The Big Stone post. (Big Stone Gap, Va.) 1890-1892, 1891-06-19
sNaERsoLL,s VIEW or IT.
How tho Unbeliever Regards the Action OF
the Presbyterian Synod in the Briggs
Case.
cincinnati Enauircrl

= = 4
Cincinnati Enguircr)
Colonel Ingersol has just returned to
his home in New York from trip through
the West. In speaking of these incidents,
he says:
.There is natural desire Oh the part
of every intelligent human being to har-
monte his information-to make his
theories agree-in other words, to make
what he knows, or thinks he knows, in
one department agree with and harmonize
with what he knows, or thinks he knows,
in every other department of human
knowledge. Progress in religion is the
slowest because man is kept back by sem
timentalty. by the efforts of parents, ny
old associations. A THOUSAND unseen ten
drills are twining about him that he must
necessarily break if he advances. In
other departments of knowledge induce
mcnts are held out and rewards are prom
ised to the ppe who does succeed-to the
one WHO really doea adgance-tO the man
who discovers new facts.
But in religion, instead of rewards bel
|
is told that he must not advance; that II
he takes step forward it is at the peril
of bis soul; that if he thinks and nves-
tigates he Ia in danger of exciting the
wrath of God. Consequently religion has
been of the slowest growth. Now in
most departments of knowledge man has
advanced; and, coming back to the orlgi-
nal statement-=therp is growing desire
on the part of intelligent men to have
religion fit to keep company with the
other sciences
WHEN CRREDs WERE MADE.
sour creeds we're made in times OF ig-
norance. They suited very we'll 2 Hat
world and God who lived in the sky just
above us, and who used the lightning to
destroy his enemies. Since that time
there has been great advance made in
the idea of goYernment-thc old idea
being that the right to do came from God
to the King and from the King to the
people. Now intelligent people bellcye
that the aouroe of authority has been
changed, and that all just powers OF gov,
eminent are derived from the consent OF
the governed. The earth is no longer hat;
Heaven is not Immediately above US ; the
universe has been infinitely enlarged, and
we have ut last found that our earth is
but grain of sand, speck on the great
shore Of the infinite. Consequently there
is q discrepancy, a discord, a contraction,
between CUR Theology and the other
sciences. 3len Of intelligence feel this.
"Dr. Briggs concluded that perfectly
good and intelligent God could not have
created billions of Sentient beings know
ing that they were to be eternally miserable
No man could do such thing, had he the
power, without being infinitely malicious.
DR.. Briggs began to have little hope for
the human racc-Legan to think that
maybe God is better than the creed des-
cribes Him. And right here il may he
we'll enough TO remark that no one has
ever been declared a hereto for thinking
God bad. Heresy has consisted in think
ing God better than the church said he
was.
oS DR.. BRIGGS CASE.
''Dr. Briggs is undoubtedly I'm intclli-
gent man He knows that nobody on the
earth knows who wrote the FIVE books of
Moses. He knows that two or more per-
sons were the authors of Isaiah. lie
knows that David did not write to exceed
three OF four of the Psalms He knows
that the book Of Job is not Jewish book.
He knows that the songs of Solomon were
not written by Solomon. He knows that
the book of Ecclesiastes was written by
a free thinker. He also knows that there
is not in existence to-day-so far as any
body knows-any of the manuscript of
the Old or Now Testamcnts,
$50 about the New Testament Dr..
Briggs knows that nobody lives who has
ever seen an original manuscript or who
ever saw any body that did see one, or
that claims to have seen one, He knows
that nobody knows who wrote Matthew or
Mark, or Luke o. John, He knows that
John did not write John and That that
Gospel was not written till long after John
was dead. Or. Briggs also knows the way
in which these books came to be Ganonl-
cal, and he knows that the way was not
more binding than resolution passed by
a political convention.
THE BIBLE THE SAME AS OTHER BOOKS.
@KnOyng lesc things. and knowing in
addition to what | haye stated that there
arc 10000 or 10000 mistakes in the Old
Testament, that there are y great many
contradictions and absurdties, that many
of the laws arc cruel and Infamous and
could have been made only by a barbar
Gus people, Dr. Briggs has concluded
aat after all, The torch that sheds the
sercnest and divincst light is the human
reason, and that we must investigate the
Bible - we DO other books, At least I
suppose he has reached some conclusion.
Hc may imagine that the pure gold of in
spiration still runs through the quartz
and porphyry of ignorance, that all we
have to do is to extract the shining metal
by some process that may be called thco
logical smelling; and if so, l have no
fault to find. Mr. Briggs has taken
step In advance, that is to say, the tree is
growing, and when the tree grows the bark
splits; when the new leaves come the old
leaves are rotting on the ground.
"Thc Presbyterian creed is a very bad
creed. 1t is a relic of the middle ages.
It has in it the malice, the malicious
logic. the total deprayity, the utter heart
lcssness Of John Calvin, and it gives me
great pleasure to say that no Presbyter-
ian was ever as bad as his creed. And
here let me say, as | have said many
times, that do not hate Presbyterians-
because among them ! count some of my
best friends-but hate Prcsbyterianism.
And'l can not illustrate this any better
than by saying that ! do not hate man
because he has the rheumatism, but !
hate the rheumatism because it has u
man. AS with DR.. Briggs, SO with DR..
Bridgeman, although it seems to me that
he has simply jumped from the frying pan
into the fire, and why he should prefer
the Episcopal creed to the Baptist is more