The San Francisco call., 1896-04-13
Arbitration Between Nations and
More Civilization for the
Individual,
BELIEVES IN FREE DIVORCE.
The Great Agnostic's Theories as to
the Complete Reformation
of Mankind.

chapter OF Luke, commencing with the
twenty.fifth verse, the singing of an
hosanna of Nearer Ny God to Thee"
and America" the greatest living agnos-
tic of the age stepped to the rostrum of
the Church Militant this morning and for
nearly two hours expounded to the con-
gregation his views upon How Mankind
Could Be Reformed"
The Church Militant is composed of the
major portion of the former adherents of
the Fullerton-avenue Presbyterian Church,
one of the strongest parishes of that de-
nomination in the city and who, with
their pastor, Rev. DR.. J ohm Rusk, branched
off into an independent organization some
months ago, as result of oposition of
the minority of the congregation to the
introduction of radical changes in the
conduct of the services, including the use
OF an instrumental orchestra and the at
tachment to the parish of employment,
hospital clubhouse and other guilds
Some time ago an invitation was ex-
tended to Colonel Robert G. Ingersoll to
deliver an address under the auspices of
the congregation, and it was in response
that he found himself in Its rostrum to-
day.
At the time the invitation was extended
the congregation held its services in the
Women's Christian Temple, but so much
feeling was manifested by the managing
board of that structure over the idea of an
agnostic speaking within its precincts that
the Columbia Theater was secured for a
term of years, and it therefore fell to
Colonel lngersoll to inaugurate the SER
vices in the new meeting place.
Although admission was strictly con-
fined to ticket-holders the street in front
OF the theater was blocked with people
long before the opening of the doors, and
even after the interior had been packed to
Suffocatlon over thousand men and
women besieged the entrance. On the
stage were 400 or more representative citi-
zens, including every member of the APP
pellate and Superior judiciary, several
Federal and county officials, delegations
from every medical and law college and
institution of learning in the city and
suburbs and a number of retir-d divines
Every sect and denomination, without an
exception, had its preventative.
When Colonel Ingersoll made his ap-
pearance arm in arm with DR.. Rusk there
was loud applause mingled with murmurs
from some who seemed to regard such
demonstration as foreign to a religious
service. In the prayer that followed the
musical exercises DR.. Rusk asked for
special blessing on their guest of the dav.
who was endeavoring to show the world
how this life might be made one of use
fulness and Joy, and also invoked dis
pensation for his wife and children.
In his Introductory remarks DR.. Rusk
ofor, md rof@
man who is endeavoring 20 do this world
good and to make it better" This, he
said, was no time to reason-no time to
disagree with the faiths of men or beliefs
of men when they were trying to make the
world better than they found it. No mat.
ter, he said, whether a man believed in
God Or not if he expounded the truth
then the truth was there and God was
there.
AS Colonel Ingersoll stepped to the ros-
trum he was welcomed with applause that
lasted for over minute. With the sugges-
tion that while bis hearers and himself
nigh be travelling different roads, they
were all trying to add to human joy and
happiness, he took as his text the quota
tion from Shakespeare, whom be charac-
terized as "The greatest of human beings"
There is no darkness but ignorance.
For two hours he spoke upon the neces-
sity of arbitration as a substitute for war
the need for new methods in the treatment
OF criminals, the desirability of the occu-
pancy of the prairies of the West for
homes as panacea for the tenement svs-
tenn, the question of divorce, the relations
of capital and labor and the need of re-
form in the education of children. Alter
tracing the progress of war from the dark
ages, dwelling upon the belief of the saw
age in the supernatural and on the super
stitions of the ignorant, and recounting
the throwing off of shackle after shackle
that bound the human mind in the past.
he took up the methods of reforming the
world, saying in part:
Ignorance being darkness, what we need is
Intellectual light. The most important things
to teach as the basis of all progress is that the
universe is natural; that man must be the
providence of man; that by the development
OF the brain we Can avoid some of the dangers
some of the evils, overcome some of the OBJ
structions and take advantage of some OF the
facts and forces OF nature; that by invention
and industry we can supply, to reasonable
degree, the wants of the body, and by thought,
study and effort we can in part satisfy the
hunger of the mind.
Man should cease to expect any aid from any
supernatural source. By this time he should
be satisfied that worship has not created
wealth and that prosperity Is not the child of
prayer. He should know that the supernntu.
raj has not succored the oppressed, clothed the
naked, fed the hungry, shielded the innocent,
staid the pestilence or freed the slave.
Being satisfied that the supernatural does
not exist, man should turn his entire atten ton
to the affairs OF this world to the facts in ma
ture.
And, first of all, he should avoid waste-waste
of energy, waste OF health. Every good man,
every good woman, Should try to do away with
war and stop the appeal to savage force. Man
in savage state relies upon his strength. and
decides tor himself what is right and what is
wrong. Civilized men do not settle their diff
ferences by a resort to arms. They submit the
quarrel to arbitrators and courts. This is the
great difference between the savage and the
civilized. Nations, however, sustain the rela.