Blue-grass blade., 1891-10-31

. hShes; but 1 am bound 10 Say WIFI
Bro. Mason that 1 can't see the
J, difference = between a religion.
hypocrite and a. ssnon-religious one
1t is all right and nice, in the
great, and generous, and noble
and bold Colonel to march uE
and vote with the party that hyp.
ocritically supports the liquor
traffic, and is afraid to use that
manly and defiant championship,
of which the Colonel is the bright
exemplar; but when one of these
Eulogized American women wants
the right to say at the polls that
she wants to stop the liquor traffic,
that is running her husband or
father or brother or son, and
breaking her heart and starving her
children, this knightly champion
of woman seems to shudder with
horror at the idea of woman being
drawn into this polluting con-
tact.
As to nay expressed admiration
of Col. Ingersoll that called forth
this letter, l must confess that l
was more driven to it by the. IN
consistency of Christians than
drawn to it, by the consistency of
Col. Ingersoil.
Thave before said in the Blade
something like l now say about
Col. Ingersoll's inconsistency, but
it never before struck me so forci-
bly, that Col. Ingersoll, in this
most important Of all the moral
issues before the world, is being a
hypocrite just as truly as the
Christians that vote with him on
this great question.
Many infdels have patted me
on the back for what 1 have
said about religion, but 1 want
all such to understand that my
religion judges tree by it's fruits.
1t such infidels have had such
superior intellectual ability as to
discover the theological specula-
tive errors of the Christian world,
they are under all the greater OBJ
legation to set these people good
example in putting down the prac-
teal errors of the world, that bear
Immediately upon human happi-
ness.
Hit be true, as this Cleveland
gentleman says of Prohibition, that
"All our strength, with few excep-
tions comes from the churches" )
and if ii be true that the proud
American born Nationalist yalks
up to the polls with the foreign
born Catholic Irish saloon keeper,
or the the foreign born German
Catholic brewer, either of whom
would be proud to kneel and kiss
the Pope's toe, and that Rational
jst votes with the Democratic
Catholic Irishman, or the Republi-
can German Catholic, to fix and
establish in this county tramc
which that~Rationalist knows to
be the greatest evil that has ever
afflicted the world, what is to keep
one of these benighted Christians
who believes that the river Nile
once ran pure blood, and that
Joshua made the sun stand still,
and that the world is only six
thousand years old, and that
snakes and donkeys used to talk
what, / say, is going to keep
these Christian ignoramuses from
looking at the lowest type of a
foreign born Irish Catholic saloon
keeper, and the highest type of
American born nationalist that
votes with this saloon keeper, and
asking where is the practical diff
ference between the two? And
what are you Rationalists going
to say when they ask you to show
the difference?
Every body knows, that knows
anything about me and the Blade,
that, more than all the editors in
Kentucky put together, l have,
by my book, by my paper and by
my speech defended the Rational
istic view Of religion.
Among Kentucky gentlemen
who are Rationalists, and who
have appreciated this in me, are
some of the finest and wealthiest
and best educated and most moral
men in the State. Some of them
have freely helped me with their
money and moral support, and
some Of them most earnestly vote
with me and work with me for
Prohibition.
But if RatiOnalists claim that
there are a great many who are
such at heart, who are not willing
to proclaim it as a matter of expe-
diency-which of itself is not very
creditable-how can they consist
emily with the claims of the SUI
periority of Rational views, admit
that the great mass of the voters
for Prohibition are from the
churches?
Just as sanctifed cant among
Christians that lend themselves to
all unrighteOusness excites the
disgust of the free thinker. so will
earnest and honest Christians, and
earnest and honest intidels be dis
gusted with those who pride them
selves that they have risen above
the superstition of our ancestors,
and yet, on great moral issue,
vote with the most degraded and
most superstitious and most hypo-
critical of all the religionists.