The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1881-05-27
rNGRRsoLL,s UNFAIRNEss

The famous Bob Ingersoll has Issued
another "bull" against Christianity. He
appeared before a Chicago audience last
Friday night in one of his characteristic
lectures, the chief point of which was an
attempt to canOnize inlidels.. The ex-
pressiOns of the speaker are said to have
been received with frequent outbursts
OF applause" We suppose Mr.. Inger-
soil has his followers in Chicago. His
very audacity makes the people laugh.
We can easily immagine that the com
mune element in Chicago would be i'm
mensely pleased with his Friday nights
utterances. Other people 90 TO hear him
with the same feeling they go to hear a
circus clown. They go to laugh and
they do laugh, Notwithstanding IngeF-
soil, like the clown, gives the public the
same old dish of hash simply "warmed
over'' for the occasion.
There have been many things, in the
practice and professions of the church,
from its establishment, that may be
made the subject of criticism and ridI-
cule. Against these, IngersOll hurls
his heaviest guns. His bald unfai rness
consists in not distinguishing between
the acts and teachings of ignorant and
vicious men who have welded the
power Of the church, and committed
crime in the name Of religion, and the
genuine article. His unfairness consists
also, in the fact that while he holds
Christianity responsible for the acts and
teachings of its false and bigoted adhe
rents, he does not give it credit for the
good it has done. 1t has lived on the
earth as q system for nearly nineteen
hundred years, and to-day counts its
adherents by the million, and yet the
eloquent infidel denounces it as super
Triton, as ignorance, as hypocrisy. He
claims all the honesty, all the sincerity
for the few infidels who have appeared
as leaders in public thought. In al
this Mr.. Ingersoll is brilliant and bold
but unfair and untruthful, and therefor1
weak.
Mr.. IngersOll makes a great hero o
Tom Paine and gives him credit for do
ing about all that was done for liberty
and thought in this country. He ex
claimed: Had it not been for Thomas
Paine could not deliver this lectur'
here tonight" BIr. Paine undoubtedly
deserves credit for what he did with hi
pen for human rights and liberty in oul
early struggles. But liberty was born
before Thomas Paine came into tn
world. The Christian religion
made liberty possible and implanted
the desire to enjoy freedom of thought
Paine taught that Jesus Christ was sim
ply Il man. The Nazerine laid dow
the lesson that frat inspired humanit,
with hope. There is more humanity il
the sermon on the mount, and in the les
son Of the prodigal SOD, and these haVl
done more to liberate mankind-more Il
lift the human family from disgrace
than both IngersOll and Paine eve
thought Of in their worship of frail hu
man reason, and yet Ingersoll is no
liberal enough TO give an iOta o
credit TO the teachings of Chris
for doing anything TO lift the world up
He has not manhood enough 70 credi
the system against which he unjustl
rails, for doing any good. He can pOin
out the Inconsistencies of Constantin
and David and others, and hold act
of bigotry up to ridicule, but he canno
credit the Good Man and the systeE
which he gave the world with anythin
worthy OF mention. Had IL not beeI
for what the Christian religion has don
for the world, for the faith in tn
man Jesus, Mr.. IngersOll would nc
only have been unable to deliver hi
lecture in Chicago, but he himself woul
have been barbarian, cropping his wa
through the world without light, will
out truth, without freedom, without Gu
tnre and without thought. Tom Pain
could not have saved him. ThOms
Jefferson, even, could not have brough
about that condition of affairs which a
lows him to prostitute his splendid abb
tiles 10 slandering the Christian inssitT
tions, To which he owes his culture, q
$500 = night in advance. Bob ca
tear down, but he Offers nothing bette
Remove the churches and faith 1
Christ, and in less than half e centur
Mr.. Ingersoll would have no publ
platform On which to stand and displa
his elOquence, nor halls devoted TO ia
display of his intellectual pyrotechnic.
which may tickle the fancy Of tn
crowd, but which do humanity no PEI
mAnent good.