The herald., 1896-04-15
A REPLY TO COL. |NG[RSO[L.
DR.. John P. D. John Defends
the Bible
AGAINST AGNOSTIC ATTACK
The Book is Not Given to Teach
Science
Yet Moses Saw Without the Spectroscsps All
the Best Modern Scientist Can See
With One.
ASSOCIATED Press Special wire.

Associated Press Special Wire.
CHICAGO, April 14.-Dr. John P. D.
John, president of the Depauw Uni.
versity and a well-known Methodist
minister replied this morning to the adj
dress of Col. Ingersoll, made at the Mill
itant church on Sunday. DR.. John said
in part:
II do not intend to abuse Mr.. Inger-
SOIL Abuse is not argument. He has
proposed some difficult questions to the
defenders of the Christian faith. 1t IL
not a sufficient answer to say that he
is a blasphener. That is to beg the
question. Mr.. Ingersoll claims that the
Christian religion and its reputed au-
thor are both man-made, and therefore
no better than the man who made them.
He objects to the reputed author of the
Bible on the ground that, like the man
who made him, he is ignorant, cruel,
savage, unjust immoral, inconsist-
ent, unfaithful, and that he is opposed
to art. science, education progress and
liberty. He objects to the Christian
scheme on the broad ground that 1t il
unscientific; that, having been made by
unscientific men, it is contrary to fact
unnatural, SuperStitiouS and not adapt
ed to the task it proposes.
THE Bible must be judged by the
manner in which it does what 1t pro-
fesses to do and not by a foreign stand
ard 1t came to teach men of duty and
destiny; not to teach art, science or
literature. Judge the Bible by what it
says of duty and destiny and not by
what it omits, of the things it did not
come to teach
Life is the gift of God in trust
The most refined ideals of justice de-
mand that trust once accepted must
be surrendered according to it's terms.
and that the bestower of such a trust
may of right determine the conditions
of the bestowal. But the agnostic says
that he was rot consulted about thG
trust and it is unjust to make him Q
compulsory party to the transactions.
He has, however, accepted the terms of
the trust and he stoutly claims all the
advantages arriving therefrom. At
tempt to relieve him of his embarrass-
ment by taking his life and he protests
against your well-meant endeavors.
why did God, with whom miracle
is so easy" says Mr.. Ingersoll, make
the Israelites at once what he
wanted them to be, without ed
ucating them through the hor-
cause He could not. God can make
clods the way he wants them, and 50
they will remain, but He cannot make
parallel lines meet, for they will no
longer be parallel, and he cannot make
men virtuous against their wills, for
they will no longer be men,"
But Mr.. Ingersoll raises his chief
objection against God because of it's
proposed dealing with men in the next
world. He hates hell, he says, and SO
do I, but neither of us can hate it out OF
existence. Hell is already here. Tha
majority of mankind are already in
it's fires. But the hell to come is not the
one described by Mr.. Jngersoll. and long
ago described by intelligent Christians.
There is no hell here or hereafter. other
than that whose fires are kindled by the
law of sowing and reaping. He'll has
already come, because sin has come.
and it will remain as long as sin en-
dures
"All the intellectual objections
against the Bible may be put under
the one general charge, that is. it is
unscientific, or that it Is contrary to
fact. unnatural. superstitious and not
adapted to its work. Does the Bible
conflict with any known fact of mod
ern science? If so. that much of it is
not inspired. If not, it must'have been
inspired for the best astronomical,
geographical and biological knowledge
contemporary with the age of the sa-
cred writers was q chaotic mass of ig-
norance. If you had been guessing
5000 years ago about the creation Of
light-yea. less than century ago
you would have guessed the sun first
and light simultaneously or afterward.
But Moses made a happier guess He
saw without the spectroscope what o,lr
generation has seen with one"