Blue-grass blade., 1894-11-11
Rev. Jones on Breckinridge and
Rev. McGarvey on Noah's
Ark.

A country church called Providence
has dispensed with the religious minis |
trations of Rev. ]. B. Jones, because Brer.
Jones preached and wrote against Breck-
inridge. myself think that all good
men who for conscience sake have voted
against Breckinridge ought now to even
up by voting against Owens, but am
glad to have this opportunity to stand by
a preacher when the preacher has done
right.
have heard and read pretty much all
of the oratory and literature to which
the famous Breckinridge campaign has
given birth. The very finest, in that
line, that has been produced, are the
letters of Rev. Jones of Lexington to
Lexington newspapers, against Breckin-
ridge. They were alike fine in moral
sentiment and in literary style. The
biggest fool things that the campaign
has produced, excepting perhrps Bill
Owens speeches, were the letters of Prof.
James Pointz Nelson against Prof. Jones.
Rev. Jones now finds himself in the
position commonly designated, in Ken
tucky secular journalism, as between
the devil and the deep blue sea-" If he
does not use his Office to rebuke such a
proposition as that to send Breckenridge
back to Congress, the brains of the
country, which is nearly all outside of
the church, does not care for him or for
his preaching.
It is fact now that no highly culti-
waited and highly moral man is ever now,
in mature years, converted to the
church, and if the church holds its own
against the inroads that enlightenment
and honestly are now making upon it,
it will have to do some thing to command
the respect of the thinking outsiders.
The time has come when thinking men
are going to repudiate the miracles of
religion, and discard all belief in Gods
and angels and devils, and hell and pur-
gatory and heaven, and they are going
to demand that religion in order to its
further existence among an enlightened
people shall be some thing which practi
cally takes hold of the every day affairs
of life, and intelligently and earnestly
means to try to make men and women
better and happier.
In this high sense Rev. Jones has been
doing some thing that was creditable to
him and to the church when he opposed
Breckinridge. The fact is that Rev.
Jones has been reading the BLUE GRASS
BLADE, and the Rational View, and that
combination is pretty apt to get the
kinks out of the head of almost any
preacher who has the brains to appre-
ciate it.
Rey. Jones is a minister in the Chris
tian church, and his congregation of
country clod-hoppers, say they will not
support him in his views. One of his
audience became so excited that he
called out from his pew, Brother Jones,
the women have made fool of you"
Now what should man like Jones do?
Ought he to stand his ground like a
man, or back down to suit the complex
ion of his congregation, at least nine out
of ten of whom suppose, vote for the
liquor traffic, while Jones votes against
it. That Providence congregation is
suppose almost unanimously in favor of
the liquor traffic and are consequently
in favor Of Breckinridge who has dis
tinguished himself as friend of the
whisky interest, and the sympathy be-
tween the saloon and the bagnio is so
close and intimate that that Providence
congregation very naturally condones
Breckinridge's sin.
If ZONES backs down he not only sur
renders his own manhood, but he en-
courages that and other congregations to
bro -beat arv ;:ian wins dares leach them
pfu.ien1 morals instead of the old sup
ersf8ous slush with which the pulpits
are generally flooded, and he makes il
all the harder for any other preacher
who has strong convictions of moral duty
to say what he honestly believes. With
all the boasted intelligence of Lexing.
ton,
"With all its colleges and schools,
Its Latin names for horns and stools,
there is not preacher here, who, in his
department has risen above the level OF
mediocrity. Why could we not have q
Beecher, or Swing or Gave? 1 have
talked to two out of that three, and have
talked to Rev. Prof Jones, and as far as
can judge Jones is intellectually the
equal of any of them. 1t is not so much
the fact that those men were so intellect
ually superior to others, as that they
were more willing to say what they
think than others, in their line, have
been that they have made more impress
upon the world. do not care what
Parkhurst believes about theology, but
/ admire the man because he has gotter
above the fripperies of theological dog
ma, and has taken the bull by the
horns, and Is now fighting immortality
in practical way.
/ do not even know to what church
Parkhurst belongs, and l do not care tc
know. We need a man like him in Lex
ington, the city which exerts the great
est immoral influence of any city in the
United States. This is because this is &
great whisky and race horse market, and
because here more than any place i'll the
world, the sanction of religion is given
to these immoralities.
am profoundly disgusted with the
fact that in the midst of all these evils
man with the ability of John w. Nc.
Garvey, can stop to write articles in de
fence of fool story like that of Noah's
Ark. / will not so prostitute my intelli'
gence of the age in which live, as tc
show to any educated people the absur
dity of the story of Noah's Deluge. If II
is a fact that any considerable part of the
educated people of this country still be
lieve that story then all the absurdities
in morals with which our land is filled
are but fitting corollaries to religion:
faith that is so irrational.
It is not merely shameful and disgrace
full that men should believe, or pretend
to believe, and teach such ignorant rot
1t is simply impossible that any SAINT
mind can accept such a story, and wher
the clergy OF the country, teach people
to say that they believe as unreasonable
a lie as the story of Noah's Ark to bt
true. they Systematically instill into the
the people the spirit of lying and hypoc
risy in connection with their religion
that fills the church with liars and by
pocrites.
The result is that the church is now
great fashionable money making sham
and when we appeal to it, having all thu
power to do what it wants, in its hands
we appeal to an institution devoid o
any moral quality, and one that is will
ing to substitute faith in miraculous ant
absurd stories, for good deeds Of human
ity.
"Tess of the D'Urbervilles, I