The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1897-02-06

men. to jeer and laugh at what had here
tofore been regarded as the most sa-
cred truths of the scriptures.
Il believe such preaching" he saidi
''is not an. evidence of scholarship, but
of excessive impudence and folly. The
spectacle of a man holding a position
in an orthodox body standing up and
boldly putting forth such doctrines is
appalling in the extreme"
Other clergymen spoke in the same
line when DR. BatyS of Jamaica got up
and said he hoped the impression would
not get abroad that the meeting was
censuring DR.. Abbott as a body. Mr..
Williams said he had not mentioned DR..
Abbott by name. Then it was that all
that might be taken as condemnation of
DR.. Abbott was ruled out of order.
OF course Col. Robert G.. IngersoH is
interested. He returned from out of
town last night and was seen at his
home, No. 220 Madison avenue. A broad
smile spread itself over his genial coun-
tenance when he was asked what he
thought about the stand that DR.. Alb
bolt had taken.
about that Jonah business" he said,
Il agree with DR.. Abbott that the story
is unreasonable and grows out of an old
myth of a sun God. Nobody believes
that Jonah was actually swallowed by
fish and afterward thrown out on the
land. l mean anybody who thinks;
anybody who has a remnant of reason
left in his brain. The whole thing is
idiotic.
why should the citizens of Nineveh
have cried about the prOphesies of this
Jonah? They cared nothing for Jonah
and nothing for Jonah's God. And if
Jonah had gone to Nineveh and made
his proclamation it would have excited
no more interest in that city than would
be excited in this city by the declara-
ton of some tramp that New York was
about to be swallowed by an earth
quake unless the Bradley Martin ball
was abandoned.
a 7 hos
that he has a right to use his reason,
and if he will use his reason he need not
stop at the book of Jonah. The book of
Esther is just as idiOtic. So is the story
of Job, and several other books of the
Bible have no foundation in fact, in
probability or possibility.
Il hope DR.. Abbott will have the cour-
age to say his say. Those ministers who
are trying to save the story of Jonah
should turn their attention to the story
of Little Red Riding Hood, Jack the
Giant Killer. or Cinderella. All these
stories are equally creditable, and the
belief in one will produce just as much
morality as the belief in any other.
%The intelligent people of the world
have long ago thrown away all the in
spired miracles and all the divine alb
SurditieS. There is no virtue in believing
anything without evidence or against
evidence"
But DR.. Abbott also said that he did
not think it was a sacrilege to laugh in
church." it was suggested to Col. In
gerso1.
Il don't think it is sacrilgious to
laugh at anything that is really laugh
able he went on.
How people can hear DIR. Talmage
preach without laughing is beyond my
comprehension. How they could hear
any minister defend the book of Jonah
without breaking into a general guffaw
is more than 1 can understand.
LAS matter of fact the preachers of
absurdity have always on solemnity.
ion Il - H. i
er of a religion ever had any humor.
They have all been infinitely solemn
All the theologians keep straight faces
under circumstances that would seem to
make it impossible. How orthodox min
listers can meet each other without
laughing at each other is beyond me.
whenever they talk about there be-
ing no conflict between Genesis and ge-
ology, and quote Joshua as an authori-
ty on astronomy, how is it possible for
them to keep from laughing. 1 say, let
them laugh. The more the better. The
ministers certainly produce as much to
excite laughter as any class of men"
Col Ingerson was asked if he did not
feel very much hurt because the mem
berS of St. Thomas Roman Catholic
church insisted on having hislithograph
taken down from the lobby of the Har-
lem Opera House, where they had a
sacred concert on Sunday night and
where he is to lecture next Sunday
night. He laughed as he answered:
L understand that they had sacred
vaudeville at the Harlem Opera House
and that the Catholics who were giving
it objected to my Autograph. I suppose
it was because they thought they were
not good likeneSSeS. have objected to
them myself. These people being my
friends, felt dissatisfied, so you see
from this, L cannot by any possibility
blame them for having the Autographs
removed.
Il suppose that somebody having a
little extra zeal suggested that it would
be improper to carry on that kind of a
show in my pictorial presence. And
then the conclusion arrived at that
the Autographs should be removed was
without much thought. At a sacred
performance of that kind probably my
likeness would have caused some of the
faithful to wander from the subject in
hand"
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