Blue-grass blade., 1899-12-10

Pauline maxim that "the wisdom OF
his world is foolishness with God. "
To this we reply that the wisdom OF
The religionist is foolishness with
The scientific investigator.
For years | was a Christian, ex
Derienced holiness and felt savei by
The same Imagination that deceives
to say they are saved,
When l saw the Bible could no more
be proven inspired than any othet
book, l left the church and told my
brethren why l did so.
/ will defend what / here write In
any newspaper, against any one who
believes that the Bible can stand
public debate.
A Brooklyn student asks "How
could wev have known right from
wrong had 1t not been for the BIZ
ble?" When people had so evoluted
that they could reason that two
hands had more fingers than one;
that it was shorter to cross stream
than to go up it and around its head
that mutilation of the body caused
pain; that it was unpleasant to
have property stolen, then right and
wrong we're realized, and these
things we're matters OF experience
long before any of our Bible was
written; before our ancestors had
invented the alphabet.
Christians ask: eff you can be-
lieve in Washington and in the Czar,
why can't you believe in Christi"
We believe it highly probable that
there was a man named Jesus, more
or less like the one mentioned in the
New Testament, but we are unable
to believe that he arose from the
dead.
II the histories Of Washington and
the Gar told us that they arose from
the dead, walked on the water, or
made the earth shake we would be
unable to believe such parts of their
history. VI
Christians say the Bible must he
inspired because prophecies bave
been fulfilled. If there is anything
in this then why are not the millions
today. inspired whAHEanhacy thipSg
that come to pass? / can feme1S,
ber that famine, wars, and rumofJ
of war have taken place in the past
and that there had been prophecy
that these should take place, and yet
the fulfillment of such prophecies
was no evidence that the prophets
who predicted them were inspired.
And no stronger fulfillment of prop
hecy than these can be proven by
the Bible.
Christians say that the coming of
Christ was foretoid. There is moth
ing strange about that; fiction is
easily dated back, and dreams are
unreliable.
If the Bible was written by in
spired men who could foretell things,
as the clergy would have Us believe,
why did they not make their proph-
ecies clearer and more perfect than
uninsDired people could hardly
guess?
If they had prophesied that a cy-
clone should strike St. Louis in May
1896, and that in 1898 the United
States would go to war with the
Kingdom of Spain, and had so ar
ranged that one similar prophesy
would be fulfilled once in every fifty
years, it would have had more weight
with thinking people than the repe-
tition OF the stories about Samson,
Babel, the Ark. the serpents of the
Old and New Testaments, and about
the reserrections OF Lazarus and Of
Jesus.
Many Christians will no. inves-
tigate; they think it is sin to do
so. No religion is worth anything
If it will not stand investigation.
Any religion that will permit the
worst of murderers to enter heaven
by faith and baptism while their
victims are in hell for honest faith
in Ingersoll's doctrine, can have no
connection with justice.
Many Christians believe in Dew
II who, they say, is all over the
world at the same time tempting
people to do wrong. II you had
sheep which you wanted to keep
and a wolf daily got among them,
wouldn't you kill that wolf if you
could2
II you would kill the wolf, how can
you believe that just God would
not kill the Devil, aud, thereby, keep
the majority Of his children out of
an eternal hell? Why should this
Devil who is in another world, tor
meat sinners who are his friends in
this one, merely to please God, who
is his enemy2
If God is infinitely wise can he
frame any excuse for creating the
Devil, II he is opposed TO the suffer
ing of the majority of the people in
the Christian world?
II such results follow as the clergy
would have US believe, what sad
tidings has Christianity broughtS
IL the passengers on some great
ship were told that the ship was to
be wrecked, and that only few
would be saved, and all the balanc