The Eaton Democrat. (Eaton, Ohio) 1875-1903, 1881-11-24
Judge j. S. Black, al IGNORED light

Judge Us Black, al IGNORED light
in the Democratic partysan Colonel
Robert j. Ingersoll, an honored light
in the Republican party, have had
several tilts for and against the
Christian religion, in the North
America ReUieW. 1t is remarkable
fact that in such a contest the Re
publican party, which claims 'all the
intelligence and all the morality"
should be represented by the most
conspicuous scoffer at sacred things
in C~hristendom. In a recent issue
ofthe Philadelphia Press the Judge
explains his failure to reply to Col
mel Ingersoll's second article on the
Christian religion, published in the
ReraeW. lie failed to do SO because
the conductors of the ReUiew refused
to keep their agreement that his pa
per should appear in the same num-
Der that Contained I~ugersolrs. In
Judge Black the Colone, has met tie
doughtiest foeman he has yet en-
countered. We quote from the
Judges communication TO the Press
in regard to some points in Inger-
soils second paper:
He starts another idea. which has
the same special merit of being his
own-namely, that the material uni
We. Sc is not governed by laws. The
planets move at q rate and in orbits
which can be calculated with abso-
Lutte certainty the earth4reyolves on
its axis with such perfect regularity
that the very second oft:me at which
the sun will rise at a particular place
can be predicted a thousand years
beforehand; chemical substances
combine always in exactly the same
relative PROF ortions; in the animal
and vegetable worlds like produces
like; in all organized beings Ecertain
causes are known to produce certain
effects favorable or unfavorahle to
life and health. Mr.. IngersolPs idea
is that these are not the results of
law or any sort of intelligent prear-
rangemsnt; but they are phenomena
which happen, and the world is by
mere accfdentprevented from falling
e into chaos. In his wisdom he de-
cides "as matter of fact" that there
is ne rule back of the phenomenon
!, which a controlling power compels
the subjecs.matter TO obey it merely
5happeus, but to happens SO uniform
lily that creates the iaea-ef law in our
minds, which is, however, q mere de
fusion. If Calico, and Newton, and
, Kepler and all the other philoso-
pliers, great and small, have been
! sedueed into the weak belief that
the material universe is under the
lreign of law, it is. rare good fortune
for US in these latter days TO have
found a superior parsonage who, by
msrely turning the Drummond light
: ofhis intellect on the subject, at once
exposes the blunders of the ignorant
: living and "the barbarian dead" =
Another way he has of reach
ling the atheistic conclusion. l de
s not say that know what he wants
to be at. But as well as I can un
Q derstand him, he asserts that The
universe could lot have had q de.
sign, because we cannot trace back
the designer to his own origin; the
world was not made because we can
not tell who made the maker. The
mechanism of a watch is SO curious
:, that SIT must" says he, shave had
S maker" but he adds that the watch
maker himself is more wonderfully
made than the watch, and hence he
infers that also must have a maker
: since the necessity of a Creator in
creases with the wonder of the crea
ture. He is unquestionably, though
perhaps unconsciously, right III this
s Ut makes q demonstration as com
plete as mathematics that man wa.
created by sssome preexistent anf
! self conscious being of power ano
wisdom to us uncomfortable" But
1 Instead of accepting this plain, pal
pable and necessary consequence o
his own logic, he turns his back upor
1.-THE conclusion and begins to maun
n der over his own inability to under
stand how a designer could be with
out an anterior design, and telling
y how hard it is for him to see thu
" plan Oh design in earthquakes ant
o pestiIences, and how the justice o
God is not visible 10 him in the his
tory of the world. This silly trasl
/, he thinks sufficient to repel the ir
resistible proofs of a..Creator which
IA he himself has adduced, and which
n by all fair and unperverted minds
are received as conclusive.
These lines from the Sidney jour
nal might be added to Bob Ingersollt
sWhy Iam7a Republican," eth
man who forged the Morey letter t.
defeat Garfield, was a Democrat; tn,
h newspapers who copied fac simileI
n of il, were Democratic; the stunt
speakers who bawled about Garfield
: hostility to working men, and as
II sured their hearers that Garfield
e wrote the Morey letter, were Demo
) crats."-GreenUtlle Courier.
How would IL 10 to odd that tn,