Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1881-05-01
JUDGE THAT you MAYBE JUDGED

JUDGE THAT you MAY BE JUDGED.
And nowI stand, and am judged for the
promise made of God unto our fathers-AcTs
XXvI:6.
Bob Ingersoll-Pope Bob-has been re-
Gently delivering lecture which pretends
to give the reasons why people will not
believe in the Christian religion. His
lecture, viewed from literary point of
view, is an able one; when considered
otherwise it is lame and impotent, and
its conclusions are fetched and great
ly strained, and will not bear the inspec-
ton of critical analysis. He presumes
too much on the fact that those who pro-
fessed to be Christians half a century
ago represented the Christian sentiment
of the present age, not appearing to I'M
derstand that progress has existed in the
churches, while he has thought that all
progressive thought was vested in him
self.
Mr. Ingersoll has been reformer that
the world will have cause to bless some
time in the future. But he has the in
sane idea that because he is conscious of
progress in religious thought all the rest
of the world is at stand still. Heignores
the fact that the Methodist church per-
mits it's ministers to advocate theories
that a few years ago would have been es-
teemed heretical; that the Presbyterians
now admit that some persons can be saved
without the pale of that church; that the
Baptists acknowledge that water is not
alone requisite to salvation; that the Con-
gregationalists admit the fact that men
can hope for life beyond this vale of tears
without claiming membership in anyp par
ticular church organization on this side
of the river that separates the present
from the next world. While Ingersoll
has been preaching nihilism beyond the
present world, the churches have been
extending their boundaries, and claiming
that deeds and not works opened the
pearly gates to those anxious to live be-
yond the tomb, offering to all who acted
up to their convictions certainty of re-
demption whether they subscribed to this
creed or to the other.
Ingersoll is an agnostic. An agnostic is
one who is doubtful as to the existence of
supreme being, does not know whether
or not there is future state of existence,
and does not care. He thinks, further
more, that no person on this sphere
knows any more than himself Of the flu
ture-can see no further-and knowing
the uselessness Of investigation is willing
to leave the future to take care of itself.
There are scores of agnostics aside from
Ingersoll. They may not have formu
lated their belief-or their doubts-as he
has done, but they cannot state intelli-
gently their own convictions of the life
that is to come, though they denounce
the doubts expressed by Ingersoll and his
followers. But the churches generally
have acknowledged the fact that the su-
perstitions of the age have clouded the
facts, and have not sought to force the
ideas of the past upon the people of the
present, admitting that there was danger
that error might be perpetuated through
the endorsement by the churches of the
present day Of the doubtful theories Of
the ages past.
There are scores Of men who claim
membership in the churches of the pres
ent time They believe nothing in par
ticular, yet they do not wish to surrender
anything that may have been committed
to them in the past. They are doubling
Thomases in the fullest acceptation of
the term. They would be glad to believe
but they have not sufficient evidence
upon which to base belief. They are
accordingly content for the time being to
wait-to live according to the precepts of
the golden rule, and to await the results.
They may suffer in consequence, but not
for long, for they Have an abiding con-
viction that if there is hereafter the
principles of justice will govern him who
apportions morals to their places, and
that he who does all in his power for the
good of his fellow men, has done all in
his power for his God.
VOTE FOR THE HIGH SCHOOL
BUILDING.
Next to keeping the administration Of