REASON
AND
INGERSOLLISM
DOWLING
B
27
075
REASON
AND
INGERSOLLISM.
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ཏི པ བོ', ' ས མ
་ གར་ཅན་
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ARTES
LIBRARY
1837
VERITAS
SCIENTIA
OF THE
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
TUEBOR
QUERIS PENINSULAM-AMⱭNAM
CIRCUMSPICE
LEVI L. BARBOUR
BEQUEST
་ ན་
14
2727
.D75
Compliments of the author
to his extramed acquantand
Levi L. Barbour Esp.
Behirt Apil
25.1884.
M. E. Dowling
M. E. DOWLING.
REASON
AND
INGERSOLLISM.
BY
MORGAN E. DOWLING,
Author of “Southern Prisons, or Josie, the Heroine of Florence."
DETROIT:
WILLIAM GRAHAM, PRINTER,
1882.
445
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1882, by
MORGAN E. DOWLING,
In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.
ΤΟ
THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH,
HER ARDENT SUPPORTERS AND ZEALOUS DEFENDERS,
THIS VOLUME
IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED.
Bequest of
Lir harbour
4-14-26
INTRODUCTION.
"If circumstances lead me, I will find
Where truth is hid, though it were hid indeed
Within the centre of the earth.”
The replies heretofore made to Robert G.
Ingersoll, have been based principally either
upon theology or science, and have strictly
adhered to the theory of the divine origin of
the Christian Church; while on the other
hand, Mr. Ingersoll has stoutly maintained
that the Church is merely a human institution.
All the discussions, therefore, that have taken
place between Mr. Ingersoll and his opponents
have been purely of a religious tone and char-
acter. The object of this book, is to answer
the false and slanderous imputations made
6
INTRODUCTION.
against the Church by Mr. Ingersoll, from a
new standpoint, by casting aside all discussion
of a scientific or theological nature, taking a
broad common sense view of the whole sub-
ject, basing all that may be said upon facts
and reason, and, for the sake of argument,
considering the Church simply as a human in-
stitution.
I write, simply in the interest of truth and
justice. I propose to show how far a man
may go, and to what extremes he may be
carried, when blinded by prejudice, and biased
by his opinions, believing himself to be in the
right, when in fact, he is all the time in the
wrong. And this is the position in which Mr.
Ingersoll unfortunately stands in his attitude
toward the Church. I do not propose to de-
fend the Church. The Church is able to defend
She needs no defender.
herself.
I
propose
Neither do
to abuse Mr. Ingersoll. My argu-
INTRODUCTION.
ing
ment will be founded upon indisputable facts.
My chief weapon will be that of majestic
reason. I shall not follow Mr. Ingersoll
through all his pessimistic ramblings, because
such a course would not only be imprudent,
but tedious. Neither shall I heed his rhetoric,
or observe his hyperbolical statements, which
are as unsubstantial as moonbeams. I must
also decline to follow him through his many
idiosyncrasies, or to respond to his plausible
and ingenious, but specious arguments. I
shall pass by his false insinuations, innuendoes,
and illogical asseverations, because I have no
desire to grapple with a thousand phantoms,
or to waste my time in scattering a sea of
bubbles, that are floated only by the foul air
of the most infamous calumnies. My chief
aim will be to ascertain the truth to expose
Mr. Ingersoll's errors, and in examining what
he has to say about the Church, to separate
8
INTRODUCTION.
"the gold from the dross, in the sacred cru-
cible of reason," and give the unalloyed metal
to the people. Mr. Ingersoll has charged the
Church with appealing to prejudice. I intend
to indicate beyond all controversy, that Mr.
Ingersoll has not only resorted to prejudice
in his attack upon the Church, but that he has
descended to sophistry and slander.
There is much in Mr. Ingersoll's utterances
that I believe in, and much in his character
that I admire. If he were to advocate the
reformation of those doctrines of the Church,
that are obnoxious to the good sense and
intelligence of the age, instead of advocating
her abolition or destruction, I should have no
words to offer except those of kindness and
good cheer. There is no doubt, but that Mr.
Ingersoll is one of the greatest living rhetor-
icians in America. His wonderful vocabulary,
when considered in connection with his inci-
INTRODUCTION.
sive thrusts, his rare ingenuity, and his great
natural endowments and splendid oratorical
ability, make him a powerful antagonist. And
the prejudice which his eloquence and plaus-
ible arguments have created against the
Church in the minds of many, have made him
the most popular, and the most formidable, as
he is certainly the most brilliant of all her
opponents.
So far as Mr. Ingersoll's opposition to the
Church is based upon reason and facts, I en-
tirely agree with him.
I am opposed to the
inquisition, the rack, the thumbscrew, to
cruelty in every form, to ignorance, to slav-
ery either of the body or the mind, to mon-
archy, despotism, and every sort of wrong
and oppression. I believe in the greatest
freedom of thought and action, and the fullest
liberty of the human mind. I hate and de-
spise from the bottom of my heart, and with
Tributi
to Lazercell
10
INTRODUCTION.
all my strength, veiled hypocrisy. I detest
any man who will fawn or cringe before
either priest or king. I admire the man who
dares to stand erect before the world, and in
the pure air of liberty and independence, ex-
press his candid and honest opinions, without
either fear or favor. I have nothing but
loathing and contempt for the coward. And
I execrate with my whole heart, and with my
whole soul, that most infamous of all human
monsters, the habitual liar. I am the enemy
of calumny, slander, and brazen-faced audacity,
and I abhor the slimy, serpentine obsequious-
ness of the soulless hypocrite. But I believe
with Lucretius, the Roman poet and philos-
opher, that while "It is a pleasure to stand
upon the shore, and to see ships tossed upon
the sea; a pleasure to stand in the window of a
castle, and to see a battle, and the adventures
thereof below; yet no pleasure is comparable
INTRODUCTION.
11
to the standing upon the vantage-ground of
truth, and to see the errors, and wanderings,
and mists, and tempests in the vale below."
I believe in truth, wherever it may be found.
I believe in it, no matter whether it be dis-
covered in the lonely wilderness, in the desert,
upon the plains, in the white bosom of the
Church, or in the heart of infidelity.
,,
Mr. Ingersoll charges the Church with ap-
pealing, "Not to reason, but to prejudice;
not to facts, but to passages of Scripture." If
this be true, Mr. Ingersoll is guilty of a sim-
ilar offense. He appeals neither to "reason
nor the "facts." I shall prove before I get
through that he respects neither. In this
regard, I intend to accommodate Mr. Inger-
soll, by a strict adherence to both. For I
shall not only confine myself to "reason"
and the "facts," but I shall not permit him
to escape the irresistible force of the former,
12
INTRODUCTION.
Purpose
Criteria
nor evade the incontrovertible truth of the
latter.
Of course, if I were to assert that the Bible
was an inspired work, and the Church a
divine institution, these questions would in-
evitably involve a polemical discussion, that
would be absolutely interminable. This I do
not propose to do. I intend, on the contrary,
to meet Mr. Ingersoll upon his own ground,
and to admit for the sake of argument, that
the Bible is simply the work of man, and the
Church a human institution. And, having
stripped the Bible of its divine origin, and
divested the Church of her divine authority,
I shall consider the Church simply as a human
institution, just as I would any of the other
inventions of man, created for social, political
or religious purposes, and I shall apply to the
Church the same inexorable rules of logic,
that I would apply to any other human insti-
INTRODUCTION.
13
tution, as the true test of her intellectual genius,
her great utility, and her surpassing virtues.
And now, having placed myself on the
same plane with Mr. Ingersoll: having met
the issues which he raises, fairly, and having
conceded to Mr. Ingersoll's proposition, that
the Church is merely a human institution, I
now ask him, what are your grounds of oppo-
sition to the Church, considering her, as you
do, simply as a human institution ?
Mr. Ingersoll replies, that he has good rea-
sons for opposing the Church, and he gives
us the following: He says, "I am opposed
to the Church because:
1. "She is the enemy of liberty.
2. "She fosters ignorance."
3. "She laughs at good works, and resorts to
falsehood and slander."
4. "Her pulpit and pews no longer represent
the culture and morality of the world."
14
INTRODUCTION.
Very well; having stated Mr. Ingersoll's
reasons for opposing the Church, let us now
proceed to discuss those reasons in the order
in which they are specified, that we may ascer-
tain whether or not Mr. Ingersoll's opposition
to the Church is based either upon "reason
or "facts." The reader will bear in mind, of
course, that so far as Mr. Ingersoll's opposi-
tion to the Church as a divine institution, and
the Bible as an inspired book, is concerned,
there is to be no discussion in this work.
Other writers have discussed the questions
involving the divine authority of the Church
and the inspiration of the Holy Scriptures.
And as Mr. Ingersoll has been fully answered
upon these questions, it simply remains for me
to inquire, whether or not Mr. Ingersoll's
attitude towards the Church can be maintained
in the light of surrounding "facts," consider-
ing the Church merely as a human institution.
INTRODUCTION.
15
Mr. Ingersoll denies the divine authority of
the Church. He declares the Church to be
nothing but a human institution. And for
the sake of argument, I say to Mr. Ingersoll,
all right, I will admit that the Church is a
human institution. And being such, I ask
him why he opposes her? He assigns the
reasons I have just mentioned, and now I pro-
pose to show that the grounds which he assigns
are untenable. If I succeed in supporting
my position, it logically follows that Mr. Inger-
soll's opposition to the Church is not only un-
supported by "reason" and the "facts," but
it is based upon specious argument, slander,
calumny and invective, and is utterly without
foundation.
I hold it to be sound logic, and sound rea-
son, that when any man undertakes to cry
down, to oppose, or to advocate the suppres-
sion of any institution established for the use
16
INTRODUCTION.
of man, it is not only a right, but a duty, to
inquire as to the object and present utility of
the institution thus assailed, and into the mo
tives of the assailant as well, and the grounds.
of his hostility.
To begin with, the Church has the vantage
ground; she is in possession; she "holds the
fort;" her moral value is affirmed by the posi-
tion she has held down the line of the ages,
and still holds. If Mr. Ingersoll advances to
the attack, he must come with force enough
to dislodge her, or his attack fails and recoils
on his own head. Mr. Ingersoll's war upon
the Church is in the nature of an action in
ejectment. If he cannot show a clear title
he has no standing in court. If he cannot
show that the Church, as a mere human insti-
tution, produces a preponderance of evil, he
must retire discomfited and overwhelmed. On
the contrary, if it is shown beyond all dispu-
INTRODUCTION.
17
tation that the Church is one of the grandest
and most prolific sources of inestimable good,
the question very naturally arises, why should
such an institution be opposed or abolished?
Why should it not be preserved? Would
not "reason" and the "facts" demand that it
be supported and maintained for the benefit
of mankind? If so, the Church is right, and
Mr. Ingersoll is wrong. And the former
should be sustained, and the objections of the
latter exposed and refuted—not on religious
grounds, but for the good of society, upon
the broad ground of common sense and the
welfare of humanity.
18
REASON AND
CHAPTER I.
No
quotes
IS THE CHURCH "THE ENEMY OF LIBERTY"?
"This is all true.
Nay, it is ten times true; for truth is truth
To the end of reckoning."
Mr. Ingersoll says, the Church is "the
enemy of liberty;" but in what respect or
particular, or_in_what_country or countries,
he has failed to designate. He simply makes
the broad assertion. He gives us no evidence
of the fact. If he were to name his reasons
for making this grave charge, they might be
answered specifically. But this he has not
done. He makes the imputation, involves it
in a cloud of glittering generalities, verifies
it by innuendo and ingenious insinuation, and
INGERSOLLISM.
19
heralds it forth with a flourish of trumpets, a
storm of words, and a whirlwind of rhetoric.
Hence I shall have to be somewhat general
and rambling in my reply. I shall endeavor,
however, to say nothing that is not substanti-
ated by the "facts" and history.
Wherever, and in all countries where the
Christian Church exists, and especially where
she is in the ascendancy or numerically in the
majority, there will be found the greatest
amount of both "physical" and "intellectual"
liberty, and the greatest freedom of thought
and action. This is true, not only in England,
but in France and the United States, and
these countries are indisputably the foremost
and_most_cnlightened of all other nations.
On the other hand, wherever scepticism largely
prevails, and especially in communities where
it is in the ascendancy, there will be found
Nihilism, Communism, and the greatest amount
20
REASON AND
of despotism. Wherever, and in all countries.
where Christianity prevails, intelligence rules.
In all other countries the people are ruled by
the iron hand of force and tyranny. In every
country and in every land where the Chris-
tian Church does not exist, there you will still
find man in a semi-barbarous condition, phy-
sically and mentally. And why is it? Is it
not because in those countries man has not
had the advantages which the Church affords,
to civilize, to educate, to refine, and to de-
velop him intellectually? And is it not true,
that where the barbarous nations have had
these advantages, it has taken centuries to
leven half civilize them? Just as it took cen-
turies to civilize the nations that now enjoy
Christianity and the highest state of civiliza-
tion?
When Christianity first bloomed into exist-
ence, man was in a state of semi-barbarism.
INGERSOLLISM.
22 h
21
Dark
Ages?
ади
Since then he has enjoyed civilization, and
civilization has advanced just in proportion
to the advancement of Christianity, and with
the progress of Christianity man's conven-
iences of life have been improved, his power
and wealth increased, and his influence for
good extended over the broad acres of every
nation on the earth.
.
If the most highly civilized and intelligent
people, the most just and reasonable laws,
and the broadest liberty, are to be found only
in those countries where the Church exists,
and in those countries where the church does
not exist the people are generally ignorant, Spa,
their laws crude and oppressive, and their lisia
rulers despots; can it justly be said that the
Church is "the enemy of liberty?" If there
is no true liberty where there is no Church, if
liberty is to be found only where the Church
exists, does it not logically follow that the
تم
22
REASON AND
Church and liberty are friends and not
enemics? If both flourish together, while
neither exists or flourishes alone to any great
extent, there must be some reason for it.
What is the reason? The fact is that the
Tesis Church and liberty are mutual friends, and
wherever they have associated together, cach
has aided the other, and accelerated and in-
creased the growth and progress of both.
Suppose, for instance, that Mr. Ingersoll
was to allege that the Czar and government
of Russia were the friends of "liberty," and
an investigation proved that in Russia there
was no "liberty" at all; that
at all; that on the con-
trary, tyranny reigned there in a greater de-
gree than in any other country, would you
believe Mr. Ingersoll's assertion?
Mr. Inger-
soll asserts that the Church is opposed to
"liberty," and yet we find that in every
country where the Church exists, there
INGERSOLLISM.
23
"liberty" is to be seen in all her power and
glory; while on the other hand, wherever the
Church does not exist, tyranny and slavery
prevail. This being the case, does it not
logically follow that Mr. Ingersoll's assertion
is unsupported by the "facts," and therefore
untrue?
This evidence proves, if it proves anything,
curliving
that the Church is the great civilizing power power
of the world. It proves, that to her we owe
haahberty
more for the “liberty” which we enjoy, than weity
to any other source or power.
{{
If intelli-Qurch's
gence, liberty" and civilization, only existsyre
in the highest sense where the Church is to
be found, what guarantee have we, that if the
Church be destroyed, these things which we
love and admire more than anything else in
the world, will not vanish with her?
Is not this nation a Christian nation ? And
has not Mr. Ingersoll said that, "All who
+
24
REASON AND
Why ded
Wided
The Ploum
come
stand beneath our banner are free. Ours is
the only flag that has in reality written upon
it: "Liberty, Fraternity, Equality—the three
grandest words in all the languages of men?"
Was not this great republic established by
Christians? Have we not as a nation, openly
declared our belief in Christianity? And
have we not inscribed upon the face of the
"mighty dollar" of this land, the word
"liberty," and upon its back the words "In
God we Trust?"
Every now and then, in Mr. Ingersoll's
attack upon the Church, a grain of truth ac-
cidentally drops from his pen and gives a
glare of falsehood to his charges against the
Church, sufficient to make his soulless bosom
heave with mortification and self-contempt.
Now, Mr. Ingersoll, what have you to say
to these facts? Is there any escape from
them? Are they not incontrovertible? And
INGERSOLLISM.
25
in a shameful
do they not place you in
dilemma?
If these facts are true, and you were not
aware of them, your ignorance is remarkable.
If they are true, and you knew it, then you
have deliberately and maliciously slandered
the holy Church. If the latter is true, you
knew when you charged the Church with be-
ing "the enemy of liberty," that you 'wrote
across the forehead of your reputation the
word liar," and at the same time added insult
to the injured feelings of millions of Christian
people.
It became a question at one time among the
Romans, as to whether or not a person was
justified in telling a lie. Cicero, the great
Roman orator, discussed the question in pub-
lic, before the people, and the conclusion
arrived at was, that in all cases where a
person could tell a lie without injuring any-
26
REASON AND
Roman
one and profit thereby himself, he was just-
ified in doing so, but that in all other cases
it was wrong and despicably wicked to tell a
lie. Perhaps, Mr. Ingersoll will justify his
position, upon the ground that it was utterly
impossible that anything he might say against.
the Church, could in any way harm her, while
on the other hand, he could acquire a large
fortune by lying about her.
There can be no question, but that civiliz
- ation and liberty have always, and must always
dizate be found together. Whatever promotes the
Dark love sone
Age
Appeal Xe
stimulates and helps to perpetuate and
invigorate the other. It is impossible that
they should live apart.
The natural order
of things unites them. Wherever the highest
nature lawrate of civilization is found, there also will be
found the greatest amount of liberty. And
wherever there is no civilization, liberty is
unknown. To promote civilization therefore,
Currization
Byzantium high but libert
за
is low
CORPORASLE ST
INGERSOLLISM.
27
is to promote the cause of liberty. If it can
be shown that the Church has in the highest
degree promoted civilization, it naturally fol-
lows that she has worked to promote liberty.
In order to comprehend what the Church
has done to promote civilization, it will be
necessary to briefly review a little of her past
history.
The first four centuries of the existence of
the Christian Church constitute one of the
most remarkable periods in her whole career.
"Never were its trials greater, or its triumphs
more glorious. It was buffeted by tempests
so mighty and so terrible, that if it had been
a mere human society, it must inevitably have
become a wreck. From an object of loathing
and contempt, emerging from the waves of
the most terrible persecutions, covered with
the blood of its martyrs," at the close of the
fourth century, "it became an object of royal
28
REASON AND
patronage,—fostered, nourished, adorned, and
richly endowed by the munificence of one of
the most powerful monarchs that ever ruled
the Roman empire."
Through these dark ages the Church not
only survived the innumerable conflicts in
which she was engaged, but she made won-
She built without number,
to detunetterful progress.
of serat
Progress C)
Religious civilized nations. A high regard was paid to
some of the most magnificent churches. "She
Christianized numerous barbarous and un-
Wars learning; the human mind was cultivated.
onl
morasteres
عال
Reyted
Unsuical
Schools were encouraged and their number
greatly increased.
Libraries were endowed
and multiplied, and the study of the fine arts
and philosophy was patronized with a noble
and generous spirit."
"In this state we find the church at the
conclusion of the fourth century. Her tri-
umphs over all her foes; her continued growth
INGERSOLLISM.
29
amidst the combined and deadly oppression
of Jews, infidels, and heathen; the fact of her
growing with renewed vigor after being del-
uged with the fires of persecution; the firm-
ness with which she endured the dangerous
shock of internal foes,-all these things com-
bined must have impressed the minds of intel
ligent unbelievers with the utter futility of
any human attempts to destroy the Church,
or even arrest her progress.
""
Thus it was that the Christian Church con-
tinued her conquests. She found the people
of Europe in a state of barbarism; she con-
verted them to Christianity and lifted them
up to a civilized condition, and made nations
of them.
The first dawn of a higher civilization was
the establishment of Christianity, which "be-
fore the close of the tenth century was the
-dominant religion in all the western, central,
30
REASON AND
and southern parts of Europe save Spain,"
and all the "beneficent changes since its ap-
pearance in the world have occurred under its
dominion." The immense power and influ-
ence of the Church, in the civilization and
advancement of man, cannot be successfully
disputed. The Church has gradually elevated
man to the high plain of intellectual develop-
ment which he now occupies.
Next came the crusades, instituted by the
Church in the eleventh century, to rescue the
Holy Land from the Saracens, which was the
means of promoting a higher civilization. The
crusades of course, were carried on at the sac-
rifice of hundreds of thousands of lives, and
maintained with a brutality unsurpassed in
history, but their final effect upon civilization
was magical and of inestimable value to the
"The crusades brought the people
This
redentafe
The Crusa
Open West
Europe world.
1
posslichto Europe together, enabled those of the more
малювалее
.
INGERSOLLISM.
31
backward districts to learn from the more
civilized, stimulated industry, diffused skill in
the useful arts, developed man's genius, made
a demand for shipping, enriched many of the
Italian republics, strengthened the towns,
weakened the feudal system, and prepared the
way for the consolidation of the leading na-
tionalities." It is true these things were ob-
tained, by a great sacrifice of human life.
But the ultimate benefit to mankind will show
that the sacrifice was well made.
The liberty
And
of Englishmen, the freedom of Americans, and
the establishment of the French Republic,
cost hundreds of thousands of lives.
yet, who will say that mankind has not been
benefited by the sacrifice? The bloody horrors
of the late Rebellion between the North and
the South, threw this whole nation into
mourning and tears. But that Rebellion
placed all men equal before the law. It
32
REASON AND
destroyed slavery, and gave liberty to millions
of human souls.
Guizot, in speaking of the crusades in his
History of Civilization," says:
((
Such, in my
opinion, are the real effects of the crusades:
Tigancipation
on the one hand the extension of ideas and
the emancipation of thought; on the other a
Thought general enlargement of the social sphere, and
the opening of a wider field for every sort of
activity; they produced, at the same time,
more individual freedom and more political
unity. They tended to the independence of
man and the centralization of society. Many
inquiries have been made respecting the
means of civilization which were directly im-
ported from the East. It has been said that
the largest part of the great discoveries
which, in the course of the fourteenth and fif
teenth centuries, contributed to the progress
of European civilization-such as the compass,
INGERSOLLISM.
33
printing, and gunpowder-were known in the
East, and that the Crusaders brought them
into Europe. This is true to a certain extent;
though some of these assertions may be dis-
puted. But what cannot be disputed is this
influence, this general effect of the crusades.
upon the human mind on the one hand, and
the state of society on the other. They drew
society out of a very narrow road and threw
it into new and infinitely broader paths; they
began that transformation of the various
elements of European society into govern-
ments and nations, which is the characteristic
,,
didi
"Yes, ball
from Exteyon
Shimulus
of modern civilization.
Then came the dawn of a still higher and
mightier civilization, in that grand event
called the Reformation, which was one of the
sublimest uprisings in the whole history of the
human race. The Reformation, has undoubt-
edly been of inestimable value to society and
3
34
REASON AND
the world. It promoted civilization.
It pro-
moted the welfare of society. It developed
and how the human mind.
had superstitions
come in:
It made men more liberal.
destroyed in a measure, superstition. It
created a revolution in religious belief, which
in importance, was unquestionably of equal
value to mankind, to that of the various
revolutions that have changed the forms of
governments.
During the three centuries preceding the
Reformation, there were three serious popular
rebellions against the Church of Rome. The
first was that of the Albigenses, in South
France, in the thirteenth century. The next
was that of Wycliffe, in England, in the four-
teenth century. The third was that of Huss,
in Bohemia, in the first quarter of the fifteenth
century. These several rebellions against the
Church finally culminated in the Reformation.
Protestantism therefore, is the out-growth
INGERSOLLISM.
35
of Catholicism, just as Christianity was the
outgrowth of Judaism.
what
about
Since the Reformation, both the Catholic
and Protestant Churches have become more
liberal in their views and teachings, espe-
cially the latter. And as Protestantism is the
out-growth of Catholicism, so are Unitarian-
ism and Universalism, the offspring of Pro-
testantism. The rapid development of the bio
human mind, since the Reformation, and the
subsequent liberal view; engendered thereby,
have destroyed the temporal and political
power of the Church, and the doctrine of
separation of Church and state is now fully
confirmed and accepted.
Thus it will be seen, that the first step
towards a higher civilization, was the establish-
ment of the Christian Church. Then came the
crusades, instituted by the Church, and then
came the Reformation of the Church by her
Reparosance was a secular influence
reacting agat.
азар:
36
REASON AND
own members; the confirmation of the right
of private judgment, and the modification and
liberalization of Church doctrines. All of
which contributed largely to the amelioration
of man's condition, his mental development,
his independence, and his advancement to a
higher life, and a nobler state of civilization.
Of course, the Church like all other human
institutions, has not always been free from
error. She has often supported principles
that were not the most legitimate and salu-
tary. But who can say that the course she
has pursued has not only promoted civiliz-
ation, but inured to the general welfare
and prosperity of mankind? Mr. Guizot
points out very distinctly the utility of the
Church in this direction. He says: "A single
glance will be sufficient to convince us, that
there existed in the fifth century an immense
difference between the state of the Church
INGERSOLLISM.
37
and that of the other elements of European
civilization. You will remember that I have
pointed out, as primary elements of our civil-
ization, the municipal system, the feudal
sy stem, monarchy, and the Church. The
municipal system, in the fifth century, was no
more than a fragment of the Roman empire, a
shadow without life, or definite form. The
feudal system was still a chaos. Monarchy
existed only in name. All the civil elements
in modern society were either in their decline
or infancy. The Church alone possessed youth
and vigor; she alone possessed at the same
time a definite form, with activity and strength;
she alone possessed at once movement and
order, energy and system; that is to say, the
two greatest means of influence.
Is it not,
let me ask you, by mental vigor, by intel-
lectual movement on one side, and by order
and discipline on the other, that all institu-
38
REASON AND
tions acquire their power and influence over
society? The Church, moreover, awakened
attention to, and agitated all the great ques-
tions which interest man; she busied herself
with all the great problems of his nature,
with all he had to hope or fear for futurity.
Hence her influence upon modern civilization
has been so powerful-more powerful, per-
haps, than its most violent adversaries, or its
most zealous defenders, have supposed. They,
eager to advance or abuse her, have only
regarded the Church in a contentious point
of view; and with that contracted spirit
which controversy engenders, how could they
do her justice, or grasp the full scope of her
sway?
,,
"To us, the Church, in the fifth century,
appears as an organized and independent
society, interposed between the masters of
the world, the sovereigns, the possessors of
INGERSOLLISM.
39
temporal power, and the people, serving as a
connecting link between them, and exercising
its influence over all."
"In a word, the government of the Church
did not, like our modern governments, direct
her attention to the outward man, or to the
purely civil relations of men among them-
selves; she addressed herself to the inward
man, to the thought, to the conscience; in
fact, to that which of all things is most hidden
and secure, most free, and which spurns the
least restraint. The Church, then, by the
very nature of its undertaking, combined with
the nature of some of the principles - upon
which its government was founded, stood in
great peril of falling into tyranny; of an ille-
gitimate employment of force. In the mean-
time this force was encountered by a resist-
ance within the Church itself, which it could
never overcome. Human thought and liberty,
40
REASON AND
!
however fettered, however confined for room
and space in which to exercise their faculties,
oppose with so much energy every attempt
to enslave them, that their re-action makes
even despotism itself to yield, and give up
something every moment. This took place in
the very bosom of the Christian Church. We
have seen heresy proscribed; the right of free
inquiry condemned; a contempt shown for
individual reason; the principle of the impera-
tive transmission of doctrines by human au-
thority established. And yet where can wel
find a society in which individual reason more
boldly developed itself than in the Church?
What are sects and heresies, if not the fruit
of individual opinions? These sects, these
heresies, all these oppositions which arose in
the Christian Church, are the most decisive
proof of the life and moral activity which
reigned within her; a life stormy, painful,
INGERSOLLISM.
41
sown with perils, with errors and crimes-yet
splendid and mighty, and which has given
place to the noblest developments of intelli-
gence and mind.
But leaving the opposition,
and looking to the ecclesiastical government
itself how does the case stand here?
You
will find it constituted, you will find it acting,
in a manner quite opposite to what you would
expect from some of its principles. It denies
the right of inquiry, it wishes to deprive indi-
vidual reason of its liberty; yet it appeals to
reason incessantly; practical liberty actually
predominates in its affairs. What are its in-
stitutions, its means of action? Provincial
councils, national councils, general councils;
a perpetual correspondence, a perpetual pub-
lication of letters, of admonitions, of writings.
No government ever went so far in discus-
sions and open deliberations.
One might
fancy one's self in the midst of the philosoph-
42
REASON AND
ical schools of Greece.
But it was not here a
mere discussion, it was not a simple search.
after truth that here occupied the attention;
it was questions of authority, of measures to
be taken, of decrees to be drawn up, in short,
the business of a government. Such indeed
was the energy of intellectual life in the bosom
of this government, that it became its pre-
dominant, universal character; to this all
others gave way, and that which shone forth
from all its parts was the exercise of reason
· and liberty.'
99
"Having now run over the principal points
to which I wished to draw attention respect-
ing the relations of the Church to the people;
having now considered it under the three
aspects which I proposed to do, we know it
within and without; in its interior constitu-
tion, and in its twofold relations with society.
It remains with us to deduce from what we
INGERSOLLISM.
43
No
have learned by way of inference, by way of
conjecture, its general influence upon Euro-
pean civilization. This is almost done at our
hands. The simple recital of the facts of
the predominant principles of the Church,
both reveals and explains its influence; the
results have in a manner been brought before
us with the causes. If however, we endeavor
to sum them up, we shall be led, I think, to
two general conclusions."
"The first is, that the Church has exercised
a vast and important influence upon the
moral and intellectual order of Europe; upon
the notions, sentiments, and manners of
society. This fact is evident; the intellectual
and moral progress of Europe has been essen-
tially theological. Look at its history from
up to
3th cent
Kat
before
the fifth to the sixteenth century, and you'll tur
will find that theology has possessed and
directed the human mind; every idea is
маша
dubrovs
wall
REASON AND
44
impressed with theology; every question that
has been started, whether philosophical, pol-
itical, or historical, has been considered in a
religious point of view. So powerful, indeed,
has been the authority of the Church in mat-
ters of intellect, that even the mathematical
Toranges and physical sciences have been obliged to
of heresy
submit to its doctrines. The spirit of theology
quates
has been as it were, the blood which has cir-
родил
byver with phas
culated in the veins of the European world
goodness
down to the time of Bacon and Descartes.
Bacon in England and Descartes in France,
were the first who carried the human mind.
out of the pale of theology."
"We shall find the same fact hold if we
travel through the regions of literature; the
habits, the sentiments, the language of theo-
logy there show themselves at every step."
"This influence, taken together, has been
salutary. It not only kept up and ministered
INGERSOLLISM.
45
to the intellectual movement in Europe, but
the system of doctrines and precepts, by
whose authority it stamped its impress upon
that movement, was incalculably superior to
any which the ancient world had known.'
19
"The influence of the Church, moreover, has
given to the development of the human mind,
in our modern world, an extent and variety
which it never possessed elsewhere. In the
East, intelligence was altogether religious;
among the Greeks, it was almost exclusively
human: there human culture-humanity, pro-
perly so called, its nature and destiny-
actually disappeared; here it was man alone,
his passions, his feelings, his present interests,
which occupied the field. In our world the
spirit of religion mixes itself with all, but
excludes nothing. Human feelings, human
interests, occupy a considerable space in every
branch of our literature; yet the religious
46
REASON AND
character of man, that portion of his being
which connects him with another world, ap-
pears at every turn in them all. Could
modern intelligence assume a visible shape,
we should recognize at once, in its mixed
character, the finger of man and the finger of
God. Thus the two great sources of human
development, humanity and religion, have
been open at the same time and flowed in
plenteous streams. Notwithstanding all the
evil, all the abuses, which may have crept
into the Church-notwithstanding all the acts.
of tyranny of which she has been guilty, we
must still acknowledge her influence upon the
progress and culture of the human intellect to
have been beneficial; that she has assisted in
its development rather than its compression,
in its extention rather than its confinement."
Thus it will be seen, that from the establish-
ment of the Christian Church down to the
INGERSOLLISM.
47
twelfth century, she was always active, pro-
gressive, and her influence upon the affairs of
the world, and the advancement of civiliza-
tion from the earliest times, as well as the
intellectual development of man, has been
very great. From the twelfth century to the
Reformation it was still greater. The influ-
ence of her teachings upon the morals of man-
kind and for the general good of humanity,
has been something immeasurable.
have "alleviated the horrors of war."
have "moderated the insolence of conquest.'
They
They
19.
They have done more to preserve the peace
and equilibrium of the world, than all the
institutions that now exist or that have ever
existed. Besides, it is impossible to deny the
immense superiority of the "notions of the
dubious
Church in matters of jurisprudence, justice, witness
and legislation, in all relating to the dis-Sev
severity &
Oral codes
covery of truth, and a knowledge of human ga
yu
Capital
unschmen
48
REASON AND
nature," and the great benefits her learning
upon these subjects have conferred upon the
human race.
And if we consider the work of the Church
from the time of the Reformation down to the
present day, we will find that it has surpassed
all former ages.
The Reformation of itself
has benefited mankind more than any other
thing that ever took place among men. It is
the happiest and sublimest event in the whole
history of man. It gave an impulse to human
thought and action such as the world never
enjoyed before. It is the crowning glory of
man's highest achievements. And strange to
relate, this grand event was brought about
by Christians. It was the work of that genius
which the Church had nurtured and devel-
oped in man. Protestantism has been to the
Christian world, in some respects, what
Christianity was to the Pagan. And it can-
INGERSOLLISM.
49
not be disputed, that mankind has made
greater progress under Christianity as a form
of religion, than any other that ever cxisted.
As an illustration of the wonderful influ-
ence of the Church, as a civilizing power, let
us take a simple example.
Here is a small
settlement in the backwoods, consisting we
will say of about thirty or fifty families,
scattered over a large area of territory.
Upon examination, it will be discovered that
the social, physical and mental condition of
these people, is but little removed from that
of the semi-barbarian. Build a church among
these people, and that church will soon have
a library and a school. The people are now
brought together and formed into a society,
which affords them ample opportunity to ex-
change their views on all topics of interest.
The people gradually begin to think, to read,
to change their manners, their dress, to culti-
4
50
REASON AND
vate themselves.
formation of a town.
Plans are drawn up for the
Soon the modern style
house takes the place of the log-cabin.
Streets are opened, trees are set out, gardens
are made, lawns and flowers appear. After
a while a railroad is built. Telegraphic com-
munication is then established with the metro-
is started.
polis of the State. In a few years a newspaper
Then debating societies and social
clubs are organized on every hand for social
entertainments. The current literature of the
times is now to be found in almost every
house in the community. The people become
refined and elegant in their manners and
tastes. They are industrious, frugal, pros-
perous and happy. What but a few years
ago was simply a disorganized settlement of a
rude, uncultivated people, has been suddenly
transformed into that of an intelligent,
enterprising, well-regulated, flourishing town,
Sus Chined not one as bastion of
wilzation - butger ongenater of all
civilizing secular influences.
целя
INGERSOLLISM.
51
whose inhabitants are refined, well educated,
and enjoy all the conveniences of the highest
civilization. And all this is the result of
planting a church in their midst.
But there is still another fact which proves
conclusively that the Church is not "the
enemy of liberty." It will not be disputed
that intelligence and liberty are inseparable.
That wherever you find the greatest amount
of intelligence, there will be found the great-
est amount of liberty. Mr. Ingersoll admits
agera
так
Mr. Ingersoll admits used
himself that "liberty is the child of intelliati
gence. The Church, considered as ruleducation
""
educational institution, is absolutely peerless.
Finkeld di
not flourd
Sind the
Men--it
If the Church was opposed to liberty, would
she not be opposed to education? Education
promotes intelligence; intelligence promotes
liberty. And if she was opposed to education,
do you suppose she would support tens of
thousands of schools, colleges, seminaries, and
лал
اللہ
52
REASON AND
the myriad of other institutions of learning,
which she fosters and maintains, with the
greatest zeal and jealousy, and the most
ostentatious pride?
It seems to me, that further argument would
be superfluous. I have shown that the Chris-
tian Church found man in a state of barbarism.
That wherever he became converted to Chris-
tianity, he became civilized. That wherever
he has failed to embrace Christianity, he still
remains in a semi-barbarous condition. That
from the hour of his conversion down to the
present day, his life has been one of progress.
That under the influence of the Christian
Church, man has lifted himself up to a higher
state of civilization and progress than he ever
enjoyed before. His progress has been slow,
it is true, but yet he has accomplished more
in nineteen hundred years, under the guidance
and influence of the Christian Church, than
INGERSOLLISM.
53
he did in all the millions of centuries which
preceded her birth. I have shown that
wherever the highest intelligence, the great-
est amount of liberty, the best laws, and the
best governments exist, there Christianity
predominates. That education promotes in-
telligence, that intelligence promotes civiliza-
tion, that civilization promotes liberty, and
that the Church always has been and is now
the most ardent supporter of all. Not strictly
in accordance with the notions of Mr. Inger-
soll perhaps, but the fact is nevertheless.
incontestably true. And for the intellectual
development of man, the advanced state of
civilization and the glorious liberty which
man now enjoys, we owe more to the Christian
Church, than to all other human institutions.
This subject involves a series of mighty
questions. Questions upon which the warm-
est friends of the Church, as well as the most
:
54
REASON AND
earnest investigators and lovers of truth,
might honestly differ in their opinions. But
the "facts," circumstances, and "reason,
clearly indicate, that whatever have been, or
are the faults of the Church, she never has
been, nor is she now, "the enemy of liberty,"
either in a "physical" or "intellectual"
sense.
But this is not all. Has Mr. Ingersoll for-
gotten that little episode that took place in
England in the beginning of the thirteenth
century, between the English barons and
King John? Has he forgotten how the
barons wrenched "liberty" from the grasp of
this haughty tyrant? And that too, at a time
when England was under a cloud of ignor-
ance and tyranny, and the benighted people
of Europe enjoyed about as much "liberty"
as a horde of savages. Who was it that led
the English barons when they arose in arms
Chust
№1200 years after Quit
Now, de adouts a wouversal stats of
ignorance
}
11
11
C
min
The Barons in the Abbey of St. Edmund's Swearing upon the Altar of the Church to obtain the Great Charter,
the Foundation of English Liberty.
2017
INGERSOLLISM
55
แ
against King John and compelled him to sign
Magna Charta," the foundation of the liber-
mysinterpret
ties of Englishman? Was he an infidel, or a
member of the Christian Church? Was not
the first meeting that was held by the barons Mana
Charter
to decide upon a plan to secure English
liberty, held at St. Paul's? Did not Arch-
bishop Langton address the barons at that
meeting and produce before them the charter
Did not this same
of Henry the First?
bishop threaten King John with "excommu-
nication if he assailed his subjects by any but
due process of law?" And when the barons
subsequently met at the abbey of St. Edmunds,
did they not each take a solemn oath, with
their hands placed upon the altar of the Church,
to withdraw their allegiance to King John if
he rejected their claims, and to levy war
upon him, till he should grant them? Did
not the barons proclaim themselves and their
56
REASON AND
adherents in this historical struggle for liberty,
to be "the army of God and of the holy
church," and with Robert Fitz-Walter as their
commander, force the King to accede to their
demands at the point of the sword? If Mr.
Ingersoll will only take the trouble to
examine history, he will discover that instead
of the Church being "the enemy of liberty"
the champions of liberty first met in her
sacred temple, and that liberty herself
"crowned and jeweled" was born upon her
holy altar.
But Mr. Ingersoll has said, that man has
progressed and obtained his liberty, despite
the efforts of the Church to keep him in a
state of slavery and mental darkness.
I deny
that the Church has tried to keep man in
either slavery or ignorance. If this were
true, why is it that man has progressed so
much more rapidly since the establishment of
и
57
дрі
INGERSOLLISM.
man's
the Church than he did before? And if it is
true that the Church has always tried to keep
man in ignorance, why was it that man pro-
gressed so slowly before the Church was
established, and so rapidly since? Is it not
a strange coincidence, that the inception of
's progress, should have been contempo-
raneous with the birth of Christianity? That
during all the millions of ages before that
event, man was unable to lift himself above a
state of semi-barbarism, or throw off the yoke
of ignorance and slavery? And if the Church
is the enemy of progress, is it not a singular chculou
fact that man has progressed only in Christian denus all
countries? And why is it that man remainsror progress
in the same state of semi-barbarism to-day
that he did when the Church was first insti-
tuted, in every country where Christianity has
not been adopted by him? The truth is, that
"liberty" finds no resting place in heathen or
58
REASON AND
barbarous lands. Her place of abode is to be
found only in Christian countries. She feeds
and thrives upon Christianity. Her susten-
ance is the Christian Church.
Her resting
place her sacred bosom. She worships at her
august shrine, and bows with imperial gran-
deur before her majestic throne.
1. Aumerous historical omissions
of
2. Completed snorer Classical Civil
3. Reverses value of Crusades- & ignores
Dark Ages.
х
INGERSOLLISM.
59
CHAPTER II.
DOES THE CHURCH "FOSTER IGNORANCE"?
"Truth crushed to earth shall rise again."
Mr. Ingersoll says, that he opposes the
Church because "She fosters ignorance." I
deny the charge most emphatically. Mr.
Ingersoll makes this imputation against the
Church in the same sweeping general way
that he has all the other charges which he has
This
made against her, without stating a single oss
fact to support it.
The charge, therefore, is erros
a mere assertion. If there were any facts
почет
upon which to base the imputation, they fall's
all
Jack 9
lectives
60
REASON AND
should have been given. And it is but rea-
sonable to suppose that Mr. Ingersoll would
have produced them if they existed. Had
this been done, then the denial could have
been made specifically. As it is, I am placed
under the necessity of disproving an allega-
tion that has not been proved, and has no
existence, except in the luminous imagination
of Mr. Ingersoll.
Suppose as an illustration, that Mr. Stupid-
ity should be discourteous enough to call Mr.
Ingersoll an ass, nobody would believe for a
moment that Mr. Ingersoll was an ass, without
some proof to sustain the charge. And yet,
Mr. Ingersoll expects everybody to believe
that the Church "fosters ignorance" without
giving us a single fact to prove it, simply
because he makes the imputation. Of course,
if Mr. Stupidity was to actually prove that
Mr. Ingersoll was a quadruped of the genus
INGERSOLLISM.
61
equus, and had a peculiarly harsh bray, long
slouching ears, and was dull and slow, but
sure-footed, this would shift the burden of
proof upon Mr Ingersoll. And if he failed
to indicate that the facts shown by Mr.
Stupidity were false, it is clear that the charge
would have to be sustained. To be sure
there are a few men in this world who would
not believe Mr. Ingersoll was an ass upon this
proof, even if it were uncontradicted, but
they are few in number, and belong to that
school of eminently wise and eccentric indiv-
iduals, who doubt everything, believe nothing,
and are known as skeptics. When Mr. Inger-
soll produces the proof to support the charge
that the Church "fosters ignorance" the bur-
den of the proof will be shifted upon the
Church, but until he does, the world must
inevitably consider the charge as a false,
malicious, and absurd assertion.
Basic assumpten is that dagersall
produces no
proof for des charges
62
REASON AND
Thus it will be seen, that it is just as easy
for Mr. Ingersoll to charge the Church with
"fostering ignorance," as it would be for Mr.
Stupidity to call Mr. Ingersoll an ass. But in
either case, if the proof is called for, the falsity
of the charge becomes apparent at once, even
to the dullest comprehension.
It is a universal law, that if a man is.
apprehended on the charge of murder, or for
any other offense, on the trial a prima facie
case must be made out against him, by the
introduction of competent testimony, before
he is obliged to offer any testimony in his de-
fense. If this cannot be done, his case is sum-
marily dismissed by the Court for the want of
sufficient evidence. Now, Mr. Ingersoll has
produced no evidence to sustain this charge.
against the Church, and in accordance with
the general rule, the Church should be dis-
missed. But Mr. Ingersoll says, "No, I will
INGERSOLLISM.
63
make the Church an
an exception to the
general rule, I have made the charge and you
must prove her innocence." Very well sir, I
will give you the proof.
That education is the chief enemy of ignor-
ance, is too conspicuous and refulgent a truth
for any rational being to even momentarily
dispute it. If it can be shown therefore, that
the Church promotes education, it logically
and inevitably follows, that she does not
"foster ignorance." Now, what
what are
are the
"facts"? Let us take a single Christian
country. Let us see what the Christian
people of the United States are doing to
"foster ignorance." In the United States I
find that we have to-day:
358 Universities and Colleges.
125 Theological Seminaries.
106 Medical Schools.
50 Law Schools.
64
REASON AND
159 Kindergarten Schools.
156 Normal Schools.
129 Commercial Schools.
76 Schools of Science.
30 Schools for the Blind.
68 Reform Schools.
96,585 Churches.
76,300 Ministers and Priests.
577 Instructors of Theology.
272,686 School Teachers.
1,227 Normal School Teachers.
82,261 Sunday Schools.
886,000 Sunday School Teachers.
200,000 Common Schools.
100 Public Libraries that contain from
25,000 to 260,000 vols., and about
4,000 Small Public Libraries.
The Theological Schools have 4,320 stu-
dents. 6,623,124 children attend the Sunday
schools. And 9,424,086 children attend our
INGERSOLLISM.
65
schools and academies. It costs $100,000,000
a year to run our public schools alone. This
is what 38,000,000 of Christians are doing in
the United States to crush ignorance, and
Besides
stamp out everything that fosters it.
all this, think of the innumerable bible classes,
debating societies, literary and reading clubs,
religious newspapers, magazines, and publish-
ing companies that exist in the United States,
that have been organized by the Church for
the purpose of circulating Church literature,
and the general dissemination of knowledge.
These institutions are all supported either
directly by the Church or her adherents, and
all of them have grown up under her magical
power and educational influence.
But Mr. Ingersoll may say that he referred
more particularly to the Catholic Church. In
1875, the Catholic Church in this country
supported and maintained at her own expense
5
66
REASON AND
thirty-three theological seminaries, sixty-three
colleges, five hundred and fifty-seven acad-
amies and select schools, and sixteen hundred
and forty-five parochial schools. And these
institutions are not supported and kept up
for the purpose of making skeptics of a few
educated men, but for the general diffusion
of knowledge among the masses of the people,
for the purpose of making them better citizens
and teaching them charity and humanity
among men. Upon this question the Church
cordially shakes hands with Mr. Ingersoll and
exclaims, "Give me the storm and tempest of
of thought and action, rather than the dead
calm of ignorance," and in support of this sen-
timent, she is building schools all over the
world. What are the infidels doing in this
direction?
any schools?
Nothing.
Not one!
Are they building
And it is a well-known fact, that the pro-
INGERSOLLISM.
67
for years
testants of this country have for
advocated an amendment to the constitution
of the United States, by which the mainten-
ance of our public schools shall be made man-
datory under the organic law of the " queen
of nations."
Now, Mr. Ingersoll, how many schools have
been established in this country by infidels?
And where are they? Is it not a fact that
most of the children of infidels are educated
either in our public schools or in colleges
established and supported by Christians?
And why is it that more schools and institu-
tions of learning are to be found in Christian
countries than in countries that are not Chris-
tian? Is it because the Christian Church
"fosters ignorance"? Why is it that the
most intelligent people in the world are to
be found in Christian countries? While the
most ignorant people are to be found in
68
REASON AND
those countries that have not as yet been
Christianized? Why is it, if it be true that
the Church "fosters ignorance," that the
people of those countries where the Church
does not exist, are not more enlightened?
Why is it, that they do not throw off the yoke
of ignorance and make some progress? The
Church found man in a state of ignorance and
slavery. She has severed the bond that held
him in ignorance. She has broken the man-
acles that bound him in slavery. She found
him in a state of semi-barbarism, she has civil-
ized him, educated him, mantled him with the
royal robe of liberty and crowned him like a
god.
Of course, the world has produced a great
many infidel writers. some of whom were men
of extensive learning and splendid genius,
every one of whom I respect and admire.
But what have these men done in the cause of
Church is
pumary
Educational influen
INGERSOLLISM.
69
education, and for the suppression of ignor-A
read
Why weren't
of
Kensorship
Trepression
ance? They were mostly philosophical or
scientific writers, who wrote upon subjects
that were studied only by scholars. How
many of their books were ever written for or
read by the masses of the people? The great
masses of the people, the teeming millions
who labor outside of the professions, are
educated either in the public schools, or the
schools established by the Christian Church.
They know nothing whatever about your
famous infidel authors, and have received no
substantial benefit from their literary produc-
tions, except in a very indirect and remote
way. Their books may have enlarged the
minds of scholars, but they have done com-
paratively nothing to suppress ignorance
among the uneducated masses of the people.
If it were not for the Church and her in-
fluence as an educational, refining and moral-
70
REASON AND
izing institution, man's condition to-day would
be but little removed from that of the wild
beast or the untutored savage. As long ago
as the days when Rome and Greece flourished
and softly basked in the sunlight of their pros-
perity and splendor, the skeptics talked just
as they do now. They were going to work
wonders and reform the world, but as yet
they have accomplished nothing, and the daz-
zling fame and glittering grandeur of Rome
and Greece have gone, and our ancient
skeptical friends have quietly passed away.
The Church alone remains. Not in a state of
decay, but in all the freshness and beauty of
her youth, "in the full meridian of her glory,"
shedding the lustre of a new born star upon
the millions of people who support and admire
her.
Now, Mr. Ingersoll, what have you to say
to these "facts"? Are they not notorious
INGERSOLLISM.
71
and indisputable?
they not prove beyond all controversy, that
instead of the Church "fostering ignorance'
she is using her whole power and influence to
suppress it?
And this being true, do
""
Mr. Ingersoll says, that "when people read
they begin to reason, and when they reason
they progress. If Mr. Ingersoll ever ex-
pects to discover his own ignorance, he must
soon commence to read. And it is to be
hoped that he will then begin to reason and
progress He is almost as ancient in his ideas
as the man who paddled the "dugout" was
in his, during the dark ages when the intellect
of man was under a cloud. Certainly he has
given no new ideas to the world.
But Mr. Ingersoll is in the habit of saying a
good many things and he sometimes forgets
what he has said. In his lecture on
"The
he says, "Every school-house is a
Ghosts" he says,
72
REASON AND
temple. Education is the most radical thing
in the world. To teach the alphabet is to
inaugurate a revolution. To build a school-
house is to construct a fort. Every library is
an arsenal filled with the weapons and am-
munition of progress, and every fact is a
monitor with sides of iron and a turret of
steel."
Mr. Ingersoll first charges the Church
with "fostering ignorance," and then relieves
himself of this sudden burst of eloquence to
prove that consistency is a jewel. Was stu-
pidity ever more pure and simple? Is Mr.
Ingersoll really in ignorance of the fact, that
the Church has colleges and schools? That
she has taught and is now teaching the "alph-
abet" to millions of people? Does he not
know that the Church, or her adherents, has
erected "temples," "constructed forts," and
built "arsenals" all over this broad and
glorious land? Does he not know, what
INGERSOLLISM.
73
everybody knows, that the surface of this
Nation's domain, is studded with these em-
blems of education, even as the vault of heaven
is studded with luminous stars? One would
think to hear him talk that he did not, and
yet it is a fact, as absolutely impregnable as
"a monitor with sides of iron and a turret of
steel."
The Church as a social institution is also a
great educator.
She brings the people to-
gether at her social meetings, makes them
acquainted with one another, and thereby
affords them ample opportunity to exchange
their ideas and impart their views on all
subjects.
Many other things might be mentioned to
show that the Church does not "foster ignor-
ance," but on the contrary is doing all that
lies in her power to suppress it. But I think
what I have already said will suffice to satisfy
174
REASON AND
even the most fastidious, that Mr. Ingersoll's
position is again untenable and must remain
so until he gives us something more substantial
to support it, than a mere assertion, "adorned
with glittering embellishments;" an assertion
born of hatred and bigotry, narrow-minded in
its conception, fostered by ignorance and
malice, proclaimed to the world in thundering
tones and impotent threats, with all the art
of an ostentatious declaimer; and yet, as harm-
less as the roaring of the sea, as vapory as
the air, as destitute of sense and meaning as
the ravings of a maniac, and as ranting and
as rambling as the incoherent speech of a
brainless auctioneer, or the perennial song of
the impecunious hawker of galvanized wares.
INGERSOLLISM.
775
CHAPTER III.
IS IT TRUE THAT THE CHURCH "LAUGHS AT GOOD
WORKS AND RESORTS TO FALSEHOOD AND
SLANDER"?
"Think not, the good,
The gentle deeds of mercy thou hast done,
Shall die forgotten all; the poor, the pris'ner,
The fatherless, the friendless, and the widow,
Who daily own the bounty of thy hand,
Shall cry to Heaven and pull a blessing on thee."
This is the most ludicrous, as well as the
most absurd and malicious, of all the charges
made by Mr. Ingersoll against the Christian
Church. The utter falsity of the charge, that
the Church "laughs at good works," is too
apparent to need answering and might very
appropriately be treated with silent contempt.
But Mr. Ingersoll has displayed such remark-
able ignorance in all that he has said regard-
76
REASON AND
ing the Church, that it is not unlikely his ig-
norance upon this theme is just as dense and
inexcusable, as it has proved to be on all other
questions concerning the Church. And while
Mr. Ingersoll does not deem the Church
worthy of any respect or consideration at his
hands, it would be very unchristianlike for me
to do otherwise than to throw the mantle of
charity over his faults, and treat him with
the same courtesy that is due to all other anti-
religious maniacs who have become blinded
by their prejudice, and biased by their
opinions, by respectfully pointing out his mis-
takes, that he may behold his errors in the
the mirror of his own stupidity.
Has Mr. Ingersoll never heard of the Sisters
of Charity, and the numerous charitable
institutions over which they preside? Does
he not know that they have vowed to
devote their natural lives to the cause of
His tons become increasingly
Janatie
INGERSOLLISM.
ry ry
charity and humanity? Has he never heard of
their visiting the poor and afflicted in our
crowded cities? Has he never heard of
their taking care of the sick during the
most virulent epidemics? Has he never
heard of their heroic deeds, in our hospitals,
in our almshouses, in our prisons, and among
the wounded and dying on the glorious field
of battle? Does he not know that every
church provides for a large portion of the
indigent and unfortunate who belong to it?
Has he never heard of an Orphan Asylum?
Has he never heard of a Home for the aged
and decrepit who are helpless and unable to
take care of themselves? Can he deny the
fact that during the winter season, almost
every church forms a charitable society, for
the purpose of raising means to aid the needy?
Has he never heard of a "Woman's Home or
a "Home" for "innocent babes"? Does he not
78
REASON AND
know that the Church, of all institutions,
is the most charitable? And that leaving out
of the account her work for the salvation of
souls, she exists only to do good, to assist the
unfortunate and to aid and comfort the op-
pressed? Has he never heard of a church
sewing society? Has he never heard of such
a thing as a church social, a church festival, a
church concert, a church musical, or a dram-
atic entertainment, given by the church for
charitable purposes? Has he never heard of
ministers and priests visiting the sick, the poor
and the imprisoned? Has he never heard of
the Young Men's Christian Association? Has
he never heard of the Church Missionaries on
our frontiers? Has he never heard of a
church collection being made to aid the suf-
ferers by fire, by storm, or by epidemics such.
as the cholera or yellow fever? Has he
never heard of the millions of church pic-nics
INGERSOLLISM.
179.
and excursions that have been given for
charitable causes? If Mr. Ingersoll pleads.
ignorance of these facts, which are known to
all the world, then truly there must be some
wisdom in the maxim, "Where ignorance is
bliss 'tis folly to be wise."
The fact is, the Church has
of men from vice and ruin.
saved millions
She has lifted
nie agam
reverse
is alway
millions of men out of the colossal jaws of use
intemperance. She has saved millions
opduffy quantit
tament
dis
women from a life of shame and iniquity. She discuation
She
has fed millions of the starving_poor.
has educated millions of the lowly and ignor-
ant. She has cared for millions of widows.
and orphans. She has provided homes for
millions of the aged poor, the deaf, dumb and
blind, and the penniless sick. She has fed,
nurtured, and reared millions of fatherless
babes. Her royal benevolence is to be seen
on every hand. In the homes of the poor;
80
REASON AND
in town and city; in prison and dungeon;
amidst storm and tempest; on land and sea;
in the forests as well as on the plains; upon
the mountain top, and in the smiling valley
below; in the thickest of battle in war; and
in the heart of poverty and disease in peace.
In every age, and in every land, she has dis-
tributed her charity with a lavish hand and
a tender spirit. Not alone among Christians,
but among all men, regardless of the fact as
to whether they professed to believe in any
religious creed or not. Her charity and
humanity have shed a lustre over her history
that has dazzled the kings of the earth, and
made her illustrious among all men, and all
nations. She has stood robed and jeweled at
the biers of the friendless dead, and strewed
their lonely graves with wreaths of flowers.
She has kissed the tears of sorrow from the
of orphan children; she has pressed her
eyes
INGERSOLLISM.
81
loving lips against the pale shrunken cheeks
of homeless women. She has raised the out-
cast from the place where she had fainted
upon the snow and frozen ice; she has res-
cued her in the throes of death, from the
savage waves of the boisterous sea. She has
turned the house of woe into a house of joy.
There is not, and there never has been, any
form of human misery that she has not allevi-
ated, no form of pain she has not assuaged.
She has been to the unfortunate and distressed
on land, what the life-boat has been to the
shipwrecked at sea. So much hath this grand
old institution done for humanity, that she has
become the mightiest of all the mighty powers
in the world. She holds the first place in
the hearts of men. Her heroism, her deeds
of charity, and the nobility of her countless
good works, have not only sanctified her and
made her name holy, but they have elevated
6
82
REASON AND
her in the estimation of mankind, and crowned
her with a halo of glory. She stands before
mankind to-day, as graceful and as charming
as a goddess, as pure as a lily, as fragrant as
a rose, and as peerless as the morning star.
She occupies a loftier plain than all other
human institutions. She stands above them
all. Firm as the rock of ages, majestic as
the sun, like a pillar of fire by night, she illu-
minates the earth, animates the souls of men,
penetrates the darkest recesses of despair,
carrying joy to every heart, and spans the
valley of death and desolation with a rainbow
of light that is marvelous and grand.
And amidst all this Christian charity, which
is going on unceasingly in all Christian coun-
tries, where can you point to a single charit-
able institution that is exclusively infidel?
But Mr. Ingersoll says, that the Church
"resorts to falsehood and slander." Does
This obscession with gandile-quent
phrases Appal te smollonaliam &
"Jarativas
ар
INGERSOLLISM.
83.
Mr. Ingersoll believe in slander
Mr. Inger-
soll has charged the Church with being "the
enemy of liberty." He has denounced her
for "fostering ignorance." He has charged
her with "laughing at good works and resort-
ing to falsehood and slander." He has alleged
that "her pulpit and pews no longer repre-
sent the culture and morality of the world."
Have I not shown that each and every one of
these charges are maliciously false? Who
then is it that "resorts to falsehood and slan-
der"? The Church or Mr. Ingersoll? „Mr.
Ingersoll has not given us a single instance
in which the Church has ever "resorted to
falsehood and slander." He has based all of
these charges upon mere assertions, and ex-
pects the people to accept them as facts.
And yet, Mr. Ingersoll has said, "Assertions
17
are base and spurious coins." That"There
is nothing grander than to rescue from the
· •
REASON AND
84
leprosy of slander the reputation of a great
11
and generous name. On the other hand, it
cannot be denied that the Church has been
slandered and calumniated more than any
other institution in Christendom, and by no
one more than Mr. Ingersoll. Does Mr. In-
gersoll not know, that one of the cardinal
doctrines of the Church provides that "Thou
shalt not bear false witness against thy neigh-
bor"? And does he not know, that tens of
thousands of sermons are preached from the
Church pulpits annually in support of this
doctrine?
How any man, especially a man of Mr.
Ingersoll's intelligence, can have the audacity
or hardihood in this enlightened age, to
charge the Church with "laughing at good
works" or "resorting to falsehood and slan-
der" with all these facts before him, is some-
thing absolutely incomprehensible. It is one
INGERSOLLISM.
85
of those strange phenomena, that can no more
be explained than a mystery. There is no
more reason or truth in the charge than there
is in any of the accounts given by the Church
to sustain miracles. It is as baseless as the
idle tales of Munchausen. The Church is the
mother of "good works," and the arch-enemy
of "falsehood and slander." She loves the
philanthropist. She loathes and despises the
slanderer.
86
REASON AND
CHAPTER IV.
DOES MR. INGERSOLL SPEAK THE TRUTH, WHEN
HE SAYS OF THE CHURCH, "HER PULPIT AND
PEWS NO LONGER REPRESENT THE CULTURE
AND MORALITY OF THE WORLD"?
"Be thou as chaste as ice,
As pure as snow,
Thou shalt not escape calumny."
In this instance, as in all others, this bold
assertor makes the above affirmation, and
relies upon mere assertion, unsustained either
by argument or facts to support his position.
That Mr. Ingersoll is laboring under a grievious
mistake, no intelligent person will deny. Nor
will it require an argument from me to refute
a charge which everybody knows to be false.
"Truth needs no flowers of speech." So far
INGERSOLLISM.
87
as education, culture and morality are con-
cerned, who can doubt for a moment that the
ministers of the Christian Church, considered
as a body, are the best educated, the most
highly cultivated, and the most moral men in
the world? Even the most fastidious unbe-
lievers, as well as the most enthusiastic_ad-
mirers of Mr Ingersoll, will admit this cogent
fact, no matter how much they may differ
in their opinions with ministers in their reli-
gious views. Ministers as a rule, are not
only well educated, but well informed, and
most of them are linguists, and men of eru-
dition and high accomplishments, as well as
fine natural endowments.
If ministers are wanting in any respect, it
is in practical knowledge, practical experi-
ence, and practical ability. There can be no
question but what the Christian Church has
often been forced into the most ridiculous and
88
REASON AND
absurd positions, by the illogical and churlish
statements of her ministers concerning her
doctrines and her ethics. As a general rule,
the ministers of the Christian Church, con-
This Weeksidering their intelligence and education, are
lisargumente
junts most ignorant body of men upon all prac
:
treal subjects and worldly affairs, and know
less about human nature and the true charac-
ter of men than any other body of men in
Christendom. Their position, socially and
ministerially, necessarily makes this fact in-
evitable. Ministers do not often mingle with
the people like other men, and cannot do so
under the present code of clerical ethics.
This being the case, how are they to know
anything about the practical affairs of life,
the evil doings of men, and the wicked ways
of the world? But notwithstanding their
want of acquaintance with the ways of the
world, the truth that the clergy are a culti-
V Culture. Je clas&sonal progress are
se
recessitated by an under danding of
predics subject-
INGERSOLLISM.
89.
vated body of men, is as incontrovertible as
the fact that the earth revolves on its axis.
And while some of the noblest and largest-
hearted men in the world are to be found in
the ministry, on the other hand, it contains
some of the most pusillanimous, narrow-
minded, bigoted fanatics that ever lived. In
this profession, as in all others, these little
fellows are to be found. This latter class of
ministers were never known to do any good,
or convert anybody to Christianity; they
simply live on the Church like a lot of para-
sites, and are as detrimental and disgraceful
to her as the paupers of a city are to a well
regulated community. They are to the min-
istry what the pettifogging lawyer is to the
legal fraternity, or the quack to the medical
profession. And their bigotry and fanaticism,
is only excelled by the bigotry and fanaticism
of the most rampant infidels.
educatio
education yet dere leadus
& conditions
1. Church supports rechical regels
are ignorant
9 men?
to their
In enlightens them as
spuitual needs, but leaves them in perpetual
Confusion as to this worldly needs.
90
REASON AND
So much for the pulpit. What about the
pews? Will any rational human being dis-
pute for a moment that the church-going
people, as a rule, are the most intelligent and
cultivated people in every country in the
world? The fact is, that the culture, intelli-
gence, and morality of every community, are
to be found mainly in the Christian Church.
Of course, there are a great many intelligent
and elegantly cultivated people in every civil-
ized community, that are not Christians.
cannot be said that there are no cultivated
people outside of the Church, because this
would not be true. But take the majority of
the people of culture in every civilized com-
munity, and you will find them to be a
church-going people.
It
So far as the morals of the ministers of the
Church and the church-going people are con-
cerned, they are immeasurably better than
INGERSOLLISM.
91
those of the class who are never seen at
Church. Of course, there are some excep-
tions to this rule. But it is nevertheless a
fact, that is perfectly patent to the mind of
every intelligent, thinking man. It is for this
reason that the Christian Church exists. Her
chief aim is to cultivate the character and
improve the morals of the people. And
when Mr. Ingersoll says, that the Church no
longer "represents the culture and morality
of the world," he knows, as does everybody
who possesses common sense, that he tells a
deliberate and malicious falsehood. Why,
Mr. Ingersoll, if you were to throw into the
capacious ocean the Christian Church and all
her paraphernalia and adherents, culture and
morals would be at such a low ebb, that this
world would not be fit for civilized man to
live in. If, on the other hand, you were to
throw all the infidels and their institutions
1
92
REASON AND
イ
into the Black Sea, they would hardly create
a ripple on its surface as they went down,
and the world would never be any the wiser,
and would never miss them.
INGERSOLLISM.
93
CHAPTER V.
1
INGERSOLL'S LECTURES.
"He raves; his words are loose
As heaps of sand, and scattering wide from sense:
So high he's mounted on his airy throne,
That now the wind has got into his head,
And turns his brains to phrensy."
A short time ago, I called on a friend who
happened to have one of Mr. Ingersoll's books
in his hand, and I asked him what he was
reading. And my friend replied in the sar-
castic but eloquent language of Hamlet to
Polonius :
"Words, Words, Words!"
While Mr. Ingersoll is one of the vainest,
most egotistical, self-conceited, self-opinioned.
94
REASON AND
and dogmatic men that was ever born of
woman, yet the fact cannot be denied, that
in many
many respects he holds a decided
advantage over all of his opponents. His
faultless and inimitable style, his plausibility,
his keen satire, his brilliant wit, his scathing.
invective, his wonderful power of persuasion,
his superb manner of expression, his grand
diction, and his sublime rhetoric, are qualities.
which cannot fail to command the unqualified
praise and admiration of even his bitterest
enemies. In his opposition to the Church
however, his most formidable weapons are
specious argument, rose-tinted
rose-tinted sentiment,
false accusation and bold assertion. I say
these are his most formidable weapons, because
they confound the ignorant; they delight the
simple-minded; they please the prejudiced;
they mislead the unthinking; they carry the
infidel by storm; they amuse the strategist;
INGERSOLLISM.
95
they fascinate the sentimentalist; they win the
applause of the dissolute, the irreligious and
the blasphemous; they meet with the hearty
approval of the parasite, the hireling, and the
vicious habitue of the grog-shop and dens of
iniquity and vice, and they represent the
Church to the world, in a light that is not only
false but preposterous. Of course, with the
thoughtful, the man of common sense, the man
of experience, the man of observation and cul-
ture, who is familiar with history, and con-
scious of what is going on in the world about
him, this sort of argument can have no
weight. It neither deceives nor persuades
him, but is invariably treated by him with
derision and contempt, as mere ridiculous flum-
mery clothed in ostentatious words. But
there are a few things in which Mr. Ingersoll
excels. In the role of the sensationalist, the
assertor, the denier, and the sentimentalist, he
96
REASON AND
is the grandest success of the nineteenth cen-
tury. He excels in all of these charming spe-
cialties. Particularly in the capacity of the
gushing sentimentalist. In this role the world
has never produced his like, and probably
never will.
Mr. Ingersoll assumes to be a great lover of
mankind, a benefactor of the human race, a
grand specimen of humanity. He says: "We
do not pretend to have circumnavigated
everything, and to have solved all diffi
culties, but we do believe that it is better to
love men than to fear Gods." And again, in
his lecture on "The Ghosts" he says:
"Man
is better than these phantoms. Humanity is
grander than all the creeds, than all the books.
Humanity is the great sea, and these creeds,
and books, and religions, are but the waves
of a day. Humanity is the sky, and these
religions and dogmas and theories are but the
INGERSOLLISM.
97
mists and clouds changing continually, des-
tined finally to melt away."
The sentiment is a very good one, and not
at all objectionable. But Mr. Ingersoll, why
don't you practice what you preach? Is it
because you are a supercilious hypocrite, and
prefer to sail under false colors? You know
that you have spent the best part of your life
thus far, in abusing the Church and insulting
her adherents. And yet, the Church has done
more good for humanity, and is doing more
good to-day, than all the other institutions of
man combined.
If you are a true friend to
mankind, why do you keep up an unceasing
war against this grand old institution, the
mother of humanity?
But, says Mr. Ingersoll: "I will not invade
the rights of others.
*
*
Believe what you may; preach what you de-
sire; have all the forms and ceremonies you
7
98
REASON AND
please; exercise your liberty in your own
way, but extend to all others the same right."
And again: "Whosoever claims any right
that he is unwilling to accord to his fellow-
men is dishonest and infamous."
And again:
"The man who is not willing to give to every
other the same intellectual rights he claims
for himself, is dishonest, selfish and brutal.”
If these principles were to be applied to Mr.
Ingersoll, the facts would prove him to be,
one of the most "dishonest, selfish and brutal"
men that ever drew breath. Mr. Ingersoll
believes he has the right to believe in athe-
ism, but he does not believe that Christians
have the right to believe in the existence of
a God.
If a Christian undertakes to exercise
his belief in the divine origin of the Church,
Mr. Ingersoll immediately denounces him as
"a slave of superstition." And yet he
claims an unqualified right to believe that the
INGERSOLLISM.
99
Church is nothing but a human institution.
Mr. Ingersoll does not believe that the Chris-
tians have the right to believe in the Bible as
an inspired work, and still he claims the right
to declare it the work of man. Mr. Ingersoll
asserts the right to "believe" what he pleases,
to "preach" what he pleases, and to exer-
cise his "liberty" as he pleases, but when
Christians claim the same right, he denounces
them as the enemies of the human race. Mr.
Ingersoll claims the right to abuse the Church
and her adherents, but he does not believe
that the Church has the right to abuse him.
Anybody who believes as Mr. Ingersoll
believes is right. Anybody who disagrees
with Mr. Ingersoll is wrong.
Mr. Ingersoll
does not believe in the right of the Church to
question the truth of anything that he says,
but he claims the right himself to declare
everything that the Church utters to be false
Then, why does Ingersoll invite
open discussion, she were
then de would
Lever won Refore
Refore the publ
100
REASON AND
And yet Mr. Ingersoll has the audacity to
say, "I will not invade the rights of others."
Is not this an invasion of "the rights of
others"? Mr. Ingersoll claims the right to
criticise and denounce the Church, but he will
not accord the same right to the Church to
criticise and denounce him. Mr. Ingersoll's
sentiments are high sounding, and all very
nice in theory, but the trouble is, he never
carries them out in practice. He applies them
to all the rest of the world, but he never
applies them to himself. He expects the
Church to respect his rights, but he does not
consider that the Church has any rights which
he is bound to respect.
Any one to read Mr. Ingersoll's lectures-
this great lover of humanity-would naturally
conclude that he is one of the most bitter
haters of the human family that was ever born
He believes that man came up from the lower
INGERSOLLISM.
101
animals, from the orang-outang,
chimpanzee or something of that sort.
or
or the
And
while he believes this, yet he denounces the
whole human race for its crimes, and bewails
the fact of its ignorance. While he believes
that man was born of the lower animals, yet
he upbraids him, because he was not born
with a large well-shaped head, a massive
brain, and a magnificent physique. He makes
no allowance for the myriad of ages that man
has been developing. He sees nothing grand
in the brave struggles of man through the
benighted ages. His advancement from the
lower animal to a state of savagery. His pro-
gress from savagery to a state of semi-barbar-
ism, and from the latter to the civilized man
and accomplished scholar. He can see noth-
ing lofty in the heroic suffering and un-
speakable trials that man has passed through,
in his efforts to suppress savagery, barbarism,
102
REASON AND
and ignorance, to lift himself up to the high
state of intellectual development, and the
noble manhood which he now enjoys. He
can discover nothing creditable to man in the
change in his dress, his habitation, his advanced
social position, and his refined accomplish-
ments. He talks as if these things cost
nothing, were obtained without a struggle,
and acquired in a day. In all these things he
is unable to find a palliating circumstance, to
soften the cruelty or mitigate the offenses of
mankind in the shadowy past.
It is quite evident that Mr. Ingersoll is not
an optimist. His pessimistic, rambling views
and ideas, inevitably stamp him as a Buddhist.
Mr. Ingersoll has placed himself before the
world, in the character of a great hydra-
headed monster, whose time is principally
spent in fretting and brooding over the
dwarfed intellectuality and stupendous ignor-
INGERSOLLISM.
103
ance of his dead ancestry. He has no charity
for the dead, no respect for the feelings of the
living. He abuses all antiquity, good and
bad, without distinction. For him there is no
hope in his vision of the future. To him all
is gloom and darkness. Despair, like a grim
spectre, beclouds his reason by day and haunts
him in his dreams by night. He talks like a man
who has been born in a cavern and has never
seen the light of day, nor felt the soft warm rays
of the summer's sun. From the depths of his
gloomy soul he laments and moans over the
desolation that filled the earth in the dark
ages. He denounces Christianity as the
fountain from which man's misery and mis-
fortunes, and all existent evils have flowed.
He can discover no glow of happiness in
the past, nor can he see any joy in the future,
to him all is obscurity, pain and sorrow.
In speaking of the ancients, and the his-
Vhow miserable
1
104
REASON AND
tories of their times, Mr. Ingersoll says: "In
all the histories of those days there is hardly a
single truth. It is safe to say that every truth
in the histories of those times is the result of
accident or mistake." He then proceeds to
prove every imputation of cruelty and ignor-
ance for which he has arraigned mankind and
the Church, by the same histories which he
alleges do not contain a word of truth.
This man, who seems to be utterly void of
all humanity in considering the men of
antiquity and the institutions of their times,
throws the whole responsibility for man's con-
dition upon the Church. For the Church he
has nothing but loathing, contempt, and ever-
lasting reproach. He assails her with all the
energy and malignity of a viper. He attacks
her with fire and tongs, and flaming sword.
He cannot speak of her without falling into a
consuming rage.
He attacks her upon every
INGERSOLLISM.
105
side with the fierceness and ferocity of a wild
beast. With a thousand slanderous tongues,
and a thousand vocabularies, he beats her
with his vituperous invective and his masterly
rhetoric. And when he has exhausted him-
self he rests for a while, and then resumes his
attack with renewed energy and violence.
"From the quiver of his hatred darts a
thousand arrows of slander and falsehood.'
He slashes around like a toy ship upon the
turbulent sea, without either compass or rud-
der, until he is finally stranded upon the
shore. He then rests again for a while, takes
a new tack, launches his fragile bark upon
the violent sea of his consuming wrath and
implacable hatred, starts out with a new lec-
ture, in which he repeats all that he ever said
against the Church in all his previous lectures,
and after vociferating the old story over and
over again, like Don Quixote in his attack
106
REASON AND
upon the wind-mills, "He roars and bellows,
and charges in among the idols of the past
with all the fury of the most illustrious sires
of his species. And yet he is altogether
harmless in these paroxysms, save to himself.
Meeting no opposition save here and there.
from the rocks of truth that lie in his way,
over these he but stumbles and falls to
rise again in redoubled fury, foaming and
roaring and lashing his sides for another
attack."
Mr. Ingersoll's lecture on "The Ghosts" is
simply a one-sided compilation of historic
facts, which everybody knows and nobody
disputes; which show the condition of the
human intellect during the dark ages; the
superstition of man; his belief in ghosts and
witchcraft, the cruel forms of religious belief;
the ferocious cruelty of man; his ignorance
of the sciences and the arts; the sad, uncivil-
INGERSOLLISM.
107
ized status of society; and the dense stupidity
and ignorance with which the human mind
was fettered, and encircled as if with a cloud
of darkness, until it emerged from its prison
upon the dawn of a higher and nobler civiliza-
tion. Of course, for this condition of the
human family, Mr. Ingersoll lays all the blame
on the Church
Mr. Ingersoll might with as much reason
and propriety, blame the Church for the ignor-
ance and superstition of the barbarous tribes.
of Central Asia or Africa, where the Church
does not exist. The fact is, this was the
original condition of man, and it continued for
many centuries until the Church educated
him and ameliorated his condition. This
lecture does great injustice to the Church, for
while it indicates the prevailing evils of the
Church, which were peculiar to the people.
and times of which Mr. Ingersoll writes, yet
108
REASON AND
it relates none of her good works, which
largely predominated over those that were
bad. Mr. Ingersoll's chief object seems to have
been, that of parading before the world, all
the horrors and iniquities peculiar to the
dark and semi-barbarous ages, coloring and
exaggerating them, leaving out everything in
the history of mankind that was good or
praiseworthy. This is not only unfair to the
Church, but it is unkind and ungenerous_to
humanity.
I have often wondered how Mr. Ingersoll
would like to be held up to the world, with all
the mistakes and errors of his life laid bare,
and there left without a single word being
said of him as to his good deeds. What do
you suppose he would say if this was done?
Can there be any doubt but what Mr. Inger-
soll would say, that to present him to the
world in this light, would not only be an
INGERSOLLISM.
109
unpardonable piece of injustice, but a most
infamous outrage? And yet this is the very
light in which he presents the Church to the
world. He stigmatizes her for all that she
has ever done that is reproachable, he gives
her no praise for what she has done that is
highly commendable.
Mr. Ingersoll's lecture on "The Gods" is a
rambling, incoherent dissertation upon a mul-
tiplicity of subjects.
In this lecture he con-
demns the innumerable "Gods" feared and
worshiped by the various peoples, tribes, and
nations of the earth, from time immemorial
down to the present day. He denies the
existence of the supernatural. He denies the
inspiration of the Bible. He denies the exist-
ence of either hell or heaven, and denounces
the "God" of the Christian, as the greatest
monster of cruelty that man ever invented.
He denies the divine authority of the Church.
110
REASON AND
He denies the efficacy of prayer, and con-
trasts the noble character and splendid
bearing of the devil, with the despicable char-
acter and the infamous and depraved cruelty
of God, and awards magnificent praise to the
former. He adverts to the Christian's God,
as the "monarch of the sky," the "despot of
the clouds," and the "aristocracy of the air."
He characterizes God as the "phantom of the
heavens," and denounces all who worship
Him, as the "slaves of superstition." Every
little while, he indulges his fancy in a light,
fantastical digression, in which he either
abuses all mankind or the Church, and then
gives way to an eloquent eulogy on the superb
qualities of the "devil," for whom he ex-
presses the most affectionate partiality and
the warmest admiration.
He then renews his attack upon the
Church, and metaphorically blisters her with
INGERSOLLISM.
111
the merciless fire of his withering invect-
ive.
Of course, Mr. Ingersoll naturally feels very
much chagrined, and very justly indignant,
because the Church declines to notice him.
All the little men in the world have applauded
what he has said about her, and have laughed
themselves into fits of extasy, in imagining
what reply the Church would make, to what
they considered the unanswerable arguments
of Mr. Ingersoll. But as yet the Church has
not manifested even the slightest interest in
his denunciatory declamation. Thus far she
has treated Mr. Ingersoll with cold indiffer-
ence, silent scorn, and laughing mockery.
And her conduct in this respect has not only
been very mortifying to Mr. Ingersoll, but it
has thoroughly aroused his ire and contempt.
Mr. Ingersoll stews, and fumes, and threat-
ens, and thunders.
The Church laughs! and
You have
+
2. Wole all the religions attacks threats
upon dag. in
to
responsible" lay yournals, be clergy
112
REASON AND
then the hatred of Mr. Ingersoll soars to a
climax. He then commences a new attack
upon the Church, and the sight immediately
becomes an amusing spectacle. Mr. Ingersoll
with great calmness and resolution, girds his
loins for the contest. And while he is pre-
paring for the battle, let us "look into that
soul, let us look into that obscurity. There,
beneath the external silence, there are com-
bats of giants as in Homer, melees of dragoons
and hydras, and clouds of phantoms as in
Milton, and ghastly labyrinths as in Dante."
With dagger and sword, with pistol and blud-
geon, he makes ready for the fray His anger
has now become implacable and his mind
frenetical. He can no longer refrain from
falling with crushing weight upon this arch-
enemy of mankind, this bitterest of all
human foes. His intrepidity forces him upon
his adversary. With the courage of a war-
Paints future of Ingenioll as corople
descend to hyperbole,
animal
жде
* Excessive non-factual condter charge.
INGERSOLLISM.
113
Noth-
rior, and the gallantry of "a plumed knight,"
he meets his opponent "and throws his
shining lance full and fair against " her, but
without avail. The Church laughs again!
His fury is then increased to madness.
ing however, daunts his arrogance. With a
thousand lances of libel, with a thousand
arrows of slander, with a thousand missives
of calumny and falsehood, he assails his enemy.
With the vocabularies of all nations, he con-
centrates his hatred and venom, and hurls it
at his innocent opponent, with all the fierce-
ness of a thousand fiends. With the baseness
of a reptile, he pursues her with "a whip" of
a thousand "scorpions," and the strength of
a thousand hydra-headed dragons. With the
ferocity of a thousand hyenas, with the sav-
ageness of a thousand carnivorous animals,
he mutilates and mars her beauty, and tears
and claws her sacred form. Like a fiend
8
114
REASON AND
Whole
preventitink
wwell
incarnate, he vents his "venomed vengeance
upon her holy head.
Contact Prodigal
""
And yet, after all
this calumny and slander, and this veno-
mous and fiendish attack, the Church simply
looks down upon Mr. Ingersoll, with that
serene and dignified calmness, that a merci-
ful mother would bestow upon an erring
prodigal son, with naught but pity in her
soul, in a silence that is unspeakably grand.
And when Mr. Ingersoll discovers the cool
insensibility_displayed by the Church, he
works himself into a frenzy. The scene now
becomes truly ludicrous. Mr. Ingersoll favors
us with one of his very best efforts, a regular
แ
tempest in a teapot." He again attacks his
opponent. But the Church again treats his
attack scoffingly, and the whole adventure
degenerates into a roaring, rolicking, chirlish
farce-leaving Mr. Ingersoll in the most.
ridiculous and humiliating position. His
INGERSOLLISM.
115
attack upon the Church being fully as laugh-
able as the attack of a fly upon a bumble-bee,
a cur dog upon an English mastiff, a weasel
upon a lion, a canary-bird upon an eagle,
a toad upon an elephant, or a minnow trying
to drown a whale.
,,
In his lecture on "Man, Woman and Child,'
Mr. Ingersoll condemns and reproaches man,
because he was not born an intellectual giant;
because he was ignorant in the dim ages that
have passed away. This great friend of
humanity declares that "this world has not
been fit for a man to live in fifty years." He
reprobates man, because he used the "Collar
of Torture," the "Scavenger's Daughter," and
the "Rack," as instruments of punishment,
for things done and thoughts uttered, which
in by-gone days were considered crimes.
Because he used the "Dug-out" for a boat,
the "club, boomerang, cross-bow, blunderbuss
116
REASON AND
and flint-lock,” as weapons. Because he used
a "shell of a turtle," and "the shirts of mail "
for an armor. Because he used the "tom-
tom as a musical instrument. Because he
was not born an artist. Because he wrote
books upon the "skins of wild beasts,
shoulder-blades of sheep," and "leaves" and
pieces of "bark." Because he used a
"crooked stick that was attached to the horn
of an ox," as an agricultural implement,
and finally, because his "skull" was not as
large and as perfectly shaped as the skul's of
men are to-day. He tells the women that
they were the born slaves of men. But he
forgets to tell them that the rule has since
been reversed, and that men are now the born
slaves of women. He then proceeds to abuse
our progenitors in the following vigorous
style:
"Our fathers were intellectual serfs, and
INGERSOLLISM.
117
their fathers were slaves. The makers of our
creeds were ignorant and brutal. Every
dogma that we have has upon it the mark of
whip, the rust of chain, and the ashes of fagot."
"Our fathers reasoned with instruments of
torture. They believed in the logic o. fire
and sword. They hated reason. They des-
pised thought. They abhorred liberty.'
After the thunder, the lightning and the
storm, there comes a sudden calm that is
noiseless and grand. After the tempest, the
sun smiles upon nature, and illuminates the
darkness. We have heard Mr. Ingersoll's
thundering declamation, we have seen the
glare and lightning flashes of his brilliant wit,
and his merciless sarcasm. We have felt the
shock of his scathing invective, and wit-
nessed the storm and whirlwind of his splen-
did rhetoric. And now, for a moment, calm
reason, the idol of his heart, intervenes, and
118
REASON AND
Forget.
invites him to kneel and worship at her holy
shrine. The dark tempest of vituperation,
falsehood and slander, has at last subsided,
the bright rays of the golden sun have pene-
trated the soul of man, and majestic reason
"crowned and jeweled" sits upon the high
throne of justice.
Mr. Ingersoll, why not talk about the pres-
ent, and not "the dead calm and ignorance" of
History the past? Let antiquity go. Let us throw the
veil of charity over the errors of man during
the_benighted ages. Let us talk about the
issues of the day. To tell the people of the
ignorance and cruelty of man in former
times, and abuse all mankind without measure,
will not eradicate the evils of the present.
You have already told us all that the Church
and her adherents have ever done that was
erroneous and despicable. You have also
told us all the good that the great infidels
INGERSOLLISM.
119
have performed in the world, either by word
or deed. And it only took you a short time
to tell us. And now, Mr. Ingersoll, if you
really desire to immortalize yourself, suppose
you devote the remainder of your life in writ-
ing a few hundred volumes, to indicate to the
the world all the good that the Church has
achieved. The subject would be a grand one
you know, and it would crown the last efforts
of your life with immortal fame. Besides,
people could not say then, as now, that you
were one-sided, and had only written up the
errors of man and the Church, leaving the
story of their good deeds to be told by some
one who has more humanity in his soul than
you have.
The Church no longer reasons "with instru-
ments of torture." She no longer believes in
"the logic of fire and sword." She no
longer "hates reason. She no longer "des-
shoe
Because, row, matead of physical sever
+ torture, there is intellectual levery & torture
120
REASON AND
pises thought." She no longer "abhors lib-
erty." Years ago she abandoned the whip,
the "manacle and chain," the "fagot," the
66
thumbscrew," the "rack," and the tortures
of the "inquisition." Why then, taunt her
with these dead issues of the past? The
Church believed in those things simply be-
cause the people of the rude and barbarous
times in which they were used believed in
them. The Church has advanced with the
tidal-wave of civilization, and has adapted
herself to the various ages in which she
existed.
If
Now, Mr. Ingersoll, what constitutes the
Church? The Church is the people.
there were no people, there would be no
Church. The Church therefore, cannot have
any higher ideas of right and wrong than the
people. This of course, is upon the theory
that the Church is simply a human institution.
INGERSOLLISM.
121
If the Church adheres to any doctrines to-
day, that are detrimental to the develop-
ment of the human intellect, the progress of
civilization, or that may reasonably be consid-
ered as vicious or infamous, point them out,
make your attack upon them, and I will not
utter a word in opposition to your views. On
the contrary, if you are right I will applaud
you. But, Mr.
But, Mr. Ingersoll, I can see no reason
or justice for reproaching the Church for the
old ideas she once entertained; for the old
practices which she once indulged in, but
which she has long since abandoned. It is
like kicking a man after he is dead because
he died. It is like persecuting a culprit
because he has reformed. It is like abusing a
man for embracing civilization and discard-
ing barbarism.
There is no principle upon
which you can justify your position, except the
one adopted by the preacher, who pounded
*
122
REASON AND
the dog after it was dead, because while alive
it had bitten his favorite son, and who when
told by a passer-by who saw him thus engaged,
that the dog was dead, simply remarked, "it
makes no difference, sir; I believe in punish-
ment after death." It can do no good to
revive these old issues. You are wasting
your strength upon the desert air.
that you ceased to pour the vials
wrath upon these whited sepulchers.
It is time
of your
If you
desire distinction, give us some new ideas if
you have any. You might just as well talk to
the wind about the phantoms of the air or the
moon and stars, as to talk to the people about
the dead issues of the past.
evils have ceased to exist.
These errors and
They have long
since been buried and are now mere matters
of history with which everybody is familiar.
Their substance has vanished, their skeletons.
and shadows alone remain. The people have
INGERSOLLISM.
123
heard enough of them. They want no more
cheap twaddle. They no longer care "to sac-
rifice the Present and the Living, upon the
ignorant altars of the Past and the Dead."
And no man who makes his living by preying
like a great vulture upon society, or parading
before the world the vices and corruptions of
humanity and Church, in the dark epochs
of by-gone centuries, can hope to live long in
the memories of thoughtful men.
But Mr. Ingersoll is unable to suppress
this spirit of hatred towards the Church.
Like Banquo's ghost, it will not down. This
feeling of hatred has become the very "jewel
of his soul," and leads him on "with Tarquin's
ravishing strides towards" the object of his
malice and madness. No man ever described
Mr. Ingersoll's attack upon the Church,
with greater truth or accuracy, than the
Rev. Henry Ward Beecher, when he said:
the
Accuses tages, coll of attacking
Charch on what she has been (since
reformed) instead of what she is now.
[24
Bee fertes
quas
REASON AND
"The trouble with Ingersoll is this: He
has selected the excrescences of human life as
it has grown in Churches and has repre-
sented the excrescences as the essense of reli-
gion. Suppose a physician wishing to get up
a museum, representing the human body in
all ages and conditions, should collect idiots
and lunatics, with wens and warts all over
them. Suppose that the physician should
gather them into a museum and say, There's
humanity for you; what do you think of that?
That is what Mr. Ingersoll is doing in the
religious world. He says scores of true
things that have been said before, but he don't
know it. He is not widely read in theology.
I'm afraid he don't read his Bible very much.
What does he read it for? I'll tell you. The
doves flying over the landscape see all that is
sweet and peaceful, but when the buzzard and
the vulture lay abroad the first thing they
INGERSOLLISM.
125
C
see is a loathsome carcass, and if it is any-
where in sight they don't fail to see it. _Inger-
soll sees what he is looking after."
If
Is the Church to be condemned because.
there are bad men who belong to it? Because
she affords a shield to hypocrisy ? Upon this
principle all societies, governments and pri-
vate and public institutions would have to be
condemned. If the Church has persecuted
man in the past, have not governments done
the same thing from time immemorial?
the Church has ruled to a certain extent by
coercion and fear, have not governments
done the same thing? And has not the
Church ceased to persecute, while govern-
ments have not? Are not most all men ruled
and governed by law, and the fear of punish-
ment which its violation promises? "Why
were laws made, but that we 're rogues by
nature"? The Church has used force in the
does this abspline
of use of
the Church
126 force
REASON AND
past, simply because her persecutors resorted
to it. Why is it that children mind their
parents, if it is not partially through fear of
chastisement? The fact is, the world is gov-
erned principally by force and fear.
If we
are to condemn the Church for her past deeds
in this respect, must we not for the same rea-
son, if we are logical and just, condemn all
inst other institutions? And upon this principle,
But thi
Shunch is
Repussar
Civilizers
instili
the whole human race would have to be con-
demned and extinguished. For where is the
man, or institution that is perfect, who has
never made a mistake or fallen into error?
Is it reasonable to expect infallible conduct
from a fallible being or institution?
Mr. Ingersoll condemn the Church for reform-
ing? Has she not kept pace with the advan-
cing tide of civilization?
Is not Mr. Inger-
soll himself a reformer?
condemn the reformed?
Will
How then can he
In former times all
INGERSOLLISM.
127
human institutions were more corrupt than
they are now, and governments and all other
societies were more cruel and oppressive than
they are to-day. Everything has been changed,
because man himself has been changed. We
must condemn the Church for what she is to-
day, if at all. Is there another institution on
the earth, that in proportion to the number of
its members, is doing as much good in the
world as the Church? If there is, please
name it. All monarchical governments were
"conceived in iniquity and born in sin," and
have been uniformly sustained by force, fear,
oppression and plunder. They have always
been opposed to the natural rights of man,
and always will be. While the Church was
instituted to civilize and aid man, and not to
oppress him.
The Church is no more to be condemned
to-day, for teaching the doctrines she has in
how many monas
до
Wochurch supported.
Morar decal gouts
has the Chi
128
REASON AND
the past, than is astronomy, because the early
astronomers adhered to the theory that the
earth was a vast plain. Would you condemn
the science of medicine because the doctors
of old, when they cut off a limb or an arm
stuck the stump into a bucket of boiling pitch?
Or because they formerly forbid the man with
a fever to drink cold water? The Church,
like every other human institution, has reform
ed, changed, and advanced, and has discarded
in a measure the old ideas. The Church, like
the science of law, has most always been
bed progress
behind the age and the demands of society
badow and government.
and government. Theology and law, are less
apt to change, and are less progressive, than
any other of the sciences which help to gov-
ern the world. This is because both are said
to be founded upon truth and justice, and
that truth and justice never change. The
common law however, is not always in har-
Churchie
can this
ні
INGERSOLLISM.
129
A
mony with reason and justice. It abounds
with inconsistencies, fictions, and a multiplic-
Would you abolish it
ity of absurdities.
altogether on that account?
But it may be said, that Mr. Ingersoll is
not opposed to the Church, so much as he is
to the Bible. Is not the Bible (the Catholic
Church excepted) the foundation of the
Church? Can the superstructure stand after
the foundation is taken away? Must they
not necessarily fall together? Does not the
annihilation of the one, inevitably destroy the
other?
Mr. Ingersoll abuses the Church for her
errors in the past. He gives her no praise
for the good she has performed, nor does he
credit her with the good she is doing at the
present. Mr. Ingersoll is a good deal like
the Irishman who whipped the Jew.
When
asked why he did so, he replied, “That man
9
130
REASON AND
is a Jew." Well what of that? "The
Jews," replied the Irishman, "killed Christ."
Yes, but that was nearly two thousand years
ago. "Well, never mind," said the Irishman,
"I only heard of it to-day." The Church
should have been chastised for her errors in the
past, centuries ago, and not now when all the
abuses she upheld have been abandoned. But
then you know, Mr. Ingersoll was not born
until recently, and is not aware of the fact
that the Church has already been reproached
for these things. He did not exist centuries.
ago, and therefore, could not reprimand the
Church at the time the evils complained of
existed, but, like the Irishman, he intends to
take his revenge on the Church to-day, for the
reason that he has only just heard of her for-
mer wrong-doings.
But there is one of Mr. Ingersoll's produc-
tions that I had almost forgotten, and that is.
INGERSOLLISM.
131
his lecture on farming. Mr. Ingersoll's lec-
ture on farming, is not only one of his best
productions, but it is one of the most admir-
able disquisitions on the theme, that I have
ever read.
I cordially commend it to the
careful and conscientious perusal of every
honest and intelligent farmer in the land.
Mr. Ingersoll exhibits a greater fund of in-
formation, and a greater familiarity with this
subject, than he does on all the other subjects
upon which he has written. And it really
seems a pity, that a man whose rural tastes
are so highly cultivated, and whose other
qualities so well adapt him for the useful oc-
cupation of farming, should ever have been
churlish enough to have entered into the
legal profession. Mr. Ingersoll may think I
am joking, but if he knew me personally, he
never would suspect me to be guilty of any
such levity. Candidly speaking, I think this
132
REASON AND
was the mistake of Mr. Ingersoll's life, to
which all the fancied "Mistakes of Moses"
can be traced. Before he entered into the
profession of the law, and traveled over the
country delivering lectures, he was a very
energetic, promising young man, and un-
doubtedly had an enviable future and a bril-
liant career before him. But now, alas! all
is lost in uncertainty and obscurity.
And in concluding this chapter, it is only
just that I should say that there is one re-
deeming quality about Mr. Ingersoll's lec-
tures. They are all more charming and just
as true, as any of the tales in "The Arabian
Nights." The story of "Aladdin, or the Won-
derful Lamp" is fairly eclipsed by them.
They are neither insipid nor heavy. They
are always pleasant, fresh and vapory. So
vapory, that you can read a whole volume of
them without becoming wearied. They are
INGERSOLLISM.
133
just the thing to carry to the sea shore to
read for pastime during the hot summer
months. They ramble up and down, and
slash around in about the same incoherent
manner that the mind does when the thermom-
eter stands at one hundred in the shade. The
multiplicity of subjects upon which each lec-
ture treats, is admirably calculated to amuse
the illogical and delight the intellectual dilet-
tante. They are as variant as the variegated
leaves upon the forest trees in autumn. And
the labyrinths through which they carry the
reader, are as intricate and diverse, as the
pathways of the wandering Jew. They are
always vigorous, witty, and brilliant. They
invariably leave the mind in the same placid
condition that they found it, perfectly at rest,
and as undisturbed as the calm face of the
rural pond by moonlight. They can no more
produce a single "fact," than the Church can
134
REASON AND
produce a single "miracle." And after you
have read them all, they vanish from your
mind like a "Midsummer-Night's Dream,"
leaving nothing behind but a sea of empty
words, to cherish and remember.
!
INGERSOLLISM.
135
CHAPTER VI.
ATHEISM, SKEPTICISM, SCIENCE AND RELIGION.
“I would not always reason. The straight path
Wearies us with its never-varying lines,
And we grow melancholy. I would make
Reason my guide, but she should sometimes sit
Patiently by the wayside, while I trac'd
The mazes of the pleasant wilderness.
Around me.
She should be my counsellor
But not my tyrant. For the spirit needs
Impulses from a deeper source than hers,
And there are motions in the mind of man,
That she must look upon with awe."
That we are living in an age of doubt and
unbelief, will not be disputed by any intelli-
gent man, who is familiar with the times in
which we live. That science and theology
are at apparent war with each other, is
equally true. That science is making extra-
136
REASON AND
ordinary efforts to gain the ascendancy can-
not be questioned. That recent scientific
developments and the atheistic literature of
the day, tend to increase atheism and skepti-
cism, is a fact that is too palpable to be con-
troverted. That atheism and skepticism pre-
vail to such an extent as to excite alarm, will
not be denied even by the most casual obser-
ver. And the grand problem to be solved is,
first, what will be the ultimate result of this
increase of atheism and skepticism upon
Christianity? And second, what effect will
it have upon individual and public morals?
In this struggle with atheism and skepti-
cism, the Church will come out victorious.
Neither atheism, nor skepticism, nor both
combined, can ever expect to triumph over
Christianity. So far as skepticism is con-
cerned, its days are numbered. It is a
remarkable fact, that even in this age of
INGERSOLLISM
137
immorality, the Church is more powerful,
more influential, and her adherents more
numerous, than in any former period in her
whole history. The Church to be sure is
passing through an ordeal, but she will sur-
vive the shock, and be all the better for it.
The trial will develop her strength and genius,
and when skepticism has spent its influence,
she will grandly rise to the occasion and van-
quish her enemy.
The immediate result of this growth of skep-
ticism will be to lessen morality. Crimes will
multiply, quarrels and dishonesty will increase,
virtue will decline, extravagance will reign
on every hand, vice will temporarily triumph,
social disorder and public immorality will
spread, until at last the disastrous_effect of
this condition of things will manifest itself.
when the people will pause to consider the
situation. The sacred voice of the Church
The pticam, increases immorality
138
REASON AND
will then be heard. Her holy admonitions
will be honored and obeyed. A reaction will
take place in individual and public morals
and amidst all this confusion, immorality and
social ruin, the Christian Church will emerge
in all her grandeur to restore peace and order
among men.
Man as a general rule is so constituted, that
he cannot live a life of vice and shame for
any great length of time. A life of immoral-
ity is of short duration.
It leads either to
ruin or reformation. Take for instance the
man who discards all religion, and loses all
sense of decency and morality, and falls into
an habitual life of dissipation and depravity.
For the time being he ignores all feeling of
what is just and right, and conceives that
everything is lovely, and that religion and all
religious creeds are a farce and a snare. But
after a few years of dissipation accompanied
INGERSOLLISM.
139
by general dissolute habits, he suddenly
awakes to a proper realization of his true
condition physically and morally, and with
this realization a moral reaction takes place.
The old religious feeling in him revives, and
he again assumes his former religious habits,
and reinstates his former religious views.
The
Theism enobles man and promotes good
morals. Atheism is degrading, and tends to
destroy both man and his morals.
scripture saith, "The fool hath said in his
heart, there is no God." And Lord Bacon
says, "They that deny a God destroy a man's
nobility, for certainly man is of kin to the
beasts by his body; and if he is not of kin to
God by his spirit, he is a base and ignoble
Atheism destroys likewise mag-
nanimity, and the raising of human nature;
for, take an example of a dog, and mark
what a generosity and courage he will put on
creature.
140
REASON AND
when he finds himself maintained by a man,
who, to him, is instead of a God, or 'melior
natura,' which courage is manifestly such as
that creature, without that confidence of a
better nature than his own, could never
attain. So man, when he resteth and assureth
himself upon divine protection and favor,
gathereth a force and faith, which human
nature in itself could not obtain; therefore as
atheism is in all respects hateful, so in this,
that it depriveth human nature of the means
to exalt itself above human frailty." And if
we will only stop to consider the immorality
of the age, the innumerable frauds, and the
alarming increase of every kind of crime, we
will discover that they furnish admirable
arguments against atheism and skepticism,
and their lamentable effect upon morals and
society. Atheism has cast a dark shadow
upon every country in which it exists. It
I do Atheism Equated with Seier at
INGERSOLLISM.
141
augments sensuality, ruins virtue, and extir
pates conscience. It has kissed from the fair
cheeks of innocent youth, the hue of health,
and the charms of beauty, and turned her
choicest flowers into withering plants. The
tendency of Christianity is to build up, while
the tendency of atheism and skepticism is to
pull down.
The former endeavors to elevate
and ennoble man, the latter to degrade him.
And as skepticism spreads, crime increases.
In Germany, where skepticism has been
spreading rapidly for the last decade, we find
a terrible state of affairs. While in 1875 Ber-
lin only held 31,882 prisoners for trial, in
1878 it held 60,642, an increase of nearly one
hundred per cent. in three years. And we
are told by Mr. Stursburg, of Dusseldorf,
the agent of the Rhenish Westphalia Prison
Association, that in the seven years from 1871
to 1877, the number of criminals in the Prus-
142
REASON AND
sian state increased one hundred per cent. while
the population only increased sixty-six per
cent. And says Mr. Sarasin, of Basel, “Be-
side the empty churches you can see the
overflowing prisons." And thus it is that
"skepticism, pessimism, mental wretchedness,
and crime go hand in hand." While Chris-
tianity promotes and protects the best in-
terests of society, atheism and skepticism
produce crime and disorder. Christianity sup-
presses crime, prevents the increase of social
evils, encourages virtue, secures obedience to
the laws, secures good government, estab-
lishes a bulwark of safety to life, liberty, and
property, and constitutes the most powerful
moral prohibition against the commission of
crime, that man ever devised or the world
ever saw.
The Church is now, and ever has been, the
deadly enemy of every sort of wickedness,
INGERSOLLISM
143
the champion and advocate of every sort of
good. She opposes intemperance. She en-
courages sobriety. She opposes idleness.
She encourages industry.
the vices known to man.
She opposes all
She upholds every
virtue. She is opposed to and does all in her
power to put down every evil that tends to
undermine or corrupt society. She is opposed
to atheism, skepticism, socialism, nihilism and This must
communism.
And when her immense influ-
are vecer
be quoted
ence over the minds of men is duly weighedMr. Dowha
and considered, it seems to me, that it is no sumes
that these
exaggeration to say, that the Church is not
only man's greatest benefactor, but she is do-
ing more to suppress crime and misery, and
alleviate the condition of man and increase
his happiness, than all the other human insti-
tutions in the world united. And any man
who deliberately attacks such an institution,
and claims to be the friend of humanity, does
144
REASON AND
it with hatred and malice in his heart, and is
nothing but a despicable hypocrite. He is
not a lamb, he is a wolf. He is not a saint, he
is a gorilla. His object is not that of the
philanthrophist, it is that of the destroyer.
It is said that science has fully demon
strated that there is no God; that the Bible is
not an inspired work; that the Church is not
a divine institution; that there is no heaven,
no hell, no future life, and that the end of
man is the silent grave. Now, granting for
the sake of argument, that science has proved
all this, what effect is this to have upon
Christianity? Science to-day, it must be con-
ceded, is making great progress and wields
a mighty influence. And its growth and ad-
vancement, as well as its discoveries, have
undoubtedly had a marked effect upon the
religious beliefs of men. It has unquestion-
ably developed skepticism to such an extent
"Dowling behaves science & religian
are ure conciliable
that suence well dissipate teef
INGERSOLLISM.
145
But how
as to lead thinking people to say, that we are
indeed living in an age of unbelief.
long is this to last? When the scientific in-
tellect has exhausted its power and learning,
in discussing the truth or untruth of the pre-
sent religious beliefs-and I think it must be
admitted that this power has already been
exhausted a reaction must inevitably follow.
And this reaction is now taking place, and
must in my opinion necessarily be favorable
to religion, and unfavorable to personal scien-
tific conclusions. One of the most logical
reasons for this is, that the majority of reli-
gious people, either never read anything con-
cerning scientific developments-and there-
fore are wholly ignorant of the developments
that science has made-or they are prejudiced
to such an extent by their religious bigotry,
against all scientific theories on religious sub-
jects, that when they do read what science
10
146
REASON AND
has to say, they find the views of the scien-
tists so completely antagonistic to their own,
that they usually reject them without either
respect or consideration. Hence it will be
seen, that the scientists live in one atmosphere
of belief, while those who are of a religious
turn of mind generally live in another. And
while scientists usually know everything that
is going on in the religious world, the great
masses of religionists know but little, if any-
thing, about what is going on in the world of
science. So that it makes no difference, whether
the conclusions reached by the scientists are
correct or incorrect, just so long as the great
masses of the religionists are unconscious of
the nature of those conclusions, they can have
neither force nor effect, and therefore, the
ultimate result of this war between science
and theology, especially in view of the re-
action which has already been adverted to,
Religious people (Church) ignore
Пе
or know
ishere of
nothing of synce
quence well
jail- Earth, the opposite has happened.
INGERSOLLISM.
147
and which in my judgment must inevitably
take place when science has reached the zenith
of her progress and glory, must naturally be
in favor of Christianity, and against the con--
clusions to which science may now seem to›
lead The truth and logic of this conclusion,.
will be all the more apparent, when it is con--
sidered that the scientists and those who sym-
wouldn't
pathize with them in their views, only numbere surprised
a bo today
a few thousands, while the religionists can
numbered by the hundred millions. The
common sense of mankind to-day, seems to
revolt against all scientific views on religious
questions, no matter whether they are true
or false. And notwithstanding all that science
and atheism have said and promulgated rela-
tive to religious beliefs, the majority of people
who believe in any religious faith, are so
wholly ignorant of what has been said, that
they are entirely unconscious of what science
this
Hogan: Agresance is Weis -
148
REASON AND
and atheism have uttered. The secret of this
perhaps, lies in the fact that scientific and
atheistic literature is not only too dry, and too
heavy, to interest the masses of the people,
but its learning is so far beyond their compre-
hension, that as a rule they never read it.
And those who have read what the scientists
and atheists have had to say about the Chris-
tian religion find no consolation in their
views. It has been said by an able English
writer of the positive school, who evidently
does not welcome the growth of atheism and
skepticism, based upon scientific principles
and arguments, that "Never in the history of
man has so terrific a calamity befallen the race
as that which all who look may now behold,
advancing as a deluge, black with destruc-
tion, resistless in might, uprooting our most
cherished hopes, engulfing our most precious
creed, and burying our highest life in mind-
INGERSOLLISM.
149
less desolation," filling the soul of man with
fear, gloom, and unspeakable horror, while,
"Religion, blushing, veils her sacred fires,
And, unawares, morality expires."
"All serious reflections," says Mr. Mallock,
"are like reflections in water-a pebble will
disturb them, and make a dull pond sparkle.
But the sparkle dies, and the reflection comes
again. And there are many about us, though
they never confess their pain, and perhaps
themselves hardly like to acknowledge it,
whose hearts are aching for the
they can no longer believe in.
religion that
Their lonely
hours, between the intervals of gaiety, are
passed with barren and sombre thoughts;
and a cry rises to their lips but never passes
them."
If all the people were as intelligent and
law-abiding as Mr. Ingersoll, no doubt this
world would be perfectly happy without any
150
REASON AND
religion at all. But when you consider the
ignorance and immorality of the masses of the
people, notwithstanding the high state of
civilization which we enjoy, it must be mani-
fest to every thoughtful man, that some moral
restraint, for the government of the passions
of the great masses of the people is absolutely
essential. The Church alone of all other in-
stitutions, can supply this necessary moral
restraint. She is the only institution in exist-
ence, in which the people have implicit con-
fidence, that possesses the power and capacity
to exercise that moral influence over the
masses of the people, which is indispensible
to good morals, and the maintenance of the
best interests of society.
The Church is susceptible of reform, but
she can never be obliterated. You might
just as well try to prevent grass from grow-
ing upon the earth, as to attempt to suppress
~ Church is only institution in which
gnorance masses place infiding
to appeals to their invenit, talk afreight.
INGERSOLLISM.
151
her. Her teachings have become too firmly
implanted in the human heart. You may
root her up, and apparently annihilate her,
but she will re-appear to flourish and grow
more influential than ever. As civilization
advances, as the human intellect develops, she
will undoubtedly change her dogmas and
teachings. But to destroy her is impossible.
The great masses of the people will always
believe in the existence of a God, and the
divine authority of the holy church. The
Christian Church is absolutely indestructible,
because to destroy the Church means to re-
vive barbarism. To revive barbarism is an
utter impossibility. Whole nations to be
sure have deserted Catholicism, to believe in
Protestantism. Whole nations have left Pro-
testantism and lapsed into infidelity, and have
gone back to Catholicism again, but none have
gone back to barbarism. Under "the law of
152
REASON AND
the survival of the fittest," the Christian
Church must continue to exist until the con-
summation of time. Her foundation is as firm
and immutable from decay, as the base of the
Alleghany Mountains. Her glory as endur-
ing as the eternal granite upon the hills. No
human power can ever hope to extirpate her.
Her life is imperishable, her fame immortal.
She of course, will every now and then be
agitated by internal and external foes, her
ministry will occasionally become corrupt,
and she herself will become arrogant when
overwhelmed and flushed by success, but
these turbulent causes will only disturb her
momentarily she will survive them all. She
possesses the power to resist every attack
upon her, whether made by pen or sword.
In diplomacy, in statemanship, her achieve-
ments have dazzled the nations of the earth.
And, "It is impossible to deny the fact, that
INGERSOLLISM.
153
the polity of the" Christian Church, "is the
very masterpiece of all human wisdom. In
truth, nothing but such a polity could, against
such assaults," have survived for so many cen-
66
turies. 'The experience of" two thousand
"eventful years, the ingenuity and patient
care of forty generations of statesmen, have
improved her to such perfection, that she now
occupies the highest place" in the world. So
I say, "Let the storms of infidelity rage,
though they be never so loud! Let thought-
less youth and decaying old age sport as oft
as they may with the perilous winds! The
storm shall roll on and be lost in the night,
but the temple shall stand as before!
Skeptics and others may say what they
please, but there can be no doubt, that when
you undermine a man's religion, you not only
take away his hope of a future life, but you
inevitably destroy his sense of right and
४
154
REASON AND
wrong.
The man who can conscientiously
reject the atheistic deductions which the lips
of science seem to whisper but faintly, and
believe with his whole heart and soul in the
existence of a supreme Being, a living God,
and a future life of eternal rewards and pun-
ishments, is certainly happier, than the man
who neither believes in a God, nor a future
life, but who believes that the grave is the
end of man. To deny this, would be equiv-
alent to denying the truth. The man who
believes in a God, and an interminable life of
joy in the future, certainly may have some
hope in this world-something to live for.
But he who believes in neither, and sees
naught but a yawning grave before him,
enters into that realm of darkness and de-
spair, in entering which, he might well exclaim
in the language of the poet:
"All hope abandon, ye who enter here."
INGERSOLLISM.
155
Mr. Ingersoll would destroy man's belief in
a future life, he would destroy man's hope of
heaven, he would destroy the holy Bible, he
would destroy the Church, he would destroy
Christianity, he would destroy God! What
does all this mean? It means the subversion
of good morals, the demoralization of society,
the destruction of civilization, and the sub-
stitution of tyranny for liberty. And what
does Mr. Ingersoll propose to give us in re-
turn? That sable monster called infidelity,
the worship of reason, nihilism, communism,
and a French Revolution with all its attendant
horrors and sublime atrocities.
And while Mr. Ingersoll says, "Happiness
is the only possible good, and all that tends
to the happiness of man is right, and is of
value," still he unblushingly and unceasingly
endeavors to deprive man of the only ray of
hope which makes this life endurable and
quato
156
REASON AND
happy, by attempting to rob him of the con-
solation which he finds in his belief in the
immortality of the soul. And yet Mr. Inger-
soll has said while standing in the awful
silence of death, at his brother's grave, that
"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 rustle of a wing." And again:
"The idea of immortality, that like a sea has
ebbed and flowed in the human heart, with
its countless waves of hope and fear, beating
against the shores and rocks of time and fate,
was not born of any book, nor of any creed,
nor of any religion. It was born of human
affection and it will continue to ebb and flow
beneath the mists and clouds of doubt and
darkness as long as love kisses the lips of
death."
There can be no doubt, that however much
INGERSOLLISM.
157%
the infidel writers may have done to advance
literature and science, they have done but
precious little to ameliorate the condition
of mankind or make men happier. For this
reason the world owes but little to such
men as Voltaire, Reauseau, Paine, Ingersoll,
and the rest of the infidels named by the lat-
ter. The men who have done most to civil-
ize the world, and to whom mankind are most
indebted, are the inventors of steam, rail-
roads, steamboats, telegraphy, printing, elect-
ricity and a thousand other inventions. These
men were not a lot of scheming hypocrites or
infidels. They were men who said but little
and performed much. They were not like
Mr. Ingersoll and the rest of those infidels,
who have talked a great deal, written a great
deal, but have invented nothing and per-
formed nothing, whose principal business
has been that of the adventurous mercenary,
*
quito
158
REASON AND
who wrote and talked for money, who believed
nothing they said and who were a lot of
blatant hypocrites whose whole lives were
passed in stirring up strife, and making the
world unhappy.
So far as I am personally concerned, no
matter whether the doctrines of Christianity
are true or false, no matter what other men
or the world may think or say about them, so
convinced am I, that the maintenance of the
Christian Church is of far more vital import-
ance to man, than the continued existence of
any other human institution, that if such a
thing were possible as the immediate extinc-
tion of the Christian Church, and the sacrifice
of my life would save her from destruction,
I should not only consider it a high privilege,
but a distinguished honor, to be able to bid
farewell to the "vain pomp, and glory of this
Chuck is wron
имала
world," and sacrifice, my life to, maintain, the
It doesn't matter whitdes the Church is
os rigdo de romed He roaintained
INGERSOLLISM.
159
holy Church, that I might be borne by her to
my long home, while "the music of requiem
filled her cathedral arches, and the domes of
her proudest temples." This I would be
willing to do, even though the Church were
nothing but a human institution. I would be
willing to do it, for the love which I bear for
my fellow men, and the inevitable advantage
which such a sacrifice under such circum-
stances, would confer upon mankind, through
the instrumentality of the Church and her
glorious good works.
Dowling is
1. Anti-reasin
2.
LL
3.
Science
sceptician
*
160
REASON AND
CHAPTER VII.
THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH.
"What peremptory, eagle-sighted eye
Dares look upon the heaven of her brow,
That is not blinded by her majesty."
If the Christian Church is to be considered
as a human institution, she must be judged by
the same criterion, that we would judge any
other institution of human origin. And in
this character, what can be said of her?
Where is the institution that is performing so
many works of charity? What other institu-
tion is doing so much as a social organization,
to promote good morals? If we consider her
in the light of an educational institution,
where is her peer? As a preventive of crime,
MAN'S
WHEN
CONDITION
CHRISTIANITY WAS BORN.
*** VIACE.
ԼՈՈ
MAN'S PROGRESS UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF CHRISTIANITY.
This is an answer to Mr. Ingersoll's illustrated "Preface" in his work, entitled:
"The Gods and Other Lectures."
INGERSOLLISM.
161
where is her equal? Is not her chief aim to
make men better and happier, to uphold all
that is right, and to oppose that which is
wrong? And what grander mission could
any human institution have in this world?
Whatever tends to make man better, tends
to make him happier. And if this is true, why
is it that Mr. Ingersoll opposes the Church?
Is it because she is doing more to make man
happy, than any other human institution on
this earth?
To write the history of the Church, would
be equivalent to writing the history of the
world. "Let man only see her as she is, as
she has ever been, divinely beautiful, divinely
beneficent, divinely wise; let him see her as
she is, living with an immortal life, radiant with
an imperishable beauty, surrounded by the
wrecks of a thousand kingdoms and empires"
that have been swept away; while she ex-
11
162
REASON AND
again
pores
солон
Curlin
hibits no signs of mortal decay, but presents
an appearance resplendent with the renown
of ages, and as dazzling as the sun with the
world's immortal fame.
Intellectually, the Church is the beacon
light of the world. In this respect, she is no
more to be compared with any other human
institution, than genius is with mediocrity, or
the capacious ocean with a rippling stream.
Intellectually, she towers above them all, even
as the mountain towers above the plain. This
millionaire of souls, is the very embodiment
of all human greatness, and of all human wis-
dom.
For millions of years this earth was nothing
but a barren waste, and utterly unfit for the
habitation of man. The birth of Christianity
gave a new impulse to the human intellect,
and lifted mankind up to a higher plain of
thought and action. It found man in a con-
INGERSOLLISM.
163
dition of semi-barbarism, it has advanced him
to a state of civliization such as the world
never saw before, a civilization, that like a
new born star, has shed a glorious lustre over
the prospects of humanity.
"It found anarchy and barbarism; it has
bestowed order and enlightenment.
It found groveling ignorance and super-
stition; it has bestowed knowledge and
philosophy.
It found man a vassal and slave; it has
lifted him to a peerage with Gods.
It found woman a menial and concubine; it
has lifted her up to the sphere of angels.
Do you point me to the achievements of the
nations before Christ; their wondrous pro-
ficiency in the arts and sciences?
I will point you to the wreck and ruin of it
all. Do you ask why? Time has written
the answer.
164
REASON AND
Christianity found the human race unable
to rise from the miry clay, staggering and
blinded and bewildered, through the horror-
strewn gorges of Polytheism; through the
caverns of Doubt and Denial; through the
unillumined defiles of a terrible Dread, grop-
ing in the deep dark valley, surrounded by
the ghastly spectres of the skeletoned past,
while Death, brooding like a monster vampire
over the world, cast everywhere its terrible
shadow!
But when the chorus rang out on the
world, 'Peace! peace on earth, good will to
men!' our poor humanity took heart.
Slowly and steadily we have marched
through all the centuries; slowly but surely,
step by step, mounting the stair of Christ's
enlightenment.
And now, where once the trackless ocean
rolled, and unknown seas kissed back the
INGERSOLLISM.
165
sun,
sails!
commerce sits smiling in a million
And now, where once was howling wilder-
ness and waste, a million fields glow with
the golden grain! a million homes crown
life with happiness!
And now, where once were unknown
haunts of savage beasts, railroads, the swift
arteries of trade, like a broad net-work
spread, and the chained lightnings, girt about
the globe, serve everywhere men's purposes!
The land is decked with cities, and the land
is jeweled over with churches and with
schools?
Nay, we have mounted far beyond these
scenes! Behold! where gleam the countless
stars, there stretch the highways of all-con-
quering science!
And now, where once were unknown
heights, and depths profound, are paths
166
REASON AND
wherein we stroll as through our gardens!
Where once were grotesque shapes and
heathen deities, now, through the illimitable
space roll worlds innumerable! And these
we measure, weigh and analyze, delve in their
mines, explore their mountains and plains,
bask in the light of their resplendent suns,
and dally with their gorgeous tinted beams!"
Christianity has recreated the world, "and
from the ashes of the old feudal and decrepit
carcase, civilization on her luminous wings
soars, phoenix-like, to Jove."
What a wonderful age of progress is this in
which we live! Intellectually, man never
stood higher. The conveniences of life were
never so great. Every art, and every science,
has almost reached perfection. Steamboats
have taken the place of the "Dug-out," rail-
roads have taken the place of the stage-coach,
steam presses have taken the place of hand
INGERSOLLISM.
167
presses, and in every department of manu-
facture, and in all agricultural employments,
machinery has taken the place of hand labor.
Governments have improved, the laws have
improved, our system of police has improved,
and so has our system of education. We have
a literature such as no former age or civiliza-
tion ever anticipated or enjoyed. Personal
liberty was never greater nor more secure-
life and property never better protected.
Free speech and a free press exist in every
Footdivilized land. The absurd doctrine of the
divine right and authority of kings no longer
Chinch
prevails. The advantages afforded by the
press, the telephone, telegraphy and electric-
ity, are simply immeasurable. The brilliancy
of the times in which we live, the towering
intellectual genius of man, and his dazzling
achievements; in war, in peace, in statesman-
ship, in literature, in diplomacy, and in all
168
REASON AND
•
the arts and sciences; are sufficiently stupen-
dous to dwarf and eclipse by their splendor,
the grandest accomplishments of all former
ages.
And all these things have been accomplished,
and have come to pass, under the royal and
salutary influence of the Christian Church.
She has been an-eye witness to every change
in the material and intellectual progress of
man for two thousand years. "The history of
the Church joins together the two great ages
of human civilization. No other institution is
left standing which carries the mind back to
the times when the smoke of sacrifice rose.
from the Pantheon, and when camelopards
and tigers bounded in the Flavian amphi-
theatre. The proudest royal houses are but of
yesterday, when compared with the line of her
Supreme Pontiffs. That line we trace back in
an unbroken series, from the Pope who
INGERSOLLISM.
169
crowned Napoleon in the nineteenth century,
to the Pope who crowned Pepin in the eighth;
and far beyond the time of Pepin the august
dynasty extends, till it is lost in the twilight
of fable. She saw the commencement of all
the governments that now exist in the world;
and we feel no assurance that she is not des-
tined to see the end of them all. She was
great and respected before the Saxon had set
foot on Britain-before the Frank had passed
the Rhine-when Grecian eloquence still'
flourished at Antioch-when idols were still
worshiped in the temple of Mecca. And she
may still exist in undiminished vigor," until
all mankind shall have bowed before her holy
shrine, and embraced her holy teachings.
Governments have been overthrown, repub-
lics have been extinguished, empires have
crumbled and decayed, dynasties have fallen,
anarchy has reigned and passed into oblivion,
170 REASON AND INGERSOLLISM.
kings have been dethroned, the old aristoc-
racy is gone, we have new laws, new titles.
all that was old has vanished; the world is
full of new creations, the Church alone, of all
the institutions of antiquity, appears "amidst
the ruins of a world that has passed away.
The idol of reason, the goddess of genius, the
queen of nations.
"Fresh in eternal youth,
exempt from mutability and decay, immortal
as the "
divine power which gave her birth,
crowned and sceptred, she sits upon her
mighty throne, and reigns with majestic
splendor, over the destinies of the world.
:
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THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
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