Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1882-05-03

enee from the heart Of women, after silence has
succeeded prayer on the lips Of childhood, after
hope has 6own from the tired brain of are, after
the crucifx has been snatciled from the rapt
eyes or the dying, what will he substitute? There
Ia nothing left but q doctrine Of niiilism which
may not assert and yet will convey surrender
bef all moral and intellectual responsibility. Mr..
Ingerson IN posing IS q reformer, but to be .
refofmer enc must reform something. What Is
there Ia religion winch teaches love. hone mo
rality and charity to reform? He may say that
religion does not hold monopoly of these
doctrines and that they are also In the
moral code Of the universe. But what of
this2 III the moral code is strengthened by
o belief which adds to the recognized and
unassaiied aiaenabiiity of humanity to
civil aud social laws, an amenability to higher
power, ought not the support to be strength
ened? The word reform carries in its meaning q
presuppoHtiOn of something bad which is to
he changed. What is there bad ia this spiritual
assistant Of morality The truth is that Mr.
fhgersot misuses words. He recruits language
which describes something noble and high and
makes it capture Falstaflian company Of illogi-
cal statements and ragged and disconnected
reas0nings. Ne better instance Of this can be
given than his lecture on the liberty Of man,
woman and child. He Incorporates his sounding
appeals for everybody's lberty-which liberty,
by the way, everybody has-in an assault on
Christianity, and unthinking people who
hear 1t go away with the belief that, in
some way or other, he has made point against
religion. although they cannot indicate what
the point is. He calls for social liberty az
though there were social slavery, and leaves the
impression that modern religion is destructive
of the very admirable doctrines he advances on
this subject when just the contrary is the case
This IS utterly deceptive and unfair. One might
as well quote the details of Roman battle as
an argument in an stack on the existing
methods Of raising potatoes. There would be as
much connection and logic in the latter az there
are in Mr. Ingersolls rhetorical soda water
about freedom. His words are the aorid
plumage Of the peacock, but the voice with
which he strives to speak to the inner nature
of man is as discordant as the voice Of q pea
cock.
There IL one effect. and one only, which he is
pr0ducing-ths is harm. He is the idol Ct addle-
pated young men who are deaf and dumb and
daft IN the world of thought; he is the gospcier
of little parrots who only remember, vet who
deceive themselves into belief that they think.
He puts words into their mouths, and they poor
fools, holding the theory that to be an infdel is
evidence OF intellect repeat them and etatuei1e
as advanced thinkers. He tells them to pre-
gress " and they at once proceed to progress; !"
but he neglects to show what they are to '.pro-
gress" to. His doctrine is strictly doctrine of
subtraction. He takes away, hut he gives moth
Ing for that which Is taken He DESTROYS and
then mounts upon broken pillar and calls
the ruin progress. and liberty, and reform and
manly VtHei Hife names. but Tue rum rs SILL q
ruin In spite Of his beautiful alteration Of It and
misuse OF sounding substantives. And this 10
his triumph. These are his results Claiming
q position a. leader In the world of reason.
his victories are only among those who have but
the foggiest notions Of what reason is. He is
not judge OF Christianity. He is it's prose-
cutor. With all his glittering phrases about
womanftuess and mOtherlOve he has made more
bitter tears flow down the cheeks of mothers
who have seen the sOns they had taught the
better lesson wander off under the charm OF our
newer Pied Piper OF Hamelin. than anv other
man tn America. He sOws his seed of words
and the crop is pain and unrest. And this. he
says, is reform and liberty.
Life Is the child OF truth. That which lives
through centuries and resist the attacks of ge,-
eratons of hostile intellect has i'm 1t the vitality
of authenticity. Tenn pOra n.utdnt,tr ct nos sa,s
tdn'iT in fA1s. Things are palmer than they
were and the world is growing reasonable The
contraction which big0try urged has gone out
OIL fashion and the newer action of breadth is
more in cOns0nance with what was taught by
the Nazarene The centuries have Outworn the
places where he walked and talked. Fertility
has gone from the fields Of GaliIee. The popu-
lous villages which once lined the shores OF the
GaliIean 6ea are ruined and des0iate. The fish
er:nen who stopped ia their bauls to hear his
words are faraway outlines. The long trains
Of pilgrims which toiled up the steep sides
Of the Mount of Olives and found the
first sweeping view of the Holy City, with It's
magnificent temple and gfittering architecture.
reward enough for all the trials which had been
endured. struggle no more along the paths
which their feet had made. The goszips who
gathered by the wayside and in the shops to
chatter garrulously of the peasant who called
Himself the Messiah are folded in the silences
The Roman sOldiery who lounged carelessly Ia
the tribute provinces have gone back to the
earth from whence they came. Tue time and
it's teeming life form q picture vague and dis
tant Past it events have swept. New years
have been born. grown old and died. and his
tory has added many chapters to the worlds
story. Wars and woes have been thrown het-
erOgeneously into the lumber room Of the cen
tuTies, covered with dust and wrapped i'm the
nOiseless mantle of forgetfnlDess. Millions upon
millions Of lives have walked hand in hand with
sorrow and s0ce. out of the mystery into the mys-
terry again. Kingdoms and crowns have risen
and fallen in the juggleries and jealousies OF
national rivalres, and the glory Of one epoch has
become the hopeless pride of eyes that looked
back from another. Yet His doctrine still lives
The growth Of civilization is it's growth. The pro-
gress OF intellect is it's progress The sseileis
may cry out at it. Rbald tongues may turn
the weapons Of hate upon it. Hypocrisy
may stab 1t under the fifth rib, while heresy
Bullets In the face. But it is eternal. Above
the clamor of cant, above the desperate deciana-
tton of infdelty. above the tedious twaddie of
Journalism, above the quibbling triyialties of
little brained pretendars- sounding clearly
through the discOrdant ehorus-vbrates the
last appeal which came from the uncrowned
and crucfied king. and it is an appeal for them
Father, forgive them, for they know not what
they do.