Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1879-08-25
INGERSOLLISM.

llVUUlOACOlIAAo
Hon. Geo. u. Wendling Viewed It From II
Secular standpoint-A Stirring Lecture
to an Immense Audience.
An immense audience crowded the Opera
House in every part, last night, TO listen to
the lecture delivered by Hon. Geo. B. Wend-
ling ON 'Iugersollism from secnlar stand
point.n under tho auspices of the Young
Mems Christian Association. The personnel
of the lecture has perhaps often been de-
scribed before but for tho benefit of those
who have not read such description, it may be
we'll to say before presenting tho mereat out
line of the lecture itself, that MIR. Vending
seems to be man, just entering the prime of
life, perhaps between IS and 4o years of age,
of commanding presence, fine voice, with ali
tho gifts apparently of the cultured
gentleman and finished orator. 1t
may not be uninteresting to note the
genesis of tho lecture itself. Col. Ingersoll
had lectured in st. Louis to crowded houses
and with such evident influence, that men
prominent in the walks of business and prof
fessional life, seeing the real weakness of his
positions, and believing that his arguments
were quite capable of being answered, invited
Mr.. Wendline to undertake the task which he,
occupied with the cares of busy lawyers life,
felt 10th to do. He consented however, to
make the trial, delivering the present lecture
to a small audience at frat OF his st. Louis
friends. but at once making such an
were, 'famous in night and to
bring him multitudes of invitations to deliver
it in all parts of the country. 1t is strong
point in the address that all references to Col,
ingersoll personally are respectful and gentle.
manly in the highest degree, and if any present
felt disappointed last evening when Mr.. Wend.
ling announced in his preliminary remarks
that they would not hear sighting words Of
Insersoll, but only Of his teachings, it never.
theIess raised the opinion at once of the better
class of his hearers, both Of the lecturer and
the lecture. 1t is, too, a wise stand which Mr.
Vending takes in disregarding the man
Iugersoll and paying attention to
his pernicious teachings. For, as
it has been said, the man wanes while il
may be the evil of which his lectures are the
seeds is upon the increase.
Perhaps, too in the eyes OF many of those
to whom he speaks Mr.. Weddings words have
more weight because he distinctly disclaims
speaking as theologian upon theological
themes. He approaches his subject as man
| simply in tho beginning nowhere rising above
| the plane of q business man, in all the course
| of his arguments, who regards Ingersollism as
destructive of the happiness OF the individual
| and the household and of the conscience OF
| those to whom integrity in business and pro
| fessional life is the very foundation stone OF
stability and success.
| It is appropriate to this theory concerning
his mission that the lecturer begins his argu-
| meus with the question as to whether man in
| his natural state makes for himself many Gods
| or in worshiping idols simply pictures in diff
| f rent forms bis imagination of one overriding
deity. BY appealing to all ages and history be
seems here conclusively to prove that all men
| have had an idea of but one God. however varl-
GUS their symbols and applications of that
| God or his attributes may have been.
| And So still reasoning from natural prem
! ises it is powerful link in the chain of
thought that behind all the evidences OF
creative power and skill, whether evolved from
| a germ cell or moulded by the hand of person
| al Deity, there must be the controlling inven.
tive idea. So, as the orator says in one of his
bursts of eloquence, before the eye was made
! there must have been somewhere, in someone
above and beyond all creatures. the thought OF
sight before the ear could be framed in man OF
beast or bird for hearing there must have been
the thought of hearing.
Thence the lecturer appeals to the historical
argument, and with almost startling
| bursts Of eloquence and with fervid
words paints the procession of the centuries
| from the time of Christ to the present day,
showing how through all the mt tations of tim.
the teachings of the Galileean peasant have
TODD the warning and the wear Of nations,
rsie and downfall of revolutions
and reform of tho world of
thought, of the advance of improvement in
the arts and sciences, until they have come to
their greatest power and influence ia the blaze
ard glory of these bright days in the last half
of this wonderful nineteenth century.
He summons men of the world before his
audience to give their testimony. and with a
piece of rare descriptive oratory he brings Ma
| poleon the First to the witness stand and
| quotes with stunning effect his tribute to the
divinity of Christ.
But it is perhaps in the last part of his lee.
ture that Mr.. Vending exhibits the most
strength and uses his material with the most
telling effect. 1t is when he indicts Ingersoll-
ism as high treason against government, com.
munism against the rights Of property, and
d blasting ruin of the joys and blessings of the
home, that the sympathies of his auditors are
most keenly awakened and their appreciation
of his arguments most eagerly manifested.
Ingersollism carried to its legitimate conclu-
sion would give Us the French revolution when
men tried to rule France by destroying the
nations belief in God. 1t would give the
laborer with his strong right urn, stronger than
that of his richer fellow citizen, the right tc
| say, Come, let US eat, drink and be merry, fol
| to-morrowiwe die" 1t would bearing its proper
| fruit destroy conscience in every man, and
commercial enterprises the world over, and
business dealings between man and man, be
forever at an end.
1t would enter the sacred sanctuary of home
and taking from it all the tender and holy
comforts of religion, destroy its Joys, and have
rows. Therefore does he arraign these hideous
doctrines of Ingersollism in the name of the
| sacred and powerful trinity of government, OF
property, and of home