The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1895-04-01
A RUB AT PAGAN BOB
MINISTER MILBURN PAYS HIS RE-
sPECTs TO THE INFIDEL.
PrOclaims Against Sunday Baseball,
in Which south-sidc Pass
tor Also Joins In.

OK second presbyterian Church, yesterday
morning. large audience heard the re-
marks of the pastor upon the two very
pertinent topics. AS a type of the infidel,
Mr.. Milburn selected the agnostic Col
Robert IngersolI. He prefaced his remarks
in this direction by the statement that he
would not attempt to answer the assertions
of Colonel Ingersoll He would simply hold
the man up to view as type of broadness
SO broad that ii became narrow. In his
comments upon the recent lecture delivered
here by Colonel Ingersoll, the pastor said
in part:
THE narrow churchman is not the only
bigot nor is he the only intolerant. Where
for instance, will you find any such intoI-
erance, any such conceit, any such bonn
bastfc self-assertions as in the speech of
man who exults in his doubts, as in the
speech and manner of a man who has gotten
SO far along in life and who is SO swollen
with his own self-importance, that he has
no need whatever either of Savior or
God, who thinks that he can get along
vastly better without than with Jehovah.
the Infinite One, and who feels himself
entitled to sit with self-complacent criti-
cisms upon Isaiah, Ezekial, Moses and the
prophets. / have met narrow men in the
church, and they have distressed me,
nave met narrow men in the church, and
my whole being has often shuddered under
their opinio1atfveness, and the arrogance
of their dogma, and the intolerance of
their creed. But, my friends, the arrogance
and intolerance of the Pharisees of the
Christian church are a mere insignifcence,
mere cipher, as compared with the monu-
mental vanity, the colossal self-assertion
and the infinite imitation of the man who
not only snaps his finger at the hopes of
hrnf h.fr ,Lc rhol Nj
Almighty in the deepness and the darkness
OF his vanity and self-conceit. Where can
you find more intolerance than in the man
who speaks with a sneer of the faith that
has made this world great of the faith that
has made society what it is to-day, of the
faith that has humanized the race, of the
faith that has beautif1ed the human spirit?
festation of the bigotry than in the man
who speaks of his brothers faith and of
a sneer? And yet this IS what the world
calls breadth, this what the world calls
2 board and liberal man. Maybe SO; but it
is meagre and shallow broadness and it's
speech is the speech of intolerance The
broad man, when he Is zoo broad becomes
narrow in his broadness, like the narrowest
Of narrow sectarians-he is a Pharisee, a
bigot-
this very fact In the last week. Last Tues
day night went to hear Mr.. Robert Inger-
soil, and several impressions were made
preston was: What Wonderfully i graceful a flu
rhetorician he was. The second one was.
how hopelessly illogical were the processes
hopelessly this man who stands before the
world as an lexpondent of large thinking.
hopelessly, how pitifully how painfully in
tolerant he was despite what is called his
N and catholicity have nothing
am willing to believe that he is honest
and sincere in his hostile attitude toward
though he be skeptic. honors and reveres.
! am willing to believe that he thinks he
sr dG S work Of good b and not Of evil
to say touching the criticisms that he brings
indiscriminately against all priests and all
doubt, great deal Of criticism. We have
often blocked progress, we have often
and deserve rebuke. Nor have any aa0 thing af
to say touching his criticism of the church
in so far as the church has done evil rather
than good, and co-Operated with the devil
in his designs rather than with God Al
mighty and our Master Every fair minded
has done wrong and Mr.. TngersoI contrib
utes no light to that proposition when he
simply reiterates it with a sheer and a
1.-The point wish to make is this point of
the intolerance of what is called the broad
and comprehensive, the large and liberal
mind. Here is man who feels that he
has cause of action against the word of
God. and gets up to argue his case
man into the States prison. After dispos-
ing of the Old Testament mere supersti-
of sop to the mob by saying that the gem
erous and courteous Abraham If he lived
in the present time, would be in the peni-
tertiary, he comes to the New Testament
and says that it is worse than the DID,.
Mr.. Mlburn dwelt briefly on the manner
in which Ingersoll set about to prove his
assertion. He admitted that no Christian
has right to hold in his heart one feeling
Of unfairness toward any human being who
a RI hn il, rfC pnTn
but he deplored the language of the agnos-
tic who not only attempted to prove Jesus
a mere man, but sought to prove Him to be
an inferior kind of man. IngersoH accused
the Nazarene of being the founder of a re-
ligion that has been the enemy of every
DO you know any Christian that shows
so meagre a spirit as that? Do you know
bitter may be his bigotry, who shows a
more contracted and more limited ca
pacity to reason than that? don't. /
know of no finer exponent of this fact than
Mr.. Ingersolrs argument against the BIZ
on the question of Sunday baseball Mr..
THE devils arguments are never mar
row; they are never. illiheral; they are
ing TO dethrone man he does not pursue
the poor policy of trying to make the man
him and infiates him with great notions
and with great emotions. and then does his
work | want to make special applica-
just now in regard to free, liberal and
cosmopolitan kind of Sabbath. Our fathers
used to think it was a right and proper
thing to set apart the Sabbath to the serv-
ice of God But now what is our Sabbath
like? Nowadays our Sabbath must be very
broad. day which do almost
anything we wish. / read that Indianapolis
has so expanded in its notions within the
last decade or two that it is going to en-
gage in baseball playing on the Sabbath
day. Well, let me say that /, for one,
sympathetic with baseball. / think it is
delightful game, and / believe that every
citizen in Indianapolis would be improved
if he would indulge himself occasionally in
this game. but there is a statute in this
State which prohibits ball playing for pay
or any kind of reward upon the Sabbath
day. And If we are going to keep the
saloons closed after IL o'clock at night, and
if we are going to put thieves in prison be-
cause they disobey the laws, then / say
should not discriminate against wrong
doors, and, therefore, must make the man
ayers of our baseball association stand
square up to the letter of the law. They
have no right any more than any other
man has to defy either the letter or the
spirit of legislation. They have no right to
make bid for anarchy. Let us-have base
ball, but let us have honest baseball and
above all legal baseball; baseball that will
not offend the consciences of the order
loving men and women of this city.
Permit me to say in connection with this
matter that of all people on this earth the
American people need rest on the Sabbath.
They have excitement enough, nervous
wear ane tear enough: they are pushing