The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1880-04-14
COLONEL INeERsoLL,s LOGIC.
A Secular Paper Analysing the Views OF
the Infidel.

Secular Paper Analysing the Views OF
the Infidel.
The St. Louis Globe Democrat has this on
Ingersoll: 1t is, perhaps, merely a question
of taste as to Ingersoll's fippancy and vul-
garity, although an infdel might be no less
conscientious if he had some respect for the
beliefs which have ennobled the lives and
sweetened the deaths of thousands of millions
of Christians through 90 generations. But
more serious fault than the lack of decency
in manner is the lack of judgment and ca
paclty which marks his treatment of the grave
subject. 1t is not the fault of Christianity.
but the fault of a curious distemper in Mr..
lngersolls mind, that in Christianity, in the
religion inspired by God, he sees only the
errors and imperfectiOns of man. OF his
own absolute infallibllity and personal
perfection, Mr.. Ingersoll does not seem
to entertain any doubt; it has not entered
into his mind to study himself, and to in
quire whether he was wholly free from the
faults and errors Of which he proposes TO
convict his neighbors. Such vanity is not
uncommon, and though in his case it is
pushed TO ludicrons extent, Il is quite hsrn-
less. But something which is not harmless.
which is worse than bis vanity, his fippancy,
his vulgarity, and even his scurrility Ia
mocking at all the worlds best minds hold
sacred, is his utter unhlness his mental hmi-
tation and incapscity in treating the question
he has chosen.
Because Christians in direct and vilAul
disobedience of the teachings of Christianity,
have prosecuted each other; because secta-
rians, through strained constructions of the
Bible, have supported narrow and harsh
opinions, MIR. Ingersoll would abolish Chris
tianity and repudiate the Bible. This Ia
neither logic nor sense In the grand his-
tory of that religious belief which has done
so much to curb the fierce passions of our ma
ture, subjugate the barbsrism of the Eu.
ropean races, to raise the world from the
darkness of savagery, from the sway of
cruelty and rapine and lust TO the pure light
of civilization, TO the rule of gentleness and
justice and charity, Mr.. Ingersoll can see
nothing but st. Bartholomew massacre here
and Puritan law there. Picking these out,
he holds them up TO execration, and triuma
phantly demands. us this your boasted
Christianity2' Really, this is too stupid
Give Mr. lngersoll a barge load of wheat,
he would diligently search in it for hand.
full OF chat, and, having found it, would
scuttle the barge and sink the wheat as a
worthless mOckery. Give him the Little
Pittsburgh mine, he would assay the quartz
and granite and forthwith order the mine
to be shut up. Yet wheat is good wheat
though there be handful of chat In G
bu bel Of it, ard the Little Pittsburg mine
pays its owners thousands of dollars each day
in pure gold and silver; and the stupidity
which would see only chat in cargo Of
wheat, and only the waste and refuse In q
rich gold mine, is not more dense than the
stupidity which sees only the dross Of hu-
man error and weakness amid the pure
gold and boundless wealth of the Christian
religion.
To hold such argument needs only q little
wit and great deal of malice. 1t does not
demand either learning or decency, or hon.
esty; on the contrary, it does better without
them. A little honesty would teach Mr..
Ingersoll that in weighing a religious sys-
TEN in the balance its merits must be taken
account of as we'll as its faults, and q little
learning would have taught him that by far
the greater part of all the world has to-day
which is worth having is due directly and
solely to Christianity; while little decency
would have taught him that his rejection of
creed which he neither appreciates nor un-
derstands, would seem no less honest if it
we're free from the scurvy jests of the clown
and the specious clap-trap of the dema-
pOpue