The Topeka state journal., 1897-03-09
BIBLE OF
BARBARIANS
Is the Designation Applied to
the Scriptures
By Robert G.. IngersOll in His
New Lecture
GIVEN IN CHICAGO
For the First Time on Sunday
Night.
The Wise Care Nothing for the
Old Creeds Says IngersOlI.

an audience that overfiowed the build
ing. 1t is entitled Truth" The fol-
lowing is portion of it:
Man has groped and crawled and
stumbled toward the Holy Light. He
has been frightened by devils and
with miracles and lies, and in the
name of religion he has been taught
of the Bible of barbarians. Truth is
the intellectual wealth of the world
The noblest occupation of human be-
ing is to search patiently for it 1t
ciViliZeS, ennObleS and refineS. 1t is
sword and shield, and the man who
finds it lights a torch that dissipates
the darkness of Ignorance.
No subject can be too serious to be
understood, and every man and woman
should speak the truth. All investiga-
ton should be forever pursued in the
true to himself, and truth in accord
ance with his reason should be his
guide and friend. To throw away
your reason at the command of kings
or gods is to be a voluntary slave. 1t
is not simply a right; but it is duty
for every man TO investigate for him
self. Every human being should be
mentally honest. He should preserve
the stainless veracity of his soul He
should be unbiased by desire or fear.
He knows that truth is not dangerous;
he knows that error is. He should care
nothing for authority; nothing for
names; nothing for creedS; nothing for
anything that his reason does not say
is truth.
SEARCHERS FOR TRUTH.
His soul should wear the purple of
authority and be the king. At the same
hospitality The real searche- after
truth will not receive the old because
it is old, nor the new because it is new.
With him an utterance is worth the
truth, the grain of reason it contains.
The utterance neither gains nor loses;
it's value is utterly independent of the
man who gave IT to the world The
wise are not Swayed or governed by
numbers. They accept only what they
believe is true They care nothing for
old creeds or the opinions of ancestors
The real men and women are searchers
for truth, and when they find it they
receive it with joy. The chemist with
crucible and retort is trying to unrav-
el what nature has woven; the phySi-
clans, the surgeons, rely on human OBJ
servatiOns, and they want nothing but
the truth, and so 1t is also with the
nothing but the truth, no matter what
the dead men said or what the living
preach. Scientific men tell what they
know.
So every man should have the cour-
age to give his honest thought. The
publisher of truth is a public benefac-
tor, and those who hinder the publica-
ton of your honest thoughts are enc
mics of the truth. 1t will not do in this
age of the world to say that certain
ideas are sacred. Who knows they are
US which we do not know is true?
Thousands of ministers say that
when l die I shall cry out in my ag-
ony: ''Oh God. if I only had been a
hypocrite, how happy would I be-
Truth always has longed to be known
and always has desired to be under
stood. Truth loves the light, the open
fields; it appeals to the reason, and
seeks to destroy prejudice. 1t does not
ask man TO crawl or cringe. 1t says
to every man, Think for yourself, en-
SSd" Coy the courage and the freedom of a
Why should we reason? Why should
we be men? Why should we be the
property of a book written by savages?
Because we want to be men, the prop
erty of ourselves. We want it so that
the census of the universe can not be
taken without counting us. The world
must learn that no question can be set
tied by Ignorance, nor by solemnity,
nor by what they call spirituality
Man will do right, not for the sake
of reward in some other world but for
the sake of happiness here, and when
he reads these stories he will find that
the supernatural does not exist He
will find that man must be his own
providence.
The Protestant says it is the duty of
every one to read and study Revelation,
but If he honestly comes to the cOnclu-
sion that Revelation is wrong he is
eVerlastingly damned. No matter how
impossible miracle. you must believe;
no matter how cruel the laws. you must
believe in assassination and murder.
We read the Bible by the glare of hell
On one side is the devil and on the
other is God, ready to launch the ever
lasting curse-and the church tells us
to read and decide. The church says
Don't read the Bible; you can not un-
derstand il if you do That is why it
| is called Revelation. Gaughter) 1t
makes me think of the old man who
| used to pray, 20 Lord, I do not ask
thee for reason to understand, but for
the strength to belive it,
In old times they talked mainly of
| our eternal pain. To those who will
| bow and cringe they promise the musi-
| cal joys of eternity. If it cannot fright
en-. it will bribe. 1t relies on fear,
| Truth must appeal to intelligence, to
| judgment.
1 say tonight that the Christian
| scheme of salvation is dishonest. I say
it is immoral and say it is impossible
| A promised reward sheds no Intellectual
light and dissipates no darkness. 1 ask
! you tonight. is it honest to offer a re-
| ward for belief?
The man who gives money to q judge
or the man who promises it is guilty
| the bribe is not evidence. So the pro-
mise of Christ to reward these who be-
| HeYe is not honest. The man who says
| he believes on account of the promise
! cOrruptS his soul. and he is not honest
| Intelligent people do not ask for a re-
ward Every sermon that has told men
| they could have a reward by believing
| something has done an injury The
| true man, when asked to believe, asks
! for it; the true man, when he asks an
other to believe. asks him to accept
| the evidence The church has put a
: monster in the Sky and seeks to en-
! slave men. I show that hell does not
| exist, and they turn upon me.
| All the sciences, except theology, are
eager for the facts and hunger for the