Morning journal and courier., 1882-06-12
General Cary's Lecture.
An Interesting Discourse~CoIona1 Inger"
 soil Ansyyered-NToses or Tngersoll, Which !-The Bible Eloquently Defend-

A fair sized audience attended the lecture of General Samuel F. Cary at Peck's Grand Opera House last evening. There were many ladies in the audience, and all present ap-
 peared deeply interested in the remarks of
 the eloquent orator. At 9:15 o'clock General | Cary appeared on the platform and con-
 menced his address. In his opening remarks ! he said When in this age of enlightenment men can | be found who deny the existence of Su- ! preme being I shall not attempt to make 1 defense of Christendom. I shall not attempt l to defend any sect or creed, but shall only l look at the subject in secular point of view, l but as believer in the existence of God. | We affirm that the Bible in it's history, poe | try and government surpasses all other books in the world. Blackstone says the laws of nature are those that are written on the surface but man has become corrupt as to those laws which are written in the Bible and written in nature. Darwin, In- gersoll and others have exhausted their wit to destroy the truths of the Bible, but it will | exist so long as the race exists. There can ! be no reasonable doubt about the antiquity 1 of the scriptures, and Josephus is authority | for the truth of the scriptures and their au- ! ti4ity is undoubted. Those who assail l the Bible shew ignorance of it's contents they have only read to ridicule, they are the superficial readers, the railers who laugh 1 at the Bible and its truths It remains for
 this class to prove that the writings of Moses l are not truthful They talk about the an 1 tiquity of the earth and say that geologists \ have proved that instead of it's being six ! thousand years old according to Moses, it
 may have existed thousands of years. But \ we have read that in the beginning God cre- 1 ated the heavens and the earth, but Moses
 don't say when the beginning was. 1 The earth may have existed cen
 turies and centuries before Moses made
 the statement. The sun, the moon and stars ! were not created and Moses did not wish to ! be so understood, but they were set aside by
 the Almighty for the purpose and at the time ! for the purpose of lighting and warming the
 earth. Onr historian only gives us a brief ! sketch of the creation of the earth and the planetary system, which may have been cre-
 ated tens of thousands of years, yet it is plain ! six thousand years, and all efforts
 to find the remains of prehis- ! toric man in the bowels of the ! earth have proved failure and that Adam ! remains the progenitor of the race remains
 positive according to the truths of the Bible. I It remains a fact that Bible or no Bible, that ] in God we live and move and have our being ! What is then in the narrative of the creation
 of man and woman that is improbable2 ? You ! cannot believe the story of the ''rib ?" o,
 no; but you can believe that wom n grew up
 from the lowest type of animal life like
 toad. o, foolish infidel, to think man or \ woman is a creature of chance, or that they
 grew up from 8 monkey. The simple narra-
 tive of Moses that all things were created by an Almighty power is as truthful any that
 was ever written. There is nothing in na-
 ture, in reason or philosophy to contradict the truthfulness of the narrative of the crea-
 tion.
 The speaker then took up the subject of the flood and said Chinese and Indian history \ all show that there was such a food There.
 was not he said scintilla of evidence to show that North and South America were ln
 habited by man at the time of the flood.
 The speaker described the ark, it's size, etc.,
 and said there was ample room for all the
 animals, for spare rooms for each member of Noah's family and plenty of room for v1s1 \ tors. He then launched rapid shafts of crltl { eism toward Ingersoll regarding his criti- cisms of the ark and it's builder. He said the
 whole story of the flood and the landing of
 the ark after the flood, the sending out of
 the doves was all touchingly poetic and beau
 tiful, and not the writings of a falsifer. The
 Ingersolls of today have made no new dis
 coveries and present no new arguments
 against the book of books. The more geolo- gists study and make their researches the
 more does it fix the authenticity of the Bible No Ll~1 ! fools who seek out certain passages of the
 Bible and attempt to make light of them ! Darwin before his death abandoned the idea ! of spontaneous generation. Starting with 1 the proposition that matter and mind were
 created the solution of all other propositions | is possible. It is evident that an infinite God governs the whole, and the laws of God ! are written on the constitution of things
 Some of these skeptics say we don't be- lieve in miracles, but science give us no l account of our creation. If Jehovah created l the heavens and the earth and we believe he l did, it is the most stupendous miracle that I can be conceived of. We must admit that all were made by creative power and must
 have had an intelligent and divine being to do this For six thousand years we did not
 know the power of steam, but an old Yankee 1 woman saw the top of 8 tea kettle fly up and l she said there is power, there is power, and now steam is indis- ! pensable. The human mind has ! been at work I Iremember when it was hard work for printer to strike of two hundred
 and fifty sides of 8 newspaper, and when ! four neighbors would combine to subscribe to 1 single paper. Now twenty thousand papers | are struck off in an hour, and everybody ! must have at least one newspaper Every l thing is advancing and we are making won. l derful moral progress. believe in progress and development, and believe the mind IS ] continually advancing; but that time will 1 never come when we can do without God and the Bible. The human mind cannot con- ceive of 8 race so advanced that it can do ! without the Bible. Without it everything
 is shrouded in impenetrable mystery. ! The gifted philosopher says without
 the. Bible all is chance; but the l child of the Bible says that God created man and breathed into him living soul. We say ! to the young man who is inclinedkto be skep- ! tical that the child of the Bible has the ! promise of the life that now is and that 1 which is to come. Be not startled when I | say that we are entitled to all the great in- I ventions of the world from the religion of the Bible and nothing great and good has over proceeded from infdelity in this or any other country. affirm that the ultimate ob- ject of all philosophical investigation tends to lead us to become better acquainted with God, the great creator. Moralists may sur pass religionists in the purity of their lives but when were they taught their morality, except like Ingersoll, from their Christian ! mothers. And these holy influences will never be wholly lost. If we are to perish like the brutes, then the nearer live like the brutes the happier should be. But we believe that blessed book which is found in every home guides to 8 better and holier life beyond the grave, and that we shall not make leap in the dark when we come to die. Sir Walter Scott said to his attendant when about to die, Bring me the book" "What book, Sir Walter," said his attendant s'There is but one book" said the dying man, ''the Bible.'' In conclusion the speak | CT gave an eloquent peroration in defence of the Bible.
 Before dismissing the audience the Gener- al announced that he would lecture in the | same place on the following evening (Mon- day) and that there would be no charge for | admission. A collection would be taken at l the close of the lecture to pay expenses.
 During the delivery of the able discourse | the General was frequently applauded, and as | he closed the applause was long continued
 Amateur Championship Games.
 The seventh annual contests for the anna | teur championships of America came off in | New York Saturday on the Polo grounds. H. l E. Brooks, ir., of Yale College, won the 22O l