Northern tribune. [volume] (Cheboygan, Mich.) 1875-1885, 1881-06-18
INGERSOLLrSNI.
HIS Ways, Method and Intentions Az
alyzed.
From the indianapolis News.

very wicked k"jolly wicked" like
sTo1sey, to- h0rfify nervous ~eld women
and startle the staid going with pic
ture of what true bliss blasphemer is.
"See here" he says, so to speak, II curse
God and do not die; 1get fat, on it, AlI
this is mere trick 4 OF trade; It brings
him dollars. Except in this particular
it is D mistake to take him seriously.
The method in his madness is that by
(which he puts money in his purse. He
is simply Of such as st. Paul says words
and fair speeches deceive the hearts of
the simpb:ra skyrOckety sort of person.
age witha fine digestion and bpundless
stomach He would have us think he
worships VOltaire; really it is Vitellius.
Those who have considered the hodge
p0dge of genteel blackguardism and
blasphemy which he calls his lectures
cannot fail to remember the constancy
with which he recurs to food and feed
ing. He feels for humanity through his
stomach. Belly and brain are so mixed
in him that all he regards as evil he in
some way connects with eating. In one
of his recent lectures" he says 'most
orthodox creeds were born of bad cook
ing The cancer Of Christianity" he
teNsus, scemes from bad food" Bad
bfoOdfhef said produced dyspepsia. this
<prOduced Calyinism and this he labels
: "the cancer of Christianity"-a sort of
cancer of the stomach, so to speak, as to
him. "The worst features of Scotch
Presbyterianism" he declares comes
from oatmeal" He accounts for the
religion of the puritans by "half-cooked
BEANS" Fasting" he says is blund-
er," and "bad cooking" a "crime." On
the other hand, see him mellow and glow
as he cOntemplates the virtues of life,
thus: - - -
A good dinner puts a man at peace
with all the wOrld-makesT him gener-
Gus, good natured and happy. He feels
like kissing his wife and children. The
future looks bright. HE wants to help
the needy. The good ia him predomi-
mates, and he wonders that any man was
~ There he Is by his own measure. His
heaven is the animals heaven-the
heaven of a stuffed stomach His holt
ness is that OF a gorged hog. Manifest
ly whatever evil is wrought by such a
man as this is simply the result of ca
reer inspired by belly without a, con-
science, as when bull in the wantOn-
ness OF vigOr takes run through a
China shop. He is not in earnest in his
''attacks" ON Christianity as he dubs his
feffOrts in that direction. When he is in
real deadly earnestness is when the peO-
pile, mostly, think he is in fun, that is
when he is talking of the glOriousness of
gluttOny, by this meaning to advocate
the idOlatry of indulgence.
When he is in fun is when he is as
sailing the GLORIOUS company of the
apostles" the "gOOdly fellowship of the
prophets" and the mobile army of mar
tyrs." Why? Because no man not an
imbecile is in earnest in aSSailing what
they have wrought with such weapons
as Col. IngersOl uses. Aside from the
divine manifestiOn of its head, or waiv-
ing that, by what quality of purely hu-
man means was this thing Christianity
founded? Thrice was | beaten with
rods" says st. Paul; ''Once was stoned,
thrice l suffered shipwreck, a day and
night 1 have been in .the deep;. in jour
neyings often, in perils of waters. in
perils of mine own cOuntrymen, in perils
by the heather, In sperilS inS the city, in
perils in the wilderness, in perils in the
. WEAKNESS and painfulness, in watchings
often, in hunger and thirst, in HASTINGS
often. in cold and nakedness." This is
along the history of the church in all
ages, who have done and suffered for
the faith. A growth so nOurishing will
not blight and wither, from being "lec-
tured" at nightly by fat and flOrid jes-
ter for one dollar per head. Oh mol
The walls Of Jericho fell not because of
the blatant noise of rams horns, but by
faith. A comfortable apostle of self-in-
diligence, jOurneying in palace cars
from one fine hotel to another, doesn't
undo what Paul wrought inr"weariness,
painfulness, hunger and thirst and cold
and nakedness." An attempt to tunnel
the Alps with a turnip would be as wise,
and Col. IngersOll knows it. His meth
DDS prove it. Men who have hurled
chain-shOt at Christianity where Inger-
soil blows bubbles, have admitted that
there was SOME good in it.. There are
thOaghtful students like Tyndall and
Huxley who admit that with error, ig-
norance and strife the fruits Of love and
tenderness, grace, mercy and peace have
blOssOmed and grown from his flower.
If in their search after truth Christian
ity is harmed that is mere incident,
not purpose. But this blonde buffOOn
with the mental processes of a bowling
dervish raves and rOars against the
whole thing without exception or dis
elimination. He does not say there have
been perversiOns of Christianity but that
! istiAnityji lis a persersion. This thing
which started eighteen centuries ago in a
world Of paganism and which stands to-
day with all of the world that is worth
living i'm Graded in its arms, is called by
this babler, the essence of evil. Consider
it a moment. Is not a man fool who
believes in such thing?
The escape we find for Col. Ingersollis
that he dOesnt Believe it. EHeis simply
In fun. He talks thus ASA clown sings
lewd songs-fOr the money it brings him,
But we can find little escape for him as
a knaye. when he steals the livery of
Christianity and struts up and down in
1T in the garb Of humanity" Goodness,
Kindness, mercy, love. were never laws
of life until the sermon on the mount
made them rules of action. But this
purlOiner prates of them as the virtues
Of humanity" The kind of treatment
man got from his, fellow-man under
.humanity,s -ruleWa the treatment the
sSsteer getS from the herd. When he gets
Tin the way-he>is gOred; when he is
wounded he is left to die. Where did
asylums and hospitals and charitable
institutions come frOm2 Did organism
take those firms of sxpression2 - Orr
come to the present, where are the be-
nsvolent institutions founded by, VA,
believers? What is scePticisn doing tt
benefit mankind. Christianity yearly
spends vast sums of. money circulating
tts-books and papers and tracts and ser
mons TO propagate its faith, at bare cost
OF nocostNDo an6elleyers do sop No