The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1899-08-28
INGERSOLL THE MAN
REV. A. N. ALcOTT, OF MINNEAP-
OILS, breaches ON THE
GREAT AGNOsTIC
DUTIFUL TO HOME AND STATE

The Exponent of UnbeIief Was
Thoughtful, Cultured and SchOI-
arIy, Having Received a ReIiG-
iOus Education In u CaIvinistic
HOme-He Spent His Life Force
Preaching His Theories.
Rev. A. N. Alcott Of Minneapolis. spoke
at the Church Of the Messiah. Univer-
sallst' yesterday afternoon, on the sub
ject of Robert G. Ingersou and Re-
Igien' the speaker taking the opposite
stand to the purely materialistic views
or the deceased agnostic His discourse
was based on Corinthians, H., 10: 2, For
we can do nothing against the truth. bur
LOT the truth In part the speaker said:
There Is a deep law running through
the universe. which, in the long run.
guarantees truth to men, no matter what
specious errors arise to oppose 1t, or to
wear its livery. None Of us can do any,
thlng against the truth In the long run
no matter what our notions may be The
kindly and quiet tone of the church in
general and the religious press towards
MI. Ingersoll at the time Of his sudden
ana unexpected death, and the sympathy
for the bereaved. reminds one very much
OF the kindness Of Joseph towards his
brethren. Notwithstanding their error,
Egypt's prime minister received them
into the frank, open arms Of his hospi-
taltty, saying Fear not The church,
through its pulpit, and especially it's
press. has said to Mr.. Ingersoll, in effect,
rear not, we will not unkindly treat
your memory, for we see a deep eternal
law of the universe ever working to util-
ize all error and to establish more firmly
the good and true
Il should be ashamed of myself if I
should speak in terms or spirit harshly
OF him, as l hope the day of denuncia-
ton IN religion, for or against, has gone
by. In the whirf and noise of this worlds
affairs there are some things which are
permanent and Interchangeable Some in
terests and realities which remain ever
the same One OF these, yes, the greatest
Of these, is religion
cit is eternal in the minds sky as the
bright star in the heavens, past which
the light clouds fly moment by moment,
but which remains stable and unmoyabIe
beam1ng on us ever and anon through
the open spaces, and will not away The
supreme questions concern only the en-
1stence of the Superior Power, of duty
and of soul life.
The popularity OF Mr. IngersoVs posi-
ton was one held by many others of his !
time, position which represents a pass
ing tendency of the times, and I on:y
connect his name with it because he was
the most witty, brilliant and popular ex-
pcnent of it. He declared himself an ag-
nostic as to the existence of a supreme
intelligence and as to certainty of soul
life The influence of The idea of deity
and of immortality are thus cut out of
his life. AS sun and moon lift the tides
of the ocean, so have those two great
truths, when recognized, lifted the tides
OF human life. The agnostic position de-
prives human life of hope and it be-
comes that much smaller and approaches
the life Of the animal races, whom we
assume to have no thought of superior
intelligence or of continuity of life
Mr.. Ingersoll certainly has been cred
tied with being dutiful and beautiful in
his relations to his home, his fellows and
the state. One can only wonder that men
and women, for there are women among
them, who are thoughtful, cultured and
scholarly, can dismiss from their belief
two such great realities as the existence
of a Deity and the soul, and the great
fact which is wrongly called death and
which should be rechristened birth. Mr.
Ingersoll was born and received his re-
hgious education in Calvinistic home.
He seems, therefore, never TO have been
able to eXpel from his mind the idea of
God, if there were one at all, who was
outside of nature and the universe a
huge, man-fashiOned personality, inter
posing, interfering and executing his de-
crees very much as a human being would
do. That notion stuck invincibly to his
mind to the last, as the only possible con-
ceptiOn Of Deity.
If we got no further than the Calvin
istic cOnceptionJ of God we should now
probably have. no God at ali, as Mr.
Ingersoll never did. Now modern science
has carried us irresistibly over to that
cosmic conception of Deity which passes
under the name of the Divine Imma-
nence; not a man-fashioned personality,
but an infinite cOsnic intelligence a
measureleSS spirit, a heart and mind
commensurate with the universe Had
Mr. 1ngersoll ever made the intellectual
transit from the old conception of trans
cendencc to the new conception of the
lmmanence, he would never have been
an agnostic. But his mind stuck where
it had been first educated, as there are
many people who are never educated hut
once. He was educated to the idea which
was, and is the orthodox one, hut which
even the enlightened among the orthodox
are now modifying very materially, that
the historic, theoretic ceremonial and
philosophical parts of the Bible we're in
spired and revealed as well as it's religion
or moral and spiritual parts. The Bible
Itself dlSclaims this, as does modern
scholarship and the higher criticism. He
spent his life force in the effort to dis
miss the Bible out of our lives, and then.
curiously enough, tells US what he be-
heves in, and a substitute he names
liberty, the love of truth, women. chill
dren, the home, the worship of beauty,
right, honesty, every one of which pre-
cepts and sentiments can be matched
with equal beauty of expression and with
more than golden eloquence in the scrip
lures. Mr.. Ingersoll has said many good
true and beautiful things, but I will
undertake to parallel and match every
one OF them with equal force and beauty
from the Bible"
The reverend speaker quoted at some
length from many of the foremost minds
of the day. to show the spirit of aenos-
ticism and unbelief is giving way to the
grounded principles Of faith in Supreme
and all beneficent Being, and he went into :
an analysis of the materialistic belief of
Mr. Ingersoll and others at some length
basing the belief of Divine Ruler on the
self-ev1dent facts of the universe The
sermon was able and erudite, and it was
IICtG tn will