The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1880-06-05
A Reply to IngersOll.

lectured at the cnurcn sunday nlSnG
on "The New Gospel and the New
Preacher" reply to the recent lee
ture of Col. Robert Ingersoll, the
well-known infdel. The church was
literally packed, chairs were brought
into requisition in numbers and
many persons were forced to stand.
After singing and prayer, Mr.. Guard
introduced his remarks with a part
of the Sd verse OF the General Epis-
tie of Jude-"Ye should earnestly
contend for the faith which was once
delivered unto the saints" 1t was,
perhaps, bold undertaking, said
Mr.. Guard, to reply to Col. Inger-
soil, but he believed he was justified
in doing it, having been appealed to
by at least dozen different persons
to answer some Of Col. Ingersoll's so
called arguments. He had made it a
point 20 go and hear the infidel on
the Pacific coast. He had heard hin
deliver his political lecture, "Seven
and Eight" and he had read his adj
dresses and his Lectures on the
Gods" etc. He read them with a
great deal of pain. Without any af-
fectation, it was simply torture to
hear reviled the God ard the Savior
whom from childhood he had been
brought up to love and reverence.
He had attended his lectures in order
to knew how to reply to him.
Some persons Looked upon it as a
degradation to reply to Ingersoll in
the pulpit. He did not think SO. In
gersoll had said some things that
were right, but he had blended such
an amount of truths with errors that
the latter were made cohesive and
not easily discerned at first sight:
Ingersoll had vivid fancy, copi-
Gus phraseology, but with il all he
had never heard that Ingersoll was a
profound lawyer. He played on the
sympathies of jurors, and possibly
gained many cases by dazzling them
with the splendor of his oratory or
his powers to convince against the
will. He was a good husband and a
good father. His daughters were
passionately fond of him. and not
believing in or at least not worship
ing the true God, they worshiped
him. and delighted in the fact that
they had never been in a church. 1t
was not necessary to run down or
antagOnize those whose beliefs we
did net agree with. One could not
but draw conclusions of mans ma
ture from his speeches, and he tho't
when he heard Ingersoll that he had
a most remarkable amount Of self
appreciation, and that no one appre--
ciated him as highly as he did him.
self unless it be his wife and daugh
ters. And what an amount of
audacity the man had with skilled,
larger measure of Inconsistency He
was believer in one thing-his mis-
sion and in anOther-himseif. He
said he was an unhelieyer, conse-
quently he was wrong. He had wit
enough to make him an Irishman,
but though witty his humor was not
that of reverential order, nor was
it the kind which would take with
refined and moral persons. Mr..
Guard said he believed that his skull
must have been trepanned or excised
during the late war-that part of it
which contained all his reverence. He
could not look upon the infidcl as a
truth seeker. He could sympathize
with one who sought the truth-he
could not sympathize with him. No
one could push himself into truth
without encountering doubts, so that
care should be taken how we called
Ingersoll an infidel. Don't, said he
brand him an infdel until you have
settled the matter beyond the shad-
ow of doubt. He may be hesitat-
ing between what is and what Is not
the truth. 1t may be that by the
structure of his mind he can't accept
truth without evidence. He may be
wagering in the balance, and one
little title may turn the scales in the
interests of truth. He had also been
surprised at IngersoIl's lack of phi
losophy. What could have been his
education. What miserable type
of humanity he must have been as
ISOLATED with What whited sepul-
chres he must have stumbled against
and fallen into He must have lived
puritanical, Sabbath day, dreary
life, and for bird to sing n flowers
to bloom on Sunday must have been
heresy in his sight, and to smile on
Sunday must have been for him to go
two days without food. He must
have been ruled with an iron rod to
have turned upon humanity and
doubted as he had done. What a
tynn of humanity hn must hox,n st,,1