The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1881-05-25
IgGERsoLLas PERVERsIoEs,

Col. dob Ingersol occupies great
deal more of public attention than his merits
demand In fact, If it we're not for number
of the daily papers, which seem to delight to
dish UP everything that slurs and ISLANDERS
Christianity. he would be little talked of.
His infidel addresses are given with all the
graces of oratory of which he is SO great
master and the language is often eloquent !;
but it covers a very weak and Illogical piece
of reasoning, IL, indeed, he can be said to rea-
son at all. His protested statements of facts
respecting the Bible are generally gross peryer.
sions and show either great ignorance of Bible
teachings and the beliefo Christians, or else
wilful misrepresentation. No thoughtful
person, much less a Bible student, will be in
sfluenced by his wild statements and bias
phemons harangues but unfortunately, his
audiences are not composed of this kind OF
material The young man who wants TO give
loose reign to his passions, and the man who
feels that the teachings of the Bible are a
CALLING restraint to his worldly desires, his in
nate, sel6shness and dishonorable dealings,
oand who do not study the Scriptures with
an 1npdfbidl AUluuy--SdCh hiCu aio tho hihu
that are delighted to learn from Ingersoll that
there is no over-ruling Providence, no God
who will judge them, and no hereafter.
Not alone is Ingersoll unreliable in his
statements concerning the Bible, but he shows
himself to be unreliable in other statements
where an intelligent man should make no
mistakes. In his recent lecture on I" Great
Infdels," he classes Benjamin Franklin and
Thomas Jefferson among these. Benjamin
Franklin was in effect a Unitarian and not an
iniidel and as to Thomas Jefferson, the fol-
lowing statement of the New York Journal of
Commerce will show that Ingersollsis guilty
Of gross Misrepresentation. That paper says !:
Political excitement was never so great in
this country as at the date when jefferson was
elected President. A large part of the clergy
were of the Federal party, and many honestly
believed that he was in some sort ain ''infidel, )"
aud this Islander was repeated on every side.
Nothing could be further from the truth. In
bis inaugural address, delivered on the 9Th of
March, 1905, wheu he was in his sixty-second
year, he said 81 shall need, too, the favor
of that Being in whose hand we are, who led
our forefathers as Israel of old from their ma
tive land and planted them in country flow
ing with all the necessaries and comforts of
ulc WHO mas cOFcIeu. our iulduCy Will LIS
providence, and our ripper years with his wis.
dom and power, and to whose goodness ask
you to join with me in supplications that He
will so enlighten the minds of your servants,
guide their counsels aud prosper their mea-
sures, aud whatever they do shall result in
your good, and shall secure to you the peace,
friendship and appreciation of all nations.
40 young man named for him, for whom
q letter of ''adyice'' had been asked, he wrote
on February 81, 1895, when he was in his ed
year. adore God Reverence and cherish
your parents. Love your neighbor as your
self. BE just. Be true. Murmur not at the
ways of Providence. So shall the life into
which you have entered be the portal to one
of eternal biss.' And he enclosed simple
metrical version or paraphrase of the fifteenth
Psalm entitled "a Psalm Of David,n begun
ming
Lord who's the happy that may Thy blest courts
repair. ~
which he prefaced with the words: ''The
portrait Of good man by the most sublime
of poets, for your imitation" jefferson was
born April 18th, 1743, and died on the fourth
of July, 1926. On his deathbed he took leave
of each member Of his family separately, and
after earnest exhortations to his great grand
child ELLEN BanlShead) he gently murmured
'sLord, now lettest thou Thy servant depart
in peace. a
A man like Ingersoll, who is forever boast
ing about standing on the bedrock of truth,
ought to try and get near the latter. If for no
higher purpose than to save himself from be-
ing nailed to the counter as counterfeit coins
used to be-"