The Dalles daily chronicle. [volume] (The Dalles, Or.) 1890-1948, 1894-12-11
TUESDAY. = DECEMBER II, II
INGERsoLL AND FOLLY.

Col. Ingersoll has written and deliv-
cred to a large audience in New York a
new lecture entitled ''The Bible" The
doughty Colonel proceeds, in his bril-
liant way, to attack the "Book"-to
rend, to ridicule, to destroy. And yet,
when all his vivid Imagination, his bril-
liant intellect, his wonderful control of
language, his kaleidoscope word paint
ing, his powers of mimicry, and his
mastery handling of pathos have COM
bined to ruin the faith, the hope, and
the belief of others, the Bible stands,
still the foundation of all human laws I;
the teacher of morals, of justice, of vir-
tue; the light which illumined the
world, and made modern civilization
possible. By it man and nations have
been lifted up, and by 1t neither men
nor nations have been pulled down.
Why quarrel with Ingersoll over it's
inspiration? Why argue with him as to
its divine origin? Sufficient is the fact
that it guides safely the feet of human
ity in this world, and gladdens the
weary heart with hope of Immortality.
Blessed hope, whose roses soften the
rugged pathway, and whose perfume de-
lights the saddened soul. Humanity
cannot bring the evidence such as Inger-
soil, such as our courts would require to
establish the divine origin of the word.
The mortals who sat at the feet of the
Nazarene, whose eyes looked into His,
whose ears drank in the parallels, and
whose hands penned an account of what
they heard and saw, have long since re-
turned unto that dust from whence they
came, and their spirits unto God, who
gave them. They cannot rise from the
dust to bear witness of what they saw.
But could they do so, would Ingersoll
or such as Ingersoll, believe? Nay,
verify.
His arguments, and such as his, are
vain. He tells us that Brahma was as
pure and as holy; that Vishim taught
as sincerely. Concede it. But we say
to him to lift his gaze from the earth at
his feet, and gaze beyond the limits of
his narrow sphere. and he will see that
the civilized world is the Christian
world. He will find that the civilized
world takes the Bible for its guide, be
cause it recognizes in it its creator. So
long as the red flowers of love shall
blossom in the human breast; so long as
the holy feeling a mother has for her
child, and which, for lack of better
term, our weak language calls "ma-
ternal love" exists; SO long as the strong
man wraps the sinews of affection
ornnnA hio ho
prattle of childhood can please, or the
suffering of those we love PAIN so long
as the pathos of old age can touch our
hearts with sorrow; so long as death
can take from US those we love; so long
as pity and woe can swell the foun-
taIns of our tears-that long the prom
ises, held out to US in the Bible, of an
other and an immortal life, are neces-
sary to our existence.
Let Ingersoll use his God-given tai
ents to ridicule the Bible if he will.
But as we part with those whose images
are engraved upon our hearts; when on
the coffin-lid falls the Understanding
and cruel clod; when over the mortal
body is heaped the earth, rounded
roof over the last home-then one ray OF
hope, one mustard grain of faith that on
the other side the loved one waits until
our turn shall come, and that there,
where sorrow and sin enter not, and
parting is unknown, we shall live again,
brings more of comfort than all the ar
guments and lectures of all the Paines
and Ingersolls that ever tempted the
wrath of an all-merciful God.