The Indianapolis sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis, Ind.) 1880-1904, 1885-05-10
THE EPIDEMIC OF CRIME.
A Cause for Its Existence Assigned.
Teachings of Ingersollism-Th The Bible and
the Churches "a Standing Army-A
Fair Argument Worth Read
ing and Renem-
bering
HY c. u. REEVE.

on the S0th ult., editorisily notices the cpl
demic of family murders, ending with sui
eide by the murderer, and queries as to tae
cause; what started the unusual epidemic
now raging? What social or individual con-
dition propagstes it?
In 1879, in public lecture, among other
thoughts expressed those advanced in this
article, and in them will be found an an swer
to the queries OF the News. / sm Of the
opinion that the cause is patent, aud it IL
he habits OF thought aud mental condition
that grow from a ssnse of hopeIessness-t the
absence OF hope and the mental conditions
that must follow, brought about by the
teachings of such men as r )bert G. Ingersoll.
Teachings like his are not the teachings of
free thought.
They are the teachings that tear down all
standards and set up none in their place.
The moment you take away hope from
mankind il is on a level with the brutes n
everything. Life simply becomes a struggle
for food, shelter and animal enjoyment, and
with that comes the disposition to get it
easiest surest and shortest way that may
offer, whether by fair or foul means. All
moral sense goes down before it, and If the
struggle becomes burdensome or doubtful
and the individual tires of it, death is GER
tain release.
A man or woman having children, or
man having persuaded oman to share his
lot, having made trial for success and find
ing the battle against him, desires to save
them from like failure, and he gives them
rest in death and then ends the stru ggle for
himself; or, having sought happiness and
peace and finding only disco-d aud misery
ENDS it by murder and suicide. Even with
those who succeed in securing all that money
can give them, they are deprived OF pleasure
by the absence Of hope. The thought that
they sail on shoreless sea, with no haven
they can ever hope to enter, and no end but
10 90 down in mid ocean to eternal silence,
decay and oblivion, leaving behind them
offspring who n,sy win or lose in the strug.
gle for mere animal enjoyment aud if they
lose, the burthen will be terrible; they care
little for farther effort. They long for rest
and give it TO those they feel responsible for
and to themselves.
1t may be the wife has hope and the hus-
band none. She can not bear to see her
| children educated without hope and she de-
cides to end their lives while they are limo.
cent, and her OWE with them; as did the W ife
| OF an eminent doctor In New York.
Every sane human intellect of rational age
has natural, innate, inseparable longing to
live hereafter. Most persons eagerly seize
upon everything that gives evidence, or
| pro mise, or hope of it. They even accept IS
| evidence that which is absurd or impossible
| under an analysis in the light OF known
facts. They satisfy themselves with the
thought: I'VE do not know all the facts. II
We knew them all, what we think we know
| now and call facts would not be the facts we
take them for. Their relations would be
| different; and what now seems absurd m ght
be entirely rational"
| 1t is this longing aud the hope that comes
! from it that raises man above the brutes,
classes him as intellectual instead of mere
animal with superior instincts. The Bible,
! with all its inconsistencies and absurdities,
is the only book that has created or could
| create such antagonisms as to chain despot-
| ism and make liberty possible, 1t is the only
book that gave Us the ten Commandments,
and no government can be founded and
principles we there first find centralized,
there laid down. The world has never been
able to improve on it. 1t is the only book
that speaks of God-one God-Crestor and
Ruler over all things. All of the absurd
things said of Him and attributes given 10
Him by Bible writers can not destroy the
idea of a great Creator and the idea OF life
hereafter through Him.
The New Testament is the only book that
ever taught the great brotherhood of man
with the promise OF eternal life If we estab-
lish kingdom of love instead of kingdom
Of force. Their origin is wholly immaterial.
Wherever they have existed among the PEG
pie, unrestricted morality, religion, liberty,
law. civilization and science have reached
their highest elevations and produced their
most benefcent results. Where they
have been restricted all these things ae
backward or non existent. With ali nat
may seem absurd or irrational in them, if we
could eradicate all knowledge of them now,
mankind would retrograds toward barbarism
end would build up other bibles more absurd,
with less morality, less rational promises OF
future life, and it would be many centuries
OF darkness before such reasonable pr I'M ses
| and hopes of life hereafter "a now exist
would be evolved. Meantime, mankir
would have spirits, aud fetish worship. ard
the invisible and intangible growing from
a. \