The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1895-04-01
PROVE ALL THINGS
A lengthy editorial in last Saturday S
News begins with these words:

tendance upon the recent lecture of Mr..
Ingersoll should not be allowed to pass
without comment
1t is presumable that good many in
telligent people read the editorial ''com-
ment," and it would be interesting to know
how it impressed the average serious
thinker, more especially these who heard
Mr.. Ingersolls lecture. The first half OF
the article deals more or less arrogantly.
with the question of minister's duties
and limitations in the premises, but it is
passably fair and ,tolerant--for the News.
But the latter half-the portion devoted to
an estimate of Mr.. Ingersolrs abilities and
to his relations to the public teacher
and reformer, is ebullition of bigotry
and spite probably without a parallel In
modern journalism; and should not pass
without comment The editor, in sum-
ming up his remarks concerning the rights
and privileges of clergyn.en, concludes that
it was mot necessary or advisable for him
CDR Milburn) to hear Mr.. Ingersoll in or
der to know how to answer him. Leaving
the minister to speak for himself-and he
is amply qualified to do SOL shall quote
some of the editors reasons for thinking
Mr. Ingersol should be treated with silent
contempt by the preachers
There is nothing" says the News, lin
Ingersolls blasphen.ous lectures calling for
an answer. The lecture in question is
MANY years DID, There is nothing
new in it unless it be the jokes.
At his best, Mr.. Ingersoll is nothing more
than brilliant amateur in biblical crlti-
cism. His opinions on this subject are
wholly without value. 1t is not possible
that any serious-minded, scholarly man
should be enlightened by anything that he
might say upon the Bible, book
Tr,o0 crl1s flf vision.
- And it is this mighty book over
which he cracks his silly and vulgar jokes,
and men go to hear him as they go to see
the skirt dance = We hope that he
(Mr Milburn) will not answer Ingersoli.
We had begun to congratulate the clergy
of Indianapolis upon their sense of propor-
ton and of the fitness of things, and we Go
not wish to have to reverse our veroict
Really. no one takes the eioqusnt
who answer him. What he says Is not Oh
the least Importance. he is heilner
a student nor a thinker. He Is one OF the
unfortunate products of hyperorthodoxy.
and a s such he is to be pitied. In a sense
Christianity Is responsible 1or n ad IN ana
much better business than that or batting
poor Ingersoll.'
Now as one who does not agree with Mr..
Ingersoll's atheism, but who has always adj
mired his wit and eioquence, his tenderness.
his logical and forceful way of putting
things his searching satire and his evident
sincerity. + wish to protest against the UNI
fair and dogmatic method of attack adopt
ed by this editorial egotist, who has re-
served to his personal organ the exclusive
right to do that which he strongly disap-
proves in ministers-the right to criticise
It might be sufficient answer to this la
bored effort of the News to belittle and
minimize the abilities of the great agnostic,
to call attention TO the fact that during the
past few years such able and dignified gen
tlemen as Hon, jeremiah Black, Hon Wm.
Henry NJ. Field have considered Mr.. Inger-
soil worthy of their steel, each of them, at
the evidences of Christianity in the North
American Review. And ii is a circumSt ance
that. should blanch even the swart com
plexion of the News that, with the possible
exception of jeremiah Black, none these
gentlemen adopted the tactics of Il @per
in their several estimates Of Mr.. In ms
that in Mr.. Blacks defense of Chris. nifty
against Mr.. Ingersoll's imputations ne Wig
orously asserted the Righteousness of human
slavery, quoting from the Bible to sustain
his argument. Still later Mr.. Ingersoil was
David Swing. Robert Collier, De Witt Tai
mage and hundred others more or less
prominent in the public estimation; Swing
and Collier both distinctly recognized his
great ability and even spoke of his mission
an iconoclast-in terms of praise. Tall
was castigated numerically by his witty an
tagonist. At least one of these passages of
satire will bear reproduction. Mr.. Talmage,
way to abuse George Eliot for her alleged
heresy. Ingersoll retorted by quoting the
singing rebuke of Laertes. with a Slight
variation:
II tell thee, churlish priest,
A ministering angel shall this woman be
When thou Hest bowling"
The day following Mr.. Ingersolrs recent
lecture the News contained but single edi-
torial comment. 1t ran thus:
Most people, we imagine, would prefer to
err with Paul and Augustine, with Luther
Paschal and John Knox, with Dante, Milton
Ingersoil.n
This queer dedication can only be justi-
lied upon the assumption that most peo-.
pie are iliterate and unthinking mulIet-
atom of the ana ao DE- @ ta
sanctioned the burning of Bruno and
seryetus and imprisoned Calico I will
lis-the justice to Imagine Just the con-
trary. / sincerely trust that the News is
and candor of its readers Martin Luther
and John Wesley both believed in witch
craft, taking their cue from the Mosaic
to live" Mr.. Ingersoll does not believe in
Witchcraft and most people" agree with
thousands of women who were burned
to death under that cruel edict were the
murder. Paul said, LET your women keep
silence in the churches; and IL they
will learn anything. let them ask their
women to speak in the church,. The
Methodists. Quakers and other respectable
sects of to-day agree with Mr.. Ingersoll
in ignoring the narrow Pauline code with
reference to the rights of noble and devout
women. Leviticus twenty-fifth chapter.
plainly teaches the right to enslave 1.-THE
heather round about YOU" and Exodus.
twenty-first chapter, gives stakeholder
the privilege of whipping his bond-servant
TO death without mourning punishment
providing the poor wretch Finger day or
two-for he is his money that is, his
property But since the late shareholders
rebellion in this country most people are
in harmony with Ingersoll in regarding
slavery as a relic OF barbarism and the
slave-whip as symbol of torture and
murder A hundred more such instances
of agreement between modern Christianity
and agnosticism might be cited.
So on the whole sit doth not appear
that Rev. Joseph Afilburn would do himself
any dfscredit or his congregation any harm
by answering IngcrsoiU AS one of the
Doctors ardent admirers the writer would
be much gratifed to hear him do so, and
doubt his congregation would approve Of
the effort with confidence as to the out
come Meantime, 1t is more than likely
that most people would cheerfully excuse
the News from any further attempt at
task so distasteful to II and at the same
time so undeniaby arduous. j. G. @.
Indianapolis. March 81
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