Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1879-03-25

Some of IngersOIPs Utteranees.
Colonel Robert G. ~Ingersoll lectured
in Detroit last Sunday night to a very
large audience. His lecture was en-
titled: Some Words of a Man
About the Word of God" and the
Free Press gives the following as some
of his ulta u%tterances:
Il would rather be happy at the
last moment Of my life than at any
other
us it possible that if an infdel has
been honest all his life he will, upon
his death bed, regret that he has not
lived a liz? 2"
The cross never triumphed until
it went in partnership with the sword,
never"
Where any man has told his hon
est thought, the,harpies are there with
their snaky hair"
Think Of God giving a man brains
and then making it a crime to reason
The church hates a moral unbe-
hever a thousand times worse than it
does an immoral one."
Whenever | pronounce the name
of Voltaire l feel as though / saw
some glorious leader of the host call
ing on the beleagured city of Super
stition for immediate surrender"
Il like Voltaire, because he carried
the torch of Reason. | like him be-
cause he loved humanity and despised
superstition with all his heart"
Tom Paine wrote for the first time
these words: The United States Of
America"
"A minister told me once, that if |
did not believe the bible l ought not
to say so. | asked him if he believed
it. He said he did. | told him |
didn't know whether he did or not,
for a man who would advise another
to lie might lie himself. And | shall
die without ever knowing whether
that man believes the bible or not"
According to the best of Chris
tians, a man is totally deprayed. If a
man is totally depraved, then all his
acts r sinful"
Anything is sin that causes inno-
cence to suffer. Anything is sin that
causes unhappiness in this world.
Everything is right that tends to make
man happy"
Il can't sin against God, because
cannot affect His happiness.
No nan on earth controls the
wind that fills the sails of that ship
himself"
According to this great scheme
Christianity the innocent suffer for
the guilty"
What must be the social standing
Of a gentleman in heaven who adj.
mits that he would never have got
there if he hadn't been sacred ?"
Il say that every man is the archi-
tect of his own destiny so far as hap
piness %springing from human action is
concerned"
My doctrine is that if | 20 to
heaven-and | probably shall if there
is One-nO matter in what star [ shall
be spending the summer, and there
meet a man whom l have wronged and
read the story in his eyes, | shall fall
a little in the tune; | won't be
quite so lively with my harp as [ was"
IF | go to hell, no matter how hot
it is, and there remember some good
and splendid thing that have done
hunger | have fed-the nakedness
| have clothed believe it will cool
up on me a little"
The trouble with the atonement is
that it saves the wrong man."
How does the murderer in Heaven
feel with his victim in hell? If he
was a gentleman he'd trade places
with him"
Now they say that the persons
who never heard of the scheme oil
,alyation-the heather will 20 to
Heaven. Why, 0 God! if there is
one, did you not keep us all in ipno-
rance of the scheme, that we might all
be saved p
This Word OF Cod has filed
human mind with horror. 1t has
petrlied human hearts"
I'll never worship God that feeds
lions on babes"
ia rather stand at the Judgment
bar Of God and tell him that | disbe-
Iieyed all the horrible things in his
Word thar 10 believe them. pd
tell Him that | believe Him
cannot believe that God upheld
slavery and polygamy that He told
to kill women; that He gave
girls to tho lust of soldiers
and if I'm damned for this, all right.