St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1895-04-08
ON INCERSOLLISM.
Rev. j. B. Koehne Electrifies
a Large Audience at the
Peoples.
PAGAN BOB'S ARGUMENTS
Shattered by the Force of
Eloquent and Powerful
Logic.
TALKED ON THE ASSERTION
Made by Mr.. Ingersoll That
Christ Was a Mere
-, Man.
TALKED ON THE ASSERTION

, Rev. j. B. Koehne delivered a
| powerful and dramatic lecture last
evening at the Peoples church
upon the Arguments of Ingersoll. !"
Mr.. Koehne took up the colonel's
assertion that Christ was merely
man, and not even a great man.
Judging by this criterion, he proved
from an examination of the Savior
acts the superiority of His life
to that of the greatest of men. His
address was as powerful an argu-
ment against Unitarianism as
against Ingersollism. The audience
was large and evidently charmed
with the eloquence and logic to
which they so attentively listened.
The lecturer began by saying that
the position of Ingersollism was
that Christ was mere man, Mr..
Ingersoll going even to the extreme
of trying to show that He was not
even great man. I'VE appeal to
facts that all know, and will con-
fine ourselves to this fundamental
question, WAS Christ mere man.?
he began.
Men that have swayed the world
thought have all been educated
men, as Buddha, Plato, etc. But
Christ was not educated None of
the three great schools of Palestine
claimed Him. ALI of them opposed
His principles bitterly. Nor had He
the means of self-education. In hard
toll, with no time for study, with no
DOCKS, no teachers, and no oppor-
tunities of travel, how could he
gain an "education?" No one of His
toWnsmen considered Him a
GENIUS OR PRODIGY.
He was not, as scepticism saws. the
product of civilization" He had no
affinity with Greek or Roman thought,
nor did Jewish civilization regard him
as its outcome
If Christ was the product of a civili-
zatlon lower than ours, we ought to
have greater men today-nay. Inger-
soil should be greater than Jesus.
Christ came neither as sage nor
priest-the accredited channels for a
teacher-but was the first layman and
idDOrer TO teach men.
He did what none of the worlds great
men ever dared to dole ,repudiated
all authorities, precedents and Gus
toms. He set aside Abraham, Moses,
Solomon, and the worlds greatest men
In his Verify, 1 say unto you" What
udacity-insanity-in a poor Nazarene
carpenter!
10 the problems of the universe we
have to say, 81 don't know" Christ
never said that He replied instantly
and finally to every question proposed
He touched every doctrine of state.
family, church and man, in relation to
God and His fellows, and on each one
! has given the final word. After 2,OOC
/ years of worlds study no man can
say, Il understand Christ completely
Though simple, He and His teachings
ARE OBJECTIONABLE.
What human teachings-even Mr.. In.
| gersolPs lectures-have this character
istic?
He never came in contact with an.
scient systems of truth, yet never con.
| tradicts a solitary truth that had ever
| been given to the world before, ISM
| that strange?
Great men teach what is ''best fol-
their times,'' but Christ for all peoples
and times. We attempt changed con
ditions; Christ declared changed life
the only solvent of difficulties. eye
must be born anew.
In founding His kingdom He ignored
scholarship, art, sword, craftsmanship
money, institutions. Who ever dared
to do that, before or since? Thus H,
differed from all men.
Men need years to establish their sys
TENS of teaching. Christ, after thre
years-having apparently founded moth
ing-went to death with greatest con
fidence, prophesying victory from Hi