The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-02-20

greet that to him there was more of I'M
truth than of truth in the Bible. and that
he could not believe.
What ecstacy,' he exclaimed, 1T
would be to know that God exists That
he is our father. and that he loves and
cares for the children of men, To know
that all the paths that human beings
travel lead 20 the gates OF stainless Deacef
How the heart would thrill to know
that Christ was the conquerOr of death:
that the tomb became the door thar
opens on eternal life. To know this would
change all sorrow into gladness- To know
this would be all that the heart could
bear Beyond this. joy cannot co.
The large audience. that up to this
time had alternated with laughter and
applause, listened silent and impressed
and silently or as impressed listened
to the declaration OF unbeilef with which
he concluded
The subject of the lecture was THE
Devil. and Mr.. IngerSOll announced that
a great many clergymen had recently
been cr.ticising his statement that the
Christian world could not deny the ex-
Bible. and he said that most of them
claimed that the devil Was not a literal
being. but merely a reorganization OF
evil In two hours of argument he set
himself to prove that the devil is the
keystone of the Christian arch
Take the devil from the scheme of SAL
walton, from the atOnement. from the dog
ma of eternal pain, and the foundation IS
gone.
If we say that the devil was a per-
sonifcation of evil. must We not at the
same time say that Jehovah was a per-
sonificatiOn of good? If the devils We're
gels DersonificatiOns alsO2 Ii the angels
OF the Bible were real angels, the devils
were real devils.
He illustrated his points BY MANY ono
tations from the Old and New Tesla
ments. and once. when he demanded 10
know where the devils, if there are any.
-.
York, which brought a burst of laugh
ter from the audience
Rev. DR.. Parkhurst denounces the
apostles as worthless craVens, he said.
Il do not agree with him. L think they
were good men,.
He paused a few moments. and then
that any one of them ever tried 70 re-
form Jerusalem on the Parkhurst plan"
At this there was another burst of laugh
ter.
'AIl the fathers of the church believed
in devils The founders OF all the
Protestant churches-all the leading
Protestant theologians from Luther to
the president of Princeton college-were
and are firm believers in the devil. If the
devil does not exist, the gospels are not
inspired and the Bible is not true.
I'VE have no right TO change or avoid
the meaning of the writer's of the Bible.
TImid preachers must not change what
the Biblical writer's believed to be facts
1t was at the close. Of the lecture that
he surprised the audience by his encOm-
iums on the beauties of Christianity.
How beautiful how enchanting death
would be, What rays of glory would
stream from his sightless sockets, and
how the heart would long for the touch
of his stilling handi The grave would
mark the end of sorrOw-the beginning OF
eternal joy"
II was in a tone OF eloquent sadness
that he concluded:
And yet it were better that all this
should be false than that all Of the New
Testament should be true 1t is far bet
ter 10 have no heaven than TO have both
heaven and he'll. better TO have no God
than both God and devil. better to rest
in eternal sleep than TO be an angel and
know that the ones you love are suffering
eternal pain"