The daily gazette., 1881-01-08
FROM the News. utJu rYaI . 4.
THE GREAT LESTER.
WHAT REV. J. n. CALDWELL THINKS
OF IMeRRsoLL's ADDRESS.

Ingesoll, the great jester, has come
and g0ue. We see by the Morning
News that his andiencs at the Opora
House, on Tuesday evening, consisted
OF only about six hundred. Wilmington
has done TWO good thing lately: 1t has
snubbed Bernbardt and Ingersoll. A
city of nearly 5000 inhabitants, with
Christian church or place Of worship
for nearly every thousand, she has done
we'll 10 write "failure" both on Bob"
and 'Sarah." The people have shown
their good sense In both instances, and
thus openly declared their respect for
decency and religion. You give the
jester . fitting appellation when you
call him "Audasious Bob, and he doubt
less feels much hattered by the title.--
Men become audacious sometimes In the
most atrocioss desds, and none can be
more atrocious than that Of robbing q
human soul of its trust in aad rever-
ence for its Maker.
"dariDg wit" 30 be 10. All my life /
have heard Of men who could make
their living by their wit. Ingrrsoll is
ono Of that sort. His wit 10 his stock In
trade. BY it he makes people laugh at
the most sacred things, and they pay
him merely to put them In the humor
for laughing. Princes used 10 employ
jesters kings fools-to make sport for
them and drive away ennui from their
courts. The people of this country are
all "sovereigas," and they employ this
Jester in many places for the same pur-
pose.
But the people of Wilmington seem
to have little use for his jests, and let
him pass on without replenishing his
purse to anything like plethoric di-
mensions. He must be chagrined at
the resul Well, 1t il better that he
should suffer disappointment and fail
ure than that single soul should be
deceived by his artful eloquence and
fall into fatal error. A time will short.
ly come when all this ''daripg wit"
and audaciOus jesting must be laid
aside. The hour Of death is a solemn
hour to all men. II Mr.. Ingersoll
fails in the dying hour to feel his prin-
ciples (if principles they are) giving
way beneath him, his experience will
be different from that or many infidels
who preceded him. If there is any
truth in the statements of those who
witnessed the dying agonies Of the
Earl Of Rochester, Of Voltaire, of
Tom Paine, and other noted inhdels
who might be named, they evidently
dis,rusted their principles in that SUI
preme moment,
II Mr.. lngersoll's lecture at the OPP
era House ON Tuesday evening is cor
rectly reported in the News, as far as
1t goes, there was nothing in it that
deserves the name of argument. Leave
out Of it all the laughable parts and
the residue is mere twaddle, such as
i would make an intelligent individual
blush to be found listening to. A few
statements Of the lecturer will sufice
to show this.
He says, for instance, that ''there is
but one blasphemy, and that IN injus-
tice." Where did he search for this
definition of blasphemy?AAccording 10
all authority, blasphemy consists of
impious words; not acts; 1t is some
thing spoken or written derogatory to
the character Of God; an indignity Of
ferred to God by reproach or irrever-
ent words. 1t has nothing to do with
justice or injustice, save that it is un-
just to speak irreverently or falsely of
God. An impious act is saerilege, but
not blasphemy. Who could offer q
greater indignity to God than this man
who calls him that infinite absurdity.r
His explanation Of blasphemy is the
weakest sort of an excuse for his own
blasphemous utterances.
Of the same nature 10 his definition
Of worship. he says ''there in but
| one worship, and that In Justice"
This Is an abuse of language. What
idea does it conveyf 1t is Q meaning
less rlatitude. But falling from tne
| lips of the man of 'infinite Jest" it
doubtless sounded like profound WIS
dom to the gapers and lauRhers who
imagined that they were listening to
one of the great men of the world. A
man may be witty and even eloquent,
and still be igaorant Of many things
about which he pretends to enlighten
others. If Mr.. Ingersoll is correctly
reported, and he believed what he is
reported to have said, he displays in
some things, and those, the very things
about which he deems himself com
petent teacher, an amount Of igno-
rance that was not expecting TO find
in him. have not time and space
now 10 touch ON these points, but will
ID. W discuss them at length in o
sermon which have been requested |
to preach from my pulpit, in st. Paups |
M. Il. Church, ON Sunday, January
18th, at 1880 =. m. ! invite all who |
heard and applauded Mr.. Ingersoll's
speech, az well as the public generally.
cannot promise them wit and laugha- |
ble stones, matters in which seldom |
deal, but l will promise them some
solid truth, and some arguments which |
believe Mr.. IngersOil never attempt |
ed to answer. Il would not pay him
pecuniarly to deal in the solid and |
mighty truth pertaining to God and |
eternity. l shall make some remarks
ON his assertions that he is guided by
reasons "holy torch" that hypocrites
invented the crime of blasphemy that
Christ was an infidel, that God is an
s.infinite absurdity," that the Apostles
were ignorant of Greek and only knew
Hebrew, that Johns Gospel was writ
ten centuries after the others. shall
show, I think conclusively, that if Mr..
Ingersoll believed some things that he
asserted, he is too ignorant about such
things 10 be public teacher, but if he
did not believe them, then he is dis
honest, and no man can safely tlust
him. / shall leave his friends and ad- |