Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1883-04-18

".
ana ne never wrote line, as have ever seen yet
| In my behalf 1 VIII come TO the city as soon as /
can; i want to see you, and i want to see the
With love to all, remain, yours truly,
BETTY L. MASON.
IngersOlps Last Funeral Effort
To the Editor OF THE EVENING STAR.
| Noticing in THE STAR of last evening the
! latest discourse Of paganism, 1t occurs to me
| simply to say that the more such inanity Ia
| ventilated the better the public will come to
| understand the substitute which Inndelity pro-
| pounds for Christianity. 1t might on this
account be well for the cause of truth II Mr..
| lngersoll could crate at funeral every day. IL
would afford crucial test of his opinions In
| their fitness to convey consolation to hearts
full Of natures grief. 1t is difficult to analyze
mere string Of words with no great truth be-
| hind them; but let us try to sft the kernel out
of this handful Of chaff.
]. He calls death 1.-The great mystery which
| surrounds this world" Now q mystery" is
| that which Is to us unknown and incompre.
hensible" In his lecture on the gods he tells
us ''Our ignorance Is God What we know is
science" What right has he by the logic of his
own position to be talking Of mysteries, He
has left all that to priests and theologans.
| Come sir, be consistent. Do not attempt to
deude your fellOwmen by using terms YOU have
discarded at q time when you find them conve-
nient to conceal the emptiness Of your thought.
| According to your philosophy death Is mo
| mystery" Mature produces man without pur-
pose. and obliteratcs him without regret" and
| ing figures from slate.
| 2. I'VE question, but there is no reply" Who
says this? An infde-a man without ears
! There IS reply. The ears alone are wanting.
g. His estimate of the value and scope of this
! life Is something remarkable. 1t is SO exceed
! ngly elevating and inspiring. Hear it-"He
! lived he loved. he was loved. Wife and chill
dren pressed their kisses on his lips. This is
enough. The longest life contains no more
! This fills the vase of JOY" In other words be-
cause the man lived in the midst of the special
affections, and was less moral monster than
! he might be- this Is enough, this fills the vase
ofjoy." Easily satisfied man!
f. - He was my friend; he will remain so.
| The living oft become cstranged; the dead are
| true" What possible sense can be made of this
| string Of words? The dead man Twill remain
his friend. for the dead are true" and the dead
| are nothing.
5. He was not a Christian. In the Eden OF
| his hope there did not coil the serpent of eter-
nal pain" In this short sentence are a libel,
| confession and deception bound In one HUI
| man sin and misery are not distinctive or pecu-
| liar features Of the Christian creed. In this he
| libes the Christian system.
| His friends had an Eden Of hope without the
| serpent" This is precisely the hope OF the
| Christian. What confession for an infidel
| He wanted to utter striking sentence and,
| without meaning it, bore testimony to the value
| of Christian hope.
| The iugglery Of the statement lies in convey
| ing he impression that humiliation is an EDEN
| OF hore"-that the main tenet Of redemption Is
| the apostasy-and that men can continue In sin
without pain.
g. "He accented the Comte philosophy"
| Then follows euIogy Of the Comte religion.
which seems simply to have borrowed from 1.-The
| Sermon on the Mount" the lowest range of hui
man duties and obligations. But very likely
| these are the last men to recognize the fact.
of mot hnx holt 4
| dOgmas wither and decay; how loving words
| and deeds burst into blossom. Pluck from the
tree OF any life these flowers and there remain
but the barren thorns ofbgotry and creed" So.
then. the .nfidel too, when stripped OF ''these
| flowers" has nothing left but s.'the barren
| thorns OF bigotry and creedi" We may well be-
lieve it. There is not a binder bigot living
within our knowledge than the apostle of des-
| pair to-day.
But it is not true that all beliefs wither in the
presence of death. Then it u.s. especially. when
| the belief in immortality grows stronger than
ever. He himself, is proof Of this. for
g. Then follows his notice OF the doctrine of
immortality. depicting the wish. the hope. the
| loving aspiration, the absolute need of future
| life to satisfy the soul All here arc set forth.
| and then comes the blank and the blight. ali
| that fnfidelity has to offer-'beyond this we do
not know-the secret of the future has never
| been tod" What q mOnstrous fictiOnl and he
opens his willing lips to utter it In the presence
| OF DEATH and OF hearts wrung In the anguish,
| and consoles them by saying ..the more we love
| the more we fear" He has already forgotten
| what he had just said of "a religion born not of
self1shness and fear. but of love and hope"-and
In the whole paragraph seems totally oblivious OF
his lecture on the Gods, in which Is illustrated
the very great difference between composing q
| rOstrum speech for q roliicking audience aud q
| musical plantive sound of words for funeral
| service.
o. His conclusion Is the crown Of all-''Where
the dead have gone reason cannot 20, and
thence revelation has not come" (Which, of
| course. is simply his assumption.) "But let US
| believe that over the cradle nature bends and
smiles. and lovingly above the dead In benedic-
| tion holds her outstretched hands" What can
| we believe "in the presence Of death" when "all
| beliefs and dogmas" perish there!
What .cradle2" That Of birth or OF annihila-
ton? 1.-The dead" Who and what are the dead?
Something or nOthing3 Fate is speechless-
destiny d dumb" Nature however holds her
| hands over them "0utstretched In benediction."
What on earth she has to bless them for is q
| mystery! 1t Ia q very pretty closing strain of
sounds o0r praetered nihiu
Look on this picture, then on that Refer to
| the lecture Son the Gods" page co.,
Nature neither weeps nor rejOices. She pro-
duces man without purpose and obliterates him
without regret. She knows no distinction be-
| tween the beneficial and the hurtful. Poison
and nutrition, pain and Joy, life and death,
smiles and tears, are alike to her. She is neither
| merciful nor cruel. She cannot be fiattered by
worship nor nelted Oy Years. Sne does not
know even the attitude OF prayer. She appre-
ciates no difference between poison In the fangs
| Of snakes and mercy in the hearts Of menI"
Yet there she stands ''Over the dead, with her
hands stretched out In benediction." What q
blessing it must be!
Yet, with this sour bread OF negation human
| souls aching at funeral are contented to be
| fed and stuffed. BELIEVER.
April IL. 1883.
A father was advising his very small son, not
long ago, against the sin Of selfshness, that he
must never hesitate to grant favors and be gen.
orally obliging wherever he could. The boy
listened, then said. Il would like to do every
| thing you tell me, father, but there's q fellow
at school Just like what you We described: every
body says he q an Obliging fellow. but nobody,
| not even the teacher treats him as II he was
| any account. Now. I don't want people to
| take me for q nO-accOunt fellow!" That boy
| had him upon conundrum that puzzles many
| an older PHILOSOPHER through ufe.-BostOn