The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1896-04-13
INCERSOLL'S SERMON
Man Should Cease to Expect Aid From
Supernatural Source.
HIS TRIBUTE TO THE HOME
To Do All the Good You Can Is to
Be a saint In the Highest and
Noblest Sense-Let the
Child investigate.

Invitation extended by the pastor. Rev.
John Rusk The Militant church Is or
ganized for the purpose OF bettering
the condition of mankind, regardless of
creed or lack of IL. Colonel Ingersolrs
address. which was given in Hooley's
theater, was, in part, as follows:
Man has advanced just In proportion
that he has mingled thought with his
work, just I'm the proportion that he has
succeeded in getting his head and
hands into partnership. Nature, gem
erous and heartless. extravagant and
miserly as she Is. is our mother and our
only teacher. and she is also the deceiv-
er OF men. Above her we cannot rise
below her we cannot fall. In her we
ind the seed and soil of all that is good
OF all that is evil. Nature originates
nourishes, preserves and destroys Yet
for many years man in all directions
has relied upon and sincerely believed
In the existence of the supernatural
He did not believe in the uniformity OF
nature. He had no conception of cause
and effect, of the indestructibility of
force. For many centuries his only con-
ception of morality was the idea of obe-
dience, not to facts as they exist in ma
ture. but to the supposed command of
some being superior to nature.
BY experience. by experiment, possi-
bly, by accident, man found that some
diseases could be cured by natural
means; that he could be relieved, in
many Instances, OF pain, by certain
kinds of leaves or bark. This was the
beginning. Gradually his confidence in
creased in the direction of the natural
and begn to decrease in charms and
amulets. The war was waged for many
centuries, but the natural gained the
victory. So our ideas of mortality have
changed, and millions now believe that
whatever produces happiness and well
being is in the highest sense moral.
Ceremonies, prayers and inspired
books, miracles, special providence and
divine interference belong to the super
natural and forms no part of real re-
ligion. Every science rests on the nat
ural, on demonstrated facts. So moral
ity and religion must find their founda-
uOns in the necessary nature of things.
Ignorance being darkness, what we
need is intellectual light. Man should
cease to expect any aid from any su-
pernatnral source. BY this time he
should be satisfied that worship has not
created wealth and that prosperity is
not the child of prayer. Man should
turn his entire attention to the affairs
OF the world, to the facts in nature"
Colonel Ingersoll said that there
should be a stop put to the appeal to
said, peace had been preached, yet the
civilized world had impoverished itself
supporting vast armies and navies. In
stead of paying these amounts out for
the purpose OF killing and preparing
to kill our fellow men," they would bet
ter be applied in building schools and
supplying the wants of the people. An
court where international
difference might be settled was the
proper solution OF the question, he
thought. There was another direction
in which energies and wealth of man
were wasted. Immense amounts had
been paid for the erection of costly
church ediflces, and vast other sums
were paid for keeping them up. The
returns are remarkably small. said he;
the good accomplished does not appear
to be great. There is no great diminu-
tion in crime. The decrease OF immoral |
ity is hardly perceptible.
In towns OF 1000 to 5000 people, Col |
onel Ingersoll would have all churches !
in one. in a general building. |
In this building should be the library |
Of the town. 1t should be the club |
house OF the people; plays should be |
presented by home talent; rooms for Z
billiards, cards and chess should be ar
II should be the intellectual
center
They could employ a gentleman OF
ability, possibly of genius said he.
ito address them on Sundays on sub
Iects that would be of real interest, or
real Importance. He should base his
sermons on history. and the genius OF
Greeks. Let him make his congrega-
ion conversant with the PHILOSOPHERS
IF the world. with the great thinkers,
he great poets, the great artists, act
)rs, orators, inventors. captains OF in
lustry. the soldiers of progress. Let
hem have a Sunday school in which
he children shall be made acquainted
.rfs 60. -
entomology. something of geology and
astronomy. II spite of all that has
been done for the reformation of the
world, IL is still cursed with poverty
md crime. Penitentiaries. he said,
hould be transformed into schools and
workshops and the convicts should be
and paid a reasonable sum
or their tabor"
Colonel Ingersoll paid a pretty tribute
o the home. The more homes. he said,
he broader the foundation OF the ma
ion and the more secure. Everything
hould be done to keep this from being
nation OF tenants The men who
the earth should own IT, He
would exempt homes from sale not only
Inder execution, but free from every
description OF taxes. In granting di-
-orces. he would give the wife a di-
orce IF she requested IL: II she want
d H." There is no danger in demor-
lizing the world through divorce He
Fould not allow the man TO cast OF his
Tife unless she had flagrantly violated
he marriage contract. But for the
AXE OF the community he would give
he woman a divorce for the asking
here would never be a generation OF
reat men until there had been a gen ;
ration OF free women.
The speaker referred 10 the labor
uestion and said he saw no satisfac-
Dry solution Of IL except through the
Utilization OF employers and employed.
ireat railroads should pay pensions 10
heir worn-out employees and care foT
hem in their old age. The employe IA
lust learn TO make reasonable de-
lands of his employer. Every child !
hould be taught TO be self-supporting. I
nd everyone should be taught 70 avoid 1