The daily gazette., 1880-05-20
From the New York Herald.
'IT1W0N'T DO w
COLONEL ROBERT q. fNeERsoLDs AR.
! RAIGNMENrD OF ! oHRIsTIANITY-
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Colonel Robert G. Iugersoll, the pro.
fessional infidel, answer the question
, "What Shall We Do to Be Saved P'i
Even before the doors were open the
crowd began to gather, and for near '
an hour before the time announced the
people literally besieged the entrances
to the theatre. Byeight o'clock every
seat was occupied, and even the fourth
tier was Il mass of heads. The stage
was set very simply and neatly-a Ii
brary scene, with tables, chairs and a
reading desk. A few gentlemen and
two ladies occupied seats on the stage.
I 1t was some time after the hour an
nounced for the beginning of the lee
ture that Colonel Ingersol appeared.
but when he did come he began his
discourse without an. introduction.
| Before he began the lecturer said he
wanted to get superstition out of the
minds of his hearers. We must re-
member that we have inherited it, that
our forefathers were barbarians, their
forefathers savages, and that VIC have
been taught from our infancy that
there is an infinite tyrant on high
watching our every action. Courage
challenges every fact In the universe,
faith gets on its knees and crawls. Do
you not think that heaven itself would
be.monotonous every onewas to think
the same way and that it would be a
little improved if somebody was to say
mo :" Through all time blasphemy
has been considered greater crime
than murder. 1t is impossible to sin
against God. The time has arrived
when poverty should its crust
with hypocrisy. We have got what is
called Christian system, and many
people wonder how he can be so wick
ed as to attack it. Great Britain is "a
Christian nation, and yet thero is more
unhappiness in Great Britain than in
any country in the world. Ifyou want
to please Christian nation invent a
gun that will blow more Christians in
to eternal froth than, any o.her gun.
No indian was ever converted because
no Indian ever took scalp because of
religious belief - 'ah . ~ = = a.
THE BEGINNING.
The Christian God, so we are told,
made world out of nothing rather
Il ohbh oCo ~ WdobOs l1O Ildtl anu
woman and placed them in a garden,
where they were to eat all the fruit ex-
cept the apple. IL God did not want
them to eat his apples, what did he put
them i'll his garden for .? Why did He
make them rival, which the devil
was, and a successful rival too When
He turned Adam and Eve out of His
garden their first child was murder
er, and their children kept on getting
worse and worse, until He determined
to drown them, God did nothing for
them. He built no schoolhouses. =
Methuselah lived to be nearly thous-
and, and never rlearned his A. B. c.
God never founded even a Christian
association, but at last He picked out
the Jews and tried to civilize them. -
Whenever they did anything wrong
they were to kill a sheep. Whatever
crime they committed they were cred
tied with one sheep. Nowadays, how
ever, Christians never even do this
much, but simply say, "Charge it. -
He then paid a tribute to the man
Christ, but said thar the god Christ he
did not believe in. If he allowed the
Jewto,put him to death when He
could have defended himself he aas
guilty of suicide. Who wrote the New
Testament? Nobody knows. Did
Christi No. Neither did Matthew,
Mark nor Luke. IT. was said that |
John, the inspired lunatic of Patmos,
wrole he Book of Revelations. If they |
are revelations, revelal ion is neces- |
sary to know what they mean? The |
books of the New Testament were
tampered with and changed by men
whose interest it was to tamper with
and change them. He had examined
it for himself and he was going to teil'l
what the New Testament says men
must do to be saved-what the minis
ters say and what he says. If at the
Judgment D. y he found he was wrong
he would walk up like man and ad-
NIT it. All he asked of any God was
Ell men. There is the unconditional |
promise of Christ that if we forgive
others we shall ourselves be forgiven.
This is the rock upon which-he built
his church. , % ~ E& - p ST.
THE AUDIENCE AND THE LECTURER.
The argumentative parts of the dis
course and the vulgar phrases were re-
ceived with shouts Of Laughter, but no
cheering. The "splinter wood of hell"
was one of tn ase phrases. The Church
has. always been willing to swap off
treasures in heaven, he said, Tor cash
down, and the laughter was long and
loud. When the phrase at Is easier for
a camel to go though the eye of a needle
than for rich man to enter the king
dom of heaven'' was written the Church
was dead broke. People who have the
smallest souls usually make the most
fuss about getting them saved. If the
ship even goes down he won't forsake
his wife and children, the speaker said,
and try to sneak ashore in some ortho-
dox canoe. Christ, in His day, was an
reformer. AS we'll might Mark have
written, "Who shall have red hair shall
be damned" as "He who believeth not
shall be damned" That was an in
famous passage, which has filled the
world with blood. Matthew was pres
ent when the alleged conversation with
Jesus Christ relating to damnation took
place, but either he did not hear it or
forgot it or did not believe it. Four
"other gentlemen" were present and say
nothing about it. The use of the word
ran throughout the dis
course. Zaccheus was the "gentleman
who climbed tree" Four gentlemen"
were in fiery furnace and seemed to
enjoy it. If Jesus Christ was in the
,ysrid to dow (,olonel InoersnIl thounht |