The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-09-09
.ACNOST|C|SM OF TO-DAY
Rev. r. J. Briggs Address on
Some of Its Mis-
takes.
MYSTERIES OF THE BIBLE.
The Doctrines Advanced by Colonel
Robert lngersoll Placed UH-
der Fire.

At the regular Sunday afternoon service
at the Young Mems Christian Association
yesterday Rev. DIR. R. ]. Briggs of the
Centenary M. E. Church South, spoke
upon the mistakes of modern agnosticism
as represented by the teachings of Colonel
Robert G. Ingersoll. DIR. Briggs had In
gersoll's book of lectures with him on the
platform, and he also had the Bible, and
in the course of his remarks he quoted first
from one and then the other, comparing
the statements of the two and assailing the
doctrines advanced in IngersolPs writings
with arguments taken from the Scriptures.
DIR. Briggs began by commenting upon
the agnostic tendency of thought in this
nineteenth century. The absorbing inter-
est taken in material things in this day,
the race for money and for power, he said,
is binding mems thoughts to this world.
1t is more and more making man law
unto himself and is shutting God from out
our minds and our lives. Infdelity is
everywhere, he continued. and men have
to brace their faith and marshall all the
forces of their souls to live unscathed amid
the infection.
He then spoke distinctly of Ingersoll's
creed: Briefly" he said, " it is summed
up in three things-the denial of the
supernatural character of God, the charge
that the doctrines of the Bible tend to
destroy mans mental independence and
denial of the inspiration of the Bible.'
1ngersoll, he said, teaches tina. God and
religion are the creation of man, and to
prove it compared the development of the
arts OF man and then the development of
the human skull itself. The God of man,
lngersoll was quoted as saying, is the Gre
alton of the same being who with but a
spoonful Of brains in the back of his head
had for his only weapon club, for his only
vessel a dugout and for his only agri-
cultural implement crooked stick. The
Inference drawn was that the God of this
ancient savage was no more appropriate in
these days of modern genius, steamships
and steam plows than would be the club,
the dugout or the crooked stick.
This reasoning, DR.: Briggs claimed, was
absolutely false. While all these other
things have developed, the God of the an
clent Is the God of to-day, and even now
man understands him but little more than
his savage ancestors. Were God the crea-
ton OF man he would be like the idols of
the Chinese. the Jupiter or the Venus of
the heathens, the Osiris of the Egyptian
crafty, cunning or cruel, Just as the crea-
tors were themselves. But instead of that
erful. A being described as he now is by
Moses, when a golden calf was the full
measure of the people in god creation.
DIR. Briggs then spoke of the educational
influence of Christianity in answer to the
charge that the Bible will enthrall mems
minds, and then he spoke of the Bible as
an inspired book. Ee noted the fact that
1T had never been improved upon and that
life according to its precepts would be
truly one of righteousness. 1t was not
made to teach science, he said, but was
made to teach the doctrines of Christ, and
in doing that it did not contradict science.
1t says merely that God created the earth,
the heavens and the stars but it leaves
man to grow glorious in finding why they
were created. Could it be held to bind
mems minds when it teaches the doctrine
of the brotherhood of man? Could it be
made to sanction divorce when it says,
what God has Joined together let no man
put asunder?" Could it be made to teach
of cruelty and war when it breaches ''love
your enemles?"
In conclusion DR.. Briggs claimed that
the truths taught in the scriptures would
be always more or less mysterious, lust as
there are mysteries in science, for a
mystery is simply the measure of mans
ignorance, the limit of mans knowledge.
If men waited until a II the truths of science
were dispelled before believing, he said,
the world would remain in the densest
ignorance, and he who lives in doubt until
all the mysteries of the Bible are explained
is mt only to be cast from the presence of
the Master into outer darkness.
AT the conclusion OF the address the con-
gregation broke into applause, thing
which does not often happen in the associa-
tons Sunday afternoon services.
Daniel Schfeue, who, it is said. once