The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1888-06-06
INGERSOLL VS.. GLADSTONE.
A WHOLLY CHARACTERISTIC REPLY.
He Declares That Human Affection is the
Foundation of the Idea of Immor-
tally - Pope Bob is a Be-
lever i'm Divorces.

Mr.. Ingersoll opens his letter TO Mr..
Gladstone with a courteous allusion ut
gives me pleasure" he says, ''to say that
for your intellect and character L have the
greatest respect; and let me say further,
that shall consider your arguments, as
| sertions and differences entirely apart from
your personality, apart from the exalted
position that you occupy in the estima-
! ton of the civilized world. l gladly
acknowledge the inestimable service that
YOU have rendered, not only to England
but to mankind. Most men are chilled
and narrowed by the SHOWS of age; their
| thoughts are darkened by the approach of
night. But you, for many years, have
fastened toward the light, and your mind
has been an autumn that grew the more
by reaping.'"
Col. Ingersoll enters at once upon the
argument that ''it is hardly possible to
conceive of the years that lie between the
caves in which crouched our naked ances-
tors, crunching the bones of wild beasts
and the home of civilized man, with its
comforts, its articles of luxury and use
with its works of art, with its enriched and
Illuminated walls. Think of the beloved
years that must have rolled between these
shores. Think of the vast distance that
man has slowly CROPPED from the dark dens
and lalTS OF ignorance and fear to the in
tellectual conquests of our day.
THE church has always despised the
man of humOr, hated laughter and encour-
aged the lethargy of solemnity. 1t is not
willing that the mind should subject it's
creed to every test of truth 1t wishes to
overawe. 1t does not say, He that hath
a mind to think let him think but He
that hath ears to hear let him hear The
church has always abhOrred wit-that is
to say, it does not enjoy being struck by
the lightning of the soul. The foundation
of wit is logic, and it has always been the
enemy of the supernatural, the solemn
and absurd.
"YOu express great regret that no one at
the present day is able to write like Pas
cal. You admire his wit and tenderness,
and the unique, brilliant and fascinating
manner in which he treated the profound
est and most complex themes. Sharing
in your admiration and regret, l call your
attention to what might be called one of
his religious congratulations, Disease Is
the natural state of a Christian Ger
tainly it cannot he said that have ever
mingled the profound and complex in a
more fascinating manner"
Col. Ingersoll proceeds at length, and
with the battery OF arguments and illus
trations so familiar to American students
to attack the Old Testament, accusing Jeho-
yah of establishing slavery, of command
ing His generals To destroy all men,
women and babes; of not giving the
Canaanites the Ten Commandments; of
encouraging the savage Jephthah to de-
stroy his daughter. "Do you intend"
asks the colonel, 'that Jehovah allowed
His children to enslave each other be-
cause duty lay for them in following the
command OF the Most High? Was it fer
this reason that He caused them to ex-
terminate each other? Do you account
for the severity of His punishments by the
fact that the poor creatures punished were
not aware of the enormity of the ofienses
| they had committed? What shall we say
OF God who has one of His children
stoned to death for picking up sticks on
Sunday and allows another TO enslave his
fellow man? Have you discovered any
| theory that will account for both of these
facts?"
Col. Ingersoll enters upon the Darwin
ian theory of evolution and takes up
Christ's teaching of the indissolubiiity of
marriage.
"Why should husband and wife be
compelled to live with each other after
! love is dead? Why should the wife still
| be bound in indissoluble chains to a hus-
band who is cruel, infamous and false
| Why should her life be destroyed because
of this? Why should she be chained TO a
criminal and an outcast? Nothing can be
more unphilosophic than this Why fill
the world with children of Indifference
and hatred?
"The marriage contract is the most inn
portant, the most sacred that human be-
ings can make. 1t will be sacredly kept
by good men and good women. But if a
loving wOman-tender, noble and true
makes this contract with man whom she
believed to worthy of all respect and love,
and who is found to be cruel, worthless
wretch, why should her life be lost?
'Do you not know that the indissolu-
bility of the marriage contract leads to its
violation, forms an excuse for immortality,
eats out the very heart of truth and gives
to vice that which alone belongs 10 love =?
still insist that human affection is the
foundation of the idea of Immortality :;
that love was the first to speak that word,
no matter whether they who spoke il were
savage or civilized, Egyptian or Greek But
If we are immortal-if there be another
world-why was it not clearly set forth in
the Old Testament? Certainly. the authors
OF that book had an opportunity to learn
it from the Egyptians. Why was it not
revealed by Jehovah? Why did he waste
his time in giving orders for the consecra-
ton Of priests-in saving that they must
have sleeps blood put on their right ears
and on their right thumbs and on their
right big toes? Could a God with any
| sense of humor give such directions or
watch without huge laughter the perform
ance OF such ceremony? In order to
see the beauty, the depth and tenderness
of such a conservation is it essential to be
in a state of ''reverential calm?'
Is 1t not strange that Christ did not tell
of another world distinctly, clearly, with
out parable and without the mist OF me-
taphor?
The fact is that the Hindoos the Egyp-
tians, the Greeks and the Romans taught
the immortality OF the SOUL not as gilt
tering guess-a possible perhaps-but as
a clear and demonstrated truth for many
centuries before the birth of Christ.
The intellect is not always supreme. 1t
! is surrounded by clouds. 1t sometimes
sits in darkness II is often misled-sOme-
times, in superstitious fear, it abdicatcs
1t is not always white light. The pas
sions and prejudices are prismatic-they
color thought. Desires betray the judg-
ment and cunningly mislead the will.
You seem to think that the fact of re-
spOnsibility is in danger unless it rests
Il. ~