Morning journal and courier., 1885-12-14
INGRRSOLLISM.

ssThe Vandalism of ImgersOl1fsmss-A
 Vivid Picture By Dr. y. o. Peck of
 World Without Recognition of
 God and the Bible.
 Rev Dr. J. o. Peck delivered a powerful discourse last evening on "The Vandalism of Ingersollism After defining vandalism and it's history he proceeded to analyze Bob" Ingersoll and Ingersollism follows:
 With this religious vanda1 individually I am not concerned. Witty, eloquent, beau tiful phrase maker no doubt he is. But in learning pretender. in reasoning illogical, in fidelity to truth reckless, in respect for the beliefs of wise and holy men hippant and irreverent, in regard to the Bible and God and heaven Blaspheming vandal. This man who prates so loudly of liberty to man, woman and child mocks and derides and de- nounces the liberty of others in believing what is most sweet and comforting and cred to them. The liberty he gives them is to be torn and rent and bleeding by the javs- lins of his low wit and vulgar jeers. He dances on the graves of father and mother with the ghoulish glee of satyrl He is simply lurid, dreadful illustration of what Ingersollism would make every man, woman and child; blasphemer of God; contemptuous scoffer of Christ; derider of the Bible; vandal of the Chrish tian religion; a robber who would plunder' the human heart of divine peace and comfort and life; a highwayman who would assault the human soul it's journey through life, rob it of it's treasures of heaven and immor- tality and hurl it into the darkness of the grave to perish like the beast; an intellect prostituted to ribaldry and Justification of the truth for money making; heart cruel and merciless toward the wrongs and suffer ings of the weary world, whose hope of bet ter things is in the mercy of God and the life beyond this world; conscience scared as with hot iron and dead to the love of God and the practices of all religion. This is the fruit of Ingersollism.
 The man I now dismiss from view; his teachings and that of all infidelity propose to discuss under the heading, "The Vandal ism of 1ngersollism." In the discussion of the subject, the speaker among many other things said: Ingersollism would coolly or phan mankind of fa:her's love, extinguish the light of the glory of God in the face of less, hopeless darkness of endless oblivion. God and the Bible, and religion, and the hope of immortality and heaven, are so necessary factors of our welfare that life would not be worth liv- ing without them. Let one which infidelity salutes with scof6ng, and let him go with me in fancy into a world of '1ngersollism" where there are no traces of the Bible or of the Christian religion. of praise or Christian faith in life in dying-no God; and first sweep away every copy of the Bible The pastor vividly depicted the loss to hu- manity which would ensue from such 6 de- StructlOn. Rnt then thA inH of Hha grand old book, they must be swept away too, and with it demo lition, destruction, irrepalable loss and ruin into every department of human life and society. Then the Sabbath-it must be abolished with all it's grand, sacred infiu- ences; next all Christiau-foundeds schools and charities and colleges-as Yale, Harvard, Amherst, Williams and the like. Next ali Christian founded and endowed charity homes, hospitals, homes for the blind, deaf and dumb, the inebriate, the aged, the orphan-all these must go and all institu- t1ons so founded for the benefit of suffering humanity. for all these, or nearly all, are founded and sustained by the Bible people and moved and controlled by the spirit of Christianity. Next, destroy all the litera- ture of the world, save the little scrap due to lnfldels and gsdless persons. Imagine the terrible, the fearful loss this would entail Inn Inn too, destroy all the works of the great x Scott, Dickens. Irving, Macaulay and host of other brilliant lights, and so on with poetry, the drama, etc., and all fhe hymns of the church and tear to pieces or eliminate from them all idea of God and make one grand, terrible, awful holocaust of all these; and above the ruins let Ingersoll- ism shout there is no God. Nor is the awful picture of desolation yet complete. Take away every vestige of Christianity from the laws and governments of the world. The speaker drew another vivid picture under this head. Then take away from all the church cemeteries and the public cemeteries all inscriptions alluding to God Christ or the hope of heaven.
 This is the final act of Ingersollism. The e1termination of the hated book is complete. There is no God, no Saviour, no Bible, no heaven, no immortality, no outlook but the grave. Ingersoll-land has got rid of the Bible, but all the woes and hardAhips and miseries of mankind remain, with no divine help, nc assuagement by comforts and hopes and support of religion. They have abolished the Bible but they have not abolished the sins and sorrows and miseries in human life that called for the Bible as a comforter and Christ ss & Saviour.
 Dr. Peck said that the black, dssolate pie ture of Irgersollism is now complete, and in closing he pictured the weary world in such a condition in its despair turning to God and the revelation of his word and Christ and finding the beautiful words true: "Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest.'
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