The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1895-02-02
A GREAT SERMON.
Such Was That Delivered by Arch
bishop Ireland Sunday Even
ing at the Church of
THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION
An Able and Eloquent Reply to
That Prince Of Agnostics,
Robert G. Ingersoli.

Au Ado 6uu G1OQu0ut 1O0p1y W
That Prince Of Agnostics,
> Robert q. Ingersoll.
The knowledge that Archbishop Ire.
land would deliver the sermon at the
Church Of the Immaculate Conception
last Sunday evening drew out an audi
ence Of fully $500 persons. Many creeds
we're there represented. AS had been
announced his subject was THE Bible,
What It Is, and What it Has Done" He
said:
The Bible! My soul goes out to it in
love, gratitude, reverence, worship. It is,
indeed, the Bible-the book of books.
The voice Of the great Master of the uni
verse speaks to me through it's pages; it's
light illumining the religious and moral
world radiates from His own divine face;
the sweetness which it distills is the ten
derness Of His own fatherhood. Written
in it are my hopes for time and eternity.
1t is Gods message to me, telling of my
Maker and of my relations to Him, mark
ing my road to bliss, sustaining me on
earth in trial and suffering until the
goal beyond heavens portals is reached
They who insult the Bible, insult what
is best in me and dearest to me; they in
suit my aspirations and my hopes; they
insult my God, and I were traitor to
myself and to Him were / not ready to
defend it, even at the sacrifice Of my life.
The enemies of the Bible have been
heard. What are their weapons OF at
tack? Deniels and assertions, arguments
totally beside the question, misstate.
snents and misconceptions. 1 give nc
consideration to loudness and assurance
OF tone and to vulgar sneers, &c apt, how
ever, to catch the attention of the un-
wary and the weak minded.
"The Bible an inspired book! Why,
that means that there is God. But
there is no God. God is guess" It is
we'll that the statement has been made.
The denial of God and the denial Of the
Bible go together, the one proceeding
from the other. But God is, and de-
NAL Of His being is denial Of your own
mind, which, if recognized in any meas
ure, compels us to confess God. A
famed modern thinker, Max Muller.
wrote q few days ago in the Nineteenth
Century" that he cannot be an sgnostic.
''After thousands Of years OF physical
and metaphysical research" ,"he says, tive
can say no more than that there Is Nous,
that there is mind and reason in nature.
So Majestic le Hassard (chance) has been
dethroned III scientific studies, and
neither natural selection nor struggle
FOR life nor the influences of environment
nor any other aliases of it will account
for the Logos, the thought which with
thousand eyes looks at us through the
transparent curtain OF nature and calls
for thoughtful recognition from the
Logos within us. IT any philosopher
can persuade himself that the true and
we'll ordered genera of nature are the re-
suit of mechanical causes, whatever name
he may give them, be moves in world
altogether different from his own:
This supreme mind is God, and, He
living and reigning, the Bible is possible.
It purports to be direct revelation from
God to the world of men. Cannot the
mind who made the universe and consti-
tuted it in the harmonies of law speak to
us through other manifestations than the
ordinary ones of nature? Is it not even
an antecedent probability shat He will
speak to US through manifestations su.
pernatural and extraordinary, since the
ordinary ones do not in matter vital to
US satisfy the questionings Of our minds
and the thirstings of our hearts? We
can never be made to believe that the
aky is so leaden that q message from the
Ruler OF Nature cannot come to US; that
the goodness and truth which nature
makes us attribute to Him cannot in di-
rect scintillations light and sweeten our
.darkened and desolate souls God is no
guess, and q revelation is no absurdity.
'The Bible book to be read and be-
lieyed! Why, it is replete with stories of
miracles, and q miracle is impossible! A
miracle is the badge and brand of fraud.
No miracle was ever performed. No in
telligent, honest man ever pretended to
perform miracle, and never will" But
miracles are possible, aye, anteoedently
probable. On what reasonable grounds,
NE ask, will it be said that the Supreme
Mind, from whom all beings in nature
receive their energies, has no energy of
11isown and . impotent at any moment
,o time to exercise it, to do within His
ealna what His owliest subjects may do?
~ il q 1yndall who writes