The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1883-09-12
The Unanswerable Argument.

Judge Jeremiah Black not very long
since wrote a most cogent defense Of
Christianity against the assault of Robert
Ingersoll. And now in the manner of his
death Judge Black has set crown upon
his argument. The sincerity of his faith
in Christ, and the sufficiency of that faith
for his most solemn needs were fully dem
onstrated in his dying hours. Fully con-
scious that his last day was near at hand
he was serene and even joyful. No shadow
darkened either his mind or his hope. He
felt as persuaded of his entrance into an
immortal life as any man can be per-
suaded of the certainty of the coming of
any earthly event. With tender farewells
to his friends, and with words which
were like salutation to the heavenly
throng he passed away. AS calmly as
babe in its mothers arms he met the king
of terrors. Here was the supreme test of
Christian faith here too was its splendid
triumph.
1t is not the stolid indifference with
which philosopher may meet death that
at all compares with this hopeful, exultant
spirit of the Christian believer. We have
seen men die and give no sign of con-
seriousness of the awful mystery which
overhung them. We have seen men die
with the calmness with which an OK with
its glazed eyes goes out of life. There is
something even terrible in such quetude.
1t is something unnatural. 1t Is some
thing that may become beast, but it is
something horrible in man. The very
possibility that there may be life be-
yond, is in itself enough to make it horri-
bly, unnatural that an intelligent soul
should approach death with no forecast
ing of thought and anxiety. The blank
indifference of a human soul at such a
tremendous crisis as this is altogether I'M
timely. Mr.. Ipgersoll does not know, he
cannot know, that there is no life beyond
the grave. There may be. He must ad-
revelation, which in the Christians belief
sheds full, clear light upon this fact of
immortality. He must at times, if he is
thoughtful mamie must confess to
himself in view of the universally of this
belief in the hereafter, that after all his
denials, it may be as Daniel taught, and
Socrates hoped, and learned men of every
cline and religion have believed, there
may be an existence beyond the grave.
The bare suggestion of fact so momer-
tous may we'll move a man as he lies with
open eyes peering into the shadow of
death. Thought, solicitude, anticipation,
even trembling fear in the face of so
tremendous a possibility would more
comport with mans dignity than this
immovable indifference, this british in
sensibility. 1t is no honor to human
soul that it is simply quiet in the hour of
death. Such condition NAV be result
of process of thinking which has been
simply suicidal. A man may cut the
nerves of his arm, and then hold his arm
unfinchingly within the fame. But there
is nothing to boast of in that. A man
may through lifetime by philosophical
drill kill out the natural instincts and
longings of his soul, and then die, as he
calls it, calmly. 1t is the calm of insensi-
bility. 1t marks the extremity of his
own destruction, and his own infamy.
The calmness of such death as that of
Judge Blacks, compared with such calm
ness, is as light to darkness. The hope
that irradiated his quiet, the Joy that suf-
fused it, was life and not death.
After all, there is no real support in un-
belief, no real rest in any form of denial,
no profound peace in any self-made phil
osophy. Death unmasks all the sham, all
the falsity of scepticism. The lines of
Rowe are solemn and searching:
IT'S not the Stoic's lessons got by rote,
| The pomp Of words, and pedant dissertations,
That can sustain thee In that hour OF terror;
Books have taught towards to talk nobly of it,
But when the trial comes they stand aghast.
How thy account may stand, and What to answer"
Nos, Hompebire Tn,,gonI