Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1882-01-04
LOCAL INTELLIGENCE.
KRAMER ON INGERSOLL.
A Case Of Clerical False Pretenss.


A clergyman who attended the lecture
of Rev. Geo. r. Kramer in the court
house last evening, which was to have
been an answer to Bob Ingersoll, furnishes
us with the following veport of and
critique upon the performance, which, We
believe, fairly represents the general view
of the discourse entertained by those who
heard it:
Rev. Mr.. Kramer last evening at tho
courthouse, was not greeted with large
audience He is not us pleasing and mag
netic as demanded to make popular lec'
turer. And the trick he played upon the
commissioners and people will not increase
his popularity and influence here. He ad-
vertised ostensibly to defend the Bible and
Christianity against the attacks and ab-
surdities of Ingersoll. That he pre-
tended to do at the outset in his lecture,
but the closing third of it showed that the
leading purpose was to propagate his own
peculiar views on the Second Advent doc
trine and the final annihilation Of the
wicked.
We would not suggest an objection to
him or any other man for advocating his
own special views ON religious subjects at
the proper place and at the right time.
But We do protest against any such decep-
tion as Mr.. Kramer perpetrated last even-
ing. He drew the people to the court
house, and secured the place under the
guise of lecturing on Ingersollism, but
really preached, among other doctrines
rejected by the majority of Christians, the
doctrine of annihilatiOn Of tho wicked,
and asserted with emphatic bOldness in the
face of his audience that the doctrine of
the eternal punishment of the ungodly was
not in the Bible. And it became a ques-
tion which was the worst, Ingersollism
outside or Kramerism inside the church
If Mr.. Kramer had come and honorably
attempted, like Rev. DR.. Guard, to defend
the Bible, and dissectcd IngersoIps trick
cry in substituting rhetoric, OratOry, false Q
statements, notions, for facts, and the like,
and left his own ism to himself and those
who accept it we would not object but
when he appears in disguise to attack the
faith of Christians at large, and the Bible
at vital point, he disgusts instead of
pleases and edifies. We listened to him
with some degree OF interest and edifica-
tiOn until he threw of the disguise, and
appeared, as it seems he really is, rs the
earnest advocate of a peculiar belief. Ii
the title to his lecture had been such as
not to mislcad and deceive, but honest,
and in agreement with his true design, we
would have nothing to say, but we do
object to such trickery in any man, private
or public, saint or sinner. j. V. Z.
The Meeting.
The meeting was opened with prayer by
Rov. j. Ridley, pastor of Salem church,
after which there was music by Salem
choir. The lecturer was then introduced
to the audience by Mr. Ridley.
Mr.. Kramer is man apparently 55 or
GO years, of medium height and wears his
beard cropped good deal after the style
of ex-President Grant. He is graceful in
gesture, speaks fluently, and advanced
strong arguments, but none of them es-
pecially new Or striking, in support of the
Divine origin Of tho scriptures. While
combating Ingersoiis heresies, lie ac-
knowledged him to be a man of great
learning and ability, and not to be des-
pissed or underrated but to be met in the
field of argument, where his sophistries
and heresies may be Overthrown by q res
sOnable and logical Interpretation of the
scriptures. The lecturer does not believe
in the eternal torment of the wicked, but
rather in their annihilation. ''The soul
that sinneth, it shall die"