National Republican., 1884-01-16
FAILURES OF UNBELIEF.
A Metaphysical Lecture on Life, Present
and Future.

Rev. Joseph Cook delivered his second lee
ture in the Congregational church last even
ing, his subject being "The Failures of I'm
belief" Although the weather was bad and
the walking perilous, a large audience was
present. When the stalwart lecturer was in
troduced on Monday he was called Goliah by
way of contrast with the gentleman who
stood beside him. Last night he was pre-
sented to the audience by Rev. DIR. Pltzer
OF the Central Presbyterian church,
who reversed the illustration of the pre-
vious evening and put Mr.. Cook in the
character of David. "There are two methods
of defending the gospel" said DIR. Pitzer;
"the one is to content ourselves with warding
OFF the blows Of the adversary; ; the other is to
attack the adversary on his own ground and
overthrow him. The distinguished gentle
man whom we shall hear tonight deals with
error as David dealt with Goliah-he knocks
the giant down and cuts OF his head"
Thus introduced as giant killer,
Mr.. Cook proceeded TO attack
tho agnostic with boldness and vigor. ~
prefer" said he, to found my religion on
certantes. | know that when / 60 hence--
as soon SHALL must be delivered from two
things-the love Of sin and the guilt of sim"
Starting out with this proposition, he ex-
amined the several systems of materialistic
philosophy as taught by scientific skeptics,
and arrived at the conclusion that none of
them can satisfy the pleadings of the soul to
be delivered from sin. He confessed that when
theological student he had wrestled with
doubts himself, and If asked to account for
these disquieting speculations he would
make the answer that Dr. johnson made to
q lady who asked him why certain writer
called the postcrn, u horses knee. "lgnor-
ance,, madam" was the reply, pure ignor-
| ance."
When discussing the Immortality of the
! soul, Mr. Cook gave an account of an inter
| view he- had in London with an
eminent Psychologist (whose name he
| thought it best not to mention), to
whom he submitted eighteen questions, touch
| ing tho spiritual and material. The first
answer involved SO much that the lecturer
made no reference to the other seventeen.
what weaves usY inquired the interviewer.
Life" answered the man of science. The
! interviewer assonted to this, and proceeded
! to show that tho answer was correct Life
! goes before organism, and exists inde-
| pendently Of organism. As it existed before,
| so it may exist after. Any cause is utterly
| Independent Of its effect. 1t is less wonder
| full that we should continue to live after
death than that we should have begun to live.
Mr., Cook devoted brief passage in his
lecture to a somewhat distinguished orator,
whom he accused of making rhetorical use
of ideas borrowed from Tom Paine. He said
that if one Of this orators children should be
stricken blind or dumb, infdelity had built
no asylum to which it could be sent. In
fidelity has founded no asylums
has built no colleges; has published
no books that are worth reading The
failure of unbelief is seen in the failure OF
the literature of unbelief. There is tested
inldelityi the system of philosophy which il
formulated has been wrecked on the hun
dred tusSs OF its own contradictions.
Mr.. Cook closed with an eXhortation tc
each ono to test the truth OF the religion o
tho Gospel by making total surrender tc
tho will of God The instant this surrender
is made God shoots into the soul a now life