The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-05-26
"wHO is THE INFIDEL.v
Sermon of Il. A. CantreII at the Grand
Opera House.

f. A. Cantrell, of the Peoples Church,
spoke at the Grand Opera House last night
on "Who is the Infidel?" He said in part:
'Infdeiity. like some other things. is sub
ject to the limitations of time and space.
The infidelity of one age becomes the or
thodoxy of the next, and the rank heresy
of to-day will tomorrow be received with
universal acclaim. Much depends, too, on
our city pulpits had been born in Turkey
they would to-day, probably, be calling the
muezzin from the windows of Mohamme-
dan mosques. Many a Jew. like Shylock,
has clenched violent hands and Kissed, L
hate him because he is Christian while
the Christians, with the words, Christ
killer on their lips have put the Jews
TO the edge of the sword in the name of
the Jew who sald Love your enemies
InfideI dogs cried the Saracens. Infidel
Turk, shouted the crusaders. At which
many Oriental cities were sacked and their
streets piled with human carrion. All this,
not because any essential truth was in
volved, but because men were born under
different stars and raised under different
traditions. Popularity speaking the infidel
is the man who differs from public opinion.
If you differ from me in politics. says
Mrs. Grundy, you are a traitor, and de-
serve cold lead or the electric chair. If
you differ from me on religion you are a
heretic-you are an infdel and shall re-
ceiVe here the major anathema and in the
hereafter the fires of an endless hell And
this is not hyperbole nor exaggeration.
Think of the resolutions passed by the ven
cradle old soldiers at the G.. A. r. en-
campment here a few weeks agoi Think of
the language Of the presiding elder of the
Evanston conference in reference to Prof
Pearson a short time ago: If / had my
way L would skin that man, salt his hide
and tack it on the barn door before any
one else could get out his jackknife' All
this simply because Professor Pearson
with some of the best men of the world
disavowed belief in miracles.
81 could tell you the name of a promi-
nent theological professor who declared it
would not be great a moral crime for
a certain man TO steal a horse as il would
be for him TO baptize a baby. And there
is a tradition that theological professors
at one time had brainsl
1.-THE word infdel means unfaithfulness
Unfaithfulness to what? To forms and cere-
monies? To traditions and myths? To an
cient literature and dead institutions? Not
a bit of il. But who are the infidels?
Are the high school boys and girls inf
dels for accepting the teachings of geology
rather than the Oriental myth of creation?
Are the young men of our pulpits infdels
for doubling the historicity of Genesis and
the book of JONAH or for believing i'm two
Isaiahs? Was Henry Drummond an infie-
del, and Dean Stanley and Robertson
Smith and Phillips Brooks and Emerson
and David Swing? snail apply the cpl
tibet after all to the plumbers of history? ?
/ hesitate to do it. But if / were TO ap-
ply it l would say the man is infidel who
is unfaithful to the constitution of his own
being, who sets at naught the claims of
beauty, goodness and truth. The man is
infidel who perpetrates monstrous picture
on the public, whether in the art galleries
or on the bulletin boards Of our cities
The man is infidel who betrays a public
trust who takes advantage of a brothers
need for selfish gain, who courts woman
insincerely, who is ungentle to his wife or
abusive to his children, who demands more
for himself than he wishes for any of his
brother-men and who is unfaithful to his
own highest truth. We have been hearing
something of infidelty in the pulpits
Where is the infidelity? A preacher said to
me, L believe practically as you do. But
I have a family and am not going TO run
any risks. The church owes me living
l am going TO use the old terms and
phrases and stay in the ranks Where is
the infidelity of the pulpit?'