The San Francisco call., 1896-02-14
YORK TO YoRKE.

YORK TO YoRKE.
The Liberal Lecturer Says the
Priest Has Not Answered His
Arguments.
DR.. ]. L. York, the liberal lecturer, sends
the following communication in reply to a
letter from Father Yorke:
>, Mr.. Editor AS to Father Yorke's reply in
iHE GALL OF last Wednesday to my lecture oi
last sunday night let me briefly say that his
reply is a literary novelty, and while we were
almost overwhelmed with bis deluge OF words,
ana deeply impressed with his learned dis
duisition, we fail to find any reply in refu ta-
ture.
The subject of my lecture, Revelation and
ttnssplratlon," ~ upon which i spoke, he replies
" ps d play OF words about the eternity and
unlYersality of matter, and tells us that "mat-
yer is Inc antlthesis of universally" and does
'to no. IN reality exist at all, and the reason he
cause 1t can be burned up as coal is burned up.
~ DuI Goes the gentleman presume upon the ig-
nofance OF the reader Even schoolboy
as matter it was by combustion convertible
INTO hight and heat, and still exists in other
forms. VIII Father Yorke deny this in plain
ss,. ees[ms, ana without verbosity, as life is too
Again, Father Yorke says, "that the univer-
salty OF matter is not a fact, because matter
can De cut into chunks and some of it put here
ana some OF 1T put there, and therefore it is the
yersal."
We were not talking about chunk of coal
vi cnunk OF any other of the various forms of
matter in our lecture, but simply matter, that
QlVlne substance of which all things are COM
posed. Will our friend, Father Yorke, point
out 10 the readers of THE CALL what there Is
that is not matter or dependent upon material
Tor It's existence? Ana, again, viii he make
snotner an contribution to the science OF our day
uy asVealing 10 the readers OF average acume n
what place there is, and where it is, that mat
Ter IN some form does not exist?
fatner 1orke says that I am unscientifc.
Meil, perhaps l did not express myself with
tnat degree OF perspicuity which / should do,
ana promise to do better in the future, but l
VIII stand by my statements as 10 the eternity,
ueniversal1ty and divinity of matter, and SO
lar as rather Yorke's reply is concerned they
stand unrefuted Father Yorke says that CDR
YORK has never seen matter, never touched
mater, never came in direct contact with
proposition is this. To what purpose and end
are the phenomena of sight. hearing, feeling
tastlng ana smelling if we do not come in con-
tact with the realm of physics?
AND II the contact of our senses with matter
is indirect, what is the medium of contact?
AND Whatever the medium of contact may be
ose oees not olsProve the existence or Immortality
OF matter, and | cannot account for such
statement unless 1t be that natures science is
not taught, perhaps, to any great extent in
o oathee the schools Oh perhaps as Eesns said
much learning doth make thee mad" And
with such unconvincing proofs of the truth OF
Christianity as Father Yorke has furnished in
King Agrippa, f'Almost thou persuadest me
TO be Christian" And yet we may agree to
dlsagree and get to heaven after all.
Father y Yorke says that when DIR. York saws
that matter cannot be destroyed he is CON
founding matter with energy or force" Not
so. We are not making any such mistake. 1t
is Father Yorke that is confounding force with
matter hat
existence and yet is function of force. This
is about as clear as mud. Now, if we know
anything we know that matter is a self-evident
TACT, and when l run against a rocking-chair
and knock a big piece of skin from my shins
no Christian science, tweedledee and tweedle-
dum, now you see it and now you don't theory
can make 1t clear that matter is nothing-and
force junction of nothing.
Such logic as this may do to sustain the
Christian theology and absurd dogmas of the
church, but will hardly answer the purpose of
seekers after truth. OF matter we may know
few things we find it in multifarious
forms. But OF force we know OF IT only as we
see it manifested in matter, inherent in
matter and coexisting with it, and no doubt
eternal in its existence.
Father Yorke says my statements are
puerile. What shall say to him in a kindly
spirit and in truth which win not be puerile?
And am surprised that man of God and
presumably a lover of truth. should so lar
forget himself as TO resort TO the most paltry
sophistry and quibbling evasions of the simple
facts OF nature. And what q pity that reason,
the light of God in the soul, should be SO pros
tituted and blurred as to deal in this hair
splitting, subtle way in his comments on our
lecture, which, to draw IL mild, is beneath the
dignity of the cloth as well as the subject
under discussion.
And am reminded by the craft and cunning
OF Father Yorke, as displayed in his peculiar
style of reasoning, OF Father Lambert's book
and his reply TO Robert G. IngersolPs lecture,
in which Colonel Ingersoll said. "Fire burns
poison kills and water always runs downhin''
Whereupon Father Lambert occupies five
pages of his book to destroy the force OF five
little words of lngerson: that "Water always
runs downhill.' Father Lambert fatly de-
MED the statement, and argued that more
water went uphill in the stems of vegeta-
tion in day than ran over Niagara Falls in a
whole year. Such reasoning and evasion of
truth as this can only be required by men on
the walls of Zion to prove the mysteries of su-
perstition. We trust that Father Yorke will
forgive US If we have been too harsh in our
reply to his comments on our lecture and it is
only the letter which killeth while the spirit
of it was intended TO give life and quicken our
apprehension of truth.
We scorn the idea of controversy for the sake
of controversy, and only in the interest of
truth and sincere belief is debate and contro-
yersy justifisble,, and our modesty in this re-
gard will be regulated by our appreciation of
how little we know of the great questions
which concern our belief. knowledge and be.
lief are two widely different things, ,nd as our
realm OF knowledge is increased our realm of
theory and beliefs proportionately decreased
And happy is the man who has discovered his
own limitations, es he will then be able to see
the limitations of others. And what great
bargain it would be for some if they could be
bought for what they really know and sold for
what they half believe and pretend to know
about God and religion, and at the best are
only blind leaders ofthe blind.
And as to the great religious discussion now
going on in The CALL, and the prodigious
amount OF good brains and labor expended on
the part of the A. p A. and Catholic clergy in
their struggle over the knotty problems of
church and state, it is a good omen. And we
think that this war OF words will do much to
enlighten the mass of our people on the great
questions so vital to the peace and stability OF
our Republic
We think II is good thing that the church
has been called to the front to define her atti-
tude TO State and school, and that Protestan t.
ISM as well as Romanism, must take the hint
ana keep religion out of politics and hands off
from our free schools
OF course political shysters and cheap patri-
otism have had much to do in promoting a
gospel OF hate between Protestant and Roman
CHRISTIANS, which will cease when Christians
discover That this is not Christian country
ana lis constitution is free from religious taint
and yet affords ample protection to all religious
faiths In the enjoyment of religious liberty.
DR.. j. L. YORK.