The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1900-02-10
INGERSOLL MOODY,
A COMPARISON.
Continued from Page /.

enjoyed, living in a vain endeavor to dry up
the fountain of all good that distinguishes
this land from the lands where ignorance and
superstition reign, and then to lose his soul
at the last. | say, surely, this is enough
In many things Mr.. Ingersoll was an ex-
emplary man. His home life it is said by
those VINO knew him best, was well nigh
ideal devoted and loving husband, and
tender and affectonate parent faithful
and true i'll fulfilling every obligation ex-
cept that of the religious care and training
that the father must give or it is not given.
But even the brute displays this trait-the
tiger will defend his mate, and the hyena
will die for her cubs.
Mr.. Ingersoll was patriotic, and when in
the army he won the love and esteem of the
men under him for his bravery and for his
kind consideration for his men. His great
theme was liberty, and he ever fought with
all his energy and power, everything that
oppressed his fellows.
Mr. lngersoll was a temperate man, in
most respects. So far az the drink habit is
concerned, he was the declared and invet-
crate foe of the rum traffic ; one of the
finest specimens of beautiful rhetoric he
ever delivered was an arIaignment Of the
whole rum business, going so far as to style
it Gods worst enemy, and the devil s
best friend"
The story of bis life is the history of mis-
directed energies, the waste OF precious and
rare abilities and its end was disappont-
ment and gloom. That he was not honest
with himself is evident from several of his
unguarded utterances. For instance take
an extract from his remarks at the funeral
of his brother, when he used these words
"Life is a narrow vale, between the narrow
peaks of two eternities. We strive in vain
to look beyond the heights. We cry aloud,
and the only answer is the echo of our
wailing. From the voiceless lips of the
unreplying dead there comes no word but
in the night OF death hope sees a star, and
listening love can hear the rustic of wing.
He who sleeps here, when dying, installing
the approach of death for the return of
am better, now Let us believe, in spite
of doubt and dogmas and tears and fears,
that these dear words are true of all the
countless dead
Strange words these for man who does
not believe in the future life. This is only
a sample of several expressions of the same
suppressed belief, to which he gave utter.
anoe under similar circumstances, when
temporarily off his guard The same ques.
ton that struggles for an answer in all our
hearts struggled in the heart of the man
Ingersoll, and his TRADE of blasphemy and
rdicule was an effort to hush the cravings
Of his nature instead of an honest effort to
answer them His effort was to serve self
and his abuse of Christianity was largely in
the nature OF a pastime, except as he by
turning this to financial account made il
serve his selfish purpose of filling his
Golfers. He was the champion of what he
deuominated freedom, for the revenue there
was in it. Whatever of good there was in
his life was there in spite of himself-it
was the irresistible power of right prn-
ciples prevailing in life that was forced
against its natural trend by perverse will
and mercenary purpose and the effect of
that life has been, and will continue to be,
to unsettle the mind of youth, ard rob age
of its richest heIitage-belief in God and
Che realities of eternal life.
''No man liveth unto himself and no
man dieth unto himself this is true,
F'be he priest or intidel," and if the general
laxity of public morals be the result OF
preaching infdelity and agnosticism If
dishonesty, social intidelity, suicide, and
all the horde Of kindred evils that are so
enormously on the increase in this country
are the result as we believe they are, OF a
loosening of the bonds of moral restraint,
then IngersOll, who was its chief APOSTLE