Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1879-06-27
MATERIALISM.
What Nc. Bsecher Finds 10 EbOH lnvsr-
sSl's Funeral,

"| --
New York World. June It'll
The root element Of faith said
Mr.. Beecher yesterday, is in the
Imagination. The tendency Of our
age, or in certain lines Of it, is a rising
tendency among the educated to give
to the evidence of the physical senses
not only greater weight than comes
with the Imagination, but to deny to
the imagination all use except that of
producing pleasure. To a certain ex.
tent we are indebted for this to the
perversion Of religious views. The
%ascetic school banished the imagina-
ton from religion aud made it a mere
miniOn of pleasure and turned the
thoughts of men to what we called
weightier things. We are told in the
serious words of the aseetic teachers
that life is too important to triAe
away. They have stripped off the
wings Of the Imagination to make quills
to write their dull treat SEES wlthll.
There is also danger from the scien-
fife or materialistic tendencies of
the age, the yotaries of which hold
that all things must be proven by
tangible evidence-that the soil is but
mItter. Buttaking the materialistic
view that the soul is but matter, it is
matter so different from ordinary mat
ter that it is to be judged by entirely
different laws. But without taking
that ground and adhering as | do to
the ground that it is spiritual matter,
the necessity is much stronger for ap
plying the true principle in dealing
with its consideration. There is a
growing tendency towards materialism
in the German mind, and this has long
been the tendency Of the French mind.
1t has made inroads into the sturdy
old English mind, and it has with ten
thousand other immigrants that we
could have spared come across the
seas and gained a foOthOld here. But
20 apply to the imagination the same
rules you apply to things that have no
Imagination is impolitic, unphilosoph-
icll and uuwise. There are a great
mIuy men who say with Tvndall Ill
you present God as q poem i can accept
II, but if you present him as a fact
/ resist il; | say: There Is 20 evil
deLce: ii is not proven There are
realities which cannot be proven. No
formula can demonstrate the senti-
ment Of honor; yet honor demonstrates
itself, and the intellect diseerns things
BIZ the aid OF the Imagination that it
cannot discern without it. Reasonings
are no more THAI spider webbing.
That which comforts must be accept
ed as true, although il cannot be
proves by any direct line Of evidence.
Take, for instance, the pictures of the
Virgin Mary which are the objects of
such yeneFatisn to deyOut Roman
Catholics. They are not really the
Virgin Mary; they don't even look
like her; but they are Q representa-
ton of the tenderness Of tho mother
toward her child, and that tenderness
is a reality. /, too, hang the pictures
in my parlOr and in my bed room aud
/, too, am a worshipper of the Virgin.
/ worship the tender, loving spirit Of
God out Of which theology has cheat
ed us. Put hat in theology and you
would not want any pictorial illustra.
ton. SO as TO ministering angle ]
never thought Of an angel excepl
with wings. | never saw an ange.
painted with wings that il did not look
like an old hen to me. (GFeat laugh.
ter.
so with ministering angels. fbC
moment you apply to them al that
belongs To them that moment you de.
strOy them. A French philosopher
once very truly said 'Everybody
believes in God until you attempt L
prove his existence. Take the exist
ence OF a soul IN heayen-that is as |,
mere question Of reason without
evidence such as belongs To Fegulatal
forms Of matter-ahd Il IS fun O
obseurities. But letit hang In the rcaln
OF the imagination and It is not opl,
the product Of the imagination Of on.
man, but of all the nations through tn
growth Of tine. 1t is the imaginatio
that has been reaped and threshed an
winnowed and grown into the yer
bread OF life. 1t is not any poem q
notion; it is the work, the tinai vOF
Of the imagination Of the human rae,
speaking all languages, under a
governments II Is the result to whic
men come-that death doesn't ste
.humNn life it,g0es on amending"
Mr.. Beecher here spoke az the n
cent address of Robert Ingersoii 1
the funeral Of his brother, and Ia thI
relation sid Of Mr.. %Ingersoll He
man Of erea! merit aud power, az
he has made hinaelf perhaps as widel