The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1899-11-16
DID GOD MAKE Man.
Or. John P. D. John Delivers His
Great Lecture to Large Crowd
at the Rhode Opera House.
A MASTERPIECE OF ELooUBNCE

obiections of a Great Agnostic-Declares
That Science and Human History as
Faith Decides That God Made Man and
Not Man Made God.
notwithstanding the inclement
weather Monday evening a large
crowd of the best people in the city
gathered at the Rhode opera house to
hear DR.. John P. d. John, ex-Presl-
dent of De PAW University, deliver
his lecture on the subject, ''Did God
Make Man or Did Man Make God?' 1t
was announced that the lecture was
reply to the teachings of the late Roo-
ert G. Ingerso11 and many of the great
admirers of the system as proclaimed
by the great agnostic were IN the at1d1-
ence and carried away with them
thoughts which will long inger III
their minds.
The lecture was not III any way an
attack on the character of the deceased
agnostic or on the beliefs of any or his
followers, but it was mastery pre-
sentation of the facts of Christianity
as seen in the light of the nineteenth
century. The speaker did not stoop to
the little quibb1irg of the debater, but
rather rested his arguments on solid
rock of basic truth.
In the opening of his remarks he
stated that he simply would examine
some of the charges made by Mi. In
eerso11 against the God of the Bible
, and the religion which he had founded.
Abuse, he said, is not logic, nor do
epithets answer arguments. | have
no denunciation of Mr.. Ingersol1, nor
} nor would I attempt to answer the
= hard questions which he asks by call
= ing hin. b1asphemer. A good man can
never be a crutch for lame logic, nor
can a bad man destroy the truth OF
GOOD reason. Truth is in a sorry
plight indeed if il must rest upon cpl
t tIets and abuse. It is old enough to
e stand alone and the immOvable facts
e remain in whatever setting they are
q given. Sophistry does not become
? logic in the lips of a saint. God Tor
give the man that doubts the honesty
of an honest doubter. The man that
doubts, doubts with a reason that God
{ has givenEhim. Pope says: can hon
= est man is the nob1est work of Cod
t Ingerso11 says: can honest God is the
: nob1est work of man. Which is right?
Every one has his ideal of God and
back of this rests the substance OF the
ideal. Is this substance real being
i or does it exist only in the vagaries of
man? DR.. John then presented the OBJ
/ iections 70 the bible as they had been
: presented by the great agnostic and
E proceeded with the light of a Christian
gospel to show where the great orator
had erred in the presentation of these
facts. He said: ''The bible must be
Judged by the way it does that which it
came to do. It came to teach duty and
destiny, not art and science and
: 1iterature.''
owe Judge a funeral Grafton by what
it says of the dead and we must Judge
the Bible by what it teaches of life and
duty and not by those things which it
does not come to teach. Ingersou al
1eges, that God was a respeCtOr of per
sons. God never respected persons
| but he did respect conditions. The
same oh iections,which have been urged
=
against the laws of nature. Nature
makes the weak slaves of the strong.
Nature recognizes the rule of brute
force. It brings death and sorrow,
but nature is a reality in spite of the
stern facts OF history. The moral hid
eousness of God is the main stay of
: the agnostic, but how may the finite
pass final Judgment upon the infinite.
A n1omentary phase of the infinite like
nomentary phase of history reveals
nothing. To know the truth we must
know its surroundings. Look back in
to history. For a. moment the beggar
sits upon the throne and the king in
I rags asks for aims at the door of the
f cathedral, but thessking is not always a
Y beggar nor do the king1y robes long
adorn the form Of! the nendicant If
you can not judge the finite by a mo-
, mentary view how dare You judge the
l infinite? Life is the gift of God in
trust. The agnostic tac1t1y accepts
e the terms of the trust and claims all
4 the rights dependent upon it and he
S must accept the conditions of the giver
o of the trust. There are some things
L which omnipotence can not make pos
sib1e. He cannot. make two and two
;, five. He cannot make parallel lines
meet for then they would not be para
. 1e11 and even\so he-cou1d not deve1ope
man in his own image in single
year or a century. He could not make
:, men virtuous without their will fol-
n they would no longer have been men,
e Education must proceed according tc
n its environment and so il was with
J the education of Israel. Ingerso1-
hates hell and so'do.L and SO do you
but neither the agnostic or I can hate
, it out of existence. IF hate were al
II extern1i nator how many things would
IS we hate out of existence. There is nc
n hell hereafter but is the result of SOW