Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1897-11-27
INGERsOLL's THANKS.

4eooOiu W 4uScioOlt k-Slifel Oh u
Thanksgiving sermon" in the Chica go
Auditorium Thursday night, which, to
use his own words, was religious, but
neither solemn nor orthodox
''For the blessings we enjoy" said
the orator in beginning, ''for the hap
piness that is ours, we ought 10 be
grateful. Our hearts should blossom
with thankfulness. Whom, what
should we thank Should we thank
the church? What good has the
church done? Has it taught man to
cultivate the earth? To build homes
To weave cloth? To cure or prevent
diseases? To build ships? To navi-
gate the seas? To conquer pain or to
lengthen life?
ibid Christ or any of his apostles
add to the sum of useful knowledge ?
Did they say one word in favor of any
.cieuce, of any art? Did they explain
any OF the phenomena of nature? Any
of the facts that affect the life of
man? Did they say anything in favor
Of finvestieation-ofs study-of thought :?
Did they teach the gospel of selfre-
:iance, of industry, of honest effort?
1.-The saints didn't assist their fellow
mep. Their fellow men assisted them.
They did not labor for others. They
were beggars, parasites, vermin. They
were insane. They took no thought
for the morrow. They mutilst' d
their bodies, SCARED their flesh and de-
stroyed their minds for the sake of hal :
piness in another world. Duricg be
journey of life they kept their eyes Oh
the grave. Their moans made all the
music they wished to hear.
"Wbat has the church done? For
centuries it kept the earth fat For
centuries it made all the hosts of heaven
travel around this world. For centuries
it clung to sacred knowledge and
ought facts with The feroci'y of 6erd
For centuries it hated the useful. Ii
was the deadly enemy of medicine.
Disease was produced b. devils, and
could be cured only by priests, d. cay
ing bones and holy water. Doctors
were the rivals of priests. Tney divert
sd the revepueF.
1.-THE Church made the wife slave
the property of the hushand-and it
placed the husband as much above the
vile as Christ was above the husband
1t taught thst nun is purer, nobler
han mother. I induced millions OF
pure and conscientious girls TO re-
nounce the joys of life, to take the vel!
woven of night and dearh, to wear the
babilimeuts OF the dead, and MADE them
believe they were brides Of Chrs. For
my part, would as soon be widow as
rhe bride of man who had beeD dead
for eighteen huadred years
"Shall we thank nature? Does ma
ture care for us more tGan for leaves, or
grsss, or flies? Does nature know thai
we exist? We do not know. But we
do know that nature is going to murder
us all.
"Why should we thank nature? Il
we thank God or nature for the sun
shine and rain, for health and bappi-
uess, whom shall we curse for famine
and pestilence, for earthquake and cy-
clone, for disease and death? ? If we
cannot thank nature-if we cannot
koeel to a guess, or PROSTATE ourselves
before a perhaps-whom shall we
thank ?'
"What have the worldly done? They
went into science, medicine, establish
ed schools and Taught men to think.
Trey have rescued Us from the prisons
of fear, and snatcbed our souls from the
fangs and claws of superstition's loath'
some, crawling, flying beasts. They
have given us the liberty to think ana
the courage to express our thoughts.
"Whom shall we thank? Standing
here at the close of the nineteenth cen
,ury. amid the trophies of thought, the
criumphs OF genius, here under the flag
of the greet republic, knowing some
thing of the history of man, here on
this day that has been set apart Tor
thanksgiving, l most reverently thank
the good men, the good women of the
past. | thank the kind fathers, the
loving mothers of the savage days. l
thank the father who spoke the trst
gentle word, the mother who hrst
smiled upon her babe.
81 thank the first true friend, the
poets, the artists, the philosophers, the
thinkers, the astronomers, the geolo'
gists. the anatomists, the chemists, the
dramatists, the great novelists, the
great sculptors, the great painters, tne
statesmen, the scientists.