Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1879-06-13
BOB INGERsOLL's FAITH.
What Mr. Beecher Finds In the Ser
mon at Rben IngersOlrs Funeral
I'm spite of Doubts or Dog
mas, let AS Hope there is
Better World

New York World, Monday: ''The root
element of faith, said Mr.. Beecher, yester-
day, sis in the imagination. The tendency
of our age, or in certain lines of it, Is rising
tendency among the educated to give to the
evidence of the physical senses not only
greater weight than comes with the lmaglna-
ton, but to deny to the imagination all use
except that of producing pleasure. To GER
tain extent we are indebted for this to the
perversion of religious views. The ascetic
school banished the imagination from re-
ligion and made it q mere minion of pleas
ure and turned the thoughts of men to
what are called weigh6er matters. We
are told in the serious words of the ascetic
teachers that lie is too important to trihe
away. They have stripped off the wings OF
the Imagination to make quilts TO write their
dull treatises withal. There Is also danger
from the scientific or materialistic tendencies
OF the age, the votaries of which hold that all
things must be proven by tangible evidence
that the soul Is but matter. But taking the
materialistic view that the soul is but matter,
1t is matter so different from ordinary matter
that it is to be Judged by entirely different
laws. But without taking that ground and
adhering as l do to the ground that it is a
spiritual matter, the necessity is much
stronger for applying the true principle in
dealing with its consideration. There is a
growing tendency toward materialism in the
tendency of the French mind. 1t has made
inroads into the sturdy old English mind,
and it has with ten thousand other immi-
grants that we could have spared come across
the seas and gained a foothold here. But to
apply to the imagination the same rules you
apply to things that have no imagination Is
impolitic, unphilosophieal and unwise. There
are a great many men who say with Tyndall:
If you present God as a poem l can accept
it, but If you present him as fact resist it.
say: There Is no evidence; it is not proven.
There are realities which cannot be proven.
No formula can demonstrate itself, and the
intellect discerns things by the aid of the
imagination that it cannot discern without it.
Reasonings are no more than spider-web-
bings. That which comforts must be &C
cepted as true, although it cannot be proven
by any direct line of evidence. Take, for in
stance, the pictures Of the Virgin Mary, which
are the objects of such veneration to devout
Roman Catholics. They are not really the
Virgin Mary; they don't even look like
her; but they are a representation of the
tenderness of the mother toward her child,
and that tenderness is a reality. l, too,
hang the pictures In my parlor and In my
bedroom; and l, too, am worshipper of the
Virgin. l worship the tender, loving spirit
of God out of which theology has cheated
US. Put that In theology and you would not
want any pictorial illustration. So as to
angel except with wings. never thought Of
an angel painted with wings that it did not
look like an old hen to me. LGreat laughter.
So with ministering angels. The moment
you apply to them all that belongs to them,
that moment you destroy them. A French
philosopher once said, very truly: Everybody
believes in God until you attempt to prove
His existence Take the existence of the SOU
in heaven-that is, as a mere question of rea.
son, without evidence such as belongs to reg.
ulated forms of maiter-and it is full of OBJ
scuritles. But let it hang in the realm of the
| Imagination, and it is not only the product Of
the imagination OF one man, but of all the
nations through the growth of time. 1t is the
| imagination that has been reaped, ano
| threshed, and winnowed, and grown into the
very bread Of life. Ii is not any poem or no
| ton; 1t IS the work, the final work of the
| imagination OF the human race, speaking all
languages, under all governments; it is the
result to which men come-that death
doesn't stop human life; it goes on unend-
ing"
Mr.. Beecher here spoke of the recent ad.
dress of Robert Ingersoll at the funeral OF
his brother, and in this relation said of Mr.
| Ingersoll: "He is man of great merit and
power, and he has made himself, perhaps
| as widely known as almost any other man il
this generation by his contemning of, | viii
not say religion, but of those views of religion
| handed down to US by the teachers of chris
| tlanity. He has great power of Imagination
a flaming wit, and has said a great many
things, not wise, but by which wise men may
| profit. He has uttered a great many crti-
| cisms on the subject of christianity which
are Just criticisms, yet taking his views of re-
| ligion as a whole they lack completeness; il
is a special plea, a fault-6nding plea, which
| sees only one side. Now, while l accord tt
him the EXTREMIST liberty of discussion, aDC
disclaim any right to interfere with this lib.
erty, we have a right to whatever of instruc.
| ton there may be, and | think he can in
struct US by his latest utterance. He has los
brother dearly beloved, a good man who
| lived happily with his family and was re-
| spected by the community, and at thai
brothers funeral Mr.. Ingersoll made one Of
the most exquisite, yet one of the most sac
and mournful sermons that | ever read.
am going to read some of it to you"
Mr.. Beeeher here read IN the most effective
manner nearly the whole of Mr.. IngersolI' e
funeral Grafton as reported in the papers al
the time and commenting on it said:- "WaE
ever anything uttered by the lips of man
more pathetic? But we have not only hope,
We have the certainty-we know that if ouI
earthly tabernacle is lost we have a building
not made with hands eternal in the heavens
To US the sweet voice comes under burdens,
under sorrows, In pain, In persecution, In the
prison dungeon-the voice of the spirit and
the bride says come and the voice of the
whole church of God cries out TO US 1T is
real, it is real-come;' and when this noble
brother of Mr.. IIngersoll felt the touch Of
death, don't doubt that he felt the touch OF
God the second time, and saw in the eternal
world things which he had counted but
shadows here. Even scepticIsm and that
which had been provocation OF scepticism in
others says when it comes to the death oil
hope: In spite of doubts or dogmas, let us
hope that there is better world" In con-
clusion Mr.. Beecher urged his hearers to hold
fast to the faith of their fathers and never
to doubt the reality of divine love or of inn
mortality.
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