Smyrna times., 1899-08-02

others feelings.
All his thoughts linked to felicitous |
phrase he uttered without conscious
effort, thinking, no doubt, that they
expressed his matured convictions;
but unlike Lincoln, who mastered his
his words, Ingersoll was often mastered
by them. 1t is.not difficult to see how
they carried him from one extrava-
gance to another, until the verge of
blasphemy, and sometimes of vulgar
ity was reached and passed.
He was a natural poet-actor, not of
the sort to memOrize part and study
how to interpret it; but, whatever he
was doing, his mind and expression
adapted themselves to it automatically.
He saw his thoughts in pictorial forms.
He had almost, if not entirely, lost the
sentiment of reverence. The love of
fun and frolic, which was natural to
him, is not incompatible with rever-
ence; but if the proper objects of rev.
erence are dethroned it dominates the
man. Colonel Ingersoll had expelled
God, inspiration, prayer, Providence,
and the religious sanctity of an oath
from his intellectual Pantheon, and
degraded Immortality to taunting in
terrogatiOn point. Henceforth all his
references to objects of reverence were
strained and unnatural. He said many
true and beautiful things of conjugal
parental love, of patriotism and hero
ism; but to speak of freverencing equals
is a misnomer.
Hence it is that he stands alone
among modern cultivated English
speaking opponents of Christianity in
the superfuous blasphemy which he
permitted himself to utter. Like all
makers of epigrams, he won applause
by half truths and solecisms. These
carried him so far that he could en-
Joy the laughter he evoked by exclaim-
ing, can honest God is the noblest
work of man."
These elements in his character and
:, style explain why nothing cOnstruc-
tive was ever done or attempted by
him. For more than thirty years he
! was discussing religion, morals, and
society, but he ever strove to destroy,
never to build.
Divergent views exist as to the effect
. of Colonel Ingersoll's assaults upon
Christian progress. From the time he
began till now the growth of Chris
:, tianity has been very rapid, as shown
in the number of church edifces, com
Y municants, Sunday schools and schOl-
s ars, hospitals, the wonderful Chris
: tian Endeavor Society, and denomi
n national societies on the same plan
/ whose total membership is larger thai
: all Professionalism in this country whel
he declared that ''orthodox religion i
" dying out of the world because smit
4 ten with two diseases: Justification o
o the heart and softening of the brain.
! Roman Catholicism also is growing
T rapidly. The value of such statistic
a alone is not so great as some think
d but they cannot be ignored.
If With the views of those who say tina
# Colonel Ingersoll has done but littl
,t harm to Christianity we have no sym
}. pathy. He has filled many young me-
r with the germs of unbelief, led theI
D to neglect religious worship, to re
d nounce or fail to form the habit O
at private prayer, and to their minds ha
is transformed the Bible into jest book
II He has furnished abundance of mater
D. ial to be used throughout the land t
ID foster opposition to the Church. H
10 has made death and the state beyond
r triflng theme, and owing to his pOpu
larity as a personality and as an orator
q the press has given more space to hil
&C and his sayings than to all other avowe
g opponents to Christianity combined
.. He has kept up the spirits of the in
n moral, and been the patron saint of th
lv suicide. Though he maintained ths
know one knows whether their be
4 God or not, or if there be what kind {
n a God He is; and whether there be
h. future state, he was less prudent tina
- Hamlet, who concluded, eft is bette
. to endure the ills we have than fly t
y. those we know not Of. Ingerso
4. wrote: "Under many circumstances
lv man has right to kill himself.
n. When life is of no value to him, whe
- he can be of no assistance to other
nv why should he continue? When he
To burden to those he loves, why shoul
~, he remain?
90 In this city alone in few montl
5a twelve men and women died by the
- own hands, upon whose person or
~ whose abode were found extracts fro
10 his justification of suicide. AS to ha'
seen certain pictures once, poisons Il
NJ mental and moral blood, so to ha
- heard his sarcasms upon God, his
90 nunciation of future punishment, al