Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1881-08-04
BLACK ON INGERSOLL,
THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION AT
Tackled AND DEFENDED.
Judge Jeremiah S. Blacks Eloquent
Demolition of the Great Arch-In-
fidel of TO-Day-POints in His
II Argument.
3Es EConcluded]
Is GOD A TYRANT? fr


Mr.. Ingersoll not only ignores these
considerations, but he goes the length of
calling, God a religious prosecutor and a
tyrant because he does not encourage
and reward the service and devotion
paid by his enemies to the false gods of
the pagan world. He processes to be-
,ieve that all kinds of worship are equal
ly meritorious, and should meet the
same acceptance from the true God. 1t
is almost incredible that such drivel as
this should be uttered by anybody. Why
is the living God whom Christians be-
lieve to be the Lord of liberty and Faith
er of lights, denounced as the keeper OF
a loathsome dungeon? Because he re-
fuses to encourage and reward the. wor-
ship of Mammon and .Moloch, of Belial
and Baal; of Bacchus, with its drunken
orgies, and Venus, with its wanton OBJ
scenities the bestial religion which de-
graded the. soul of Egypt and the dark
idolatries Of alienated Judah" polluted
with the moral filth of all the nations
round about Let the reader decide
whether this man, entertaining such
sentiments and opinions, is fit to be a
teacher, or at all likely to lead us in the
way we should go. =, 81 t.-,.f....
AS to the sacrifcial solemnities of the
Jewish religion and their manner of
making war. "The killing of those ami
mails was" he says, "a terrible system" !"
a shedding of innocent blood" "shock-
ing to refined and sensitive SOUL"
There is such depth of tenderness in
this feeling. and such splender of re-
finement that give up without strug-
gle to the superiority of the man who
merely profess it. A carnivorous Amer
lean, full of beef and mutton, who
mourns with indignant sorrow because
bulls and goats were killed in Judea
three thousand years ago, has reached
the climax of sentimental goodness and
should be permitted to. dictate on all
questions of peace and war. + Let Greti-
US, Vattel ard Puffendorf, as well as
Moses and the prophets, hide their di-
minished heads. But to show how ineffi-
cacious, for all practical purposes, a mere
sentiment is when substituted for a
principle, it is only necessary to recol-
lect that Mr.. Ingersoll is himself war;
rior who stayed not behind the mighty
men of his tribe when they gathered
themselves together for war of con
quest. He took the lead of regiment
as eager as himself to spoil the Philis-
tines, "and out. he went a7coloneling."
How many Amalekites and Hittites and
Amorites he put to the edge of the
sword, how many wives he widowed,
or how many mothers he "unbabed," can
not now be told. do not even know
how many droves of innocent oxen he
condemned to the slaughter. Butit is
certain that his refined and tender soul
took great pleasure in the terror, confla-
grafton, blood and tears with which the
war was attended, and in all the hard
expressions which the conquered people
were made to suffer afterward. lido not
say that the war was either better or
worse for his participation and approx
al. But if his own conduct .(for which
he processes neither penitenee nor
shame) was right. it was right on
grounds which make it an inexcusable
outrage to call the children of Israel
savage criminals for carrying on wars of
aggression to save the life of their Gov
ernment. These Inconsistencies are the
necessary consequences of having no
rule Of action, and no guide for the con-
science When a man throws away the
golden metewand Of the law which God