The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-07-28

the hands and bend the body, but that is
all Within, youth may dwell with love
and wine and song regardless of he
storms of earth or the fight of years.
Then
Fill to the brim Hfe's golden bowl:
triumphant quan the vintage rare;
The earth is thine, the sea, the air
All subject to thy sovereign soul.
This may net.sound cynical, but it is
horribly heterodox
In this connection am reminded that
the great apostle Of youth eternal. of
universal love and Christian brotherhood.
the champion of right living, and the
breaker of ancient idols, was called to his
reward two years ago, the 22d of this
month. / refer to the greatest of Ameri-
can orators, Robert G. IngersoIl-the man
whose soul never lost the buoyancy of
youth
Viewed from any standpoint, Ingersou
was a great man. He was great of in
teliect-he was great of soul. AS a man
he was prince among a million. AS
an orator he had no PEER in this com
try I'd generation. He was poet. SEN
sitive as a woman. kin1-hearted and
sympathetic He loved nature with an
! ardent passion; he was the friend of fu-
manity. He Lowell truth and hated cam
and hypocrisy. Nothing genuine .ever sur
fe-ed from the words or the pen CT Rob-
ert G. IngeTsolL He was a man CT
thought but not a philosopher He a.
riy ed at his conclusions through his
brilliant intuition rather than by tie
process of laborious augmentation. His
logic burst upon the m nd with a con-
vincing flash instead of laboring with it
through maze of ssllog;s site forms
Ingorsoll lived the life of a Christian
Love, charity, kindness, marked all his
acts and words. He doubted the ira
ditfons of the past and had the COURAGE
to express his doubts. He assailed tie
dogmas of the church that men might lie
free from error. He was not disbc-
lever, he was a non-bel.ever In his
attitude toward tire church he foreshad-
owed the coming religion OF the world
He was the fcrerunner of modern thought
crying in the wilderness. He was the
apostle Of higher criticism He was the
best Christian of modern times, for he
~1-N"NU IAic NshlIiSNidll CHURCH many OF
its errors. Many Of these he rad the sat
isfaction of seeing corrected during his
lifetime. Gould Christ and Ingsrsou have
been on Garth together they would have
been friends and co workers for human
ity and right. 1 agree with Henry Ward
Beecher when he SAID: IF there were
more Christians like Ingersou the word
would be better today"
1t may be that Ingersoll was wrong
in ridiculing that which was held sa-
cred by many people 1t may be that
he treated ancient beliefs with an IN
becoming levity. But We must remem-
Der that wit, humor and sarmasm were
his weapons of attack. He did not fight
with the heavy battleax, but preferred
the steel-tipped lance. He saw the weak
points in the armCr of his adversary and
drove his keen lance home. After the
latte the ancient knight was left in the
saddle but a corps. Draper s ruck hard
er blows than IngeTsoli He nang.ed
his adversary; he left nothing by which
the remains could be identified John
Fiske approached modern orthodoxy with
an all-convincing logic that cut off all
but employed different weapons. The
methods of Ingersoll were popular. but
they drew Upon his head a storm of
abuse He challenged the citadel of an
Gent beliefs and the whole herd of re-
tanners swarmed foI tn to combat the bod
invader of Their sacred precincts Inger-
soil may have been wrong on MANY
questions; he was human ana Therefore
falilb!e That he was honest, no honest
man now doubts. That he ACCOMPLISHED
much good no one will deny. In this
controversy between progress and the
church who can decide? Who can stand
before his fellows and say 81 know"
BY the light of burning herstics. Chqizts
bleeding feet l track,
Toiling up new Calvar es, ever with the
cross that turns net back
And these mounts of anguish number
how each generation learned
One new word of that grand credo
which in prophet-heart hath burned,
Since the first man stood God-conquered
with his face to heaven upturned
For humanity sws cps onward; where to-
day the martyr stands,
On the morrow crouches Judas with the
silver in his hands;
Far In front the cross stands ready and
the cracking faggots burn.
While tie hOot;ng mob of yesterday. in
Silent awe return,
TO CLEAN UP the SCATTERED ashes into his
tCry's golden urn