The Emporia weekly news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1881-1889, 1883-02-22
PATTON no TIE FORF.

PATTON TO THE FORE.
Rev. A. S. Patton, D. D, editor of The
Baptist Weekly. has written the follow
ing response TO a letter OF Senator In
gals commenting severely on an edi-
torial which appeared in that journal in
reference to the senator's remarks in the
senate on the late Ben Hill of Georgia:
OFFICE OF THE BAPTIST WEEKLY,
NEW YORK, Feb. IL
Hon. John j. ingalls,, United States
Senate:
SIR-I had occasion recently TO ex-
press the opinion that ungentlemanli-
ness was not characteristic of all I'M
believers, and remarked that "whiIe ill.,
fidelity degraded the ignorant there we're
those whose advantages of Christian
educatiOn and association served TO
keep them on higher moral plain than
their principles recognized" A more
conspicuous exec ptIon 10 this position,
however, is furnished in the spiteful
and revengeful tone of your letter lust
received.
Having given you full credit for your
doubts on the sebject Of future life, l
simply characterized your remarks in
the commemorative services of the late
Benjamin ii. Hill as "healhen talk in
congress" and, 10 proof oi the position,
quoted literally from your speech.
While frankly conceding your right to
express such sentiments on ordinary oc-
casions, said That Ia do so in connec-
ton with the solemn commemorative
services OF Christian senator was a
piece of pure impertinence," and charg-
ed you nth presuming to vcntilaie your
unbelief under circumstances utterly in
consistent with sincere respect for the
Christian character of the dead senator.
AS the Washington correspondent of the
Kansas City Times says:
! do not question the right Of Mr.. In
gals TO be a scoffer and doubter upon
matters OF religion, nor his privilege TO
question the Immortality of the soul,
nor the great hereafter. Mr.. Ingalls,
possesses the constitutional privilege to
be an infidel, an agnOstic, disciple OF
Noitalrc, and a very poor imitator of the
unDelleVing clOquence of Bob Ingersoll.
But the senate is not the forum where
from TO preach sermons of infidelity, nor
should the occasion of memorial servic-
es upon deceased colleague be embrac-
ed to question. as did Mr.. ingalls,,
whether, 'if man die shall he live
again ~
But now sou attempt to make the i'm
preston that you Suggested the argu.
ment of immortality, based upon the
imperfcction and Incompetence of all
earthly careers" and, in regard to the
dead senator, you claim TO have said,
Though his sun went down at noon, it
sank amid the prophetic splendors of
an eternal dawn" Just what you mean
by an eternal dawn" is beyond my
comprehension. But this you most
emphatically declared, that the problem
of mortal life and human destiny was
"unsolved and insoluble," and of Mr.
Hill you said: whether his apathetic
and unconscious ashes still sleep in cold
abstraction, or insensible oblivion, we
do not know" That such utterances
arc "hcathenIsh" is too manifest to re-
qulre proof. They create the impress
sion that you had been assisted In the
preparation of your speech by fresh
perusal Of one of your old text books,
where Cicero, speaking of the two ideas
OF Immortality and non-eXistence, says
(which of these IS true, God only
knows, and which is most probable is a
very great question. When l read the
writings of Socrates and Plato, l assent
to Immortality, but when l have laid
down the book all that assent vanishes.' y
In exact agreement with these con-
tlicting conjectures and this lamentable
hesitation and doubt were your remarks,
and l consider the term ''heathenism''
only fitting one 10 characterize your
sentiments
AS to your concluding personal and
ungracious illusions, in which you class
me with "bigoted slanderers and malig-
nant liars l have nothing 10 say, except
that they arc such terms as true gen
tleman would not use, especially in ad-
dressing one To whom he cOndescends tO
subscribe himself with great respect
your obedient servant" And if your
only alternative is t. be "heathen and
an infidel" rather than Christian, because
am, in your esteem, an unworthy rep.
representative of the name, l most sin.
cerely deplore the forfeiture of your
"great respect"
In return for your cruel wish that |
may be doomed To eternal punish
ment," permit me tn express the hope
that you may attain repentance unto
life, and, putting away ali malice, evil
speaking, bribery and corrupt practices
finally be welcomed to the glorious re.
wards Of the enternal hereafter. Yours
truly 4. S. Parton.