Daily globe., 1882-11-14
PECULIAR SALVATION.
BOB INGERSOLL BEFORE I ST. PITL
AUDIENCE.
He Lectures Upon "What Must We do to
be Saved?" and Great Many People
Seemed to Want to Find Out.---A Charac-
teristic Effort Of the Great Infidel.

Whether it may be regarded as COM
entary on the age,the tendency or the drift |
of thought, the progress or otherwise, of |
intellectual freedom, whether or not |
any or all of these causes operated, GER |
tain it is that the Opera house was jammed
last night by the largest audience of the
season to hear the lecture of
Col. Robert G. Ingersoll, the So
called infdel, who spoke on the subject
of 'sWhat shall we do to be Saved?"
The crowd kept coming until $50
o'clock, when Col. Ingerson went on the
stage unattended, and for nearly two hours
kept the audience enchanted by as copious
flow of eloquence, wit, anecdote, narra-
tive and reminscence as it has been the
privilege of a st. Paul audience to listen
to.
In commencing his lecture Col. Inger-
soil referred to the reign of terror, super
stition and sorrow that for 1000 years after
the advent of orthodox Christianity had
kept the world in bitter bondage and suf
fering; for 1000 years, he said, Christiani-
ty had wasted its efforts in trying to keep
mankind from falling into the hands of
its Creator; for 1000 years it had been
crime to guess and exercise mans best
judgment; for 1000 years nothing had
been deemed as dangerous as thought.
On the ocean of reason every priest was
lighthouse; they alone the pirates of in
vestigation.
These guideboards did not all go in the
same direction, but each priest said that
his way wGs the only one that led to
golden streets and the musical instru-
ment.
Theology was then spoken of as the
science of the unknown; hypocrisy had
levied its toll and ignorance had paid the
| duty. Nothing was considered in those days
worth recording except the miraculous;
! that is to say, the unknown. Then they
said you must not think. What have you
| to do with the ivies and sentiments of the
! century? Some of the ministers had said
that he, the speaker, hurt their feelings
| if he attended their meetings. They
gave him the dreadful information that
he would soon be in hell; if he told them
there was no hell they replied you hurt
our feelings. [Laughter.l They even
lassoed the infant The speaker thought
an honest God loved the sincere investiga-
tor; God was not juggler, afraid that
you would find out his tricks
An anecdote was here related regarding the
Jew and the bacon; if he ate it he would
be damned, but his appetite got the best
of him; on going into the street the clouds
were flashing out lightning and thunder;
he went back into the restaurant and said
to the proprietor, "my God, did you
ever see such fuss made
over little piece of bacon?" Laughter. I
He then spoke of orthodox Christianity
! which carried into the world, he said. the
cheerful tidings that mankind was to be
damned. Orthodox religion was defined
as having belief in God as the author of
the Old and New Testaments; the origina-
tor of the high water mark of baptism.
The speaker had heard a great deal about
| getting saved; he had noticed that the
people who had the smallest souls made
the most noise about it. Of the epistles of
the New Testament,he said there was moth
ing to show that they had been written
until long after the death of the disciples.
! Nobody, he said, knew who wrote the
gospels; every one signed to or by any
body was an interpretations; they
had not been written until 100
years after the death of the disciples.
There was another singular fact; God
never wrote anything; if he was God he
knew exactly what would be written in the
| New Testament; he knew thatithe inquisi-
| ton would be started, dungeons built
| and that the cross would wave
1000 years over persecution;
| why did he not answer the hope of this
world concerning another life; he died
/ voiceless and speeches. concerning the
most vital concern of mankind.
There was such a thing as an intellectual
| republic, where every one was throned and
sceptered in the night of his own honest.
/ was going to damn the world. He advised
all present to read the four gospels.
The speaker had read them to learn what
he must do to be saved; if there Yves
world of JOY, he wanted to go there; if
there was world of pain and sorrow, he
wanted no through ticket for it.
L VII eAO oOVNO OCSClOu buO speaker SAID
| he would turn to the New Testament. He
then referred to Matthew, the fifth
chapter, quoting from the
| sermon on the mount in
| which he said there was not word about
| the atonement, not word about the inter
position of Christ. According to ortho-
dox belief man could act up to the SER
| mon on the mount, and then be damned
for his pains. There was no provi:
sion in this about God
The seventh chapter of Matthew was refer
red to: with what judgment ye Judge
| others, it shall be measured unto you.n
| After referring to the damnation doctrines
of Knox and Calvin, he quoted the passage
| of scripture in Matthew where the man
| had intetrogated Christ swhat shall do
| to inherit eternal life?'' After enjoininp
the virtues, the young man had said, ali
these thing have done. He, the speaker.
did not believe this; the young man must
have belonged to the Y. NJ. C. A. He then
alluded to what he called an Interpolation.
The young man said, what yet do lack:
the answer being, sell all thou hast and