttsbufg,
editor of n Methodist paper, died recent
y in Georgia. lIr. Clark has combined
Col. Ingersoil's religions views in his
paper, but has always treated him with
fairness. Mr.. Clark once visited the
colonel at his home in Peoria. The col
onel now pays the following tribute to
his dead opponent and friend:
Rev. ALEXANDER CLARK.
Upon the grave of Eev. Alexander
Clark / wish to place orc flower.
Utterly destitute of cold, dogmatic
pride that often passes for the love of
God; without the arrogance of the
''elect" simple, free and kind-this
earnest man made me his friend by being
mine. I forgot that he was a christian
and he seemed TO forget that | was not,
while each remembered that the other
was man.
Frank, candid and sincere, he plactic-
ed what he preached, and looked with
holy eyes of charity upon the failings
and mistakes of men. He believed in
the power OF kindness, and spanned with
divine sympathy the hideous gulf that
separates the fallen from the pure.
Giving freely to others the rights that
he claimed for himself. it never occurred
10 him that his God hated brave and
| honest unbeiiever. He remembered
that even an infidel has q right that love
| respects; that hatred has no saving
power, and that in order to be a Chris
tian it is not necessary to become less
than a man. He knew that no one can
be maligued into kindness; that epithets
cannot convince; that curses are not ar
guments, and that the finger of scorn
never points towards heaven. With the
| generosity of an honest man, he accord
ed to all the fullest liberty of thought,
| knowing, as he did, that in the realm of
mind a chain is but q curse.
For this man I entertained the pro-
foundcst respect In spite of the taunts
and jeers of his brethren, he publicly
proclaimed that he would treat infidels
with fairness and respect; that he would
endeavor to convince them by argument
and win them with love. He insisted
That the God he worshipped loved the
| well being even Of an atheist. In this
grand position he stood almost alone.
Tender, just and loving where others
were harsh, vindictive and cruel, he
| challenged the respect and admiration of
every honest man. A few moro such
sclergymen might drive calumny from the
thy Of respect.
The heartiness and kindness with
which this generous man treated me can
never be excelled. He admitted that [
had not lost and could not lose single
right by the expression of ray honest
thought. Neither did he believe that q
servant could win the respect of gener-
ous master by prosecuting and maligning
those whom the master would willingly
forgive.
While this good man was living, his
brethren blamed him for having treated
me with fairness. But, / trust, now
that he has left the shore touched by the
mysterious sea that never yet has borne
on any wave the image of q homeward
sail, this crime will be forgiven him by
those who still remain to preach the love
of God.
His sympathies were not confined
Iwithin the prison of creed, but ran out
Ihnd over the walls like vines, hiding the
pcruel rocks and rusted bars with leaf and
tdower. He could not echo with his
heart the fiendish sentence Of eternal
, fire. In spite of book and creed, he
read "between the lines" the words cf
: tenderness and love, with promises for
all the world. Above, beyond the dog
tnas of his church-humane even to the
verge of heresy-causing some to doubt
lis love of God because he failed to hate
his uubelieving fellow-men, he labored
for the welfare Of mankind, and to his
!, work gave up his life with all his heart.
ROBERT G. INGERsoLu.
|, Washington, d. c., July IL.