The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-08-05
THE INDIANA CHAUTAUQUA.
The intellectual Menu Served Up at
Acton Park Assembly Yesterday.
Hon. George r. Vending on "VOltaire," and
Mr.. William |. Marshall on Utah and
the Mormons"-TO-Day Programme

| Yesterday was another thoroughly beautiful
and delightful day at Acton Park Assembly.
| The attendance was larger than on any previous
week day. and from this time forward it is ex-
| pected that the attendance will constantly in
crease.
| The first lecture Of the day was delivered in
| the afternoon to a large audience, the speaker
| being Hon. George +. Vending, Of Illinois, his
| subject ''Votaire." The lecturer began with
| saying he did not intend to discuss those phases
of the life and works Of Voitaire which have
| called forth so much religious denunciation.
| Outside of the cyclopedias, and a monograph by
Colonel Hamley, small volume by John Nor
ley, and book written by Standish in 1921, there
| smoothing in the English language attempting
any outline of Voltaire's career, excepting
two volumes which came recently from the pen
of our American bographer, Parton Votaire's
career covers over four ifths of a century.
Mr.. Weddings lecture consisted of series
Of digressions with the life Of Voltaire as a
thread. These digressions were answers to cur
rent phases of infdelity, with passages in Vol
taires lfe and quotations from his
writings, used as texts. Speaking of the
homeless lives led by the great nfdels of the
world, he cited besides Voltaire, Rosseau, Hume
DAlembert, Volney and Thomas Paine. He
then said II sometimes think the fact that
Home, Sweet Home is the most popular air in
America is a key to our national character.
have heard the greatest choruses on earth, and
the noblest chants and anthems have heard
the cathedral music of choir and organ, and all
that the musical art of Italy, nodded by the
l -.
can do to move the soul with harmones Of IN
utterable beauty, and diviner strain, more
consecrating in it's influence, and bathing the soul
in flood Of love and purity and all holy feel
ings-nothing ever came from golden harp or
angels lip sweeter than the simple melody Of
Home, Sweet Home AS long as that song is
the lullaby of our childhood here in America, the
Joy of our middle life and the solace of our old
age, am mot afraid Of Voltaire and Paine, or
their modern imitators"
Speaking of the claim made by modern infdels
to the championship of free thought and intel
lectual progress, he said II hold here a volume
containing over twenty different lectures by the
ablest living man among the teachers of infdel-
ity, genial American gentleman who, in all
possible earnestness, believes himself apostle
OF intellectual progress, and yet pledge myself
to give S., 900 to any public charity in the State
of Indiana if any committee composed excus-
lively of that gentleman's followers will show me
in these twenty lectures a single argument
against the Bible or against religion that I will
not prove by citation of book and page to have
been twenty FIVE years old when the author of
these lectures was baby.
Speaking Of the charge made by modern
infdels that the church has been guilty of perse-
cutions, Mr.. Vending said: mo other charge
is urged so often and with much fallacious
eloquence nor so effectively, that the priests and
| preachers of the world have been among the
most virdictive and relentless Of prosecutors.
| Looking at the revocation of Nantes and it's
| consequent horrors, at the atrocities of st.
| Bartholomew eve. at the Spanish inqusition,
| at the reigns in England OF both Protestant and
| Roman Catholic kings and queens-looking
| these and hundred kindred examples, who
| deny this charge of modern infdelity2 But, let
| it always be remembered that it was priest and
preacher turned politician that wrought the
crimes of persecution which oftenest have dis
| graced the pages of Christian history The
| priest, the preacher who has prosecuted in the
| name Of Christ, has nearly always been politi
| cal partisan, or puppet in the hands Of such a
| partisan behind the scene. With this thread in
your hand, 60 now through the stories of what
are called religious wars, and you shall confess
| that those the results of wicked
partnership between priest and politician. From
the day of His death to this hour the of the
| cause of the Nazarene in every age and in every
land has been ministry or priesthood seeking
| power or popular favor at the hands of poll
| ticans.
Concluding his lecture Mr.. Vending said:
| 'One Saturday evening, in the month of May,
1778, Voltaire died in Paris, nearly eighty four
years old. In 1864 his sarcophagus in the Pan
| theon was opened. 1t was discovered that some
fifty fifty Yea years before his bones had
in vacant lot somewhere on the
| outskirts of Paris, no one knows where Let
| us linger in imagination a few moments at the
unknown grave of this colossus of infdety, ard
ask the question that will ever be asked of him
| who comes to mankind with the claim of bring
ing WISDOM who comes as teacher-what good
have his teachings done humanity Making
impartial answer, we must say that so far as his
utterances helped to break the alliance between
| ecclesiastcism and the state so far was Vol
| taire benefactor of his race. It is time that
in this he look up a war others began before his
day, but let his services in that be acknowl-
edged He has taught the world to laugh at
political priest and the world will be
wiser and Better if it keep the lesson. Neither
he nor his modern imitators have inflicted last
| ing in ury on real Christianity. Yes,
we are beside the grave of Volttare and it is
night. Yonder IN the great city tall steeples,
straining upward through the darkness as If to
! look into the starlit galleries of the universe
| We hear the roar Of Paris, and looking through
the mist see myriad lights flashing spendor
! through hundred avenues and over thousand
| palaces. But what has Noltaire done for the
millions. the common people of that wonderful
| city, and for the wordl All, he was not frien nd
of the people. Processing great love for human
| ity, he once tainted Rosseau with the humble
calling of his mother: and even declared that his
own writings were not for peasants and servants
And here lies the weight Of the charge l bring
against infdelity. There is nothing in its teach
ings to counterfeit the almost irrepressi-
Die tendency of society to division into
castles. InhIel philosophy furnishes moth
| ing to unite the tens of the upper
world TO the millions of the lower No man can
| live in history and be accounted both great ard
good who did nothing for the common people
There is !oye for humanity that has in 1t much
| beauty-glittering, like Ingersols, with eplen-
there is in the moonlight. | abhor nflelity
because it does not love the whole human race
1t is easy to love did Voltaire, the scientist
and philosopher, the people of good society, and