The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1881-12-03
s'THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION"


Under this title, Colonel 1ngersoll re-
plies in the North american to Judge
Black. But it does not follow
that Mr.. Ingersoll is nearly so formida-
BILE foe as he evidently considers
himself. 81 want" he saws, "to tear,
break and scatter to the winds the God
that priests created in the fields of in
nocent pleasure" A frightful an
nouncement, no doubt. But we pos
sess our souls in patience. We have
heard something like this before, and
from no less man than Voltaire, in his
death-sentence on the religion of Chris
tendon. &c 1t took twelve men to build
it up. will show them that one can
pull it down.
We know Mr.. Ingersolls wit and elo-
qnence, and make full allowance for
both. We know what CONSERVATION
his admirers suppose he has thrown into
the churches: But when any man at
tempts, with logic like his, to block the
progress of American Christianity, we
must be pardoned for the recollection
of prairie dog sitting hard by the line
of the Atchison & Topeka Railway, to
bark at the lightning express train.
Early in this article he informs us
that the argument from design for the
existence of God amounts to nothing.
For Gas atheism has been urging in its
hacKneyed plea for centuries) it proves
that God was created, as well as his
works. "The idea that design must
have had beginning, but that de-
signer need not. is a simple expression
of human ignorance. We find the
matchmaker, and we say, so curious and
wonderful thing as man must have
had maker. We find God, and then
we say, He is so wonderful that he
must not have had maker" What
sort of apologetics has Mr.. Ingersoll
read? Does he suppose this statement
to be the whole of the theistic argu-
ment? Did he ever hear that from the
material universe, with its 100, 100000
worlds already counted out, we hold
that any mind acting normally con-
cludes that the Author of one such uni
verse could create another, and another,
indefinitely, and is therefore infinite?
Also, that the creator of an infinite be-
ing must be more than infinite. which is
absurd?
He complains of beasts of prey as
hard to reconcile with the idea of a
benevolent God. Did he never con-
slider that, like the old Jewish polygamy
and slavery and DISCRIMINATING war, that
shock him, such creatures are vanishing
before the spread of Christian civiliza-
ton? No thest denies that there is
mystery in their existence-mystery to
be explained in the consummation of
the plan of God. But the mystery di-
minishes with every century of the
worlds history.
lin the tenth commandment we find
woman placed on an exact equality with
other property" The Jews are forbid
den by that commandment to covet
neighbours house, or wife. or man-ser-
want, or maid-Servant, or OK, or ass, or
anything that is his. And if we say to-
day that man has no right to take his
neighbours money or his wife, we imply
that both equally are property! Does
MIR. Ingersoll know no betterp Or must
We defend his intelligence at the ex-
pense of his honestly
He is Mortified because the Mosaic
law denounced death against one who
should attempt to entice the Jews to
idolatry--'' the crime" he tells us, "of
having expressed an opinion on the SUBJ
ject of religion" So coolly he begs the
whole question at issue. For he knows
very we'll that, if there is such God as
the Christian world worshps, the crime
of Disappearing Him, differs as widely
from a mere expression of opinion as
Heaven from earth. He holds up his
hands in horror at the determination of
the debased and vile and merciess
| Canannites. The one truth to be stamp
ed upon the mind of the Jews of that
age, and through them, as far as might
be, on the world, was the guilt of idol
airy. And no man can prove to-day
that, in barbarous age, which only
terrible an example made of idolaters
may not have been required for that end.
He points to the laws tibet partially
tolerated slavery and idolatry. But he
does not tell US that these laws were
modifying and reducing what could not
be at once abolished-th they result
ed in abolishing both. He goes back
5000 years behind what the Scriptures
are effecting for the world to-day, to
arraign the crude, stern methods with
which they worked in crude, stern
age. Like bilious cynic, with luscious
clusters of the vine around him, in
October, who mutters: "They were
sour enough in May, You can't denyp'
He compares the rapid progress of
Moslemism with that of Christianity.
He knows perfectly we'll that Moslem-
ism promptly seized the sword which
Christians were forbidden to use-that
1t promised the sensual pleasure, in
both worlds. that Christianity denied
that it rallied to its banner the bigotry.
pride and fanaticism which Christ
would never tolerate in his followers.
He laughs at our Lords walking on
the water as extremely childish.'S By
his leave the Christian world will dare
to differ. They behold, in the picture
OF our Divine Master, serenely treadin0
] the waves to the rescue of his imper-