, 1880-09-26

Will you allow me the space to anticipate .
| few Of the arguments which will undoubted-
! ly be offered In their sermons, and thus as.
sist, perhaps in moderate way, those
readers who, feeling that '',unrest" Of which
| You speak, and startled somewhat By Mr.
1ngersou's statements will desire to follow
the ministerial replies?
! One Of the first arguments will be that Mr..
lngersoll makes: statements which are not
true. Now, agnosticism desires to make no
converts On false presentation Of facts,
and, therefore, speaking not for Mr.. Mger.
soil, but for the cause which he repre-
sents,- we want, to- say squarety, at
the beginning, that. he did make
three mistakes IN his facts Let the reader
! be prepared to hear these paraded with a
great noise by the clergy, for they no doubt
| will be, with purpose to throw discredit on
all the remainder that Mr. 1hgersoll said. His
Of Jesus spoke only Hebrew" Three . hun,
dred years before Jesus was born Alexander
] the Great swept through Palestine on his
victorious march to Babylon, leaving the
the Jews for centuries. 1n the time Of Jesus
| it was already nearly q dead language, and
was used only among the educated, somewhat
as Latin is still usedI as the means
ciaryu r. is mot s,;rnrieih1 ~ ~ CaslloI.c
fore. that most Of the Gospels and al i'1i tRa
epistles were written in &reek. Aeain at he hs
said the GosFzels were n9twritten till cen.
turtles after Jesus was deAd." This is not
strictly trSe ,ss III, The fact IS at no oqe knows
scholars concede con s that thX Gosne, ~ PoSn
was not written till 90 A. D., but they claim
that the other Gospels wefe. written earlier
Gnsneis ~ t1a;r ha,;uninE ah,t HAYES ~. ana
or nan,,rv ,r md heif aftSr fas,ta HiIy eesIy
tha ioftnr 81 ,.''H fhat Mr fSsosso' HIy syodHIy
drew it jtfIe % strong. And jast1v ptHpig hp soia
bene Ge msT not Mas n1W
ra'e;n g. tba 1raeant nGS.ton' put
recf Mistakes in translation fn ei;ni ~ ~ ~
teriso1atinfs, and to corre9t nther arrnrs ~ r
oa howevsr 10 ever for @ th Teyssrs isM 'Fasdn admit
fhat thew have found more than fl sS ooS
errors @ mnne them Is fhe famnue st etory tyVoF W
the woman taEsn in adultery. which s ss an ,nl y.
tefpolation. and must ali cdine out. Another
q, S nc KAT Iii hn a. @ ~
live in Hin shoIId Be da,nned. In nj fact s tbe
whole Of the latter part Of that CHAPTER. from an
Was @ n9iy by an 11,ni nnknnn Sand
in an nninnwn aee and il to he left nnt uIt'4o ~
- ut1 es7@s tAs ~ W ~ aCAk V4G VI
the reylsed eult1on. II Is greatly to Mr. III
gersolls credit that ne conid arrive by sim
pie argument at the truth Of interpolation
presumably without any AID from the re-
ylsers. It viii De rememnered that twenty
I'VE years ago, We "ele toau tnal we must
nelleye, On pam qi Seternai damna,
tlon' Inat Llis ?pi, n?ppok, Wnlch dld
not clam 70 PC l1Ialilo!e, e. d Was lntallible-
For an lntalnble WorK. l5o,O00 errors are
Eoodl L we were not receiving new trans
latlon, le IS very evident tnat we needed one
On these points we coneede that Mr. In
gersoll was wrong; Dnt. so 1ar as know,
there IS not another statement made BY him
which can be successfully controversial by
any, scholar,
The orthodox ministers VIII say. no doubt,
that there IS an unbroken line Of evidence
running back to the Apostolic age as to the
authenticity Of the GOSPELS: This is not
true. The Rev. Brooke F0ss Wescott, D. D.,
in his "History of the Canon of the New
Testament" p. IL. says that it Is an error to
suppose that. there is such an unbroken
chain of evidences. that few letters
of consolation and warning, two or
three apologies addressed TO heathen,
a CONTROVERSY with Jew, vision,
and a scanty cleaning of fragments of
lost works, comprise all Christian literature
to the middle of the second century, is,
to $50 A. D. The verr first Gospel of which
~, loor .r&,+;,,rr x,,o. r,r,o y, oncco,