The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1899-08-28

me Exponent of UnbeIief Was
Thoughtful, Cultured and schoI-
arIy, Having Received ReIIg-
lOus Education in a CaIvinistIc
HOme-He Spent His Life Force
Preaching His Theories.
Kew "A. N. Alcott, of Minneapolis, spoke
at the Church Of the Messiah, Univer-
sallst yesterday afternoon. on the sub
Ject OF Robert G. IngersoH and Re-
hg1on'' the speaker taking the opposite
stand to the purely materialisttc views
OF the deceased agnostic His DISCOURSE
was based on Corinthians, H., 1S: 2. For
we can do nothing against the truth, but
Tor the truth In part the speaker said:
There Is deep law running through
the universe. which, in the long run,
guarantees truth to men, no matter what
specious errors arise to oppose it, or to
wear it's livery. None Of us can do any,
thing against the truth in the long rim
no matter what our notions may be. The
kindly and quiet tone of the church in
general and the religious press towards
Mr.. IngersoI at the time Of his sudden
and unexpected death, and the sympathy
for the bereaved, reminds one very much
OF the kindness of Joseph towards his
brethren. Notwithstanding their error.
Egypts prime minister received them
Into the frank, open arms of his h0sDi
tality, saying Fear not The church.
through its pulpit, and especially its
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 utiI-
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.
ct is eternal in the minds SKY q She
bright star in the heavens, past which
the light clouds fly moment by moment.
but which remains stable and unmovable,
beamfng on US ever and anon through
the open spaces, and will not away. Tha
supreme questions concern only the en-
1stence of the Superior Power, of duty
and of soul life
The popularity OF Mr. IngersoITs posi-
ton was one held by many others of his
time, a position which represents q pass
ing tendency of the times and I Only
connect his name with it because he was
the most witty, brilliant and popular ex-
pcnent of it. He declared himself an ag-
nost1c as to the existence of supreme
intelligence and as to certainty of soul
life. The influence of the idea of a 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 a 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 belisf
two such great realities as the existence
of 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-
Ggious education in a CSvinistic home
He seems, therefore, never to have been
able to expcl from his mind the idea of a
God, if there We're one at all, who was
huge, man-fashioned personality inter-
posing, interfering and executing his de-
crees very much as a human being would
do That notion stuck invincibIy to his
mind to the last, as the only possible con-
ceptiOn of a Deity
If We got no further than the Calvin
istic conception 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-
pence; not a man-fashioned personality,
but an infinite cOsmic intelligence, a
measureleSs spirit a heart and mind
commensurate with the universe. Had
Mr.. IngersolI ever made the intellectual
transit from the old conception of trans
Cendencc to the new conception of the
1mmanence, he would never have been
an agnOstic. But his mind stuck where
1t had been first educated as there are
many people who are never educated but
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 were in
spired and revealed as well as it's religion
or moral and spiritual parts. The Blbla
Itself disclaims this as does modern
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 1 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 agnos-
ticism and unbelief is giving way to the
grounded principles of faith in a Supreme
and all beneficent Being, and he went into
an analysis of the materialfstic belief of
Mr.. Ingersoll and others at some length
oasing the belief of Divine Ruler on the
self-evident facts of the universe. The
sermon was able and erudite, and it was
listened to with marked interest.