The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-03-14
ANSWERS TO INFIDELIrY
ADDRESS AT GRAND OPERA HOUSE
 BY II. L, HASTINGS.

Auspices of Y. M. c. A,-nIen Who Won't
 Believe What They Cannot See and
 Understand.
 II. L. Hastings of Boston, one of the best known anti-infidel lecturers and writers in the country, addressed a large meeting held under the auspices of the Y. M. c. A. in the Grand opera house yesterday afternoon. Congrega- tional singing and selections by the Yale Y. M. c. A. quartet and the Y. M. c. A. Glee club added much to the meeting. It is proposed by Secretary opera house on coming Sundays and committee of 150 or more will be ap- pointed to invite men to attend from all over the city.
 MT. Hastings was greeted with ap- plause as he was presented to the au- dience. He spoke in part as follows on the subject of infdelity: "A great many people to-day find it difficult to believe in the Bible, and many people fall into habits of disbelief. We must remember, however, that there are diff faculties in the way of disbelief, as we'll as of belief. Why do you suppose it is that so many good people go wrong, Sunday school superintendents espec- | tally? Why is it that so many good men go wrong and rob banks and com- | init other sins? One reason doubtless | is that no one ever steals anything | that is not within his reach. Perhaps some of them get in among. the pious | people in order that they may have this opportunity. Of the twelve disci- | pies whom Christ chose, one was a thief. Do you suppose that more than | 8 per cent. of Christian people to-day are thieves? Sometimes you hear of a democrat who steals; sometimes of a republican who steals, and we know | that lawyers and doctors and men of other professions are not always hon. 1 est; but we never hear so much said about their wrong doing, as we do when a minister or a deacon does | wrong. The reason of this is that it | Is news when minister or a deacon does wrong. One hundred men might | be arrested for drunkenness tonight | and the newspapers tomorrow morn l ing would not contain more than line about it, but if should be arrested for drunkenness it would be telegraphed all over the country It is nothing un- usual for some men to get drunk; it would be something new for me to get drunk.
 Once in Hyde Park, London, man said to friend with me, I don't be- lieve anything that cannot see. A few minutes later the wind whisked off his hat. My friend asked him, What took off your hat?' and he replied '"The wind.' How do you know 1t was the wind?" my friend asked him, | Did you see it?"
 l The man who will only believe what he can see will find many things to perplex his creed. Steam is invisible true fire is invisible, the life giving oxy- gen Is invisible. 'The things that are seen are temporal, but the things that are not seen are eternal. The things that are seen about us are liable to be transformed into invisible and more permanent forms. The man who does not believe in anything he cannot see would not find much to believe in a London fog when an electric light is in visible across the street, and if he was struck blind he would believe nothing at all All the Inventors of things that were new have had faith in things which they did not believe. The man who does not believe only in what he sees rides in the tail end of the cart and looks back while other people are driving ahead
 Some men, too, will believe only what they can understand. Such men have short creeds, too. If a book was print ed with the things they understand, and another with the things they don't understand, we would be surprised at the difference between the two books. If such man has two children, one with red hair and blue eyes and the other with black hair and black eyes can he explain the cause of the differ ence. A pig eats grass and it becomes bristles, an OK eats grass and it be- comes hair, goose eats grass and it becomes feathers. 1t anyone here un- derstands the reason why, let him get up and explain it to me.
 Other men say that the Hindoo writ | ings are as good as our Bible They can't read the former, and they wont read the latter. The speaker vigorous ly defended the Bible and cracked one or two time honored jokes at the ex- pense of the evolutionists. He said that Christianity Is a very healthy re- ligion, and backed up his assertion by statistics as to the death rate among ministers. saloonkeepers and others. He also battled on behalf of the "old fo- gies," saying that'they were men who had not wasted their lives in dissipa- tion and that the devils fogies never lived to be old fogies.
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