The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-07-22
SATURDAY, JULY %, 1899.
TWELVE PAGES.


ley wrought into our language a
new word. 1t was suggested to
MIN by the Greek word used in St,
Paufs mention of the altar to the m
known god 1t is the word "agnostic;"
IL is descriptive of those who hold that
human knowledge is limited to expert
ence and that, as the absolute, if it
exists at all, cannot fall within expert
ence, we have no right to assert any,
thlng whatever with regard to it." In
sense Robert G. Ingersoll was an ag-
nostic; he was, indeed what you please
"a skeptic, an atheist, or, using the
term that implies certain degree of
opprobrium, he was an infidel. the most
brilliant and, withal, the most famous
of the times in which he lived.
The current world is we'll acquainted
with Colonel Ingersoll he was con-
stantly in evidence. He never was sus-
pected of ripe scholarship. But he had
rhetoric he was famous pbrase
maker; he had grace in writing. beauty
of diction. skill in speech. Thus he
was endowed with gifts that are rarely
found in combination, and, in addition.
he was master of the art whereby he
Knew how to make the most of both
He could say clever things He had a
VEN OF rich wit. He could make appeaI
10 pathos; some of his more carefully
prepared paragraphs are of idyllic
beauty. What he said or wrote seldom
revealed the delicacy of satire; sar-
easm, the coarser weapon, was his, and
ne welded it with aptness His mission
apparently was to heap ridicule upon
the Christian faith and the Christian
doctrine; the shafts he hurled were
tipped with the fact that in our world
too many men protesting the Christian
faith do not live up to the ideal of the
Christian life.
This world carries it's quota of men
who fancy that they are broader than
most of their fellow men. 1t is a fat
tering JUNCTION. When they are en-
dowed with tongue and pen, as Mr.
lngersol was even to wealth, these
men always get hearing. The fact is
that they are narrower than their fell
lows they train themselves to marked
limitations of their mental powers-thev
DO not realize what divine thing faith
is; they do what they can to bring their
spiritual parts within the limits of their
physical senses.
Robert G. Ingersoll was a master of
oratory. polished writer, a fair law
yer, an Indifferent student. a fiippant
critic, a shallow thinker-when meas
ured by scholarships tests-a delightful
companion, steadfast lover of his
home and his family. an upright man
in business affairs, a white-souled ex-
emplar of all that is praiseworthy In
social relations, loyal, royal Ameri-
can. His name will live a good while
because he made it unique, but not in
the realm of letters. Much that makes
up his literary bequest to the world will
entertain those who come after him:
very little of 1t will persuade. He
taught no new doctrine; he was the
apostle of gloom, the prophet of de-
spair. He was not a fitting preacher
for unbelievers; he was the evangelist |
of disbelief-there is not much of it on
this earth. He could not prove that
mankind is wrong and that he was
right. because the question OF the life
hereafter is one that concerns the in
finite realm, and God alone is infinite.
And even If it be that the world is
wrong, nevertheless, mankind would |
better cherish It's belief in Immortality, |
else all is lost that now illumines life |
kindles hope.