The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1889-10-16
GLOOMY CONSOLATION.

The Dead Sea Fruit 1ngerSOll Would Sub. |
stitute for Christianity.
The address which Colonel Ingersoll
recently delivered at the funeral of his
friend, Horace Seaver, the freethinker
and late editor of the Boston Inyesti-
gator, was, like all Of Mr.. 1ngersoll's
tributes on such occasions, very beau
tiful, very graceful and very poetical,
but even his own friends must concede
it was lacking in power, in originality
OF thought, in assertion, belief or faith.
From this point Of view it shows that
Mr.. Ingersoll remains upon his old
levels, and that as the years go
by and the world advances
he remains stationary, gathering
no fruit from personal experience
or outside investigation. He rs still
cropping about, complaining because
he does not know. and mourning be-
cause it is so. Thus it happens that
he can bring to those in bereavement
only the gospel OF grief and the barren
consultations of doubt and ignorance as
to future. state. The most that he
could say to the sorrowing friends of
Horace Seaver was this:
How little. after all, we know what is III or
we'll. How little Of this wondrous stream Of
cataracts and pools, this stream OF life that
rises in a world unknown and flows to that
mysterious sea whose shore the foot Of one who
comes hath never pressed. How little OF this
life we know, this struggling ray OF light
'twixt gloom and gloom, this strip Of land by
verdure clad between the unknown wastes,
this throbbing moment filled with love and
pain, this dream that lies between the shadowy
shores of sleep and death. We stand upon
this verge of crumbling time. and we love, We
hope, we disappear. Again we mingle with the
dust, and the knot intrinsecate forever falls
apart.
What consolation can it be to these
friends to be assured that we can know
nothing of the source of life, the mean
ing and direction of its currents. and
the great ocean of eternity with which
it finally blends? As if in mockery Of
his beautiful rhetoric these friends,
who affect to share the views Of 1nger-
soil and Seaver, had strewn the bier of
the dead free-thinker with floral en-
blems typical of rest, of faith and of
hope, and with wreaths of everlasting
| symbols of immortality.
The iconoclast who seeks to shatter
a worldwide belief, common alike to
savage and civilized man, and partic-
ularly belief which is full of hope
and cheer, should offer something tang
ible in its place if he expects it to be ac-
cepted. What does Mr.. lngersoll offer?
! The Christian man or woman has faith
that some time or other the mysteries
Of this life will be explained; that this
world of incompleteness is only the
threshold to another where every thing
is complete; that its suffering, evil and
injustice will be compensated for by
happiness in future life; and that we
are not blotted out forever when we
have done with this world. The mos
unlettered Christian minister, standing
at the grave, can comfort those wht
are left with his cheering doctrine
Ever assuming that he does not know
any thing about a future life,and cal
not explain the present one, hi
views are acceptable and com
fortiug because they are baset
upon hope and faith. To this exten
he has the advantage of Mr. Ingersoll
and always will have until the latte
can offer something as tangible, hope
full and cheerful in the place of the be
lief he seeks to overturn. For tn
faith in a higher power, in compensa
ton for evil, in the beatitude OF
higher life. and in reunion with thos,
who have gone before, all that he ca
do is to announce sadly there is n
higher power. no future life, no Bible
no faith. When we die we are blotte
out Religion is a myth. the immor
tality of the soul fable. For tn,
doctrine Of hope and cheer he bring
the doctrine Of gloom and doubt un
relieved in any way by the grace O