Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1892-04-21
HAADEMAN Us. ING Ensonn.
An ex-Wilmington Pastor Breaks
lance with the Great Agnostic.

Lance with the Great Agnostic.
In the published account of "1he Great
Ingersol Controversy which recently
took place in New York between metropoi-
itan divines and Colonel Robert Ingersoll
\ one of the chapters containing the account
of brief tilt, when the Rev. Isaac NJ.
Haldeman, at one time pastor of Delaware
Avenue Baptist Church. this city, now of
the First Baptist Church. New York city,
broke lance with the eloquent agnostic,
may be found interesting.
Mr.. Haldeman offered the proposition
with all due Difference, it does not
seem to me that d Luther is required to
meet the challenge delivered against Chris.
tianity. The issue of Christian service in
| this world is simply matter of average
acquaintance with church history and the
accentuated facts Of Christian bcnevolence
| speaking around us every day. If Colonel
lngersoll is unacquainted with the sad
hearts made glad by Christian hope of
worn bodies healed by Christian mercy,
and darkened homes illumined by the
| sunshine of Christian testimony; If ne has
not seen the light of Christian love shining
| from eyes where once flashed the fires OF
unhallowed passion, ii is simply witness
that Colonel lngersoll has given more pro-
found attention TO the intricacies of SEN
tencc Or the rhetoric of phrase than to
the accumulation of the dynamic evil
dcnces within the domain of the Christian
profession.
at seems to me that Colonel Ingersoll
builds his arguments out of the elements
of his own defeat. Take, for example,
the passage, Is IL possible that infinite
wisdom can do no more than is done for d
majority of souls in this world? Think
of the millions born in ignorance and filth
and raised in poverty and crime; think of
the millions who arc only partially de-
veloped i'll this world
He makes these statements in order to
quarrel with an infinite God as revealed
by Christianity. because of limited mercy
but admits IN these very statements that
an Indefinite God, as revealed in nature,
has allowed man to grow up under condi-
tons which no ordinary mortal could look
at III all their concentrated agony and not
break his heart; not only allows him to
grow up under these conditions, but con
tlnues in silence above the tears and
tragedies and hells of everyday life--hells
not underground, but above ground. from
one end of the earth to the other. In short he
confesses that God reveals Himself in ma
ture as an infinite God without mercy
Now if the Bible, or Christianity reveals
an Infinite God with some mercy, is not
the God of Christianity somewhat sweeter-
visagcd than Colonel Ingersolls Coda
God who has brought us upon this round
ball we know not whence, allows us TO be
baked by heat, frozen by cold, poisoned
with malaria, destroyed by organisms,
only partially developed, and then allows
ps to go, with asking brains and unsatis-
fed souls, into we know not WHITTIER with
the everlasting silence as the only dawn"
THE coLoNELs REPLY.
'The Rev. Mr.. Haldeman mistakes NV
position. do not admit that an infinite
God as revealed in nature has allowed men
to grow up under conditions which no
ordinary mortal can look at in all their
concentrated agony, and not break his
heart
II do not confess that God reveals Him
self in nature as an infinite God without
mercy, ] do not admit that there is an
INFINITE Being anywhere responsible for
tile agonies and tears, for the barbnrities
and horrors of this life. cannot believe
that there is in the universe Being with
power to prevent these things. l hold no
God responsible. I attribute neither
cruelty nor mercy to nature. Nature
neither weeps nor rejoices. l cannot be.
lieve that this world, as it now is, as it has
been, was created by an infinitely wise,
powerful and benevolent God. But it is
far better that we shall all go down with
souls unsatisiied' to the dreamless grave,
TO the tongueless silence of the voiceless
dust, than that countless millions of
human souls should suffer forever.
Eternal sleep is better than eternal
pain. Eternal punishment is eternal re.
venge, and can be inflicted only by an
eternal monster