\ J m THE UNITED PRESBYTERIAN MISSION LIBRARY 475 Riverside Drive, New York 27, M.Y. £ibrar;)p of trhe t:heolo0ical ^^mmord said, My Spirit shall not always strive with men, yet his days Il8 ZOROASTER A THEIST. shall be [but] an hundred and twenty years. And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil, and that continually. And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. And the Lord said, I will destroy man, whom I have created, from the face of the earth. The earth also was corrupt before God, and filled with vio- lence ; for all flesh had corrupted his way before God." [Such was the character of those whom Ingersoll calls the innocent women — the fair and the beautiful.] '' And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me ; for the earth is filled with violence through them." [There have been outbursts of violence at times in all gen- erations, but among this generation it was universal — " every imagination of their hearts was continually evil."] '' And, behold, I, even I, do bring a flood upon the earth, to destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath of life, from un- der heaven ; and all flesh died that moved upon the earth, every man, in whose nostrils was the breath of life, all that was in the dry land, died." (Gen. 6 and 7.) In the New Testament we have such references to the character of these people as the following: ''For if God spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly" (2 Pet. 2 : 5) — " which sometime were disobedient, when once the long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls, were saved." (i Pet. 3 : 20.) " For as the days of Noah were, so shall also the days of the. coming of the Son of man be. They were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and knew not ' ' [because they did not take heed to the preaching of Noah] '' until the flood came, and took them all away ; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be." (Matt. 24: 37-39.) Here we have the evidence, showing a condition of uni- versal disobedience and heartfelt hatred of God by his creatures. God had given them a hundred and twenty THE GOVERNMENT OF GOD. II9 years' probation after he had determined on their destruc- tion, during which he had sent the only preacher of righteousness in all the earth, to give the warning of the coming destruction ; but in all that time the warning did not induce a single man or woman to repent — universal unbehef and infidehty prevailed, in addition to universal corruption. The Wickedness of the Antediluvians Necessitated their Destruction. God had created these people to please and obey him, which power carried with it the power to disobey and displease ; consequently their very existence put him to grief. Not another loving, loyal subject for his immortal world could he induce to become such from among that generation ; and how would such teach future generations what they did not know and hated themselves? — the eventful object for which he had created mankind, being a universal and endless government of righteous men and women covering the face of the world. But the continuation of this state of things rendered the accomplishment of that end an impossibility. He must, therefore, abandon the sole pur- pose for which he made the world, or destroy the whole generation, and commence anew with eight righteous people. God must be true to his Friends a?id Promises. As long as a nation or world of men are mixed, the good mingling with the bad — occasionally the good inducing one of the bad to become reconciled to the disposition and laws of God — he spares that people, because they serve to answer the purpose of obtaining loving, loyal subjects for his projected universal, endless empire. But when all become evil, then he must de- stroy them by some catastrophe equal to the emergency ; and this must be executed in the present world as exem- plary, although it involves the whole of mankind. Not to I20 ZOROASTER A THEIST. do it would subject himself and his loyal people to the tyrannical rule of, and extinguishment by, his and their enemies, thus also exhibiting a pusillanimity degrading in an ordinary ruler, and utterly incompatible with the Rightful Ruler of the universe. Not to do it he must prove false to his solemn engagements and promises to his faithful and loving children. In a word, not to brinsr the wickedness of the wicked to an end, whether ... of angelic or human origin, would be to fail in his revealed purpose for which he made the world and man, falsifying himself in the sight of all his faithful saints and angels ; rendering it thereafter impossible that he should be trusted, venerated, loved, or obeyed from the heart. But had we not one of these arguments of defence for the act of flooding the world, it would be enough to know of the fact that it was done ; and to question the right or motive of him who did it, is to assume that an absolute owner and proprietor may not do as he pleases with his own, at least so long as he does not violate any promise or obligation to another. It is true that the rebels thus to be disposed of may complain and threaten vengeance, just as the antedi- luvians did when the flood came, and while its waters were covering them, after climbing the tallest trees and highest mountains; but the waters rose just the same, and instead of the Creator suff"ering by the flood, he was at once delivered of the long-suffering to which the wicked had subjected him. '' Well," says IngersoU, and the rest of his self-chosen devil companions, ''I will not serve such a God." Then you must take the alterna- tive, hate on, and perish ! Others will serve, love, and obey him, with the utmost confidence that righteousness, justice, and truth shall triumph in precisely the same perfection and universality as though a sinner never had lived. THE GOVERNMENT OF GOD. 121 Universal Belief in Devils Argues their Existence. Says Ingersoll : ''AH ages and nations supposed that the sick and insane were possessed of evil spirits. For thousands of ages the practice of medicine consisted in frightening these spirits away." [This is a fair sample of this man's exaggeration. As to its chronology, there have existed but two hundred ages of men, instead of thousands, taking the average life as defining the term, which is not more than thirty years. To call the prac- tice of medicine the frightening away of evil spirits shows ignorance of the subject. In the history of the healing art, such things were only the exceptions, and then but among the rudest tribes ; and this is the reason why they found place in mythological narration. There never was a nation or tribe so ignorant or rude that they did not use roots and herbs as medicine ; especially was this true of the nations of biblical record. So common v/as it, that it is made a symbol of backsliding Israel, thus : ''Is there no balm in Gilead ? is there no physician there? why then is the health of the daughter of my people not recovered? " (Jer. 8 : 22.) " Usually," says the scoffer, " the priests would make the loudest and most discordant noises possible. They would blow horns, beat upon rude drums, clash cymbals, and in the meantime utter the most unearthly yells. If the noise remedy failed, they would implore the aid of some more powerful spirits. To pacify these spirits was considered of infinite importance. The poor bar- barian, knowing that men could be softened by gifts, gave the spirits that which seemed to him of great value. With bursting heart he would offer the blood of his dearest child." [Who supposes that this man ever read such a nonsensical story as this, that the heart-bursting father, on account of having a sick member in his fam- ily, had called his priest to heal him, and that the priest should demand, as the price for healing the sick one, the blood (death) of his dearest child, and that the thoughtless Ingersoll should have told the foolish 122 ZOROASTER A THEIST. story in public?] "It was impossible for him to conceive of a God utterly unlike himself." [In harmony with this, we may say that the God the Bible reveals is the very image of man's person, and it is only the atheists who try to conjure an impersonality so unlike everything in nature, or conceivable, that it is superstition to believe and worship him. Of course it is an easy victory to cast down the straw god they have erected.] " And he naturally supposed that these powers of the air would be affected at the sight of so great and deep a sorrow. ' ' One of the meanest things about Ingersoll is, that when talking of heathen gods and barbarian practices of relig- ion, he uses Scripture expressions, as here (Christ called Satan '' the prince of the power of the air "), his object evidently being to degrade Scripture and Christianity by confounding them with the lowest forms of heathen- ism. To expose and counteract the injury of the satanic scheme, it is only necessary to refer to the historic fact that the worship of God, with its ministers, sacrifices, objects, and conditions, was established at the foundation of the world, and when there were only three men living ; and that Abel had as clear conceptions of the Christian religion and its salvation as did Paul ; consequently all other forms and elements of worship are corruptions of the original. This, having been taught to Cain and Abel by the Creator himself, is the genuine, while all others are counterfeits. Their existence, however, demonstrates that of the original, and their universality also proves the original to have been designed for all mankind. Remember these things, and the efforts of the scoffer will not only be destroyed for evil, but will furnish unan- swerable argument in defence of revealed religion, which he hopes to degrade, and of the existence and doom of all the human and angelic devils, whose only happiness con- sists in their opposition to God and his worship. The scoffer says : ''It was with the barbarian then as with the civilized now ; one class lived upon and made mer- chandize of the fears of another. ' ' [Just as you are making money by your professed attempts to deliver others from the fear of God.] '' Certain persons took it upon them- THE GOVERNMENT OF GOD. 1 23 selves to appease the gods, and to instruct the people in their duties to these unseen powers. This was the origin of the priesthood." [No, sir ! here is your ignorance manifest again, both in history and common sense. The principal office of a priest is to offer sacrifice, and God himself originated the priesthood when he instructed Cain and Abel to offer the sacrificial lamb, the firstling of his flock — the typic Christ thus virtually and in revelation slain from the foundation of the world ; this with the ob- lation of the first-fruits of the harvest, the type of his resurrection — '' Christ the first-fruits of them that slept." (i Cor. 15 : 23.)] ''The priest pretended to stand be- tween the wrath of the gods and helpless man. He carried to the invisible world a flag of truce, a protest and a re- quest." [This is the corruption which the corrupt scoffer always sees because he desires it — the wish is father to the thought. The true, pure, and original is that "God so loved the world " of mankind, and to make it manifest to them assumed human form, in which to be born and in which to die by the cross, a living sacrifice, and which has won millions of men to love him in turn, and to sac- rifice their lives rather than offend him : hence we read, '' Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us : and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren." (i John 3: 16.) "We love him, be- cause he first loved us." (i John 4 : 19.) Here we see how the scoffer burlesques the great truth of Christ's love and sacrifice, and its perfect success in the accomplish- ment of the designed and revealed purpose : "To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto him- self." (2 Cor. 5 : 19.) Not two parties, one with a flag of truce, reconciling a third ; not that Christ went into another world to appease the wrath of another God, but came into this world and sacrificed his life to show the love of the only God for man, and for the purpose of winning him in turn to love him. Behold how IngersoU requites it ! See how he confounds the corrupt with the incorrupt, the lie with the truth.] " He came back with a command, authority, and power. Man fell upon his knees before his own servant, and the priest, taking the 124 ZOROASTER A THEIST. advantage of the awe inspired by his supposed influence with the gods, made of his fellow-man a cringing hypo- crite and a slave." [Such is the man's conception of liberty — that freedom from guilt makes a man a slave.] ''Even Christ, the supposed Son of God, taught that persons were possessed of evil spirits." [If the scoffer did not give false glossary he would have nothing to say upon these subjects. Christ found people thus possessed, and cast the devils out, as matters of fact. It is not necessary to argue that men are even now possessed of evil spirits, for if they hear or read Ingersoll's blasphemy about Christ, they would have abundant evidence to show the fact.] ' ' According to the account, Christ gave proof of his divine origin and mission by frightening droves of devils out of his unfortunate countrymen. Casting out devils was his principal employment, and the devils thus ban- ished took occasion to acknowledge him as the Mes- siah." [That Christ made casting out devils a test of his divine mission is lie No. i. That casting out devils was his principal employment is lie No. 2. That the devils generally acknowledged him to be the Messiah is lie No. 3. Never did any but one do this. We learn from such statements that when IngersoU says ''generally" it may mean but a single case, and this is the estimate we must put upon his pretended historic references.] " The re- ligious people have always regarded the testimony of devils as perfectly conclusive ; and the writers of the New Testament quote the words of these imps of darkness with great satisfaction." [Here are more glossary lies. The New Testament writers quote them but as historic statements, and Christian people believe the testimony concerning devils, as Christ speaks of them thus: " The devil was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own : for he is a liar, and the father of it." (John 8 : 44.) If IngersoU had said the human servants of the devil always believe and obey him, it would have been conclusive at least so far as he is concerned.] " The fact that Christ could with- stand the temptation of* the devil was considered conclu- THE GOVERNMENT OF GOD. 125 sive evidence that he was assisted by some god, at least by some being superior to man." [Here he attempts to confound God with the devil, but nothing is too scurrilous for him to attempt.] " St. Matthew gives an account of an attempt made by the devil to tempt the supposed Son of God ; and it has always excited the wonder of Chris- tians that the temptation was so nobly and heroically withstood." [This is another misrepresentation ; for no Christian writer can be produced who believed it was possible that Christ could have committed the sin of yielding to the temptation ; but as the lie subserves his devil-purpose of degrading Christ, the Son of God, he tells it.] " In the olden times the existence of devils was universally ad- mitted." [There are as many people who believe in the existence of evil spirits at the present day as ever before. The reason, it seems, why he makes such an allusion is to put a high estimate upon his efforts in banishing the be- lief, that his admirers may not suppose the money they pay him for doing the missionary work is misspent.] '^ The people had no doubt upon the subject. From such belief it follows, as a matter of course, that a person, in order to vanquish these devils, had either to be a god or assisted by one. All forms of religion have estab- lished their claims to divine origin by controlling evil spirits, and suspending the laws of nature. Casting out devils was a certificate of divinity." [So far as the Christian religion is concerned, this is untrue, for it was founded by God himself in the Eden world ; and when Christ came he established his claim to divinity by the facts that his birth, life, death, and resurrection was each associated with such peculiar and concurring events that characterized those of no other man, and all of which were of prehistoric or prophetic record. Nothing is more evident than that Ingersoll makes history and facts to suit his Satanic purposes.] " A prophet unable to cope with the powers of dark- ness was regarded with contempt." [Another false slan- der upon the holy prophets of Scripture, not one of whom ever attempted to cope with anyone in the work of cast- 126 ZOROASTER A THEIST. ing out devils — indeed, an archangel dared not railingly accuse the devil. '*Yet Michael, the archangel, when contending with the devil about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke thee." (Jude 9.)] He says, "The utter- ance of the highest and noblest sentiments, the most blameless and holy Hfe, commanded but little respect unless accompanied by the power to work miracles and command spirits. ' ' [Here we have a general misrepre- sentation and effusion of biographical ignorance, the fact being that IngersoU knows of no idolatrous prophet in history, even mythological, whose hfe was blameless and holy, and who was but little respected because not hav- ing the power to command spirits, as there are none ; and he must refer to the prophets whom God selected and in- spired to write the Holy Scriptures — and this is what made them prophets — all of whom were men of blameless and holy character, and whose record shows they never had, nor claimed to have, the power to command spirits or work miracles, or even to cast out devils — running all the way back to Enoch, God's first prophet, and the sev- enth person born into the world from Adam. There is but one period of mythological record or reliable his- tory, during the whole of which the Pagan priests and prophets, without exception, were lying deceivers, impos- ing alike on kings and subjects. Failing to make the distinction between them and the prophets of biblical record which the facts of history and common honesty required, IngersoU identifies himself with the lying priests of heathenism. Were this done, not a shadow of reflection would have attached to the records of Holy Scripture touching the character of God's prophets; but to "have done this would have destroyed his craft. Take away his lies and false glossary of sacred Scripture and its approved characters, the scoffer would be as dumb as a mute for harm, and no sensible man or woman would allow him to prejudice their minds against the Bible, and would leave him ranked, as he merits, among the lying wonders of devildom.] THE GOVERNMENT OF GOD. 12/ Inge rs oil's Rant about Prayer. The scoffer says, ''The foolish doctrine that all phe- nomena can be traced to the interference of good and bad spirits, has been, and still is, almost universally en- tertained. That people still believe in some spirit that can change the natural order of events, is proven by the fact that nearly all resort to prayer. Thousands at this very moment are probably imploring some supposed power to interfere in their behalf. Some want health restored ; some ask that the loved and absent be watched over and protected ; some pray for riches ; some for rain ; some vainly ask for food ; some ask for revivals ; a few ask for more wisdom ; and now and then one tells the Lord to do as he may think best. Thousands ask to be protected from the devil ; some, like David, pray for revenge ; and some implore even God not to lead them into temptation. All these prayers rest upon, and are produced, by the idea that some power not only can, but probably will, change the order of things in the uni- verse. This belief has been among the great majority of tribes and nations. All sacred books are filled with ac- counts of such interferences, and our own Bible is not an exception to the rule. ' ' Thus, in his ignorant conceit and silly freethought has Ingersoll demolished the whole subject of God's provi- dence ! When John Milton was about to write upon the subject, and feehng his inability to do it justice, he uttered the following prayer : '' What in me is dark, illumine; what is low, raise and support ; that to the height of this great argument, I may assert eternal Providence, and jus- tify the ways of God to man. ' ' Here the scoffer confounds the Bible with other religious books ; and were it not his hatred to this, not a word of protest would he have uttered against any other so-called sacred book. The scoffer had no right to say, '' Nearly all the tribes and nations be- lieved in a power above man to whom all might apply for help," for there is no authentic record of any tribe of men, however rude, who did not believe thus, and thus pray. 128 ZOROASTER A THEIST. It is a philosophical necessity that some power equal to the creation of the world must have interfered to do the work of establishing its working order. As man is the superior department of nature, and as he is not finished, but according to the order of nature demands a re-crea- tion ; and that re-creation contemplates this change to be wrought in the nature of each individual while living on the earth, beginning with the first and ending with the last, and is a work which none but the Creator is able to perform, demands his direct interference in each case. It is described in Scripture by the use of such language as this : '' For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Je- sus unto good works, w^iich God hath before ordained." Thus was it in his plan as a part, and the most important part, of the creation of the world. The condition upon which God proposes to do this work in the nature of any man, is humble, penitent prayer. If, therefore, God should not thus interfere, this fundamental work of crea- tion would never be accomplished, and he would not have a subject in his kingdom, heartily sympathizing with his will and manner of work. Do Personal Devils Exist ? In the first place, we argue the existence of a personal devil, and devilish interference with men, from the fact of its universal belief. It is a principle in mental philos- ophy, that if a thing be a fact at all, it is a universal fact. Another principle of science is that belief is the re- sult of conviction — conviction of con*ception, and con- ception presupposes the possible existence of the thing conceived, or that which is essentially like it. According to these laws and their application to^the case in hand, the devil must exist, in order to make a conception of him possible. Such a conception must exist in order to have produced the conviction of such existence. The conviction must have existed in order to have rendered the belief possible. These interdepending factors in the process of reasoning force the evidence for the belief, and demonstrate the fact that the belief is and must be THE GOVERNMENT OF GOD. 1 29 founded upon evidence ; of course, unbelief is the absence of evidence, and is equivalent to total ignorance upon the subject. If, therefore, a man says, I do not believe in the existence of a personal God, he virtually admits entire ignorance upon the subject. Hence his opinion concerning it, or whatever he says about it, is worthless. If he says, I do not believe in the existence of a personal devil, for the same reason he admits total ignorance upon the subject. In both cases, and every similar one, he should have said, I do not know ; I am entirely ignorant concern- ing the matter, and therefore have no belief or unbelief about it. This philosophy involves the following con- clusions : First : If a thing, or a discourse relating to a thing, is believed, it is upon that which appears to be evidence at the time; but this evidence may subsequently be found to have no true foundation, and, this being gone, the belief goes with it. Now the man is ignorant of that which he supposed to be a fact of existence. Every sane man and woman has the conviction, from experience and observation, that all are guilty of acts which cannot be justified by any standard of which they have any knowledge, or defended by any process of rea- soning. This would seem to imply that they were moved to the commission of such acts by some unseen power. The goodness of God as read in the endowments of our being for happiness, enhanced by the surrounding boun- ties of nature, cannot have originated from the same source which prompted the acts of violence against our- selves and society, and which only conduce to shame and misery. In order to defend the position of the non-existence of the devil, it would be necessary to have such a com- prehensive knowledge of demonology that would enable its possessor to account for every phase of its phenomena upon reasonable grounds — such as the origin of evil without the existence of an evil being ; that the Script- ures are not true which teach the existence of a personal devil ; that the statements of the Bible upon the subject of sin do not corroborate those of observation and experi- ence, concerning the nature of evil and temptation. 4 130 ZOROASTER A THEIST. Biblical History of the Devil. But as to the history and power of the devil, and his personaHty as a sequence, we propose to expound the Scriptures upon the subject, and with the reasonable expectation of benefiting those who desire to know the truth. The first we hear of the devil is in the garden of Eden, and the account was written thousands of years before any other book existed, consequently every other subsequent account is an exact copy or a corrupt one, either as a whole or a part ; consequently all devilism must be corrected by this first account. ' ' Now the serpent was more subtle than any bfeast of the field which the Lord God had made ; and he said unto the woman, Yea ! hath God said, ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden ? And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the trees of the garden ; but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said. Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the woman. Ye shall not surely die : for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat ; and gave also unto her husband with her ; and he did eat. And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. [Here was shame, the result of sin and of the devil's he, realized — they were covered with shame instead of be- coming gods.] And they sewed fig-leaves together, and made them aprons. And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day [as he was walking thus] : and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden. [Here was the effect of the second lie of the devil — that they would become wise by obeying him, instead of which they immediately lost so much of the knowledge of God, that they thought they could hide THE GOVERNMENT OF GOD. 131 from his presence among the trees.] And the Lord God called imto Adam, and said, Where art than ? And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked ; and hid myself. And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked ? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat ? And the man said. The woman whom thou gavest me to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat. And the Lord God said unto the woman. What is this that thou hast done? and the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat. [Now she saw, when it was too late to avert the calamity, the deception of the lying serpent, and began to experience its sad effects.] And the Lord God said unto the serpent. Be- cause thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cat- tle, and above every beast of the field ; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life, and I will put enmity between thy seed and her seed ; it, shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel." (Gen. 3 : 1-15.) What zaas the Serpent ? We remark, in the first place, that the serpent was not what we call a snake. He is here ranked among the cat- tle and beasts of the field, which we always contrast with crawling and creeping things. As an illustration, we read : *' Every kind of beasts, and of birds, and of serpents," etc. The serpent was one of the beasts which God had made. There are two facts here taught, which furnish very strong evidence to show that this beast was one of the monkey tribes or species. That he was thenceforth to go upon his belly shows that, before this, he must have walked upright ; which a snake could not do. The physiological structure of the monkey shows that his natural locomotion was upright. Indeed, the quadruped motion of the monkey appears as awkward and unnatu- ral as for man to go on his all-fours, as we say of the creeping of babes ; like man it has long legs, shorter arms or fore-legs, large thighs, and slender shoulders, all of 132 ZOROASTER A THEIST. which fit it for upright gait. The pronounced doom, changing this attitude, was not On thy belly shalt thou crawl (as a snake), but shalt go (as we say of a man when thus moving). The expression, '' Dust shall be thy meat," comprehends the chemical properties composing vegetable soil. Adam was made out of this : *' And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground." The serpent's diet, being thus extensive, admits of no objection as to what the monkey eats, because it is identical with the meat of snakes and men. Wisdom of the Serpent and Faculty of Speech. The distinguishing feature of the wisdom of man is shown in his faculty of speech, and this implies that of forming abstract ideas — both of which this beast possessed. It is well known, from the anatomical structure of the mouth, jaws, tongue, throat, etc., that the monkey pos- sesses the organs and power of human speech. His rea- soning faculties, however, but poorly compare with those of man, nor did he manifest profound reasoning on this occasion, and before his degradation. The expression is, *' The serpent was more subtle than any of the beasts of the field." Subtle means, thin — not dense; as subtle air, subtle vapor, subtle medium, etc. This kind of wis- dom, is the contrivance of cunning, mischievous speech, with but little regard to consequences. All of which are here apparent and attributed to the beast himself; and he was cursed for its employment, or yielding to be thus used: "And the Lord God said unto the serpent, be- cause thou hast done this thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field." All the beasts of the earth were involved in the general curse now about to fall, in consequence of man's disobedience of his Maker's command — extending to the very ground itself; but among the cattle and beasts of the field, that which fell upon the serpent was the heaviest. He lost his faculty of speech, and this implied the degradation of the mental power of forming ideas, which reduced him to the intel- lectual level of brute knowledge, besides degrading him THE GOVERNMENT OF GOD. I33 from the erect gait with which, among all the other ani- mals, he was honored as the sole associate and principal servant of man. It must be remembered that this monkey and his mate were the primordial of the whole species, and therefore the inherited loss was transmitted to all succeeding gener- ations. It is also easy to conceive how great the loss was which thus fell upon man himself The fleet-footed monkey, his physical strength and power of out-door ex- posure and endurance, with his knowledge and faculty of speech, and yet an animal servant over whom man was given dominion, would have been of incalculable ben- efit to mankind in the business relations of life. Here, then, we have the beast of the field — the serpent, as God made him, before and after his curse. Who was the Devil? We come now to the consideration of the question, Who was the devil, and whence his origin ? That there is one prominent, personal devil, and that he was once an angel, is as clearly taught in the Scriptures as that there are angels at all, and that they are of a higher order than man, and somewhat of a different being. Some of these facts are stated thus : " And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath re- served in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judg- ment of the great day." (Jude 6.) Here we see that there was a plurality involved in this leaving, and there is no distinction mentioned as existing among them ; but that they are all reserved unto the judgment of the great day. We have seen that Christ refers to him as being a liar from the beginning, and who abode not in the truth. We turn now to a passage which describes the execution of the destined punishment of the devil at the judgment of the great day, and which distinguishes one of them as the leader: '' Then shall he [the Son of man and Judge of quick and dead] say unto them on his left hand, depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the THE UNITED PRESBYTERIAN MISSION UBRMY lie DnfArrifiA MrhfO Hftilf Vflrip 97 y V 134 ZOROASTER A THEIST. devil and his angels." (Matt. 25 : 41.) From the time, therefore, that these angels left their own former abode and chose the earth in preference,, contrary to the will of God — and this is what made them devils — there has been a devil, who is a fallen angel, having other angel-devils under him, and who are to continue to live until the day of judgment appointed to take place at the end of the world ; and the appointment was made at its very be- ginning. The Location of the Devil. The location of the devil and his work is on the earth. This is clearly shown by the following Scripture : " Then Jesus sent the multitude away, and went into the house : and his disciples came unto him, saying. Declare unto us the parable of the tares of the field. He answered and said unto him. He that soweth the good seed is the Son of man ; the field is the world ; the good seed are the children of the kingdom : but the tares are the children of the wicked one ; the enemy that sowed them is the devil ; the harvest is the end of the world ; and the reapers are the angels. [These are the angels who con- tinued to abide in the truth, and did not leave their own habitation.] As, therefore, the tares are gathered and burned in the fire ; so shall it be in the end of this world. The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity, and shall cast them into a furnace of fire : there shall be w^ailing and gnashing of teeth. Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their father [the same kingdom]. Who hath ears to hear, let him hear." (Matt. 13 : 36-43.) This is Christ's interpretation of his own parable, and therefore leaves nothing for conjecture, and it was given to show what the kingdom of God was like, and shows that the destined kingdom is the world, in which all the devils and offen- sive things of iniquity exist, and out of which, at the end of this world, the Son of man, by his faithful angels, is to gather all the wicked, devils and men, out of the field — THE GOVERNMENT OF GOD. 1 35 out of the world, out of his kingdom — and then kindle a furnace-lake of fire and brimstone, which is to be on the earth and in the land of Idomea, and burn them up, just as the husbandman gathers the tares out of his field and burns them in the fire. By this parable Christ, the great teacher, condenses the whole subject as taught in the Scriptures, and in so clear a manner that leaves no room for honest misunderstand- ing. " The earth being now cleansed of all offensive things, Christ takes possession and sets up his kingdom under the whole heavens — the new heavens and new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness." (2 Pet. 3 : 13.) Now the immortal saints of all ages shine forth in the kingdom of their Father. Because Ingersoll cannot find hell existing now, he makes merry over the discovery ; but let him be a little patient, and he will very likely find it, to his sorrow. The devil is sometimes called Satan, which means an opposer of the words of God and the objects he seeks to accomplish with man and the world. The title Satan is not confined to the devil, but designates men and all systems of religious persecution of his people. For oppos- ing his words, Jesus said to Peter, '' Get thee behind me, Satan : thou art an offense unto me : for thou sayest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men." (Matt. 16 : 23.) The false, persecuting church of the Rev- elation is called the '^ place where Satan's seat is." That the theatre of the devil's locality and action is on the earth, is also shown by the following : '' Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, that Satan came also among them. And the Lord said unto Satan, whence comest thou ? Then Satan answered the Lord, and said, from going to and fro in the earth [not yet in hell], and from walking up and down in it." (Job 6 : 7.) Here is the devil doing his work on the earth. But as he is a liar, especially when he speaketh of himself, we cannot trust him unless his words are confirmed by a better witness, and this we have thus : ''Be sober, be vigilant ; because your adver- sary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking 136 ZOROASTER A THEIST. whom he may devour : whom resist steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomphshed in your brethren that are in the world." (i Pet. 5 : 8.) The expression, ''in tlie world," shows the place of the devil's action, and the whole passage declares the work of the devil is to afflict the saints of God in the world. '' And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold ! Satan hath desired to have you, that he might sift you as wheat." (Luke 22: 31.) ''Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now workethin the children of disobedience." (Eph. 2 : 2.) Here the devil is called " the prince of the power of the air ; Beelzebub the prince of devils. ' ' In the days of Job the devil had power over atmospheric elements, as he went into the wilderness and raised a hurricane, with which he killed all Job's children, by blowing down the house wherein they were assembled. He also once, in common with all the angels, had the mental power over the gravity of atmospheric pressure ; by an act of will he could decrease that which was above him and increase it beneath, and thus descend and ascend into it at pleasure. At his first coming Christ deprived Satan of this power over inanimate elements, so that he was no longer prince of the power of the air ; no longer could he wield the winds of heaven for any purpose then, he fell from heaven, about which Christ speaks thus : ''And the seventy returned again with joy, saying, Lord, even the devils are subject unto us through thy name. And he said unto them, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven. Behold ! I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy : and nothing shall by any means hurt you. Notwithstanding in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you ; but rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven." (Luke 10: 17-20). Since this the power of Satan is confined to the earth, and, in his broken yet wrathful pride, labors under the re- THE GOVERNMENT OF GOD. 137 strictions — the chains of darkness ; hopeless dispair. In this condition will he remain, until the judgment of the great day, for destruction. The Devil Awaiting his Destruction. The doom of the devil, as we have seen, is entirely different from that of the serpent — the beast of the field, and, upon whom the punishment fell in the present world, and was that of physical degradation. It is evident that the devil is a fallen angel, and of so superior natural struct- ure that age makes no mark of decay on it ; and having lived six thousand years of health, what knowledge he must have acquired ! He has power to control the speech of man so as to speak through his organs, for the accom- plishment of any purpose of deception. If the devil has such power over the human mind, he had it over the mind of the serpent, a weaker animal, and used it in the garden of Eden, and spake through the organs of the ser- pent. In this transaction the following passage and its Scriptural connections indicate the contest, contestants, and final triumph of the one and destruction of the other : '' And I [the Lord] will put enmity between thee [the serpent] and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed ; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel." (Gen. 3 : 15.) Christ is the seed of the woman, as well as the Son of man — not by any natural generation, for this he did not have ; he was the natural Son of no man or woman ; but the birth was that of miraculously forming — making and creating of a woman, by the Crea- tor himself, a body for himself like that of man. ''The Word was God, and the Word was made flesh ; and that which was made flesh was the Son of God, and by whom were all things made that was made." ''Christ made of a woman," and, therefore, " The seed of the woman and the Son of Man." The seed of the .serpent was not the generations of the beast of the field, whose progenitor the devil tempted in beguiling Eve ; but the devil with his subordinate angels, whose instruments are also the children of men — "Led 138 ZOROASTER A THEIST. captive by Satan at his will." These shall bruise the heel of Christ — make war against him and his church in his absence, behind his back ; bruise his heel, but Christ shall bruise Satan's head at his return. Speaking of this, Paul says : ''And the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly. " (Rom. 16: 20.) Of this destruction and by whom it is to be executed, Paul also speaks thus : '' Forasmuch as the children are made partakers of flesh and blood [our nature] he also himself took part of the same; that through death [Christ passing through his death and resurrection] he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil ; and deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage." (Heb. 2 : 14, 15.) As sure, therefore, ds Christ died and did not remain dead, so sure will he de- stroy the devil — so sure will the seed of the woman bruise his head. That the devil had the power of death is explained thus : " Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin ; so death passed upon all men, for all have sinned." (Rom. 5 : 12.) The devil used the ser- pent as his willing instrument, and led Adam and Eve into sin. Up to this time they had access to the fruit of the tree of life, which God had endowed with the chemi- cal properties of keeping men always youthful, thereby perpetuating human life indefinitely. But now, lest he should live thus in sin, he saw fit to deprive him of the antidote for the ravages of age ; and immediately, in that very day, he died — died by the loss of the means for pre- serving life. " In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." ''And the Lord God said, Behold! the man is become as one of us [us means, not two gods, but one God with the two titles. Lord God], to know good and evil. And now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever : there- fore the Lord sent him forth from the Garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken." By this exclusion, of course, death passed upon all men : " For as in Adam all die [because none since have had access to the tree of life, and immortality is thenceforth only to THE GOVERNMENT OF GOD. 1 39 be obtained through Christ, the second Adam, and to be conferred upon the saints in the resurrection at the last day] — as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive." But to be in Christ is to be a new creat- ure ; to become like him in spirit, disposition ; to be- lieve his words, love his doctrines, and follow his exam- ple in working righteousness. CHAPTER V. WHO AND WHAT ARE ANGELS. We have said angels were a higher order of beings than man. This is shown in such passages as the follow- ing. " Bless the Lord, ye his angels, that excel in strength, and do his commandments, hearkening unto the voice of his words, bless ye the Lord, all ye his hosts ; ye ministers of his, that do his pleasure. Praise ye him, all ye his angels. Man did eat angels' food. And the angel answering, said unto him, I am Gabriel that stand in the presence of God ; and am sent to speak unto thee, and to show thee these glad tidings." (Luke i : 19.) '' And I heard a man's voice [then angels speak like men] between the banks of Ulai, which called and said, Gabriel, make this man to understand the vision." (Dan. 8 : 16.) " Yea ! while I was speaking in prayer, even the man Gabriel [Gabriel was so much like a man that the prophet thus names him], whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, being caused to fly swiftly [to go quickly], touched me about the time of the evening oblation." (Dan. 9 : 21.) " Who maketh his angels spirits" [sends them with spiritual messages]. (Heb. i: 7.) The angel of Jesus carried his spirit-messages to the seven churches. " Verily, he took not on him the nature of angels, but the seed of Abraham." (Heb. 2: 10.) Here angels are natural beings. '' But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor ; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man." (Heb. 2.) The humanJmmanuel nature was lower than the nature of angels, since they have lived out their probation, and can- not suffer the death penalty, which is the result of sin. WHO AND WHAT ARE ANGELS. 141 <' The wages of sin is death." But God, who took this nature on himself, was higher than the angels. '^ Being made so much better than the angels, as he hath by in- heritance obtained a more excellent name than they ; for unto which of the angels said he at any time, Thou art my Son, this day have 1 begotten thee ? And again, I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to me a Son ? And again, when he bringeth in the first-begotten into the world, he saith. And let all the angels of God wor- ship him ; and of the angels he saith, Who maketh his angels spirits, and his ministers a flame of fire ; but unto the Son he saith. Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever : a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom. ' ' (Heb. I : 4-8.) The Angels of the Sepulchre, ''And entering into the sepulchre, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, clothed in a long white gar- ment ; and they were affrighted. And he saith unto them. Be not affrighted : ye seek Jesus of Nazareth, which was crucified : he is not here ; he is risen : be- hold the place where they laid him." (Mark 16 : 5, 6.) Matthew says they said, *' Come, see the place where the Lord lay." (28: 6.) This angel appeared to be a young man, and yet he was more than four thousand years old ; showing that time makes no impression on immortal beings. This was the first time Mary Magdalene went to the sepulchre, and she was the first of the friends of Jesus, with the other Marys, who went there. " Now when Jesus was risen, early the first day of the week he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, and she went and told them that had been with him, as they mourned and wept." John gives more particulars, thus : '' Then she runneth to Simon Peter, and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved [John thus modestly speaks of himself, not even mention- ing his own name], and saith unto them, They have taken away the Lord out of the sepulchre, and we know not where they have laid him. So they ran both together ; and the other disciple did outrun Peter, and came first to 142 CONFLICT OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. the sepulchre. And he, stooping down and looking in, saw the linen clothes lying ; yet went he not in. Then cometh Simon Peter, and went into sepulchre, and seeth the linen clothes lie ; and the napkin, that was about his head, not lying with the linen clothes, wrapped together in a place by itself. Then went in also the other dis- ciple which came first to the sepulchre, and he saw and believed. For yet they knew not the Scripture, that he must rise from the dead. Then the disciples went away again unto their own home. But Mary stood without at the sepulchre weeping [she had returned again], and as she wept, she stooped down, and looked into the sepul- chre, and seeth two angels in white, sitting, the one at the head, and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain. And they said unto her. Woman, why weepest thou ? She saith, Because they have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid him." (John 20 : 2-13.) This was Mary's second visit to the sepulchre. The first time she saw one angel in the sepulchre, but the sec- ond time she saw two. We quote this so particularly to brush away another mistake of Ingersoll's about the dis- agreement in the account, as seeing one and two angels in the sepulchre. Matthew records the scene of rolling away the stone thus : ' ' And behold ! there was a great earth- quake : for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and rolled back the stone from the door of the sepulchre, and sat upon it. His countenance was like lightning, and his raiment white as snow ; and for fear of him the keepers did shake, and became as dead men." (28 : 2.) This angel had gone into the sepulchre, where Mary saw him, and veiling his glory from her, which had driven the Roman soldiers from the grave. Christ not a Spirit in the Sense of a Ghost. In this account, as well as generally in Scripture, there are three distinct orders of persons — Christ, angels, and men ; and so much resembling each other that one is taken for the other, and all are so much like men that WHO AND WHAT ARE ANGELS. 143 they are thus named. We quote the following, to show that Christ used his power to hold the eyes of men that they might not know him, whenever he pleased so to do, and which explains the saying, " He vanished out of their sight, the doors being shut." He thus held their eyes until he made himself known, and then again until he opened the door and went out. This fact removes the scoffer's objection to the effect that it was not possible a man with a body of flesh and bones could go through a shut door. "And behold, two of them went that same day [tw^o of his disciples on the day of the resurrection] to a village called Emmaus, which was from Jerusalem about three score furlongs. And they talked together of all these things which had happened. And it came to pass that, while they communed together, and reasoned, Jesus himself drew near, and went with them, but their eyes were holden that they should not know him. And he said unto them, What manner of communications are these that ye have one with another, as ye walk, and are sad ? And one of them, whose name w^as CleojDas, an- swering, said unto him. Art thou only a stranger in Jeru- salem, and hast not known the things which are come to pass in these days? And he said. What things? And they said, Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, which was a prophet mighty in deed and w^ord, before God and all the people. And how the chief priests and our rulers delivered him to be condemned to death, and have crucified him. But we trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel, and besides all this, to-day is the third day since these things were done. Yea ! and certain wonien of our company made us as- tonished, which were early at the sepulchre ; and when they found not his body, they came, saying that they had seen a vision of angels, which said that he was alive. And certain of them that were with us went to the sepul- chre, and found it even so as the women had said : but him they saw not." (Luke 24 : 13-24.) During all this conversation the eyes of the disciples with whom he had familiarly mingled for more than three years, were so holden by him that they did not know him. 144 CONFLICT OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. Angel-Escort at the Ascension and Return of Christ. '' And when he had spoken these things, while they be- held, he was taken up, and a cloud received him out of their sight. And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold ! two men stood by them in white apparel; which also said. Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven ? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like man- ner as ye have seen him go into heaven." (Acts i : 9- II.) Here are probably the same two angels who had been seen in the sepulchre forty days before, and they are called two men. This event fulfilled the prediction of Christ, thus : '' Hereafter ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon [with] the Son of Man. ' ' (John i : 51.) This is a quotation from the prophecy of Jacob, thus: ''And he dreamed, and behold ! a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven, and the angels of God ascending and descending on it." (Gen. 28: 12.) The first part of the prediction was fulfilled when Christ ascended, as above accompanied by angels, and the second part will be fulfilled thus : ''When the Son of Man shall come with all his holy angels, in the glory of his Father." Two angels only accompanied Christ at his ascension ; but at his return, in the clouds of heaven, he is to be accom- panied thus : " And they shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory. " " And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds of heaven, from one end of heaven to the other." (Matt. 24.) Scripture Prophecy of the Event. ' ' He maketh the clouds his chariots. " "He rode upon the wings of the wind." "For behold! the Lord will come with fire, and with his chariots like a whirlwind." *'The chariots of God are thousands of angels." "The WHO AND WHAT ARE ANGELS. 145 Lord thundered in the heavens, and came down ; he bowed the heavens, and came down ; and the earth was hghted with his glory." ''And Jesus, answering, said unto them, The children of this world marry and are given in marriage, but they which shall be counted worthy to obtain that world, and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry nor are given in marriage ; neither can they die any more ; for they are equal unto the angels, and are the children of God, being the children of the resurrection." (Luke 20 : 34-36.) Here are the resurrected saints : the re-created world, restored to its original perfection : the endless abode of God : Immanuelized : angels, and immortal men. The devil and his works are no more, and the eternal reign of righteousness and peace covers the new-made world. When and How the Angel-devil Became a Devil. It is certain that at some period before the creation of the world, and up to that time, the angels were on trial and were susceptible of death, because of sin, as ''the wages of sin is death." Some had stood the test, and remained obedient to the restrictions and commands of their Maker ; who consequently became exempt from all future liability. Others had failed, and incurred the death penalty, and yet await its execution, to be awarded at the judgment in the last day ; hence we read : " For if God spare not the angels that sinned ; but cast them down to hell." (2 Pet. 2 : 5.) The Scripture explanation is, that they are to be cast into hell at the end of the world ; using the present for the future tense, so common in Scripture. Now, these fallen angels having no hope of happiness or immortality themselves, they are confined to the animosity and sweet morsel of revenge in seeking to make every one else unhappy and hopeless like them- selves, and whom God desires to be happy and live for- ever. It is easy to see how the devil can enjoy such acts. Hence his implacability in attempts to baffle the plans and delay the purposes of God in the salvation of his children to life and immortahty, as that will be the 146 CONFLICT OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. time for the destruction of every living devil. The common complaint of the wicked against God is for having made any tests, or laws requiring obedience. What they wish is, the liberty to do as they please with impunity : be unlike their Maker and displease him to any degree and all their days, and yet wish to be re- warded with eternal life in his kingdom, just as those who had served him. The gratification of such a course is thrown into the form of a question God inspired the prophet to write, thus : " Why do the heathen onality of Angels, and therefore of Devils. The biblical history of angels shows them to be so much like men, that they can eat the same food, and were always taken for men. There is, however, no intimation that they are male and female. From which fact it would follow that, like Adam, each was a distinct creation ; and that they sang the world's dedicatory hymn shows their creation to have been prior to the creation of the world. When they come to men they are God's messengers, and are recognized as such by the Lord himself, and receive his titles without crime. Some of these visits are recorded as follows: "And the Lord appeared unto Abraham in the plains of Mamre : as he sat in the tent door in the heat of the day ; and he looked, and lo ! three men stood by him : and he bowed himself to the ground, and said. My Lord, if now I have found favor in thy sight, pass not away, I pray thee, from thy servant : let a little water be fetched, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree : and I will fetch a morsel of bread, and comfort your hearts ; after that ye shall pass on : for therefore are ye come to your servant. And he said. So do as thou hast said. [Here we see that even among these three angels, one was the leader, and decided for the rest.] And Abraham said unto Sarah, Make ready quickly three measures of fine meal; knead it, and make cakes upon the hearth. And Abraham ran unto the herd, and fetched a calf tender and good, and gave it to a young man ; and he hasted to dress it. And he took butter, and milk, and of the 148 CONFLICT OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. calf which he had dressed, and set it before them ; and he stood by them under the tree, and they did eat. " And the men rose up from thence, and looked toward Sodom ; and Abraham went with them on the way. And the Lord said, Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do ; seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him ? And the Lord said, Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous, therefore I am come to destroy them. [Then came the noble prayer of Abraham's for the cities and people, which exhibited the highest order of humanity and great breadth of mental discernment ; but so bad were the inhabitants of those cities that Abraham, after using every form of prayer and ground of plea, was forced to acquiesce in the decision of his merciful Lord.] ' ' And the men turned their faces from thence, and went toward Sodom." (Gen. i8.) Angels at the Burning of So do )n and Gomorrah. Two of these angels arrived at Sodom that evening, the other having left them : " And there came two angels to Sodom at even ; and Lot sat in the gate, and he rose up to meet them, and bowed himself, and said, Behold ! now, my Lords, turn in, I pray you, into your servant's house, and wash your feet, and ye shall rise up early and go on your way. And they said, Nay ! but we will abide in the street all night. And he pressed them greatly ; and they turned in unto him, into his house, and he made them a feast, and did bake unleavened bread, and they did eat. But before they lay down, the men of Sodom compassed the house round, both old and young, from every quarter ; and they called unto Lot., and said. Where are the men which came in to thee ? bring them out unto us, that we may know them. And Lot went out at the door and shut the door after him, and said, I pray you, brethren, do not so wickedly. And they said. Stand back. And they said again. This one fellow came in to sojourn, and he will needs be a judge ; now will we deal WHO AND WHAT ARE ANGELS. 149 worse with thee, than with them. And they pressed sore upon Lot, and came near to break the door ; but the men from within put forth their hand and pulled Lot into the house, and shut the door, but smote the men that were at the door with blindness, both small and great, so that they wearied themselves to find the door. And the men said unto Lot, Hast thou here any besides son-in-law, and sons, and thy daughters, and whatsoever thou hast in the city, bring them out, for we will destroy this place, because the cry of them is waxen great before the face of the Lord ; and the Lord hath sent us to destroy it." (Gen. 19.) In referring to these angel-visits, Paul speaks thus: '^ Be not forgetful to entertain strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares." (Heb. 13:2.) So much were angels like men in appear- ance, speech, and appetite, that as intelligent men as Abraham and Lot could discover no difference. The fact here stated, that the angels at Lot's house had the power to smite men with blindness without touching them, implies the possession of the lesser power of hold- ing human eyes from seeing themselves if they pleased. The devil, being a fallen angel, has also the same power. Neither Adam nor Eve saw the devil, and if he was as close to them as the serpent, he might have held their eyes from seeing him. And so also may it be with the devil in relation to men ever since, and everywhere. So also may it be with the holy angels ; were they near us, we might not see them, though they are as palpable to our senses as our fellow-men to each other. The Angel Gabriel and the Prophets. Gabriel was once detained twenty-one days from reaching the prophet Daniel, by the king of Persia. The account is as follows: ''Then he [Gabriel] said unto me, Fear not, Daniel ; for from the first day that thou didst set thy heart to understand, and to chasten thyself before thy God, thy words were heard, and I am come for thy words. But the Prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me one and twenty days ; but, lo, 150 CONFLICT OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me ; and I remained there with the kings of Persia." (Daniel lo : 12, 13.) Here Gabriel has been transacting national busi- ness with the king of Persia, and for the King of kings, one and twenty days ; but the king of Persia did not see him, and the power was psychologic, turning him aside from one purpose to another as best he might, by mental impression produced by his will upon the mind of the king and his court ; so his brother fallen angel was, in the court of Eden, also by psychologic power quickening the mind and controlling the organs of the serpent's speech in beguiling the woman into disobedience. When Gabriel came, Daniel was thrown into holy vision, in which state he was made to see and understand events to come, just as God saw they would be, and communicated that knowledge to the prophet. Hence it is said that revela- tions of Cxod were sometimes given ''by the disposition of angels." In relation to these psychologic phenomena, we have ourselves, by mere acts of will,- without speaking a word, controlled the will and mental power of others, and in the presence of hundreds of people, so that they were made to see, hear, feel, taste, and smell just as we willed they should ; drinking, as they supposed, tea, coffee, milk, and wine, while none of these things were real ! Nor could they perform a voluntary act with- out the consent of our will, and only in the direction of such will ; the eyes of a half-dozen men were held and blinded, in an instant, or made to see some persons, and not others equally near. In this manner they were made to steal, and manifest hatred to religion, and violence upon others, contrary to the commands of God ; and yet these persons were Christians. Now, if the mind of one man possesses this wonderful will-power over his fellow-man, and that of angels also over men, as we have seen, may not the devil exert the same power over men, and if done only to this extent, does it not account for all his acts in the garden of Eden ? That this psychologic or mesmeric power has been ex- erted over horses, cats, and other animals, is equally a matter of fact. It is true, there are comparatively few WHO AND WHAT ARE ANGELS 151 men susceptible of such influence by his fellow-men ; but may not the mind of a devil, whose natural powers excel those of men, and having had six thousand years' experience, so seduce every man ? In fact, we have no evidence that the devil possesses as great psychologic power, except in its extension to all men, as that now possessed by man over his fellow-man. Psychologic Power and Devil Possession. By these experiments we may say that there is not a case recorded in the New Testament of a devil-posses- sion but which could be produced upon individuals by this human psychologic power. Suppose, then, that a man had an envious, revengeful neighbor, and that he him- self was susceptible of this peculiar animal-magnetic in- fluence, and that the enemy should produce upon his mind the conviction that he was a witch, or was possessed of the devil, and that he must live the rest Of his life among the tombs of the dead — be wild, and fiercely attack every traveller passing that way : here is the devil tempt- ing one of his own servants to commit this terrible crime of tormenting his neighbor ! Suppose, further, that the man is made to believe and feel that he is possessed of a legion of devils, and that they could, by controlling the victim's organs of speech, in answer to the question, *' What is thy name ? " reply, " My name is legion " — all of which can certainly be done in this manner by the power of a human enemy, and if so done, would it not be the work of the devil? and would he not as really be possessed of the devil as though the devil had done it all directly ? Therefore, by the instrumentality of his human servants, 'Med captive by Satan at his will," can one original devil tempt the whole fallen human family ; lead men into crime, and then upbraid and torment them for yielding. And this is the philosophy and work popularly known as spiritualism, which degrades the Bible and blas- phemes its Author by declaring all superseded by these psychologic impressions reciprocally produced, and read from each other's mind ! 152 CONFLICT OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. Suppose, still further, that Jesus Christ, the Maker and Owner of the angel-devils, had met this man, and being about to dispossess him, the devil — anxious to do all the evil he could, as in the case of Job's person and cattle — should have asked to be permitted to go into a herd of swine feeding close by, and was so permitted, would it not have been possible, and in this case consistent also ? It is in the history of witchcraft that cattle were pos- sessed by witch-devil influence. In order to vindicate the act of Jesus giving the devils permission to destroy the swine, about which Ingersoll scoffs, it must be re- membered that the law of Moses forbade eating swines' flesh, and that these swine were raised by the Gadarenes, the tribe of Gad, for the Jewish market. This case illus- trates all other similar ones recorded of devil-possession in the Testament, and shows them to have been of psy- chologic character, or what in our day is called animal- magnetism and known as modern spiritualism. But there is another class of devil-possession, which was physical diseases themselves. As an illustration we have the following account: ''And when he came to his disciples, he saw a great multitude about them, and the scribes questioning with them. And straightway all the people, when they beheld him, were greatly amazed, and running to him, saluted him. And he asked the scribes. What question ye with them? And one of the multitude answered, and said, Master ! I have brought unto thee my son, which hath a dumb spirit ; and wherever he taketh him he teareth him, and he foameth, and gnasheth with his teeth, and he pineth away ; and I spake to thy disciples that they should cast him out, and they could not. He answereth him, and saith, O faithless genera- tion, how long shall I be with you ? how long shall I suffer you? Bring him unto me. And they brought him : and when he saw him, straightway the spirit tare him, and he fell on the ground, and wallowed foaming. And he asked his father, How long is it ago since this came unto him ? And he said. Of a child, and oft-times it hath cast him into the fire, and into the waters, to de- stroy him; but if thou canst do anything, have compassion WHO AND WHAT ARE ANGELS. 1 53 on us. Jesus said unto him, If thou canst beheve, all things are possible to him that believeth. And the father of the child cried out and said, with tears, I believe ; help thou mine unbelief! When Jesus saw that the people came running together, he rebuked the foul spirit, saying unto him. Thou dumb and deaf spirit, I charge thee, come out of him, and enter no more into him. And the spirit cried and rent him sore, and came out of him ; and he seemed as one dead ; inasmuch as many said. He is dead. But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up; and he arose." (Mark 9 : 14-27.) It may be said, that the young man had what is popularly called " falling fits," a predisposition to which he inherited from his parents, or grandparents, or by degrees of develop- ment further back still ; as the symptoms described are the same. In reply we may say, had there been no other in- fluence back of that, why was it that the man did not instantly become vigorous, and which physiological law would have required ; instead of which he became almost lifeless. Indeed, Jesus had to take him by the hand and lift him up ; which would seem to show that it was the foul spirit of the devil, instead of natural vigor, which so powerfully animated him a few moments before. This, however, is of but little importance, because every physical derangement is either the direct or indirect work of the devil. He induced Adam and Eve to obey him and dis- obey their Maker ; and thus sin entered into the world, and death as a consequence. This being the greatest phys- ical derangement, necessarily includes all forms and lesser degrees of disease ; some one of which must precede and accompany death, though it may only be the harden- ing process of the physiological system we call age, which sometimes reaches ossification of vital organs before death, beginning with our first breath and steadily advancing until a rigidity of them is reached, which the nutritious forces fail to move ; and this is death. If, therefore, there had been no sin, there had been no death, with its con- comitants of pain and disease ; and lastly, had not our first parents, or one of their succeeding generations, obeyed the devil and disobeyed their Creator, the human family 154 CONFLICT OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. would still have had access to the tree of life, the anti- dote for ossification, and consequently have lived forever. Hence all possible forms and phrases of physical derange- ment among mankind are the work of the devil and that of devil-possession, now its natural development. In harmony with this natural philosophy is the Scriptural doctrine which attributes the power of death to the devil. This, being the culmination of physical derangement, car- ries with it the power of disease, its forerunner and accom- paniment. It in nowise alters the case if any or all the Satanic possessions and powers have been transmitted through every one of the two hundred generations of mankind : if the devil introduced them, then they are his inheritance, and to cure any of them, according to Script- ure, is to cast out devils. Hence Christ gives us a gen- eral declaration of the nature of the work, by whomsoever performed, thus : '' The same day there came certain of the Pharisees, saying unto him, Get thee out, and depart thee hence ; for Herod will kill thee. And he said unto them, Go, tell that fox. Behold ! I cast out devils, and do cures to-day and to-morrow, and the third day I shall be perfected." (Luke 13 : 31, 32.) We have produced the evidence in another place to show that the six days of creation were symbols of six thousand years of the world's existence, and the seventh, that of the rest of another thousand : the seventh of the seven millenniums. Christ was on earth in the fifth thousand (the fifth day) : He must cast out devils and do cures the remainder of that day — that thousand : all the next day — the sixth thousand — the second day ; and the third thousand from his own, and seventh of the world, he would be perfected — glorified by entering upon the millennial rest, which had remained a matter of promise up to that time : "If we suffer with him, we shall also reign with him." '^\nd if children, then heirs : heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be^^/^;'{/f<"^/^^^'-^///efore declared to tlie prophets, all of which is known to be that of jjrehistoric and historic record of the four universal kingdoms, in their successions, divisions, and subdivisions, including that of their religions, even down to the present day, describing and identifying them as accurately as profane history records them : these, in FUTURE PUNISHMENT CONFOUNDED. 221 his ignorance and blasphemy, the scoffer characterizes as " the insane ravings of the lunatic of Patmos." This is a specimen of the modesty he learned from Satan, his honored schoolmaster. W/iy Men Love God, Incomprehensible to Ingersoll. IngersoU does not see how a sane man can love the God who could have done or proposes to do such things as the Bible relates. Not understanding the narration of any of those things, nor the objects he accomplished or intends to accomplish by them, he sees nothing but in- consistency in loving a being who is so unlovely. This ignorance is not to be mitigated on his part by the plea of necessity ; for nothing is clearer than that it is not for the want of mental capacity or opportunity, but that it is wholly wilful. The following charge illustrates this. He says : " The God of the Bible drowned a whole world." That is, he drowned a whole generation of people living at a particular time. But had he been an honest investi- gator and seeker for truth, he would have observed that the God of nature, even if it is nature herself, did intro- duce, or permitted the introduction, at some period of the existence of mankind, some physical derangement into her works which would cause the death of the two hundred generations of mankind, one-third of whom have been little children. This god Nature thus kills and gives no reason for the killing ; while the God of the Bible reveals both the object and necessity for the introduction of uni- versal death, especially for shortening the life of the gen- eration by the flood. Now, Mr. Ingersoll, let us expostulate a little with you and ask, why you should fight the God of the Bible for thus killing a single generation, and adore your god Nature who has killed the other one hundred and ninety- nine generations. If you reject the inspiration of the Scriptures for the small killing, must you not reject the records of nature for the great killing, and then tell us that you don't believe in Nature because he kills people, even little children, or deny the record that nature kills 222 CONFLICT OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. anybody — in fact, that there is no such thing as nature in existence — that it is only a god the priests have made ? Come, now — "honor bright! " Behold the marvellous wisdom and consistency of the king of freethinkers ! The most advanced atheistic scientist of the nineteenth cen- tury declares he has no knowledge of the existence of God — no evidence for such a belief ! See what a great bluster of a fight against the God whom he holds to be a mere phantom of the imagination, and wishes people to believe him a very courageous man for the undertaking ! How can a man who is professedly ignorant upon a subject, be anything, if he talks about it at all, but its burlesquer ? He despises a God whom he does not be- lieve exists ; he defies a phantom which he knows cannot harm him — brave man ! But as Ingersoll is the repre- sentative freethinker of our time, and whom the sceptical world holds as a kind of demi-god, it leaves us no other alternative than that of stripping every vestige of reason for the veneration from the shrine of their idolatrous matter -god. The Scoffer's Defective Metaphysics. He says, '■' Man has no ideas, and can have none, except those suggested by his surroundings. He cannot con- ceive of anything utterly unlike what he has seen or felt. He can exaggerate, diminish, combine separate, deform, beautify, improve, multiply, and compare what he sees, what he feels, what he hears, and all of which he takes cognizance through the medium of his senses ; but he cannot create. Having seen exhibitions of power, he can say omnipotent. Having lived, he can say immor- tality." No, sir ! man cannot say immortality because he lives, for all the life he has seen comes to an end ; therefore, between the two ideas, mortality and immor- tality, there is no comparison possi])le ; and immortality does not come within the range of human observation, which is limited to death on every hand, and he can only say, from the light of the revelations of the laws of nature, mortality ! But a man may have an idea of immortahty, FUTURE PUNISHMENT CONFOUNDED. 223 even a knowledge of it, as the result of logical reasoning, thus : Man lives ; a living being must have caused him to live, as the laws of his own being gives the only true definition of life, making it consist in the existence of every physiological part in the structure of the body essen- tial to life as a part of the life itself. From this wonder- ful mechanical involvement man may infer that the Being who made it liable to death is able to remake it exempt from such liability — hence he can say immortality ; and his Maker has given this revelation in another book, with that also for which he made the world itself — an endless world for an immortal man. In order, therefore, that a man may say immortality, as designed for him or any one else, he must have satisfied himself that the Author of the revealed design and promises is the Creator of nat- ure, and his own nature, as none other would be able to accomplish the work ; and that he has the evidence in his own mind, which enables him to depend upon his ability and veracity to fulfil them. If a man masters and com- plies with these conditions, he has as positive knowledge upon the subject as upon that of his own existence. Ingersoll says, ' ' Man cannot create, or have any idea of anything utterly unlike what has come within the scope of his senses." In order to make the assertion answer his purpose, it is necessary to show that as man has never seen, felt, heard, tasted, or smelt God, with his bodily senses, therefore there is no God. It is a fact that there was a time when there were no fire-arms, steam-engines, electric telegraphs, and ten thousand in- ventions, all of which are the creations of man, and the first of each was utterly unlike anything which had ever come within the scope of human sense. According to Ingersoll, no man can make a new discovery or have an original idea; he can only imitate what he has seen. This may be true of him, and is so upon the subjects of his infidel lectures ; and we must allow every man to know what he does not know, or that he knows of what he is ignorant ; and charity should concede that what a man announces as a fact of his own experience, is hon- est ; hence Ingersoll knows nothing utterly unlike that of 224 CONFLICT OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. which his own senses have been cognizant ; the sequence of which is, that he never had an original thought or idea, and this is the hmitation of his intelhgence ; or he must logically know things which have never been tested by his own senses — such as the existence of a living God, and that he is the Creator of the world. If he was a man of thought and reason, the result of a logical mind, he would reason from the known to the unknown — the uni- versal law of mental philosophy — and the conclusions would not be the rant of agnosticism, but the positive knowledge of a man, seen by the eye of the mind, just the same as though started by images struck upon the retina of the eye. In confirmation of this limitation of ideas in the mind of Ingersoll, we have the fact that a hundred years before he was born, everything he says . about God and the Bible was substantially said and writ- ten ; so that his supposed progress, at the head of the boasting freethinkers, runs backward. He says, " Knowing something of time, man can say eternity." No, sir ! he cannot say eternity so as to have a sensible idea of it, for an idea or even an inference can only be obtained by comparison, and the two things so utterly unlike as time and eternity, bearing no proportion to each other, cannot be compared. He says, " Conceiv- ing something of intelligence, man can say God." But Ingersoll cannot thus say God, because, by his own con- fession, he has not intelligence enough to know that there is one. He says, " Having seen exhibitions of ma- lice, man can say devil." But he cannot say or infer the existence of a devil from that of malice ; for he him- self manifests more malice, and that, too, toward his God and Creator, than the devil ever did or dared to do ; be- sides he is too ignorant of the Scriptures to know their statements to be true as to the existence of the devil, and therefore the exhibition of no amount of malice can give him the idea of a devil. He says, "A few gleams of happiness having fallen athwart the gloom of his life, man can say heaven." -Well, whatever any other man can say about heaven or happiness hereafter, he has no surli prospect, for he is too ignorant of the Scriptures to know FUTURE PUNISHMENT CONFOUNDED. 225 there is or ever will be a heaven of happiness, and he cannot infer it from the present life of man, as the sources of misery vastly exceed those of happiness, which indicate future misery, if anything ; and if, as he says, all the gods are worse than devils, they certainly can have no motive for making men happy hereafter. What a dreadful plight does Mr. Ingersoll's philosophy involve ! These are the lessons of wisdom his schoolmaster the devil has taught him. Who would pay for such learning ? The Scoffer' s Bad Logic. He says : * ' The superstructure has been reared, com- bining, separating, diminishing, beautifying, improving, and multiplying realities, so that the edifice or fabric is but the incongruous grouping of what man has conceived through the medium of his senses. It is as though we should give a lion the wings of an eagle, the hoofs of a bison, the tail of the horse, the pouch of the kangaroo, and the trunk of the elephant. We have in imagination created an impossible monster, and yet the various parts of this monster really exist. So it is with all the gods that man has made." Here we have Mr. Ingersoll's conception of God, and all the gods, in the form of an illustrated conclusion. It must be remembered that among all the gods, with whom Ingersoll blasphemously includes the living God of the Scriptures — in fact, this seems to be the only God that calls forth his bitter ani- mosity — it must also be remembered that in this man's estimation there are no gods except those which men have made, and the making is nothing but an imaginative manufacture. As, therefore, there is no God within this man's conception, or he has no idea of a god, and as it is impossible to illustrate no idea, he gives us this incon- gruous attempt to do an impossibility, producing the monster representative of his conceptionless talk ; and sup- poses that if all the named features of these animals be- longed to a single one, that would fitly represent all the ideas mankind have ever entertained of God. A man may attempt to illustrate his own ignorant notions of 226 CONFLICT OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. God ; but if he has no idea of the existence of a hving God, then how can he with any sense make even this incongruous attempt ? and how much more ridiculous that he should assume it to illustrate all the ideas man- kind have entertained respecting God ? Is it not also absurd to suppose that the Being who made all these ani- mals, with their peculiar features, could not have com- bined them in a single one? and had it been a domestic animal .of common observation, would it have been a monster ? Besides, the illustration concentrates all the gods in one, and this shows the scoffer aims his weapons, such as they are, at the single God of holy Scripture ; and to crown the silly effort he acknowledges all through his sayings that he does not know or believe there is any liv- ing God in the universe ; and because he is thus ignorant, concludes all men are in the same category. Here is the king of the self-styled freethinkers, who makes war upon God, on the alleged ground that he calls on him to sacri- fice his reason. But if he should do even this, would it be much of an oblation ? The scoffer says : '' Pain, in its numberless forms, having been experienced, man can say hell." Not knowing the Bible, which teaches there is a hell or is to be one, of course he does not know or believe anything about it ; and being thus ignorant, he considers all opin- ions about hell as imaginary as his own, as it requires knowledge in one mind to appreciate it in another; and though it puts him and the freethinkers in contradiction to all the intelligence of the world in their estimate of the science and philosophy of God, heaven, and hell, enter- tained by the scholars of the ages, as eciually ignorant with themselves ; and everybody understands by the sense- less manner in which their chief talks about tliese sub- jects that he has no evidence for the belief of the exist- ence of any being in the universe higher or greater than himself, who must therefore be as devoid of any reason for his own existence or object proposed by it. CHAPTER IX. WHY INGERSOLL IS POPULAR. In order to appear to be original, IngersoU puts the old, stale witticisms and atheistic phrases in something of a new dress ; but there never was a public sceptic who reasoned so little and used less argument against God and the Bible ; but even on this account his lectures are pop- ular in our age, in which it is painfully true that not only the young people, but their parents are not distinguished for thought. It is a fact that they are great readers, though the reading is mostly that of newspapers and light literature, while the historic and philosophic literature of the ages lies like buried rubbish upon the shelves, if it is there at all. He says : ^' Some nations have borrowed their gods [we have just heard him declare as a fact that each nation made its own gods ; but now this is not a fact]. Of this number, we are compelled to say, is our own. The Jews having ceased to exist as a nation, and having no further use for a god, our ancestors appropri- ated him, and adopted their devil at the same time. [A funny blasphemy.] This borrowed god is still an object of some adoration, and the adopted devil still exists and excites the apprehensions of our people." [His people must be those like him ; but the devil does not excite their apprehensions, as they are ignorant of his existence, and to excite their apprehensions might lead them to flee his company and escape his doom.] He is still supposed to be setting traps and snares for the purpose of catching our unwary souls, and is still, with reasonable success, waging the old war against our God." The very latest trap set by the devil is to make men believe he has no existence, and into this trap IngersoU has fallen head- long. So pleased is his satanic majesty with the capture, 228 CONFLICT OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. that he has made him chief agent, proclaiming through the country the paradox, " My master has no existence — the great har of Eden is dead, so that you, my people, need have no fears of my traps and snares." It would not only be ungrateful, but foolishness, for the devil to wage war upon his own faithful children, ignorant of the famous truism, '' A house divided against itself can- not stand ; " and there is but one God against whom the devil makes war — all others are on his side, as Ingersoll claims for his confederates. The book that knows about this parent and his children, says : " Who are led captive by Satan at his will." This Wiseacre says : " To me it seems easy to account for these ideas concerning gods and devils. They are a perfectly natural production : man has created them all." We have shown that God made the devil an angel, and he made himself a devil ; and having lived six thousand years, he knows well enough how to lay snares to catch such simpletons as those who know nothing about him. In contrast to such, those who do know about him are addressed in such language as the following: ''Lest Satan should get an advantage of us : for we are not igno- rant of his devices." (2 Cor. 2 : 11.) So, Mr. Inger- soll, keej) it ringing in the ears of your people: "Man has created all the gods and all the devils," though you have just said, " Man cannot create anything." What a foolish thing a man is to create devils to lay snares and tra])s to catch his soul and fill him continually with ap- l)rehension, and also to make gods to punish himself for serving another one of his creatures ! Of course Ingersoll knows nothing about living gods or devils, so has his master blinded his mind, and so does he keep the tongue of a thoughtless brain in locomotion. The Scoffer Claims Orio[i?}alify for One Thought. He says, " Man has not only created these gods and devils ; but he has created them out of the materials by which he has been surrounded." This unknown God to him, says, *'To whom, then, will ye liken God ? or WHY INGERSOLL IS POPULAR. 229 what likeness will ye compare unto him ? The workman melteth a graven image, and the goldsmith spreadeth it over with gold, and casteth silver chains. He that is impoverished that he hath no oblation, chooseth a tree that will not rot ; he seeketh a cunning workman to prepare a graven image, that shall not be moved. They that make a graven image are vanity, and their delectable things shall not profit, and they are their own witnesses ; they see not, nor know ; that they may be ashamed. Who hath formed a god that is profitable for anything ? Behold, all the fellows shall be ashamed together. The smith with his tongs, worketh in the coals, and fashioneth it with hammers, and worketh it with the strength of his arms ; the carpenter stretcheth out his rule ; he marketh it out with a line and with a compass, and maketh it after the figure of a man, accord- ing to the beauty of a man ; that it may remain in the house. He burneth part thereof in the fire [part of the material, the chips whereof he is surrounded]. With part thereof he roasteth a roast, and is satisfied ; yea, he warmeth himself; and saith, Aha, I am warm, I have seen the fire ; and with the residue thereof he maketh a god ; and falleth down and worshippeth it, and prayeth unto it, and saith. Deliver me ; for thou art my god. '' They have not known me [the hving God], nor un- derstood ; for he hath shut their eyes [because they love darkness rather than light, and because their deeds are evil] and their hearts, that they cannot understand." (Isa. 40 and 44.) " But is there a God beside me ? yea, there is no God; I know not any." Thus did the people create gods, and out of the material with which they were surrounded ; and Ingersoll should have given the Scriptures credit for the quotation, and not have said, " It seems perfectly natural to me that the people made all the gods and devils," as though he had arrived at this conclusion by his own reasoning. But Ingersoll, either ignorantly or designedly, over- looks a most prominent fact in this mythological history, namely, that these god-makers believed in the existence of but one living and supreme God, and that the gods they 230 CONFLICT OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. made were but symbols to put them in remembrance of him ; and we defy this iconoclastic upstart of a god-slayer and degrader, to produce a single testimony from the idolatrous priests or those who practised its rites, who claimed that there were no gods or God superior to those they themselves made, or that any of these were alive, or that they did not claim there was one supreme living God ! Again he says, " Each nation made its own gods and devils, who not only speak its language, but put in their mouths the same mistakes in history, geography, astronomy, and in all matters of fact, generally made by the people. No god was ever in advance of the people or nation that created him." What a foolish thing is this to say, when we have just seen how the mechanics, as he says, made the gods out of the material that surrounded them, and that the gods so made never made a mistake. How can a piece of carved wood or metal make a mis- take. He means this fling for the God of Scripture ; but we have seen that all Ingersoll's supposed mistakes of Moses or Genesis are to be credited to the false and foolish so-called science of the atheistic evolution and chronological geology, and that the statements of the Scriptures, touching the origin of the world and its in- habitants, are philosophic and astronomic necessities ; that is, that if no account had ever been written of that work, what we know now of science demands that it should be written in exact accordance with Scripture statements ! He says: ''The negroes represented their gods with black skins and curly hair. The Mongolian gave to his a yellow complexion and dark, almond - shaped eyes. The Jews were not allowed to paint theirs or we should have seen Jehovah gods with a full beard and oval nose." See how the arch-scoff'er goes out of his way to give vent to the infamous venom of his heart against God ! No, here is your lying blasphemy ; for you have seen the record of their idolatrous gods in the shape of a golden calf, or a pile of stones, which the Jews made and worshii)ped. See how he attempts to degrade the living God, by such association as this: ''Zeus was a i)erfect WHY INGERSOLL IS POPULAR. 23 1 Greek, and Jove looked as though he was a member of the Roman Senate. The gods of Egypt had the painted face and placid look of the living people who made them. The gods of northern countries were represented warmly clad in robes of fur ; those of the tropics were naked. [It is not true that they thus represented the people, for there is not an uncivilized race on the earth, or ever was one of which there is authentic history, who went, or go, naked.] The gods of India were often mounted on elephants ; those of some islands were great swimmers. [How could an image-god represent a great swimmer ? The fact is Ingersoll is fixing up the god- picture to suit his purpose in names, color, and shape of the gods manufactured by his own imagination and that of his freethinking confederates.] The deities of the Arctic zone were passionately fond of blubber. [How could a god in the shape of man represent an appetite ? He wanted to say something funny, and calls that about the blubber a fact.] Nearly all people have carved or painted representatives of their gods, and these represen- tatives were, by the lower classes, treated as the real gods, and to these images and idols they addressed prayers and offered sacrifices." The scoffer is here un- wittingly led into a correct statement, that the people generally came to worship these idols as the real gods, with the exception that he should have said '^ the real God," and this before they became mentally degraded to the level of the freethinkers who reject his existence, and morally desire to have it so, and worship the symbol-god as the real. The existence of an idol- god cannot be reasonably accounted for, but as implying the prior ex- istence of a living God. Idolatry Proves the Existence of a Living God. It is evident that Ingersoll uses these universally exist- ing gods to prove there is no real God. A more absurd effort could scarcely have entered an uninfatuated mind. All these gods were representative. Representatives ne- cessitate something to be represented, and the god- 233 CONFLICT OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. representative could not have been the god represented ; consequently representative gods prove the existence of a real god represented. If all the gods of nations and in- dividuals were in character representative, which fact is historically notorious, not even questioned by IngersoU himself, then there is one God all these represented and represent, and the testimony of all the gods at once demonstrates the truth of our position. The conception of God, entertained by the image god-makers, as shown by the names, structure, and adornment of the idols, was that they possessed unlimited wisdom and knowledge, omnipotent power, justice, goodness, love, hate, and mercy to the penitent ; but who would in nowise spare the stubborn guilty. These intellectual and moral attributes it is impossible to have conceived as belong- ing to any but a living, personal God, and this is the God of nature, as the idolators saw him revealed in their own, the workman in the work, as well as in the bounties of inanimate nature for man's support and pleasure. That such is the God of Scripture revelation, exhibits the sublime harmony of truth for the contempla- tion of all sentient beings. If it should be asked. Why, then, is the practice of image-making and worship for- bidden in the Scriptures? we answer, Because of their tendency to divide the worshi}) between the image and the living God. But instead of idolatry making atheists, no god at all, it made polytheists — 'Mords many and gods many " — while freethinkerism makes the gods repre- sentatives, but no god represented. We have a Congress of the United States, one branch of which is composed of representatives chosen by the people ; but Ingersoll's logic says there is no people they represent. What, however, he fails to do logically he attempts by sophistry : '' The gods," says he, '* repre- sented the conception, the ideal of the people." To dis- lodge him from this attemjit at further deception, we may say that a man can have no conception or idea of a thing of which he has no reasonable knowledge, or of which he is totally ignorant, and he must be totally ignorant of that which does not exist. If, therefore. WHY INGERSOLL IS POPULAR. 233 there is no God, he cannot have a representative or symbol. Ideas or conceptions originate by observing and comparing things which come within the range of our senses, or from their description given by others, from which it follows that if there were no things there would be no ideas, or conceptions, as we can have no idea or conception of nothing, other than that of non- existence. Hence, ideas or conceptions of God depend upon and prove the existence of a living, personal, intelli- gent God, the Creator of nature. Here again we see IngersoU's specious sophistry and spurious logic. Origin of hnage-worship Natural. How natural were the existence of these traditions and universal conceptions and idol-god representations ! God made the first pair of mankind in his own image, and after his own likeness, and these precise words are defined in describing the form of the third man born into the world, thus: '^ And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness, after his own image: and called his name Seth." (Gen. 5:3.) As Seth was in the form, likeness, and image of liis father Adam, so was Adam in the form, likeness, and image of his father God. That this was a personal image or form, is corroborated thus : '' Who [the son of God] being the brightness of his [God's] glory, and the express image of his person.'^ (Heb. i: 3.) And this Son in the form of God "was found in fashion as a man." (Phil. 2 : 6, 8.) In the beginning the first pair of the hu- man species must have had a personal acquaintance with their father God, as their children had with themselves. From this centre the human family spread over the earth, but having no books, and wishing to retain and transmit their knowledge of God's person, and object of the worship he imposed, they made images like them- selves, and therefore like their Maker. As corrupt as were the antediluvians, they are not charged with the sin of idolatry ; but after the flood, the practice being forbid- den in the Scriptures shows its existence. Thus is In- \fm mmiim mm mm 234 CONFLICT OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. gersoll without the least defence for wickedly confounding the living God with the men -made gods of idol-worship ; but of this Being, by his own confession, he knows noth- ing, and has consequently no idea or conception of him. For his enlightenment and that of this class we copy their picture, drawn by the dictation of the God who knows them, if they do not know him : " For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation [they were not ordained to do the diabolical work, but were condemned for doing it], un- godly men, turning the grace of God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ. Likewise also these filthy dreamers defile the flesh, despise dominion, and speak evil of dignities [even of the great God and his dominion]. But these speak evil of those things which they know not ; but what they know naturally as brute beasts, in those things they cor- rupt themselves. Woe unto them ! for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Ba- laam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Core. Clouds they are without water, carried about of winds ; trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots ; raging waves of the sea, foam- ing out their own shame ; wandering stars to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever." (Jude.) The error of Balaam was that he wanted to curse the children of God for money, so that they might become an easy prey to their enemies ; while Ingersoll and his class not only curse the children of God, but God himself, and for the greedy reward of the mammon of unrighteousness — the god they worship, and which is the most sordid and degraded god before whose shrine human beings ever prostrated themselves. The scoffer says : "■ The Chris- tians now claim that Jesus is God. [Yes ! and they always did claim that Jesus was God ; but because the scejjtics of our day deny this, it necessitates its prominent defence ; and his ignorance even of this history leads him as here to suppose it to be a new doctrine.] If he was God, [he also says] of course the devil knew that fact, and yet, according to the account, the devil took the omnip- WHY INGERSOLL IS POPULAR. 235 otent God and placed him upon the pinacle of the temple, and endeavored to induce him to dash himself against the earth. Failing in that, he took the creator, owner, and governor of the universe up into an exceeding high mountain, and offered him this world, this grain of sand, if the god of all the worlds would fall down and worship him, a poor devil, without even a tax-title to one foot of dirt. [We have seen that in this lecture Inger- soll thanks the devil for teaching him all he knows and for all the liberty he enjoys, but see how disparagingly he here talks about his devil friend and benefactor !] Is it possible the devil was an idiot ? Should any great credit be given to this deity for not being caught with chaff? Think of it ! The devil, the prince of sharpers, the king of cunning, the master of fitness, trying to bribe God with a grain of sand that belonged to God ! [Was the devil so much of an idiot and fool as this scoffer, who makes public war upon God himself?] Is there in all the literature of the world anything more grossly absurd than this?" There is nothing ever said, either by God or man, which may not be made to appear inconsistent by ridi- cule ; in consequence of which it is generally conceded that nothing sacred should be made a subject of ridicule, and it is generally apparent that when a man has recourse to ridicule he has no reason or argument for what he is attempting to teach. Knowing nothing of the teaching of Scripture, about God, Christ, or the devil, but still talk- ing roughly upon the subjects, of course he says senseless things, and then draws his famous conclusion by asking if anything was ever more absurd ? If he knew enough about these things, which he might learn from the Scrip- tures and the philosophy of intelligent being, he would know that the devil, being a creature, only knows what he learns, and foreknows nothing ; hence that he is disap- pointed and defeated every time he tempts another to do a thing and fails, thereby exposing his ignorant calculation. And in this case, to make the account of Christ's tempta- tion in the wilderness appear ridiculous, IngersoU ig- norantly assumes that the devil knew all about Christ, 236 CONFLICT OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. that he was God, etc. : ''If Jesus was God, of course the devil knew that fact." But this effort of the devil was to ascertain who Christ was, and this effort, Mr. Ingersoll, relieves these acts of the devil of all absurdity in the transaction, and credits them to your account, exposing the foolishness and arrogance of your effort in setting up this straw-devil, to have the honor of his demolition. CJirisf s Tonptation Free from all Incongruity. Some of the facts and the philosophy of the temptation of Christ by the devil in the wilderness are as follows : 1. Jesus Christ was made of a woman, as truly as Eve was made of Adam, and by God the Creator. There was some difference in the manner ; but so far both were creatures. 2. The life of that which was born of Mary, or, as Paul expresses it, " made of a woman," was a natural, mortal life, the demonstration of which was the fact that Jesus Christ died ; but God was not born or made, nor did he die, and this was not even the body of God while it hung dead on the cross, except in the predestina- tion that he was to take it again. 3. This life being mortal, was never taken again, but was made a sacrificial offering to show his love for men, that he might thus win them to become his friends. Had God taken the mortal life again, it would still have been subject to death, and that which is subject to death must at .some time die. 4. That God had been preparing a human body for himself for the space of thirty-three and a half years, and had lived in it during that time, but forsook it while it hung on the cross. 5. While it lay dead in the grave, God, as he was be- fore making it for himself of the woman, invested, incar- nated, or Immanuelized himself with it the second time, which act raised it from the dead, and whose life from thenceforth became the life of the Immanuel-man-God, before which in decree, type, and prophesy he had been all these, but now in fact in history. Now it could be WHY INGERSOLL IS POPULAR. 237 declared and interpreted by the angel Gabriel: "This Jesus that is born this day in Bethlehem, the city of David, is Immaniiel, God with us " [God with our nat- ure] ; and by Paul : ''In him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily." (Col. 2: 9.) Here were two distinct living forms of being. A man in every respect human — '' in all points tempted like as we are, and being so tempted, he knows how to succor them that are tempted." (Heb. 4 : 15 and 2 : 18.) It was not God as he was before this birth of the Son of Man who was thus tempted ; hence it is written : " Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God : for God cannot be tempted with evil [and this tempta- tion was with the evil of idol-devil worship], neither tempteth he [thus] any man." (James i : 13.) The prophet anticipating this transaction, and personating God thus in human form, exclaims : "A body hast thou prepared for me." And again : '' When he bringeth in his first-begotten into the world [not from another world, but into existence, born of a woman, born into life], he saith. Let all the angels of God worship him. And unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever : a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy king- dom." Here was the same lying devil who had cun- ningly deceived the first Adam, telling him that if he would obey him he would become a god, be wise, and not die. And now the second Adam comes into the world, and the devil makes the same kind of effort to induce him to disobey the Creator, and obey him. This Adam, however, is his master, and gives the devil every opportunity, going with him wherever he proposes, and wherein he had every advantage ; but after all his pre- sumption and lying insinuations is completely foiled and vanquished, and leaves his Lord and God, whom alone it was his duty to worship, a wiser devil than he was before ; and immediately angels — his angels — came and ministered unto him. Christ quoted Scripture prediction of the temptation to the devil, thus : " Get thee behind me, Sa- tan : for it is written. Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God." ^' Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him 23^ CONFLICT OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. only shalt thou serve." And we learn from this Script- ure that no matter how much any of God's creatures have degraded themselves, or how long he has been a sinner, though it is the devil himself, still it has been his duty, and ever will be, to love the Lord his God and Creator every moment of his being, and to obey him because he loves him. God was the Creator of man- angels and of the world, before he assumed human form ; and was he any the less such after its assumption ? To say that the God who made all the living forms of the universe could not have made any one he pleased for him- self, will do well enough for freethinkers, or no-thinkers, like Ingersoll, but it is too absurd for common sense. He also exposes his bad science and worse philosophy by call- ing our world "a. grain of sand." Of course he bor- rowed the idea from the groundless speculations of the nebular theory of Laplace, adopted by Darwin, Lyell, Proctor, etc., who also did the same thing, just as he does his opinions of God, Christ, the devil, heaven, hell, etc., from the sceptics of the past, and without the least thought or reason on his part. And such is the mind which at- tempts to grapple with these great questions ! Providence of God in Nature. Ingersoll says: ''Since the invention of steamships and railways, so that the products of all countries can be easily exchanged, the gods have quit the business of producing famine." That it is impossible to respect what the scoffer says is shown by the fact that since these inventions were in full blast, we have had the famines of India, China, and Ireland, and a score of others of less note, in whicli more people died of starvation than in any other three famines recorded in ancient history. Besides, every famine is as truly the work of God as an ecli})se of the sun is his work ; both equally result from the operation of the principles which run the machinery he made and put in motion at the creation of the world, and to say he did not know what his machine would accomplish, at any particular time or place, is forbidden WHY INGERSOLL is POPULAR. 239 by the detailed adjustment of the works of nature them- selves. According to this principle, the Creator involved in his machinery of nature whatever irregularities or de- rangements which would result from its operation during all periods of time, thus providing for every famine and every other natural evil. These constitute the providence of God, all of which have resulted from man's disobe- dience to the rightful laws of the only proprietor of the universe, the revealed purpose of which is to make the present world an uncomfortable abode for man, that he might be induced easier to seek one of endless duration, one in the re-created world of his righteous and eternal government. It is this end that justifies the means for its accomplishment, and without a knowledge of which involves all in incomprehensible mystery. The Creator cursed the earth and its productive pow- ers when man became a sinner, and for his sake. The second curse took place at the deluge, when he broke up the entire crust of the earth, the greatest source of physi- cal derangement. Whatever of these calamities would be modified by a prayer or life of a saint, important in facilitating the more rapid populization of this coming New World, having foreseen it, he could also have in- volved, interwoven it in the machinery itself, at the foundation of the world. Any other view makes God careless and uncertain what will take place in these great departments of his work. This providence, with the above exceptions, if indeed they are such, can have nothing to do in producing the moral or Christian char- acter of men, but befall all equally. Men have will and mind which must be consulted, and they are as free to act within their sphere as the Creator himself is within his sphere. Of course, if he cannot be induced to do and be that which is pleasing in the sight of his Maker, he must take the consequences, and such may infer, from the severity with which his laws of nature are made to execute themselves, what will be done in the infliction of the revealed penalties against the finally impenitent when the time comes appointed for that work. Being ignorant of all this, Ingersoll continues to talk thus: 240 CONFLICT OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURV. ''Now and then God kills a child because it is idohzed by its parents. As a rule he has given up accidents on railroads, exploding boilers, and bursting kerosene lamps. Cholera, yellow-fever, and small-pox are still considered heavenly weapons ; but measles, itch, and ague are now attributed to natural causes. [He should have known that everything in nature are effects, and she is the cause of nothing.] As a general thing God has stopped drowning children, except as punishment for violating the Sabbath [a cunning little scoff]. ''In wars between great nations God still interferes; but in prize-fights the best man, with an honest referee, is almost sure to win. [See the scoffer's low design to degrade the God of nations by associating him with prize-fighting; but it shows that the prize-fighter is held in high esteem by this God-hating Col.] The church must insist that ]3rayer is answered ; that some power superior to nature [nature has no power, all power is in mind] hears and grants the requests of the sincere and humble Christian, and that this same power in some mysterious way provides for all." As Ingersoll is not one of these sincere, humble Christians, having nothing of their experience, he knows nothing of the subject, and which is of course mysterious and incomprehensible to him. If he wishes to know whether God answers prayer, let him ask these sincere, humble Christians, and he will receive the testimony of intelligent witnesses, who have experience in the matter. Another Youu^ Ingersoll Discovered. The conceited scoffer discovered another such prodigy, about whom he says : " A devout clergyman sought every opportunity to impress upon the mind of his son the fact that God takes care of all his creatures ; that the falling sparrow attracts his attention, and that his loving-kind- ness is over all his works. Happening one day to see a crane wading in quest of food, the good man pointed out to his son the i)erfert adaptation to get his living in this manner. ' See/ said he, ' how his legs are formed for WHY INGERSOLL IS POPULAR. 24I wading ! What a long slender bill he has. Observe how nicely he folds his feet when putting them in or drawing them out of the water; he does not cause the slightest ripple. He is thus enabled to approach the fish, without giving them any notice of his arrival. My son,' said he, ' it is not possible to look at that bird without recog- nizing the design as well as the goodness of God, in thus providing the means of subsistence.' ' Yes,' replied the boy, I think I do see, so far as the crane is con- cerned ; but, after all, don't you think the arrangement is a little tough on the fish ? ' " Of course Ingersoll is the bright boy, and the father is the dull clergyman. This fact of the bird and fish confounds the one, and satisfies the other that God is not good ; and the story illustrates the food question, relative to organic beings, of supply and demand, as well as the adaptation of each to prey upon the other for food. Nature does nothing of this work, has no economy, and is simply the means in the hand of God for the purposes they subserve, just as the tools are in the hand of the mechanic with which he builds the loco- motive. God asks no such superficial and sentimental defence to screen him from the production of the earth- quakes, or hardships of living beings, by ascribing them to nature. It is God himself who assumes the responsibility for all things called ''natural evil," concerning which he speaks thus: "I am the Lord, and there is none else. I form the light, and create darkness ; I make peace, and create evil ; I the Lord do all these things. ' ' (Isa. 45-6, 7.) '' Shall there be evil in a city, and the Lord hath not done it ? " (Amos 2>'- ^-^ The direct source of all these evils results from the curse of the inanimate world, inflicted by the Creator in conse- quence of the disobedience of man. To Adam he said : "Cursed is the ground for thy sake." (Gen. 3: 17.) The -next curse was by the deluge, which left the earth in as bad a condition as the Creator ever intended to reduce It. ''And the Lord said unto Noah, and in his heart, I will not again curse the ground for man's sake." (Gen. 8: 21.) "The earth is also defiled under the inhabi- tants thereof, because they have transgressed the laws, 242 CONFLICT OF THB NINETEENTH CENTURY. changed the ordinances, and broken the everlasting cov- enant ; therefore hath the curse devoured the earth." (Isa. 24: 5.) It is a fact that a very large proportion of animals cannot live but by devouring others, and man is the greatest devourer of all. He is provided with vege- table teeth to grind and animal teeth to tear. Indeed, he kills and appropriates almost everything — fish, flesh, and fowl — for his food, clothing, comfort, and decoration ; even the women adorn their bonnets with the plumage of birds killed for the purpose. The pain and suffering incident to the killing of an ox is as great to it as the killing of a man to the man, and the pain of death is a universal evil from which the saints of God do not escape. Pain re- sulting from the sensitive nervous system, revealing organic derangement to the individual, is essential to the preser- vation of health ; while that of dying comes as a necessity. These provisions of nature make known the disposition of the God who made them, and from which men may learn that he that offends against the written and religious laws of God will equally suffer their pains and penalties. It were well for Mr. Ingersoll to think and investigate beyond the clergyman and his boy to learn the lesson thus written : '' Behold the goodness and the severity of God " (Rom. II : 22) ; and " It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the Hving God" (Heb. 10: 31). Beauties of a Cancel^ the Sceptic's Argument. ''Even the advanced religionists," says Ingersoll, '' although disbelieving in any great amount of interfer- ence by God in this age of the world, still think that in the beginning God made the laws governing the universe. He believes that in consequence of these laws a man can lift a greater weight with than without a lever ; that this God so made matter, and established the order of things, that two bodies cannot occui)y the same s))ace at the same time ; that it is a greater distance around than across a circle ; that a perfect square has four equal sides ; that a whole is greater than a part ; and that had it not been for this power, superior to nature, twice one might have WHY INGERSOLL IS POPULAR. 243 been more than twice two, and sticks and strings might have had only one end." [See what silly and false things he charges to be held by the most advanced religionists. Did any man ever know of one who held that, under any possible circumstances, ''twice one might have been more than twice two, that a stick or string might have but one end," if God had not made the world. What a fellow- fool a man must be who supposes Ingersoll either wise or honest !] Again he says : "■ These religious people see nothing but design everywhere, and personal intelli- gent interference in everything. They insist that the universe has been created, and that the adaptation of means to ends is perfectly apparent. They point to the sunshine, and to all there is of beauty and use in the world." [We may now expect that this biblical scholar and philosophic scientist is going to give us argument to prove all these advanced views of Christians absurd — that God did not create the world, that means are not adapted to ends, that like causes do not produce like effects ; and, doing this, he will easily expose the error and credulity of the most intelligent religious people. Let us hear him, and be disappointed.] " Did it ever occur to them that a cancer is as beauti- ful in its development as the reddest rose ? [What an aesthetic] That what religious people are pleased to call the adaptation of means to ends, is as apparent in the cancer as in the April rains? [Who ever said it was not? The law is universal.] How beautiful the process of di- gestion ! By what ingenious methods the blood is pois- oned so that the cancer shall have food ! By what won- derful contrivances the entire system of man is made to pay tribute to this divine and charming cancer ! See by what admirable instrumentalities it feeds itself from the surrounding quivering flesh ! See how it grows, with what marvellous mechanism it is supplied with long and slender roots that stretch out to the most secret nerves of pain for sustenance and life ! What beautiful colors it presents ! Seen through a microscope it is a miracle of order and beauty. All the ingenuity of man cannot stop its growth. Think of the amount of 244 CONFLICT OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. thought it must have required to invent a way by which the hfe of one man might be given to produce a cancer. Is it possible to look upon it and doubt that there is a design in the universe — [has he not just been describing the design in the mechanism of the cancer ? and do they not always produce the same effect, death ? "Of dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return." *'It is appointed unto men once to die" — that the in- ventor of this wonderful cancer partook of the infinite? " [Yes, we answer ; for it baffled all finite skill either to make or cure it, as you have just said.] The introduction of pains and diseases into the world, growing out of the universal curse, was one of the ele- ments of God's plan, through which he is able in less time to accomplish his purposes with man and the world, which is indicated in the acknowledgment: ** Before I was afflicted I went astray." If Ingersoll, at the head of human skill, with all mankind as his assistants, cannot make or cure such a cancer, then there is a Being above him and all others, of superior power and intelligence, who did make it. If all the ingenuity of man cannot make such a piece of mechanism, then ignorant nature, not possessing a particle of skill or ingenuity, could not have made the wonderful cancer ; and as its organization partakes of the infinite, an infinite Being made it; there- fore was it a supernatural and superhuman work, a most wonderful miracle, because one of which nature, with man as one of her parts, was incapable. So you see, Mr. Ingersoll, whether you select one of God's healthy organic formations or a cancer of transformation to show there is no Creator, it equally necessitates and demonstrates his existence, and the works of all nature, the adaptation of means to ends, for the accomplishment of his purposes. IngersoU's brain is so mixed up and confiised upon these subjects, that he utterly fails to distinguish between knowledge — matter of fact — and belief. He has here in- troduced a dozen self-evident truths, mathematical dem- onstrations, which, he says, are " believed." Docs a man believe or does he know that twice two are more than twice one ? Is it a matter of belief or knowledge that a WHY INGERSOLL IS POPULAR. 24S man can lift a greater weight with a lever than without one ? Now how can a man talk intelligibly upon the subject of faith who entertains such ideas ? The sub- stance of IngersoU's lectures are repetitions from Paine's ''Age of Reason," especially about Christ and the Bible, which are old and stale, written a hundred years ago ; and yet he puts himself at the head of this age of prog- ress. But to show Paine's superior knowledge of nature and philosophical science, in contrast to the silly talk of Ingersoll, scoffing at the existence of God, the Creator of the world, we introduce the following passage from Paine's '' Age of Reason." CHAPTER X. PAINE SHOWS NATURE DEMONSTRATES THE EXISTENCE OF GOD. Speaking about God, Paine says: ''Do we want to contemplate his power? We see it in the unchangea- ble order by which the incomprehensible universe is governed ? Do you want to contemplate his munifi- cence ? We see it in the abundance with which he fills the universe ? Do we want to contemplate his mercy ? We see it in his not withholding that abundance fi-om the unthankfiil. In fine, do we want to know what God is ? Search creation. The only idea man can afiix to the name of God is that of a first cause — the cause of all things ; and incomprehensible and difficult as it is for a man to conceive what a first cause is, he arrives at the belief of it from the tenfold greater difficulty of disbe- lieving it. It is difficult beyond description to conceive that space can have no end ; but it is more difficult to conceive an end. It is difficult, beyond the power of man, to conceive an eternal duration of what we call time ; but it is more impossible to conceive a time when there shall be no time. In like manner of reasoning, everything we behold carries in itself the internal evi- dence that it did not make itself, that he did not make himself; neither could his father have made himself, nor his grandfather, nor any of his race ; neither could any tree, plant, or animal have made itself ; and it is the con- viction arising from this evidence that carries us on, as it were by necessity, to the belief of a first cause eternally existing, and this cause man calls God. It is only by the exercise of reason that man can discern God ; take away that reason, and man would be incapable of under- standing anything. So also must it be believed that he NATURE DEMONSTRATES GOD'S EXISTENCE. 24/ organized the structure of the universe for the benefit of man, and that the Creation we behold is the real and ever-existing Word of God, in which we cannot be deceived. It proclaims his power, it demonstrates his wisdom, and manifests his goodness and beneficence. ''That the whole duty of man consists in imitating the moral goodness and beneficence of God, manifested in the creation toward all his creatures, that seeing as we do daily the goodness of God to all men, it is an example calling upon all men to practise the same toward each other ; and, consequently, that everything of persecution and revenge between man and man, and everything of cruelty to animals, is a violation of moral duty. When impressed as fully and strongly as we ought to be with the belief of God, man's moral life would be regulated by the force of that belief; and he would stand in awe of God, and of himself, and would not do anything that could be concealed from others. We can know God only through his works. We cannot have a conception of any one attribute, but by following some principle that leads to it. We have only a confused idea of his power, if we have not the means of compre- hending something of its immensity. We have no idea of his wisdom, but by knowing the order and manner in which it acts. The principles of science lead to this knowledge ; for the Creator of man is the Creator of science, and it is through this medium that man can see God, as it were, face to face. Could a man be placed in a situation, and endowed with the power of vision, to behold at one view, and to contemplate deliberately, the structure of the universe ; to mark the movements of the several parts, the cause of their varying appearances, the unerring motion in which they revolve and depend on each other ; and to know the system of laws, estab- lished by the Creator, that governs and regulates the whole — he would then conceive, far beyond what any church theology can teach him, the power, the vastness, the munificence of the Creator ; he would then see that all the knowledge man has of science, and all the mechanical arts by which he renders his situation com- 248 CONFLICT OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. fortable, are derived from that source. His mind, ex- alted by the scene and convinced by the fact, would increase his gratitude as it increased his knowledge ; his religion or his worship would become united with his improvement as a man ; any employment he followed that had connection with the principles of Creation, as everything of agriculture, of science, and of the mechani- cal arts, would teach him more of God, and of the grat- itude he owes to him. Great objects inspire great thoughts; great munificence excites great gratitude." — Paine's ''Age of Reason," pages 151, 152. What makes a Deist, a Christian, or aii Atheist? It is easy to see from these passages that Paine had studied nature, as he tells us, and from his boyhood. The proof is in the ideas themselves ; not that the ideas were original, for they were taught by Socrates substantially the same. This study made Paine a deist. Had he studied from his youth Christianity alone from the Scripture, and not confounded it with that of the Papal Church with which he was surrounded, it would have made him a Christian. It was in the latter part of his life that Paine wrote " The Age of Reason." He fin- ished Part First without having read the Bible, and could not procure one ; and what he said about it was from his early recollections, received from his father, who was a Quaker. The criticisms its publication pro- voked induced him to get a Bible, in order to attempt to vindicate himself, which he thinks he did in publishing the second part. He gave the Bible a cursory reading while he was writing the second part. But to learn its principles in so short a time was as impossible as to learn the science of the universe in the same period, and which was rendered more difficult by the pride of opin- ion he sought to sustain of his former views. Indeed, had he told us that he had studied the Bible from his boyhood, it would have been refuted by the ignorant things he says about it. He thinks he demolished the Bible by showing that some of the New Testament NATURE DEMONSTRATES GOD'S EXISTENCE. 249 writers, whose names the books bear, were not their authors. Of course, he failed ; but had he succeeded, it would have been an error, as all the writers claim God to be the author of the words they wrote. He might with the same propriety have said that there is no law of gravita- tion, because Kepler's and Newton's writings about that law were not written by them. While Paine's philo- sophical knowledge of nature compelled him to know there was' a God that made him, Ingersoll's ignorance of the science of nature compels him to reject these con- clusions. While Paine's knowledge of nature forced him to believe in God and made him a deist, his igno- rance of the Bible produced no conviction of its truth ; while Ingersoll's ignorance of both makes him an athe- ist. To know nature may make a man a deist ; to know the Scriptures may make a man a Christian ; but to know neither is to make a man an atheist or a freethinker ! Ingersoir s Prayer for an Idea — Pitiable Object. He says : "If the church wishes us to believe, let one of the intellectual saints perform a miracle, and we will believe. [This puts us in mind of the equally wilful and blind Pharisees who had within their observation scores of miracles performed by Jesus, and when they had nailed the Intellectual Saint to the crucifix, said : "Let him now come down from the cross, and we will worship him."] We are told that nature has a superior. Let him for a single moment control nature, and we will admit the truth of your assertions. [After such a con- fession of ignorance of nature, not seeing that this superior is controlling nature in all her phenomena, no' reflection can attach to us by giving him credit for it. So profoundly ignorant is he of nature that he thinks she made herself, and, while moving, set herself in motion, and that therefore the motion was before the motion.] In the olden time [says he] the church, by violating the order of nature, proved the existence of her God. At that time miracles were performed with the most aston- 2 50 CONFLICT OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. ishing ease ; they became so common that she ordered the priests to desist ; and now the same church and peo- ple, having found some Httle sense, admit not only that she cannot perform a miracle, but insist that the absence of miracles, the steady unbroken march of cause and ef- fect, proves the existence of a power superior to nature. [It is only such atheists in the church who raise this question, by the adoption of the modern science of evolu- tion and the geological antiquity of the world, and who contend that like causes do not produce like effects. But after stating these things he calls facts, and in a defiant manner, he becomes exalted to an awful altitude of self- esteem, and comes down on our poor church with the hollow noise of puffed-up thunder and painted lightning, thus:] We have heard talk enough. We have listened to all the drowsy, idealess, vapid sermons that we wish to hear. We have read your Bible ; we have read the works of your best minds [and read both to pervert them]. We have heard your prayers, solemn groans, and rever- ential Amens. All these amount to less than nothing. [If he wanted experience, so as to make his opinions of any value, why did he not pray himself, according to the Bible directions ?] We want one fact. We beg at the doors of your churches for just one fact. We pass our hats along your pews, and under your pulpits, and im- plore you for just one fact. [Having not one fact in all your foolish, atheistic lectures and sceptical books, you would not be able to identify it as a fact. If one of the saints should condescend to give you one, even at the risk of violating the instruction, " Cast not your pearls before swine, lest they turn round and rend you," you would not know it.] "We know all about your mouldy wonders and your stale miracles. We want a this year's fact. We ask only one ; give us one fact for charity. Your miracles are too ancient ; the witnesses have been dead for nearly two thousand years. Their reputation for truth and veracity in the neighborhood where they resided is wholly un- known to us. Give us a new miracle, sustained by wit- nesses who still have the cheerful habit of living in this NATURE DEMONSTRATES GODS EXISTENCE. 25 1 world. Do not send us to Jericho to hear the winding horns, nor put us in the fire with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego. Do not compel us to navigate the sea with captain Jonah, nor dine with Ezekiel. There is no sort of use in sending us hunting with Samson. We have positively lost all interest in that little speech so elo- quently delivered by Balaam's inspired donkey. It is worse than useless to show us fishes with money in their mouths, and call our attention to vast multitudes stuffing themselves with five crackers and two sardines. We want a new miracle, and we demand it now. Let the church furnish at least one, or forever after hold their peace." The scoffing blasphemy and funny merriment has its ex- planation in IngersoU's greed to make the fools laugh and get their money. But such importunity, such an object of intellectual starvation, should excite the sympathy of even the passer-by, especially when the beggar only asks one idea, one fact — with a little doubt attached to it ; for this purpose he advises everyone to cherish his doubts, as they lead to the knowledge taught by Satan. It is clear from this ardent plea that IngersoU is the most abject case of intellectual penury the world ever saw, lower even than that of Balaam's ass, for he had one fact, that of see- ing the angel, which the. false prophet could not do, and with which experience the animal could talk more to the purpose than the man who tries to slander him, un- less he is the veriest hypocrite of a tramp that ever lived, and we are rather disposed to give him credit for the ig- norant poverty he professes. Think of it, ye who have facts, and spare just "one little one " in relation to the great subjects of the origin of the world and the Bible, and the harmonious revelation of both books, and bestow it in charity upon this New York lecturer on the gods, so that he may not die without " one idea ! " There are but two sources from which all facts and their scientific and philosophic teaching are derived — two books in which every atom of human knowledge is con- tained upon these subjects — God's book of nature, and his book of inspired revelation ; but from neither of these exhaustless fountains has the scoffer IngersoU ever been 252 CONFLICT OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. able to extract a single fact, or one idea as even a rudi- ment of knowledge. The inspired book has not taught him a single idea, as he himself confesses ; and though pretending otherwise, it is just as certain to those who understand the book of nature that he has not learned a single one of her facts or ideas, the knowledge of which depends upon that of their origin, and this upon that of the prior existence of God the Creator as the only scien- tific and philosophic power adequate to their production, or to the origin of any power whatever. Every fact has its philosophy and science, and as such involves its origin and moving phenomena. To be Taught of God too Humiliatiug foi' Sceptical Pride. It may be thought that we should have omitted quot- ing some of the most scurrilous and blasphemous things Ingersoll here says ; but had we done so, he or some of his friends, in reviewing our book, might have attempted to make capital out of it, as things we w^ere unable to an- swer ; and it should also be remembered that the whole of this lecture has been published by the New York Trih- iine and the general press of the country ; and where is the man who has not read it or heard it ? The scoffer says, '' The Deity has demanded the most abject and de- grading obedience. [It is a universally conceded sen- timent that to serve the greatest king or emperor is to be the most honored, and this reaches its infinitude when the service is accepted and the obedience paid by man to his Creator ; but in his insolent pride and cowardly pre- tence, this is intolerable to the will and heart of Ingersoll, and were he equal to his desire, rather than submit he would reduce his Maker to the most abject servitude.] In order to please him, man must lay his face in the dust." It was said by one of the ancients, '' That evil partook of the infinite, and good of the finite ; as the evil is that which a man in heart desires to do, and would do if op- portunity was afforded, and not tliat alone which he per- forms." NATURE DEMONSTRATES GOD S EXISTENCE. 253 The scoffer-in-chief says again : " Gods have always been partial to the people who created them, and have generally shown their partiality by assisting those people to rob and destroy others." [We need only remark upon this that gods whom people make to worship should be obeyed by them, and equally should the God that made us receive our worship and obedience ; but one of the most prominent characteristics of the God of the Bible is his impartiality, having no respect for persons, but wholly respecting character — looking at the heart, the thought, the motive.] He says, '' Nothing is so pleasing to these gods the people make — [the foolishness, to talk about such gods being pleased !] — as the butchery of un- believers. Nothing so enrages them, even now, as to have someone deny their existence. [What a senseless mass is this ; that men should make gods, and then the ungrateful, wrathful things turn round and deny the ex- istence of their makers, even subject them to butchery ! It seems as though the unfortunate people would never make but one set of such gods.] Few nations have been so poor as to have but one god ; gods were made so easily, and the raw material so plenty and cheap, that generally the god market was glutted, and heaven crammed with these phantoms. The gods not only at- tended to the skies, but were supposed to interfere with all the affairs of men. They presided over everybody and everything ; all was under their immediate control ; nothing was small, and nothing was large ; the falling of sparrows and motion of planets were alike attended to by these industrious and observing deities. From their starry thrones they frequently came to the earth for the purpose of imparting information to men." The magician seems never to tire in repeating the legends about these many gods, their deep interests in the affairs of the people ; but why should they not minister thus, when the people made them for the purpose, and also to aggregations of families, called nations? It is therefore no wonder that the gods should become excited, and even indignant, at these wicked and foolish people who had made them, and then denied their exist-e-nce. 254 CONFLICT OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. What could they expect for such atheistic treatment and infidehty than condign punishment. If Ingersoll should make one of these gods, he would be the last man to bow the knee before him, but would want to become the god himself, and command the deity-servant to worship at his shrine, proclaiming man to be the head of nature, and that no being exists superior to him ! Nor do we see why the god should make a fuss about the abject demand : did he not make the god to please him, and could not the maker appropriate him as he saw fit ? could he not do as he liked with his own? So if God made Ingersoll, and demands his most servile obedience, abject humiliation, and had promised him nothing for the service, what right has he to object ? God made him, and every being owns what he makes ; and this settles the question, rendering remonstrance impossible, except as impudent arrogance. But instead of this, God graciously offers to reward him for the service with immortal being, and everything he needs to make him eternally wealthy and happy, and still he disobeys. Can such conduct do otherwise than call down destructive wrath upon such a vessel for which he has fitted himself? Hence it is written by the dictation of the living God, which harmonizes with natural neces- sity : ''Because I have called, and ye have refused; all day long I have stretched out my hand, and no man re- garded it [no such man] ; but ye have set at naught all my counsel, and would none of my reproof, I also will laugh at your calamity ; I will mock when your fear cometh like desolation, and your destruction as a whirl- wind ; when distress and anguish cometh upon you. Then shall ye call upon me, but I will not answer ; ye shall seek me, and shall not find me : for they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the Lord. They despised all my reproof. Therefore they shall eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices : for the turning away of the simj)le shall slay them, and the i)ros- perity of fools shall destroy them, l^ut whoso hearkeneth unto me shall dwell safely, and shall be quiet from the fear of evil." (Prov. 24 : 33.) The sin of Ingersoll in turning away the simple from the fear of the Lord, and NATURE DEMONSTRATES GOD S EXISTENCE. 255 the prosperity of the fool (who hath said in his heart, There is no god) in his success, both fits him for destruction. '' Behold, ye despisers ! wonder, and perish ; for I will work a work in your days, which ye shall in nowise beheve, though a man declare it unto you." (Acts 13 : 41.) This work of final destruction is that at which Ingersoll scoffs and makes ridicule for the entertainment of the simple, turning them away from God, and into his destructive pathway. He says again : " It is related of one of the gods, that he came amid thunderings and lightnings, in order to tell the people that they should not cook a kid in its mother's milk. [That is a he.] He left his shining abode to tell a woman she should have a child [This is another lie, for it was an angel who thus came, and the birth of the child, whose name was Isaac, was a miracle, to typify the birth of Christ] ; to inform a priest how to cut and wear his apron, and to give directions as to the proper manner of cleaning the intestines of a bird." That God came upon mount Sinai for this purpose, is a most wanton and slanderous falsehood. He came there to give the world a system of laws which contains the righteous prin- ciples of the common law of all civihzed nations ; and these little details were typic of great events and duties connected with Christ and the destiny of mankind : a slain lamb signified the slaying of Christ, and a sheaf of the first ripe fruits of the harvest that of his resurrection from the dead — " Christ the first-fruits of them that slept." To cleanse these internal organs typified the ne- cessity of cleansing the internal evil heart and its thoughts, the purity of which will be measured by that law in the judgment at the last day, and by whose prin- ciples Ingersoll will then be tried, whether he likes it or not, and by Christ in person, " the judge of quick and dead," whom he now delights to abuse. He did not make this God, nor can he control or bribe him, even though it degrades him and his like to "shame and everlasting contempt." He and God are at great enmity, and he declares, ' ' I hate them that hate me ; ' ' therefore one or the other must go down ; and Ingersoll wants no mercy — 256 CONFLICT OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. and if he did, it will be too late then to apply ; in his pride he must therefore perish. He would destroy his Maker, but cannot ; and according to the law of God, sin is measured by the disposition, the mahgnity of the intent, and not by the circumstance or the power to gratify it — not what the sinner commits, but what he would commit if he had the power and opportunity. He says : "When the people failed to worship God, or to clothe and feed his priests, he generally visited them with pestilence and famine." A portion of the sacrifices which the law imposed upon the people were to feed and clothe the priests, whose time was wholly occupied in of- fering them and teaching its principles to the people ; and in the worship of God he esteems '' obedience better than sacrifice, or than whole burnt offerings." But the spirit, the intent of the sacrificial law typically pointed to Christ, and this education introduced him to the faithfiil and devout of every age, since God instructed and com- manded Abel to offer the lamb, the firstling of his flock, and a sheaf of the first rii)e fruits of his harvest, and to repeat the offering once every year : *•' For Christ is the end [intent] of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth." (Rom. 10:4.) ''Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith." (Gal. 3 : 24.) In a word, the law comprehended the gospel of Christ, M'hich God himself preached to Abel and Abra'ham, the glad tidings of the work he was to perform at his first and second personal visits to the world. The lesson taught by the law of ani- mal sacrifice was that when the lamb was offered, it shadowed forth the fact that Christ, the Lamb of God, was going to make an oblation of himself, in order to manifest his love, the love of God for man. Christ says : " Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." Hence, seeing and be- lieving that God would make this immense sacrificial of- fering, and which in i)urpose, revelation, and i)ractical)ility was already made, and that Christ was to be the Saviour to justify and the Judge to condemn, presents the revealed doctrine and i)hilosophy of salvation, at which Ingersoll NATURE DEMONSTRATES GOD'S EXISTENCE. 257 • scoffs and makes funny allusions. Besides, there is not an instance on record where God visited the people with pestilence and famine for refusing or neglecting to offer the sacrifices required by the law, the penalty for which was simply that such were not numbered among his peo- ple, but classed with infidels and unbelievers in Christ and his proposed work. Had God thus visited sinners, it would have made the present world one of retribution, while that work is reserved for the judgment at the last day, according to the whole tenure of Scripture. ''Sometimes," he says, "the god of the nation al- lowed some other nation to drag them into slavery, to sell their wives and children [this was done but once, and then God abandoned the whole nation, who had first abandoned him and his service, his worship, and paid it to gods made by men. If the sceptics were able to point to a single instance in Scripture where God abandoned a nation or a man before it or he first abandoned him, it would put another face on the whole subject] ; but gen- erally he glutted his vengeance by murdering their first- born. [Here are a number of lies : that this was gen- eral, when it occurred but once ; and that it was his peo- ple for refusing to support the priests, the fact being that it was visited upon the Egyptians for refusing to release his people from the four hundred years of the most cruel bondage, killing all their male children as soon as they were born, to prevent their becoming the dominant party in the nation.] The priests always did their whole duty, not only in predicting these calamities, but in proving, when they did happen, that they were brought upon the people because they had not given quite enough to them." There is no such record in the Scriptures, which adds another wanton lie to his account. An Ignorant Attempt to Account for the Difference of Gods. The scoffer says: ''These gods differed just as the nations differed ; the greatest and most powerful had the most powerful gods, while the weaker ones were obliged 8 258 CONFLICT OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURT. to content themselves with the very off-scourings of the heavens ! " This is a misstatement of the facts of his- tory, to the effect that the god of each nation existed be- fore the nation ; that no nation ever changed its gods ex- cept for the worship of the hving and true God ; that every nation had its childhood and was weak, but in all its periods had the same gods. This man makes history to suit his iconoclastic warfare. Why should any nation at any period be obliged to content itself with one god, or a weak god, as the off-scouring of heaven, if the ma- terial out of which the people made them was so cheap and plentiful ? According to another of his sayings, '' the heavens made gods and imposed them on the peo- ple and nations," and this contradicts the other saying, that ^' the people made their own gods." This, however, is as well as Ingersoll's jargon usually holds together. As an example of a weak people having a strong god, and showing also that the people only made shrines for the gods, we introduce the following history : Ephesus was once a city of Greece ; but at the time we are about to speak, her dominion had passed away and Rome was her mistress ; but still she worshipped Diana as her god- dess, and which, their tradition said, fell down from Jupi- ter. Paul visited the city of P^ihesus and preached unto them the gospel of the living and true God, and it made a great stir, as the following account shows : "A certain man named Demetrius, a silversmith, which made silver shrines for Diana, which brought no small gain unto the craftsmen ; whom he called together, and said, Sirs, ye know that by this craft we have our wealth. Moreover, ye see and know that not alone in Ephesus, but almost throughout all Asia, this Paul hath preached and turned away much people, saying that they be no gods which are made with hands ; so that not only this our craft is in danger to be set at naught, but the tem})le of the great goddess Diana should be despised and her magnificence destroyed, whom all Asia and the world worsliii)i)cth. And when they heard this, they were full of wrath, and cried out, saying. Great is Diana of the Ephesians ! and the whole city was filled with confusion ; and having NATURE DEMONSTRATES GOD'S EXISTENCE. 2^9 caught Gaius and Aristarchus, men of Macedonia, Paul's companions in travel, they rushed with one accord into the theatre. And when Paul would have 'entered, the disciples suffered him not to enter. ''And certain of the chief of Asia, which were his friends, sent and desired him not to adventure into the theatre. Some, therefore, cried one thing, and some another, for the assembly was confused [just as they were in Booth's Theatre when they laughed and shouted at the foolish things this other silver lover said about Diana and the rest of the gods, from which he also derived no small gain, and who himself was so confused that he thought the laughing was intended for applause]. And they drew Alexander out of the multitude, the Jews putting him forth. And Alexander beckoned with the hand, and would have made his defence. But when they knew that he was a Jew, all with one voice cried out, Great is Diana of the Ephesians ? And when the town clerk had ap- peased the people, he said. Ye men of Ephesus, what man is he that knoweth not how that the city of the Ephesians is a worshipper of the great goddess Diana, and of the image which fell down from Jupiter ? Seeing then that these things cannot be spoken against, ye ought to be quiet, and do nothing rashly. For ye have brought hither these men, which are neither robbers of churches nor yet blasphemers of your goddess. Wherefore, if Demetrius and the craftsmen which are with him, have a matter against any man, the law is open and there are deputies ; let them implead one another. But if ye in- quire anything concerning other matters, it shall be de- termined in a lawful assembly : for we are in danger to be called in question for this day's uproar, there being no cause whereby we may give account of this concourse. And when he had spoken thus, he dismissed the assem- bly." (Acts 19.) Instead of each nation having its own god and having made it, here is Diana, the god of all the nations of Asia, whether in their independent strength or subjects of the Roman Empire, all of whom worshipped this image that fell down from Jupiter ; and we may add that there is not in all ancient mythology as intelligent 26o CONFLICT OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. and consistent an account of idol gods and worship as this of Ephesus, every feature of which is in contrast to Inger- soU's talk about the gods. The Gods and Future Punishment. The magician says, '' Each of these gods promised hap- piness here and hereafter to all his slaves [yes, but all the world were slaves in this sense — all worshipped some god, and there was not an atheist living], and threatened to eternally punish all who either disbelieved in his existence, or suspected some other god might be his superior. But to deny the existence of all gods was and is the crime of all crimes. Redden your hands with human blood ; blast by slander the fair fame of the innocent ; strangle the smiling child upon its mother's knee ; deceive, ruin, and desert the beautiful girl who loves and trusts you, and your case is not hopeless. For all this, and for all these, you may be forgiven. For all this and for all these, that bankrupt court established by the gospel will give yon discharge ; but deny the existence of these divine ghosts of the gods, and the sweet, tearful face of mercy becomes livid with eternal hate. Heaven's golden gates are shut, and you, with an infinite curse ringing in your ears, and the brand of infamy upon your brow, commence your endless wanderings in the lurid gloom of hell, an immor- tal vagrant, an eternal outcast, a deathless convict." This is what Ingersoll calls dealing with subjects in reason. Intellectually, we do not call attention particu- larly to this passage as lacking in reason and intellect, es- pecially as seeming to imply that other parts of the lecture are not thus defective ; but we venture nothing by the assertion that there never was a lecture on record of its length so utterly devoid of reason : the reason is soi)histry, the argument witticism, and the grade of intellect buf- foonery. He says, " The court established by the gospel is bankrupt." No institution of trust, or of a state which has incurred liabilities, is or can be bankrupt until the legal day for payment has arrived, and which has then repudiated its obligations. Neither has the court of a NATURE DEMONSTRATES GOD's EXISTENCE. 261 state become bankrupt until it has become too feeble to execute the penalties of its laws; and this implies that the session of the court has been held and its decisions passed, but no existing power is able to execute them. Is the Court of the Gospel Bankrupt ? One of the principal events of which the gospel is tid- ings is the coming of a court of rendition — who is to be the judge ; what characters will be acquitted ; what con- demned and executed ; the rules of decision ; and the time appointed for its session. The following are a few of the passages of Scripture which give this information : '' Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man's device. And the times of this ignorance God winked at [he was and is, and will continue the delay, the execution of his law upon the wicked until the coming of this day], but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent : because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath or- dained ; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead." (Acts 17 : 29-31.) "For the Father judgeth no man; but hath committed all judgment unto the Son." (John 5 : 22.) "If any man hear my words and believeth not, I judge him not [now ; I wink at it, pass it by now] ; for I came not [now] to judge the world [he comes again for this purpose]. He that rejecteth* me, and receive not my words, hath one that judgeth him : the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day." (John 12 : 47, 48.) " For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ ; for it is written. As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue confess to God." (Rom. 14:10,11.) "I charge thee therefore, before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom." (2 Tim. 4:1.) " For the Son of Man shall come in the glory 262 CONFLICT OY THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. of his Father, with his angels ; and then shall he reward every man according to his works." (Matt. i6 : 27.) ** Behold, I come quickly ; and my reward is with me, and my work before me, to give every man according as his work shall be." (Rev. 22 : 12.) . ' ' And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away ; and there was no place found for them. [They had been dissolved into their original elements, as Isaiah and Peter declare, out of which it is then to be again created.] And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God ; and the books were opened, and another book was opened, which is the book of life : and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, accord- ing to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it ; and death and hell [the hell of the grave] delivered up the dead which were in them : and they were judged every man according to their works. And death and hell [contents of the grave, who had just been raised to life] were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire." (Rev. 20 : 11-15.) Court of the Gospel Condemns for Works of Omission. That it may be seen upon what principles and for what actions the coming judgment is to proceed, we quote the following scene, at which the Son of Man, Judge and King, has come to the earth to do his appointed work of trying, judging, rewarding his servants, and punishing his enemies. '' When the Son of Man shall come in his glory, before him shall be gathered all nations ; and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd di- videth his sheep from the goats : and he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left. Then shall the king say unto those on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my father, inherit the kingdom })repared for you from the foundation of the world : for I was an hun- gered, and ye gave me meat ; I was thirsty, and ye gave me NATURE DEMONSTRATES GOD'S EXISTENCE. 263 drink : I was a stranger, and ye took me in : naked, and ye clothed me : I was sick, and ye visited me : I was in prison, and ye came unto me. Then shall the righteous an- swer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungered, and fed thee ? or thirsty, and gave thee drink ? When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in ? or naked, and clothed thee ? Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee ? And the king shall answer, and say unto them, Verily, I say unto you, inasmuch as ye have done it to one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. Then shall he say unto them on the left hand. Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels : for I was hungered, and ye gave me no meat : I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink : I was a stranger, and ye took me not in : naked, and ye clothed me not : sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not. Then shall they also answer him, saying. Lord, when saw we thee an hungered, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee ? Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily, I say unto you, inasmuch as ye did it not unto one of the least of these, ye did it not unto me. And these shall go away into everlasting punishment ; but the right- eous into life eternal." (Matt. 25 : 31-46.) This is the court of the gospel, which, as we see, is not to sit until the end of this world ; and it is another of In- gersoll's blunders to declare it bankrupt before it attempts to do its work. Of course, that the court is bankrupt is the man's only hope, hence his desire to have it so ; and the foolish thought, upon which he seems to act, that if he can only make all men believe with him that the court is bankrupt, why, so it will be ; while the only effect will be their identification with the goats on the left hand of the Judge in the last day. At this court is promised blessed reward for the kind and merciful acts of men, and punishment to those who have selfishly refused to perform them upon Christ's brethren ; and this is the scoffers' plea for the selfish conduct of his life toward Christ and his people, and everyone can see that the wish for the bank- ruptcy of his court is father to the thought and desire. 264 CONFLICT OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. God is too Merciful and too U?imerciful, says the JViseaere. This man seems to hate God so intensely, that if he cannot make it appear from the Bible that he is merciless and cruel, he slanders him for being too merciful and for- giving. He has given above a list of the dreadful crimes God will forgive ; indeed, every crime but atheism. He seems to be acting upon the supposition that if he can induce men to disbeheve in the existence of God it will accomplish every other purpose, and thus succeed in ruin- ing himself and fellow-men. That we may see the hate- fulness of atheism in the sight of God, and the reason for it, let us suppose that a thousand criminals had been tried in our state for crimes and doomed to die. Sup- pose now, as their last resort of hope, they should appeal to the governor for pardon, and he should grant it to nine hundred and ninety-nine, could the one, because he was the ring-leader, call the judge a cruel tryant ? Yet for doing this very thing IngersoU slanders the court as bankrupt, and calls such talk reason. Suppose the pris- oners, thus doomed to die and waiting the day of execu- tion, were yet ignorsMit of the merciful provision of law, investing in the governor the pardoning power, and no one but IngersoU to give them the information, and in- stead of doing it, which would be preaching the gospel of their salvation, he should go and tell them there was no danger, that the court was bankrupt and unable to execute the death-penalty, and in their ignorance they should believe his lies until the day of execution arrived. Suppose, further, that the qualification to induce them to become law-abiding citizens thereafter was the good- ness and mercy of the governor shown in granting the pardon, such love winning them to love him in turn, and that the criminals, laboring under unbelief because of the ignorance in which the scoffer's lies had involved them, had failed to comply with the only condition in which the governor could interfere in their behalf. They must make personal application to liim for pardon, and to con- NATURE DEMONSTRATES GOD's EXISTENCE. 265 done and pardon criminals without this would not only show the court bankrupt, but offer license for continual criminality. Had Ingersoll thus preached to these cul- prits the gospel of the governor's clemency, assigning the object of the pardon to be to induce them to become loyal citizens thereafter, connected with this was the necessary duty that the criminals were to believe the promise of the governor that he would pardon them on the morning of the day on which the execution was to take place. This promise of life they received by faith during the period after they had complied with the con- ditions, and up to the day of the promised pardon. Here is the philosophy of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and who cannot see that the only effect of IngersoU's lies is the ruin of himself and his fellow-men, and in no other way can interfere with the accomplishment of God's plan, except to delay it a little longer so as to give others the offer to take their place and crowns ? and this delay was taken into the calculation in appointing the day for that of the judgment. It is not true, as Ingersoll says, that the crime of all crimes which is not to be forgiven is that of atheism ; for nowhere does the Scriptures deny pardon to the atheist, if he will accept it upon the same conditions offered to all sinners. The effect, however, of the crime of saying in his heart. There is no God, and acting as though there was none, upon himself, renders his case about hopeless. It is not God, but the sin of hating and abusing him, makes it almost impossible for the man to repent and apply for mercy and pardon in the spirit of such humility as will alone beget love and loyalty to the righteous gov- ernment of God. It is no more certain that a man can- not respect another whom he has abused, slandered, and defied without cause, than that such men can be brought to love, reverence, and worship the God whom they have thus abused. One may forgive another who has wronged him, but he cannot forgive himself for wronging his best friend. If repentance would do it, it might be answered : ''What can repentance do, when one cannot repent ? " The punishment is not only vindictive, but consists in 266 CONFLICT OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. loss, loss of character, loss of companionship with Christ, angels, and holy men, the only qualification for the incor- ruptible inheritance in the new and eternal world, and that of immortal life. This is the fatal bankruptcy in which both the neglecters and defamers of God and his gospel are involved, and from that day it is without rem- edy. It is at the judgment of the last day, where and when the victims of Ingersoll's lectures and writings will be forced to answer the question which they themselves will ask, '' What is a man advantaged, if he shall gain the whole world and lose himself, or be cast away?" (Luke 9: 25.) The only arbitrary feature in the whole revealed plan of God, is in limiting the opportunity to the present hfe, in which men may obtain the necessary fitness of charac- ter for the incorruptible inheritance and its associations, and the whole period to the duration of the present world. But of this they are forewarned, thus: "Be- hold ! I come quickly; and my reward is with me, and my work before me, to give to every man according as his work shall be. He that is unjust, let him be unjust still ; and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still ; and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still ; and he that is holy, let him be holy still." (Rev. 22 : 11, 12.) Now apply to Ingersoll, who has been the cause of this calamity upon thousands, the charge whether atheism is not the crime of crimes. The loss of salvation is damna- tion, whatever that word may mean, just as the loss of life is death, whether temporal or eternal: ''The soul that sinneth it shall die." (?2zek. 18 : 20.) '' The wages of sin is death." (Rom. 6: 23.) " He that believeth not the Son [his i)romises and threatenings, his words] shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him." (John 3 : 36.) The sin of Ingersoll is atheism ; and we can account for his terrible characterization of its turjjitude only upon the hyjjothesis of his approximating a just ap- ]>rehension of its nature and the punishment in justice it merits. CHAPTER XI. INGERSOLLISM CULMINATES IN TEN ABSURDITIES. *'If we abandon the doctrine that some infinite being created matter and force, and enacted a code of laws for their government, the idea of interference will be lost." So says the Oracle. If he or any other man ever had the evidence — and to have been such, it must have been founded upon known facts — it would have been impossi- ble to have abandoned it ; and if he or they never had such evidence, they could not have abandoned it, as they could not have abandoned that which they never pos- sessed ! This is absurdity No. i. Force is matter in motion, and originates in mind. IngersoU supposes we can abandon this fact ; but if we abandon it, we abandon the existence of force and that of matter in motion. This is absurdity No. 2. Says this wonderful scientist : " The real priest will then not be the mouthpiece of some pretended deity, but the in- terference of nature." Laws for the government of nature exist in nature, every one of which is an incorpo- ration with the substance governed. Nature is her own interpreter, and the testimony she gives is that there is a cause superior to me, and to which I owe my existence and all my phenomena ; everything from the falling of a leaf to the ruling of a world within my vast dominion are effects — I am all effect. And Ingersollism supposes effects came without cause. This is absurdity No. 3. He says: *' From that moment the church ceases to exist." The existence of the church depends upon her knowledge of God, based upon that derived from the two revelations of nature and Scripture. Can knowledge be- come no knowledge ? which is the supposition here enter- tained. This is absurdity No. 4. " The tapers will die 268 CONFLICT OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. out upon the dusty altar ; the moths will eat the fading velvet of pulpit and pew. The Bible will take its place with the Shastras, Puranas, Vedas, Eddas, Sagas, and Koran, and the fetters of degrading faith will fall from the minds of men." Here he virtually says all this will happen if we abandon the scientific and philosophic necessity for the creation of the world, and, therefore, for the prior existence of the Creator. It is as though he had said, '' If we abandon the fact of gravity, there will then be no gravity." This prince of sagacity does not know that there is a God, or that he interfered to con- struct the principles, laws of nature. If, therefore, he abandons his ignorance upon these subjects by becoming enlightened, which he must do if he abandons anything, why, that will be the last of the church. This is absurd- ity No. 5. His classification of the Bible with these heathen fables, which at best are its traditionary corruptions, is absurdity No. 6. "If we admit that some infinite being has con- trolled the destinies of persons and peoples, history be- comes a cruel and bloody farce." If we deny the control of the Emperor Nero, then the history of blood of that period did not exist ; a theoretic denial or admission can change the bloody history of the world. The fact is that the history of the world has been one of cruelty and blood, and if we deny that an infinite being controlled it, why, that would make it a beautiful farce, or one of serene peace. This is absurdity No. 7. ''Age after age the strong have trampled upon the weak, the crafty and the heartless have ensnared and enslaved the sim})le and inno- cent ; and nowhere, in all the annals of mankind, has any God succored the oppressed. Man should cease to expect aid from on high. By this time he should know that heaven has no ear to hear, and no hand to hel})." IngersoU has told us that he has read the Bii)le. If he had, did he not see it recorded in its annals that its (jod delivered the oppressed Hebrew nation from the Egyptian i)owerful oppressor and from that of every other nation, as long as they obeyed his laws. So proud and averse to the ways of God are mankind, that not one of them ever applied to TEN ABSURDITIES OF INGERSOLLISM. 269 God for aid until every other source of help and happi- ness had been tried and failed, and even in such extrem- ities multitudes have applied and received present aid ; while all who have applied upon the conditions the pro- prietor proposed, received information which encouraged them to bear the cruelties, even of personal torture and death ; which was to the effect of promising them an in- heritance in his coming endless world, wherein they were to be brought by a resurrection to life immortal. This hope gave the intelligent contentment and joy a family would experience while living in a mere hut of a house, about ready to tumble down, but who had a beautiful marble mansion almost finished for its occupa- tion. To deprive them of this aid from on high is the diabolical work of Ingersoll and his fellow-atheists. This is absurdity No. 8. *' The present is the necessary child of the past. There is no chance, and there can be no interference." By no interference he means there has been no creation of the world, the antithesis of which is that all things came by chance, or they did not come at all, and nothing exists. Here Ingersoll puts himself in contradiction to all other atheists of the world, and equally to all modern scientists, who claim that all things did come into existence either by evolution or creation ; and yet he professes to adopt the doctrines of these very scientists. According to Ingersollism, therefore, the world was not created, did not come by chance, nor by evolution, and it was not eternal. This is presumptu- ous absurdity No. 9. That Ingersoll fails to comprehend the argument of interference or chance [perfect opposites], that they came into existence, and did not come into existence, presents an insight into the most muddled brain of all the public characters of the world ; and gives the crowning absurdity No. 10. The A7'chsceptic Quarrels with Nature. " What would we think of a father who should give a farm to his children, who should first plant upon it thou- sands of deadly shrubs and vines, stock it with fero- 270 CONFLICT OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. cioiis beasts and poisonous reptiles, put a few swamps in the neighborhood to breed malaria ; should so arrange matters that the ground would occasionally open and swallow up a few of his darlings ; establish a few volca- noes in the immediate vicinity that might at any mo- ment overwhelm his children with fire? Sui)pose the father should have neglected to tell his children which of the plants were deadly, that the reptiles were poisonous ; failed to say anything about the earthquakes, and kept the volcano business a profound secret — would we pro- nounce him angel or fiend? And yet this is exactly what the orthodox God has done." We may remark that we have no God to defend, and if such a duty de- pended upon us, the defence would be like that an in- fant might make in behalf of his grandsire. No ! if Crod cannot defend his acts, then man nor angel can do it. The highest qualification of man is his ability to study and understand God's two great books of nature and Scripture, which together give the facts and reasons for all his works, and answer the i)rayer of John Milton, offered while contemplating these great subjects : **What in me is dark, illumine ; What is low, raise and support ; That to the height of this great argument, I may assert eternal Providence, And justify the ways of God to man." To give the facts without the reasons for all the works of God, as IngersoU has done in this passage, is to vilify and belie the Father and Maker of man. We accept the picture, and do not think it too highly drawn. We also acknowledge that the God who created the world is the Author of all these evils, no matter whether he is called the God of Scrii)ture, the God of nature, or the orthodox God. Another important lesson taught by these calamities which befall man is that this God is not such a sentimental, pusillanimous being that he will not hurt his creatures or let them suffer for a pur])Ose. It should also be remembered that there is not a pang of pain on this planet btit which results from the violation TEN ABSURDITIES OF INGERSOLLISM. 27 1 of some law, either natural, moral, or religious, all of which God is the Author, and knew these consequences when he made the laws ; in fact, were necessary accom- paniments of his work with man and the world, of all of which the Great Father gave his children timely informa- tion. If we admit the charge that this God is a tyrant, a fiend, even then he should be obeyed, though he could not be loved. What madness and folly to make war upon our Maker because he does not do everything to suit our notions, as though we could overcome, overpower him. God' s Vindication for Introducing Natural EviL Let us suppose a father had two children — man and wife — Adam and Eve ; and before they lived he made a beautiful farm for them. It was an island in the midst of the sea, and without a barren rock, or bluff shore ; of an undulating surface, all covered with deep luxurious soil. It was harvest time when they were given possession, and every tree was ' loaded with ripe, luscious fruit : there was not a poisonous plant on the island. The father had made every kind of cattle and animals for the use £tnd pleasure of his children — not one had a disposition to hurt another ; and to those children were given the do- minion over all. There were beautiful streams, rivers, and placid lakes filled with tame and splendid fishes. All the variety of plumaged birds played and sang among the trees, and the fowl sported amid the beauteous verdure, rich foliage, and spicy groves of the island garden. The air was so harmoniously blended in chemical composi- tion and temperature that rendered its motion, except as a fanning, mild zephyr, impossible. So symmetrically were the strata laid beneath the soil, that no pent-up gases could form, and therefore no earthquakes as results existed. In addition to this lovely environment there was a cer- tain tree whose fruit was of such a chemical composition as to counteract the ossifying tendency of the human sys- tem, that which we call the effect of age, by partaking of which the inhabitants of the island might perpetuate their 272 CONFLICT OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. life indefinitely, indeed live forever. In view of this re- lation, and giving these children possession of the whole island, he naturally and reasonably wished them to please and obey him. They were created with power to obey, and this carried with it the power to disobey. But either of these rendered a law and its revelation a neces- sity — something must be permitted, and something must be forbidden ; and the latter must be that which they did not need to do, or the temptation would have been an element of weakness, and with such a defect the Creator could not have pronounced their nature "very good." That they might learn obedience, the father said. Children ! I have given you this beautiful island home, and you may freely use all it contains for your gratification with the exception of the fruit of a single tree, which stands in the centre of the garden ; of that you must neither touch nor eat. This was the law, and a law without a penalty or execution, if violated, is a farce, and especially impossible for this father to enact and pronounce. Hence he said : "In the day thou eat- est thereof thou shalt surely die. ' ' AVhen the father had thus spoken, he retired, leaving the happy couple to themselves. But notwithstanding all this munificence and manifestation of love, with the blessed gift of life, and everything adapted to make it one of perpetual hap- piness, these children most wantonly disobeyed their lov- ing father, dishonoring him in the most aggravating manner, by obeying his enemy, another of his creatures like themselves, though they were under no obligation to do him service. The design the father had in view, in the creation of the island, was to populate it with children who would be eternally loyal to his commands, loving him and his government. Although these children, the ])arents of all future generations of the island, had thus offended and died, yet it in nowise baffled the great puq:)0se or in- duced him to change his plan ; but only rendered a greater number of generations to be born a necessity, from among whom the recjuisite number of such subjects would be induced to become such by the offer of an in- TEN ABSURDITIES OF INGERSOLLISM. 273 heritance in the same island, re-created and beautified for the purpose, but which would never have an end, and from which the whole family of the unlovely and disobe- dient would be forever excluded. But so few compara- tively in each successive generation would accept the in- heritance upon the conditions it was or would be offered, that it became necessary to subject both the good and bad of each generation to removal by death, the one after they had rejected the offer of the island home, in order to give place to others of human born, who, the father foresaw, would accept the offer by complying with the conditions. The Philosophy of Future Existence. The introduction of death rendered a resurrection, which is equivalent to a re-creation of these destined sub- jects, a necessity, and to take place when the complement was full. Christ was the resurrection and the life for the dead saints, all of whom died in the faith and hope of its accomplishment. Hence the record in which their names were registered was called "the Lamb's book of life," at the head of w^hose first page stood the name of Abel. Nothing is more reasonable than that the father of this family should desire the completion of the great work in the shortest time its nature would admit. The father informs the first two men born into the world of this purpose ; preaches the gospel to Cain and Abel. One believes and dies a martyr to his faith ; the other refuses to offer the lamb, and thus rejects Christ, becomes an infidel, hates, persecutes, and kills his brother. That men may become dissatisfied with the island garden, and easier induced to sacrifice its small pleasures for an in- heritance in its re-creation, the father curses the very ground that henceforth it should bring forth briers, thistles, thorns, and poisonous plants, and to be overrun with troublesome weeds, in consequence of which it will be said : "By the sweat of thy face thou shalt eat bread all the days of thy life." Thus, for sixteen hundred years was the new island gospel preached, and converts 274 CONFLICT OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. made. Now a generation had come into existence who, notwithstanding these physical evils, lov(?d the present world so much that although the father sent them a l)reacher of righteousness, by the name of Noah, who pro- claimed the gospel of the re-created island for a hundred and twenty years, yet failed to make a single convert. The father had not obtained the number of loving in- habitants for his permanent government. This forced the alternative of abandoning his purpose, or of destroy- ing the whole generation of his rebellious children, and of commencing anew ; and he had resolved on the latter, and gave the warning for this long period. The original curse produced so little physical de- rangement that the members of the family lived an aver- age age of five hundred years, and every generation before this had died a natural death, while the life of this one was cut short one hundred and twenty years by the flood. By this catastrophe the whole crust of the earth was broken up, and three-fourths of its surface left covered with briny oceans; a large portion of the rest with swamps, sending up malaria; huge rocky mountains, thrown up by the convulsion ; deep chasms, left by sunken continents, filled with seas, which till then 'had been buried in the heart of the circling earth. This vast de- rangement laid the foundation for volcanoes and earth- quakes, and all the fearful meteorological phenomena of the heavens since witnessed. The effect of this was to render the climates of the earth so unhealthy that the period of human life was cut down to three score and ten years, and by the progress of the derangement growing still shorter, until the present generation is but about thirty years. TJie Earth Doomed to a Universal Conflagration. The history of the island, given in advance and written in a book dictated by the father of this family, shows it is destined to pass through a universal conflagration. This history also shows that the wickedness of each generation will increase until the last, which will become as godless TEN ABSURDITIES OF INGERSOLLISM. 275 and defiant at the commands of God, and as unbelieving in relation to the coming end, as that which was de- stroyed by the flood, to which Christ testifies as follows : ' ' But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be : for as in the days that were be- fore the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and knew not until the flood came and took them all away ; so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be." (Matt. 24:36-39.) As then, this state of sin and general unbelief is assigned as the reason for the second destruction of the world. But when this condi- tion of things arrives the number of loving, loyal inhab- itants for his new island farm will be complete. The father comes again to the island, resurrects his saints, takes them above the heavens, that they may be uninjured by the conflagration and re-creation. After this work is accomplished, he then comes with his angels and immortal saints, takes and holds eternal possession. There is not a child in all the family who will be excluded from the island, when made new, who had not deliberately rejected the merciful and gracious offer of its possession ; not one can rise up in court and make a righteous defence, and all will have an opportunity. The father himself will put in a defence against the accusations of his disloyal children in order to justify himself before his faithful sons and daughters, and show both classes that he had done what was consistent for him to do, to induce all to love and obey him. Hence it is written: "That every tongue may be stopped, and all the world become guilty before God." The little children of every generation will be there, whether of Christian or heathen parentage. Instead of the lost ones being the dear children of their heavenly Father, as those of the farmer of IngersoU's illustration, they evinced no love, no sympathy for their God and Father. On the contrary, every one of them did his best, both by precept and example, to expel God from his world ; every one of them joined in heart in the cry of the rejection of Christ, their rightful Lord, King and 2/6 CONFLICT OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. Saviour: ''Away with him, he is not fit to hve." Even Ingersoll, with the mahgnity of a devil, after drawing his picture of human suffering, asks : ' ' Did a god or fiend do this ? " To what purpose can the Father appropriate such children ? How could they answer any end that by any possibihty could be pleasing to him? What kind of salvation even would it be to such were they admitted into his palace and presence, with every feeling of their heart revolting against his will and government ? What kind of heaven would it be where such men as Ingersoll and Paine lived ? How would it rouse the ire of such proud hearts to behold Jesus Christ adored by angels and the whole multitude of glorified immortals ? No ! If they were alive they would rush from such presence and such employment, even into outer darkness, seeking natural companionship with kindred devils. No ! The exclusion of the wicked from God and his presence lies not so much in arbitrary enactments as in the very nature and fitness of things. '' How can two dwell together except they be agreed ? " It is the philosophy of the mind in thinking and willing, the heart in feeling, and the cherished habits of life, that raises the barrier, that digs the impassable gulf between God and sinners. Every student of Script- ure will see that the picture we have drawn is but a transcription of the revealed purpose and plan of God with man and the world, while that of Ingersoll's, giving the facts without the reasons, is a monstrous effusion of igno- rance and blasphemy. "A prudent man foreseeth the evil, and hideth himself; but the simple pass on, and are punished." (Prov. 22:3.) The Sceptic' s Arroi::ance : he would have made a Better World. Says he : "A very pious friend of mine, having heard that I had said the world was full of imperfections, asked me if the report was true. Upon being informed that it was, he exi)ressed great surprise that anyone could be guilty of such presumi)tion. He said that in his judg- ment it was impossible to point out an imperfection. Be TEN ABSURDITIES OF INGERSOLLISM. 277 kind enough, said he, to name an improvement that you could make, if you had the power. Well, I said, I would make health catching, instead of disease." Yes ! his pious friend, in short, might have rejoined ; but if the proprietor had appointed unto men once to die, as neces- sary to the acco..iplishment of his purpose of making an eternal world of li.*: and perfect exemption from disease, and were you the proprietor, you could not have carried out the appointment had you made perpetual health in this world the order of things, the order of nature. But if any one expects IngersoU to see more than one side of any question involved in these subjects, he will be disap- pointed. He continues thus : '^ The truth is, it is im- possible to harmonize all the ills, pains, and agonies of the world with the idea that we are created, watched over, and protected by an infinitely wise, powerful, and be- neficent God, who is superior to and independent of nat- ure." The reason these things cannot be harmonized in Ingersoll's estimation is his erroneous idea that the pre- sent world is a Theocracy, or that God in Scripture claims it to be such, which would make all men loyal subjects of his government ; the fact being that every adult is at heart and spirit opposed to it, and the vast majority re- main thus during their natural life, and God understands all about their rebellious nature. Upon the question we have such information as the following: " Lo, this only have I found, that God made man upright; but they have sought out many inventions." (Ecc. 7 : 29.) The world is represented as being under the reign of sin and death, and that the world itself is the object of man's love and worship, instead of God his Creator: ''They love the creature more than the Creator." Thus have they made a god of the world itself: " The god of this world hath blinded the minds of them that believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. But if our gos- pel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost." (2 Cor. 4 : 3, 4.) The inhabitants of the present "evil world," as it is called, are in open revolt against the laws and government of God as he would and will have it in his 278 CONFLICT OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. coming new world, and there is not a pang of human suffering but which results from the ignorant or wilful violation of moral, religious, and physical law, and all the ignorance and sin has been transmitted by the precepts and example of sinners. In fact, God does not even pro- pose to protect and provide the necessaries of life for his own loving children in the present world, millions of whom have starved for the want of food. In fact the loving, loyal children of God have suffered in the present world more than the " lovers of the world," and they were forewarned of this before they became his disciples. Said their Master : '' The time will come when he that killeth you will think that he doeth God service. And ye shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake ; but not a hair of your head shall perish, for I will raise it up at the last day." This cruelty was inflicted upon them from the founda- tion of the world. Abel lost his life for obeying his Lord. " They were tortured, not accepting deliverance ; that they might obtain a better resurrection. Others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings ; yea, moreover, of bonds and imprisonments. They were stoned, sawn asunder, tempted, slain with the edge of the sword ; they wandered about in sheep-skins and goat-skins ; being destitute, afflicted, tormented ; of whom the world was not worthy ; they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth. These all having obtained a good re]jort through faith, received not the promise [things promised], but died in the faith and hope of the resurrection at the last day." (Heb. ii : 35-39.) God has subjected the whole world, including his right- eous children, to the sufferings and physical derangements to which Ingersoll refers ; so that by the mouth of the l)roi)het he declares : '' The curse hath devoured the earth," and under which it is doomed to groan until God redeems it for his children. With this ])rospect lying be- fore them we have such language as the following : '' And if children, then heirs ; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together. For I reckon that the suffer- TEN ABSURDITIES OF INGERSOTXISM. 2/9 ings of the present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us ; for the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the mani- festation of the sons of God. For the creature was made subject to vanity [liable to have been made in vain, not answering the purpose for which they were made], not willingly, but by reason of him, who hath subjected the same in hope ; because the creature itself shall be de- livered from the bondage of corruption, into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the first-fruits of the spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body, " (Rom. 8: 17, 1 8.) God did not willingly subject the world to this de- rangement ; but by the losses thus sustained men would more easily be induced to seek an inheritance in his new creation. He thus subjected it in hope. Its language is, '' Cursed is the ground y^r thy sake.'' Christ gave John a prefiguration of it as he saw it would be and appear when made new, and his redeemed children had taken •possession, and for whose encouragement he w^as directed to write thus: "And I saw a new heaven and a new earth ; for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away ; and there was no more sea [this shows that the sea, now covering more than two-thirds of the earth's surface, was a part of the curse — the second curse, that of the flood]. And I John saw the holy city. New Jerusalem [capital city of the new world, ''the city of the great King"], coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold ! the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes ; and there shall be no more death : neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain ; for the former things are pa.ssed away. And there shall be no more curse. And he that sat upon the 280 CONFLICT OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me. Write ; for these words are true and faithful. And he said unto me, It is done I I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. He that overcometh shall inherit all things ; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son." (Rev. 21 and 22.) Here, Jesus that was dead is the God of all the immortal saints. ''Jesus answered and said unto them. If a man love me, he will keep my words ; and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him." (John 14:23.) ''In my Father's house are many mansions ; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also." (John 14: 2, 3.) Here, Christ and his Father, who are "one," has come, according to his promise, and brought the mansions with him — the New Jerusalem — and has taken his abode, made his dwelling place, on the earth and among men, safe, because beyond the suscep- tibility of death or evil. This is therefore salvation — " They that shall be counted worthy to obtain that world, and the resurrection from the dead, are the children of God, being the children of the resurrection ; neither can they die any more." (Luke 20 : 35.) Here is the solu- tion of God's grand design with man and the world. It is this innumerable multitude of re-created men and women, no more liable to suffer, that vindicates the wisdom, protection, goodness, and mercy of God, in sub- jecting the present short life of man, and that of the death-period of the world itself; for its six thousand years bears no proportion to its redeemed and re-created eternity. Ingersoll, knowing nothing about this end, clearly taught throughout the Scriptures, leaves him floundering in ignorance, and complaining of the irrecon- cilable condition of things ; to prove to the ])ious friend of his, that the present world is not under the govern- ment of God, while there is not an intimation in all the Scriptures that it is under his government. He might have given an illustration of his own experience to ])rove TEN ABSURDITIES OF INGERSOLLISM. 28 1 that God did not govern the present world, thus : '' Here am I engaged in openly defying God, and using the most scornful language toward him, which he would not permit if he governs mankind ; he does not even defend his own character against my charges. If he did govern and control men, why, when I was about to utter one of my common blasphemies, he would instantly smite my tongue with speechless paralysis ; but as I do this with impunity, therefore there is no God, or he does not govern the world." The modest ex-Colonel says: ^'l hold that the man who roots up the tares from out the path of life confers some benefit, even if he never sows a seed of good." Christ's servants, in the parable, said: ''Wilt thou then that we go and gather out the tares ? And he said, Nay ; lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest ; and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers [his angels]. Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them ; but gather the wheat into my barn. The tares are the children of the wicked one. The enemy that sowed them is the devil. The wheat -seed are the children of the kingdom." (Matt. 13.) Ingersoll, being a rank tare himself and seeing the pres- ent suffering of mankind^ which he cannot destroy, he is endeavoring to dissipate all future hope from it by preach- ing eternal annihilation. The hope of exemption from suffering and death in the future world encourages men to endure the sufferings of the present, even gives joy under them ; but he calls those who indulge this hope tares, and would root them out of the world. Infinite arrogance ! Behold, the devil's su- preme tare sower ! CHAPTER XII. THE DISCERNING SCHOLAR CONFOUNDS POPERY WITH CHRISTIAN ZEAL. The scoffer says : " For three hundred years the Chris- tian world endeavored to rescue from the infidel the empty sepulchre of Christ. For three hundred years the armies of the cross were baffled and beaten by the victori- ous hosts of an impudent impostor. The immense fact sowed the seeds of discontent throughout Christendom ; and millions began to lose confidence in a God who had been vanquished by Mohammed. The people also found that commerce made friends where religion made enemies, and that religious zeal was utterly incompatible with peace between nations or individuals. They discovered that those that loved God most loved men least ; that the arrogance of universal forgiveness was amazing; that the most malicious had the effrontery to pray for their enemies ; and that humility and tyranny were the fruit of the same tree. ' ' Here we have another list of this man's slanders of God, Christ, and his religion. Not one of the things to v/hich he refers is authorized by the Scriptures. First, there is no ''Christian world;" there are Christians in it, and the reason why they are such is because they follow Christ in being harmless, and separate from sinners, keep- ing his instructions and commands, one of which is, '* Put up thy sword, for he that taketh the sword shall perish by the sword." These crusaders, therefore, dis- obeyed Christ and obeyed the popes. Christ's converts were only made by believing the gospel and obeying its precei)ts ; theirs, by the sword of aggressive warfare. Second, Christ never told his disci i)les that the sepulchre in which he once lay had the least sacredness about it, POPERY AND CHRISTIAN ZEAL. 283 or ever intimated that his servants were to rescue and hold it by any means, much less by the sword of blood ; hence, he nor his religion were in nowise responsible for the crusades ; and Christians, his followers, never marched to Jerusalem to prosecute a bloody fight for an empty cave ; consequently they were not beaten back by an impudent impostor. The immense fact, therefore, that God had been beaten by Mohammed, is no fact at all ; but is one of this other impostor's Hes, though, like a par- rot, he only repeats the stale story. Third, the Bible condemns all religious zeal which is not according to knowledge, and it is always such when it leads its possessor to execute acts unauthorized or con- demned by the Scriptures ; and if it makes aggressive war upon other nations, it is of this character. The dis- covery that those who loved God most loved men least was never made at all, and it is as contrary to common philosophy as to Scripture, thus: ''If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar. For he that loveth not his brother, whom he hath seen, how can he love God, whom he hath not seen ? And this command- ment have we from him. That he who loveth God loveth his brother also." (i John 4: 20, 21.) Those, therefore, to whom IngersoU alludes were anti- Christians like himself, hating both their brother and their God. He stigmatizes universal forgiveness " arrogance. " If in the last great judgment God should forgive him, would he consider that arrogance ? Besides, such is not the doc- trine of the Bible. Its Author proposes to forgive none who do not heartily repent of their wickedness and work righteousness thereafter. He says : " The most malicious prayed for their enemies, and this showed them to be hypocritical at heart. ' ' Well, then they were not Chris- tians. A man who can say, " Humility and tyranny are the fruit of the same tree," has audacity and ignorance equal to any statement, having no regard for truth, pro- priety, reason, or self-respect. As well say light and dark- ness have the same root, grow on the same tree. The scoffer says : "The clergy balance all the ills of life with the expected joys of the next life." Having no 284 CONFLICT OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. hope of future happiness himself, he seems to be mad- dened at the idea of joy in any future world for others, and consoles himself by imitating his father-devil in try- ing to destroy the future hope of everyone else. His pen and tongue turns God into a tyrant, angels into fiends, and heaven into hell, if there are such places. He has discovered that the most effectual weapons to accomplish this object are ridicule, abuse, sarcasm, sophistry, and presumptuous lies, which he adopts and wields with the vengeance of cowardly audacity. That we do him no in- justice, listen to the following : " We are assured that all is perfection in heaven ; there the skies are cloudless, there all is serenity and peace. Here empires may be overthrown, dynasties extinguished in blood, millions of slaves may toil beneath the fierce rays of the sun and the cruel strokes of the lash ; yet all is happiness in hea\en. [But none of these things would happen if men would obey their God, loving him with all the heart, and their neighbor as themselves.] Pestilences may strew the earth with corpses of loved ones ; the survivors may bend above them in agony ; yet the placid bosom of heaven is unruffled. [That is not the heaven where God and his angels reside. So intensely are they interested in that which takes place among men on earth, to hasten the pur- pose of God in obtaining subjects for his coming endless empire, that when a single convert accepts the conditions the master of the place says, " 1 say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth." (Luke 15 : 10.)] " Children may expire, vainly asking for bread ; babes may be devoured by serpents ; while God sits smiling in the clouds. [Never in the Bible is God represented as sitting in the clouds smiling; and, wherever he sits, he is long-suffering with men, not willing they should i)erish, but come to repentance and live.] The innocent may languish in the obscurity of dungeons ; brave men and women may be changed into ashes at the bigot's stake ; while heaven is filled with song and joy. [God's remedy for the martyrs is provided for thus : " He that losetli his life for my sake shall find it again ; " and that life will POPERY AND CHRISTIAN ZEAL. 285 be without end : " And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting hfe ; and I will raise him up at the last day." (John 6 : 40.) Ingersoll fabricates a heartless God and a fictitious heaven, in order to prej- udice men and women, whom he supposes as ignorant upon these subjects as himself, against the God and heaven of the Scriptures.] Out on the sea, in dark- ness and storm, the shipwrecked struggle with the cruel waves ; while the angels play upon their golden harps. [There is not a passage in the Bible that says or inti- mates that angels play on golden or any other kind of harps in heaven. Those who thus rejoice are the re- deemed and resurrected saints of God, and it is at their eternal victory in the new heavens and new earth, and all the innocent children of all ages and the repentant sinners are to be the harpers ; nor is it until all the im- penitent have suffered the second death, and all saints are saved beyond the liability of harm. This is as near as Ingersoll ever gets anything right which is taught in the Scriptures.] The streets of the world are filled with the diseased, deformed, and helpless ; the chambers of pain are crowded with pale forms of suffering ; while the angels float and play in their happy realms of glory. In heaven they are too happy to have sympathy ; too busy singing to aid the imploring and distressed. Their eyes are blinded, their ears are stopped, and their hearts turned to stone by the infinite selfishness of joy." [This is another picture of his fictitious heaven, not an item of which is taught in the Bible. Its place of rejoicing is to be the new heaven and new earth, in which, as we have seen, there will not be a pang of suffering, all of which belonged to the past and had passed away, and also in which there is not an existing will of man or devil hostile to the will of God, therefore nothing to mar the joys of God, angels, or men. Who would have thought Inger- soll had ever read the Bible, had he not said he had ?] He says, " Heaven barely glances at the miseries of earth." [God, angels, and his saints did all they could to induce such as he to seek this life of future happiness ; 286 CONFLICT OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. but they scoffed at all the gracious offers, and abused them for sacrificing the mere animal joys of the present short life for that of this immortal world.] He says : '* The terrible religious wars that inundated the world, tended at last to bring all religions into dis- grace and hatred." The contrary of this is the historic fact, whether of false or true religion. There never were as many Mohammedans, Roman Catholics, Jews, and Protestants on earth as at the present day. Besides, all the rest of the world are Pagans. Among the Pagans there are no atheists ; among the Mohammedans none ; among the Jews none ; among the Roman Catholics none ; and only here and there a professing atheist among nominal Christians. How, then, is all religion held in contempt ? Such assertions show that whatever Ingersoll desires he states as a fact. He says : '' Thought- ful people begin to question the divine origin of a re- ligion that made its believers hold the rights of others in contempt." One of the cardinal principles of the Christian religion, everyone but Ingersoll knows, is ab- solute respect for the rights of others, and if he means the right of the crusaders to take Jerusalem from the Mohammedans, it was Papacy and not Christianity that did it ; and that religion claims the right to use the sword of war in its establishment, but which the laws of God forbid. Christianity recognizes her subjects as aliens in this world and heritable citizens of the world to come. Says the Lying Oracle: "A few began to compare Christianity with the religions of heathen people, and were forced to admit that the difference was hardly worth dying for." Yes, very few; for during the first three centuries of the Christian era, the Christian religion almost superseded the Pagan religion of the Roman empire, though supported by the civil power, and that too by its natural means, the preaching of the gospel. And if he refers to the days of the crusades, then Romanism had so far corrupted nominal Christianity, that scarcely an example either of its faith or practice could be found. It was the ^^ Dark Ages.'' He says: ''They also found that other nations were even hap- POPERY AND CHRISTIAN ZEAL. 287 pier and more prosperous than their own, and they be- gan to suspect that their religion, after all, was not of much real value." These are not true statements, for history shows that during the Christian era there has not been a heathen nation as happy and prosperous as those which were merely nominal Christian ; and how would this have been increased had everyone of them been a real Christian nation, whose practice is the golden rule ! It is another fact that no mere nominal Christian country ever went back to heathenism, which it would have done had the people found it would have made them more prosperous and happy. Progress of the Gospel in the First Three Centuries. In order to rightly estimate the value and purity of the gospel, its history must be taken when it stood alone upon its merits, and against all the religions of the world, though sustained by the military and legal power of their states ; and this period was from the days of Christ until it became the legal religion of the Roman Empire, which began in the days of Constantine the Great, who came to the throne a.d. 319. To show what it was during this period we introduce the following testimony of its enemies: "Most of the Roman Em- perors who reigned in the second century were of a mild and lenient character, and under their administra- tion the churches enjoyed many seasons of tranquillity, though they were occasionally called to pass through the fire. Before the close of the first century, Nerva had granted toleration to the Church, and restored the Christian exiles ; but his successor, Trajan, renowned for his philosophic virtues, managed the question so as to put the Christians without the protection of law. If he did not issue edicts against them, he suffered the popu- lace to wreak their vetigeance on them and destroy them at pleasure. A violent persecution raged in Bethy- nia. Not knowing what course to pursue, Pliny, the governor of the province, addressed a letter to the emperor, which gives such an account of the Christians 288 CONFLICT OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. as a candid and intelligent heathen would form, and being an official document of the age, as well as its answer, is entitled to the fullest credibility. It was written about a.d. 107. Pli7iy'' s Letter to the Emperor Trajan. '* Health : It is my usual custom, Sir, to refer all things of which I harbor any doubt, to you ; for who can better direct my judgment in its hesitation, or in- struct my understanding in its ignorance ? I never had the fortune to be present at any examination of Chris- tians before I came into this province ; I am therefore at a loss to determine what is the usual object of inquiry or of punishment, and to what length either of them is to be carried. It has been with me a question very problem- atical, whether any distinction should be made be- tween the young and old, the tender and the robust ; whether any room should be given for repentance : for the guilt of Christianity, once incurred, is not to be ex- piated by the most unequivocal retraction : whether the name itself, abstracted from any flagitiousness of conduct, or the crimes connected with the name, be the object of punishment. In the mean time, this has been my method, with respect to those who were brought before me as Christians. I asked them whether they were Christians. If they plead guilty, I interrogated them twice afresh, with a menace of capital punishment. In case of obstinate perseverance, I ordered them to be executed. For of this I had no doubt, whatever was the name of their religion, that a sullen inflexibility called for the vengeance of the magistrate. Some were infected with the same madness, whom on account of citizenship I reserved to be sent to Rome, to your tribunal. In the course of this business, information poured in, and as usual, when it is encouraged, more cases occur. An anonymous libel was exhibited, with a catalogue of names of persons, who yet declared they were not Christians, and never had been ; and they repeated after me an invocation to the gods and to your image, which, POPERY AND CHRISTIAN ZEAL. 289 for this purpose, I had ordered to be brought, with the images of the deities. [They did not think the images were the deities themselves, as Ingersoll charges.] They performed sacred rites with wine and frankincense, and execrated Christ, which, I am told, no Christian can be compelled to do. '' On this account I dismissed them. Others, named by an informer, first affirmed and then denied the charge of Christianity, declaring that they had been Christians, but had ceased to be such some three years before. All of them worshipped your image and the statues of the gods, and also execrated Christ. This was the account they gave of the nature of their rehgion, whether it de- serves the name of crime or error, namely, that they were accustomed on a stated day to meet before daylight, and to repeat among themselves a hymn to Christ as a God [thus did the Christians at this early day worship Christ as God], and to bind themselves with an oath not to commit any wickedness, but to abstain from thefts and not to break their pledge, after which they separated and met again at a promiscuous, harmless meal, from which last practice they desisted after the publication of your edict, in which, agreeably to your orders, I forbade any societies of that sort. On which account I judged it more necessary to inquire by torture, from two females, who were said to be deaconesses, what is the real truth. But ' othing could I collect, except a depraved and excessive iuperstition. Deferring any further investigation, I de- termined to consult you, for the number of culprits is so great as to call for serious consideration. [That the Christians should increase so as to justify this admission, and under such circumstances, can only be attributed to the power of the gospel.] Many persons are informed against, of every age and of both sexes ; and still more will be in the same situation. The contagion of the superstition hath spread, not only through cities, but even to villages in the country. Not that I think it im- possible to check and correct it. The success of my en- deavors hitherto forbid such desponding thoughts ; for the temples, once almost desolate, begin to be frequented, 9 290 CONFLICT OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. and the sacred solemnities, which had long been inter- mitted, are now attended afresh, and the sacred victims are now sold everywhere, which once could scarcely find a purchaser. Whence I conclude that many might be reclaimed, were the hope of impunity on repentance ab- solutely confirmed." — Pliny. Here is indisputable testimony, showing that in about eighty years after the crucifixion, Christianity had almost destroyed the worship of the gods, and in the most popu- lar part of the Roman Empire ; and that, too, when its converts were outlawed and martyred for its profession. Surely it could not have been this period that the heathen discovered no value or difference between the Christian religion and that of heathenism. And shortly after this Christianity became corrupted to the level of pagan- ism by its espousal by the Roman Empire, bringing the world into the church, and from which she has never re- covered ; and IngersoU's blunder is in confounding the fallen with the true Church, Christ with antichrist, light with darkness, truth with error, and condemning both alike ! Trajaii' s Answer to Pliny .^ ^' You have done right in the inquiry you have made concerning Christians ; for, truly, no one general rule can be laid down which will apply to all cases. These people must not be sought after. If they are brought before you and are convicted, let them be capitally pun- ished ; yet with this restriction, that if any one renounces Christianity, and evidences his sincerity by supplicating our gods, however suspected he may be for the past, he shall obtain i)ardon for the future, on his repentance. But anonymous libels ought in no case to be attended to, for the precedent would be of the worst sort, and i)er- fectly incongruous to the maxims of my government." — March's " Ecc. History," images 171-173. Here is the admission that in the highest court of the Roman world, the profession of the Christian religion was a crime i)unishable by death ; and yet, in little more than half a century, the idol temples were forsaken, and fOPERY AND CHRISTIAN ZEAL. 29I the sacred victims could not be sold in the shambles ; and, as we have seen, the dreadful effort of the Emperor and his successors not only failed to exterminate it, but it continued so to prosper that, in the beginning of the fourth century, it was a popular and easy task for the Emperor Constantine the Great to change the religion of the state to that of Christianity. Testimony of a Distinguished Martyr. The most distinguished martyr of the age — the latter part of the second century — was Polycarp. This vener- able man was a disciple of John, and intimate with the other disciples. He belonged to the church of Smyrna ; and in that age there was but one church in a locality, and from it always took its name. Ireneus informs us that he had often heard from his lips an account of his conversations with John and others who had seen the Lord, whose sayings he rehearsed. Polycarp was brought before the tribunal in the hundredth year of his age. The proconsul commanded him to reproach Christ, and he would release him ; but he replied : " Eighty and six years have I served him, and he hath never wronged me. How can I now blaspheme my King? " <' I have wild beasts," said the proconsul. '' Call them," said the Christian. ^'I will tame your spirit by fire." '^ Do what you please," said the martyr, ''and why do you delay ? ' ' The fire was brought and he was bound to the stake, his hands tied behind him, which he clasped, and said : '' O Father of thy beloved and blessed Son Jesus Christ ; O God of angels, principalities, and of all creation ; I bless thee that thou hast counted me worthy of this day and hour, to receive my portion in the number of martyrs — the cup of Christ, for the resurrec- tion to eternal life, both of soul and body." The fire consumed the martyr, but Rome was unable to subdue the humble trophy of the grace of God, and he triumphed even in death ! 292 CONFLICT OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. Tcrtullian' s Apology for the Church of the First lliree Centuries. The benevolence of the Christians np to the last part of the third century was such as has never been witnessed since. They not only gave their treasures to their own poor, but they exerted themselves to relieve distress- and suffering everywhere they found it, and at this time the Church in Rome supported a thousand widows. Chris- tians felt that they did not deserve the name unless they spent their lives in imitation of that of Christ their Mas- ter. Immense estates were consecrated to public charity. Having renounced the luxuries of the world, they did not need great wealth, and they viewed their poor brethren on a level with themselves, as sinners to be ransomed by the Son of God. The number of the Christian converts, their crucifixion to the interests of the world, and the extent of their good works, is best shown by one of their own number. In his apology for the Christians, Ter- tullian says : " We pray for the safety of the emperors to the eternal God ; that they may have a long life, a secure empire, a safe palace, a faithful senate, a well moralized people, and a quiet state of the world. Were we disposed to act the part, I will not say of secret assassins, but open enemies, should we want forces and numbers ? Are there not multitudes of us in every part of the world ? It is true, we are but of yesterday, and yet we have filled all your towns, cities, islands, boroughs, councils, camps, courts, palaces, senate, and forum. We leave you only your temples. " For what war should we not be ready and well pre- pared, even though unequal in numbers ; were it not that our religion requires us rather to suffer death than to in- flict it ? If we were to make a general secession from your dominions, you would be astonished at your solitude. We are dead to all ideas of worldly honor and dignity.; nothing is more foreign to us than political concerns. The whole world is our republic. We are a body united in one bond of religion, discipline, and hope. We meet POPERY AND CHRISTIAN ZEAL. 293 in our assemblies for prayer. Every one pays something into the public chest once a month, or when he please and according to his ability and inclination, for there is no compulsion. These gifts are, as it were, the deposits of piety. Hence we relieve the needy and bury the dead, support orphans and decrepid persons-, assist those who have suffered shipwreck, and comfort those who, for teaching the word of God, are condemned to the mines for imprisonment. This charity of ours has caused us to be noticed : See, say they, how these Christians love one another." It is as certain that this church, this religion, was that of the holy Scriptures, as that it is in palpable contrast to that which was established by the sword of Constantine at the beginning of the fourth century. Can it be said of this church, that ''It is dead to all ideas of worldly honor and dignity ; that nothing is more foreign to it than politi- cal concerns ; that we are united in one body, one dis- cipline, one bond of religion, and one name ; winning the poor and needy from the Pagan selfish religion, by first feeding and clothing them, to that whose test and standard is thus written? " — " Whoso hath this world's goods, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him ? " Their religion was the embodiment of humanity in its highest form — the implantation of the spirit, dis- position of God, personally manifested in Jesus Christ. Their future hope rested alone in the resurrection of both soul and body from the dead. For having a religion so humane, a worship so rational, and a hope so palpable and philosophical, they were called atheists by the mytho- logical priests of heathendom. They had no creed but the Bible. Christ's disposition, precepts, and words were the guide of their life and the groundwork of future life and hope. Of course, any system of religion, whether called Catholic or Prostestant or by any other name, lacking any of these features, is a fallen system, and it is an abusive degradation to Christ and his religion to judge it by these worldly, men-made standards. As well hold Michelangelo responsible for his most masterly painting, 294 CONFLICT OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. after being defaced by the brush of ignorance or design. It is as though the great principles of human freedom are responsible for its destruction by the hand of ambitious tyranny. Nothing, therefore, is more wicked and absurd than for Ingersoll and his confederates to first confound Christianity with its corrupt counterfeits, and then scoff at the incongruity of their own work. It is the duty of Ingersoll, and his God and Creator holds him responsible for its discharge, to preach a reformation, taking as the standard the church of the first three centuries, when there were no creeds, and which popery destroyed by making one, and that one was the first creed ! If he would do this, he would enlist not only the sympathy, but the co-operation of every Christian, whether Jew or Gentile, in the civilized world. But here, with the power of truth, we put a hook in the jaw of this dastardly cowardice of the self-styled freethinkers, who are engaged in this crusade against their Maker, because they see they may do so at present with impunity, but without regard to the wrath they thus treasure to themselves against the day of wrath: ''Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil." (Ecc. 8 : ii.) Ingersoll says : " For years a deadly conflict has been waged between a few brave men and women of thought and genius upon one side, and the great ignorant mass on the other. This is the war between science and faith. The few have appealed to reason, to honor, to law, to freedom, and to the known, and happiness here in this world. The many have appealed to prejudice, to fear, to miracle, to slavery, to the unknown, and to misery hereafter. The few have said. Think. The many have said, I>elieve." Against this flight of egotistic boasting we place the facts of history, facts of jjhysical, moral, and political science, facts of philosoi)hy, iacts of Script- ure, facts of common observation and of experience, facts of the power of the gospel to ameliorate human suf- fering in the highest possible degree in the present world, as well as to insi)ire human hapi)iness by the i)romise of eternal wealth and life. Of course, it is only a deadly POPERY AND CHRISTIAN ZEAL. 295 conflict to the few who wage the war against their Maker. Who would suppose that such men and women think? He says : '' It is a war of rehgion against science." No, sir, there is no war between the science of nature and the rehgion of Christ, as the rehgion is the highest philo- sophic science itself, and that of nature, being the work of God himself, must be as perfect as its author. There may be war between your ignorant conceptions of both of these departments of the works of God. Belief, to In- gersoll, is incomprehensible ; having no knowledge of the God of nature or of his written revelation, he has no grounds upon which to base belief, and evidence is the inseparable condition of belief — this being an unques- tionable principle of mental, philosophical science. Hence the fictitious warfare is in the vain imagination of the " Brave Thinker." Mythological No77ienclature. In the passage from Ingersoll we are about to quote, and in which he has collected the names of many of the prominent heathen deities, among whom he blasphe- mously ranks Christ, the God of the Scriptures, with the hope of degrading him to the level of his animosity. It might be supposed from this effort that he was well acquainted with the ancient classics and modern history, as well as with the religious facts of the present day ; but we shall see that such an inference is without justification. The god of any man is that object which he loves most, honors, and serves, and for which he will make the great- est sacrifices to please ; and every man has such a god. While many of these gods in name and form have passed away, their places have been filled by others ; and the principal religions, of which they were the outward sym- bols twenty-five hundred years ago, remain until the pres- ent day, and have more worshippers than in any period of the past ; and so God's prophets predict it will be to the very last age of the world. We may also remark that these gods of the ancients represented every passion of human nature, every depraved appetite, and every am- 296 CONFLICT OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. bitioiis scheme of revenge ; and it was the indulgence of these that constituted the worship, while that of the true God is unique and requires the crucifixion of all these passions. For example, to get intoxicated in the days of Alexander the Great was called the worship of Bacchus, the god of drunkenness ; and to perform the same devo- tion, to become the servant of the same base appetite, is the same worship — the service of the passions being the service of the gods — and is in direct hostility to that of the living God. Hence he must forbid all such wor- ship and reject all such service. Paul gives us the phi- losophy of the question, thus: ''Know ye not that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are, whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness." (Rom. 6:6.) Another of these gods of antiquity was called Mam- mon, the god of riches. Of course, the service of this god is the love of money, and is hostile to the Christian religion. Christ says : " Ye cannot serve God and Mam- mon." (Matt. 6 : 24.) The gospel gives this species of idol-worship the name of *' covetousness : " " Covetous- ness, which is idolatry." (Col. 3:5.) That the devo- tees to this god have not passed away, but are very nu- merous at the present day, is shown by the popular name given to our times — " the age of the almighty dollar." Even for money Ingersoll curses God and looks upward. He says : " In that vast cemetery, called the past, are most of the religions of men, and there, too, are nearly all of the gods. [The love of the world is called the god of this world, " who blinds the minds of them that believe not," and has so blinded the mind of IngensoU that he thinks all the gods and their worship is interred in the cemetery of the past.] The sacred temples of India were ruins long ago. Over column and cornice, over painted and pict- ured walls, cling and creep the trailing vines." [But the idolatrous religion of India lies not thus buried, and her devotees are more numerous than ever before, though her symbolic gods may have become crystallized in the lower form of atheism, even more degrading than the pro- nounced worship of Brahma or Mohammed.] POPERY AND CHRISTIAN ZEAL. 297 He says : '^ Brahma, the golden, with four heads and four arms ; Vishnu, the sombre, the punisher of the wicked, with his three eyes, his crescent, and his neck- lace of skulls ; Siva, the destroyer, red with blood ; Kali, the goddess ; Draupadi, the white-armed ; and Chrishna, the Christ — all have passed away and left the thrones of heaven desolate. ' ' There is more beauty in this paragraph than sense or truth, as Chrishna — interpreted Christ — is no heathen god, though millions of heathen have learned to worship him ; and the only fact relative to his having passed away is that he is to return and reign forever. King of kings and Lord of lords, in his own re-created world. He says : '' Along the banks of the sacred Nile Isis no longer wanders and weeps, searching for the dead Osiris. The shadow of Typhon's scowl falls no more upon the waves. The sun rises as of yore, and his golden beams still smite the lips of Memnon, but Memnon is as voiceless as the Sphinx. The sacred fanes are lost in the desert sands ; and the dusty mummies are still waiting for the resurrec- tion promised by their priests. [This is a fabrication of Ingersoll, or one which he quotes, made to degrade the doctrine of the resurrection, as though it was taught else- where than in the Bible, while there is not an intimation, even in Egyptian mythology, that the priests entertained the least conception of a resurrection of the dead, and it was unknown to Orpheus, Socrates, Plato, or Aristotle, which completely exposes the fraud of any attempt to so interpret Egyptian hieroglyphic, or the cuneiform slabs dug from Babylon and Nineveh. All of these men stud- ied at the schools of Alexandria, in Egypt. While it may be true that the notion of Egyptian metempsychosis was a corruption of the doctrine of future existence by the resurrection, understood by Joseph, Jacob, and Moses, the latter of whom was taught in all the learning of the Egyptians, it is inconceivable that such a man, the virtual king of Egypt, should not have in turn taught in their schools the Scripture doctrine of the resurrection, more elaborately revealed in the Old Testament than in the New.] And the old beliefs 298 CONFLICT OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. wrought in curiously sculptured stones, sleep in a lan- guage lost and dead. [If the language is lost and dead, what right has he to say it teaches a resurrection ?] Oden, the author of life and soul — [this Scandinavian deity is the same as the Woden of the Saxons, who never was claimed to be the author of life or the creator of man, and the highest honor paid him was dedicating to him the \Vednesday, the fourth day of the week, *' Woden's day "] ; Vili and Ve, and the mighty giant Ymir, strode long ago from the icy hills of the north ; and Thor, with his glove-glittering hammer, dashes mountains to the earth no more. Broken are the circles and cromlecks of the ancient Druids ; fallen upon the summits of the hills, covered with the centuries' moss, are the sacred cairns. The divine fires of Persia and the Aztes have died out in the ashes of the past, and there is none to rekindle and none to feed the flames. The harp of Orpheus is still ; the drained cup of Bacchus has been thrown aside [never was there such devotion paid to the god of wine, as at the present day ; Bacchus was the god of wine, and son of Jupiter] ; Venus lies dead in stone, and her white bosom heaves no more with love. [Christ says : " Every one that loveth father, mother, sister, brother, wife or husband, houses or lands, more than me, is not worthy of me," and all such are the devotees of " Venus ; " and O how her symbolic bosom heaves with the '' love of the creature more than the creator "in our day !] The streams still murmur, but no naiads bathe ; the trees still wave, but in the forest aisles no dryads dance. [A dryad is a nymph of the woods.] The gods have flown from high Olympus. Not even the beautiful women can lure them back. Danae lies unnoticed, naked to the stars. Hushed forever are the thunders of Sinai. [And they were never heard but a part of forty days ; but the laws that were given amid their voices have not, and never will, cease their thunderings against all ungodliness and the i)erpetrators of crime, and especially against the blas- phemers who associate them with the imaginary voices of dumb idols ; and never will those flaming laws cease their POPERY AND CHRISTIAN ZEAL. 299 thunders until they are opened in the judgment at the last day, and then, according to their writings, every scoffer and slanderer's voice will be forever hushed : ^' And they were judged out of those things written in the books, according to their works."] Lost are the voices of the prophets. [No, sir ! never did their voices speak with such clearness, or were understood so well, as at the present day, being vindicated by the fulfilment of the events of our own times, both national and religious.] And the land once flowing with milk and honey is but a desert waste. [And this fact is a perfect fulfilment of the predictions of the prophets thus voiced.] One by one the myths have faded from the clouds. [There never were any myths located in the clouds, by the voice of the prophet.] One by one the phantoms have disappeared, and one by one, facts, truths, and realities have taken their places. The supernatural has almost gone, but the natural remains : the gods have fled, but man is here." It is not a fact that the gods have fled, but quite other- wise, and they are more numerous than ever before ; and the devotees, instead of being formal worshippers of the gods, as the ancients were, have set up their idols in their hearts : its phantoms have passed away, but its realities have become crystallized in the huge idol, ''The love of the world." The God of the prophets, foreseeing this, inspired them to write: "Love not the world, nor the things of the world. He that loveth the world, the love of the Father is not in him." The universal love of the world, as in our day, is universal idolatry. Here is the god of this world, who hath " blinded the minds of them that believe not," who, laboring under the deception, leads them to think, with Ingersoll, that the gods have passed away. Of course, the more follow the gods, the less follow the living God. Of course, there is but an insignificant number who are willing to be called atheists ; but who masquerade under the specious title of scieiitists. That, in the estimation of Ingersoll, the supernatural is almost gone, has its explanation in the fact that he does not know enough about the natural to see the philosophic ne- 300 CONFLICT OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. cessity for the existence of the supernatural ; that every- thing in nature, in its inherent perpetuity and commence- ment, bears the stamp of the supernatural. A Supposition — a Counter Supposition, The speculator says : ^' Suppose, upon some island we should find a man a million years of age [this is a geologi- cal period, or one of evolution, and indicates that Robert is going to give us something to show he has dabbled into modern science], and suppose we should find him in possession of a most beautiful carriage, constructed upon the most perfect model. And suppose, further, that he should tell us it was the result of several hundred years of labor and thought ; that for fifty thousand years he used as flat a log as he could find [This is foolish, for there never was a flat log, without the hand of man to make it such.] before it occurred to him that by split- ting the log he could have the same surface with half the weight ; that the wheels he first used were solid, and that fifty thousand years of thought suggested the use of spokes and tires ; that for many centuries he used the wheels without linch-pins ; that it took a hundred thousand years more to think of using four wheels instead of two. That for ages he walked behind the carriage when going down hill, in order to hold it back, before the tongue was thought of; would we conclude that man, from the very first, had been an infinitely ingenious and per- fect mechanic? " We may say that there is no relic of a cart or a wagon, ever having been found, which never had a tongue, or linch-pin ; and those of solid wheels were only used in new countries, while the most beauti- ful carriages were used at the same time in other countries, or other parts of the same country. And the foolishness of the supposition is seen in the fact that a wooden relic could not be kept from decay even fifty years, without the hand of art. " Suppose we found a man living in an elegant mansion, and he should inform us that he had lived in that house for five hundred thousand years be- fore he thought of putting on a roof." [Why, we should POPERY AND CHRISTIAN ZEAL. 3OI suppose the man told us a lie, and thus confessed that he was a greater fool of a mechanic than a beaver, who al- ways makes the roof of his house first, to shelter him while he makes the sides. In fact, we should conclude that this genius of a thinker in mechanics was a striking type of such freethinkers as IngersoU. All of these allu- sions are too absurd to admit of being respectable sup- positions. In exposure of such fabrications, we refer their authors to the fact that there is a long list of artistic productions, the work of ancient men, which are cata- logued among the lost arts. '\ He further supposes that this dunce of an old mechanic, who concentrated all the wisdom of the past for one hun- dred and fifty thousand years, had not been able to invent windows and doors for his dwelling. At the second be- ginning of the world, sixteen hundred and sixty-six years after its creation, we have the account of the construction of a human habitation, which was at once a house and a vessel, and which had both doors and windows. In order to expel an infinitely wise God from being the in- ventor and constructor of nature, this prodigy of a logician argues that because things exist answering a supposed purpose which always existed, thereby showing improve- ment, and that improvement in things created shows a corresponding improvement in the Creator. But to show an improvement in a created thing, it is necessary to show that the thing existed before, but in a different form, and that the purpose was always the same. God made the man, and if he was a perfect artist and a me- chanic at first, though the man perfectly answered the temporary purpose for which he was made, yet he was defective if he did not answer an eternal purpose, or that his temporal environment was not eternal. That becatise the man himself made improvement shows a correspond- ing improvement in the Creator. What folly ! God could invent and construct the wonderful machin- ery involved in the physiological structure of the man himself — a mouth to open and shut at will — transparent windows in his head through which his mind could see and distinguish objects ; but he could not make a door ^02 CONFLICT OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. for a man's house, or tell a man how to make them, un- less he improved in mechanic skill. Behold ! what an example — what a man of thought, reason, and intelli- gence is this Ingersoll ? Created things were at least as perfect at the beginning, as the Creator designed them to be ; and many of them more so than they manifest at the present day ; in fact some species of the most noble animals have degenerated to extinction. The compari- son presents the same ratio of difference as that between a new and an old garment, and that this is according to the original plan of the Creator, is shown in his written book, thus: ''And thou. Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth ; and the heavens are the works of thine hands. They shall perish, but thou re- mainest : and they all shall wax old as doth a garment ; and as a vesture shalt thou fold them up and they shall be changed ; but thou art the same, and thy years shall not fail." (Heb. i : 10-12.) This change of the heavens and the earth is written in the twenty-first and twenty-second chapters of Revelation, all of which is copied and condensed from the Scriptures of Moses, the prophets, and the Book of Psalms. These suppositions of Ingersoll bear the general stamp of his pretended argu- ments against the existence of the infinite intelligence and almighty power of the Creator : false statement, false premise, and consequently false conclusion, all prompted by a desire to have it so, and pushed forward by boundless conceit and arrogance. T/ie IVisdojfi of God Questioned by the Scoffer. Says he : '' Would an infinitely wise God, intending to produce man, commence with the lowest possible forms of life ; with the smallest organism that can be imagined ; and during immeasurable i)eriods of time, slowly and al- most imperceptibly, improve upon the rude beginning, until man was evolved ? Would countless years thus be wasted in the production of awkward forms, afterward abandoned?" Ingersoll has adopted Evolution as true science, every item of which is demonstrated to be false fOPERY AND CttRiSTTAN ZEAL. 303 in published works, of which he must be ignorant ! No, Mr. Ingersoll ! nature gives the facts, whose philosophic necessities of coming into existence, show that the most perfect living and mature forms were created first, and in so short a time that the parts first formed would not de- compose before the last were finished ; that life is incon- sistent with a single rudiment in an animal or plant form. Your blunder is in adopting evolution as to the origin of things, and holding the Creator responsible for its foolish theory. He asks, '' Can the inteUigence of man discover the least wisdom in covering the earth with crawling, creep- ing horrors that live only upon the pangs of others ? " I wonder if Mr. Ingersoll can see the wisdom and human- ity of every day devouring parts of cattle, sheep, and in- nocent lambs, whose pangs would not exist if he and others did not thus devour. Or if he does not sustain his valuable life by causing the death pangs of the turkey and harmless dove. Is his wisdom indeed so superficial that he has not yet learned the fact that there is not a living thing but which furnishes food for some other living thing ; and that man himself devours more living creatures than any other animal ; and that finally worms devour him ? Now, who can see the wisdom in the Creator thus providing for man — composed of those things which reproduce themselves — keeping pace with the march of the living generations. Besides, were there no animals to live, die, and decom- pose, in order to restore to the atmosphere the carbonic acid from which vegetation manufactures their own food, in a very little while it would poison animals to breathe, and they would all become extinct. Of course, his mind never comprehended the teaching of natural science, of the interdependence of the plant and animal life of the world. Had he done this, he would never have asked such silly questions, which imply the possession of super- ior wisdom to that of his Maker. This is the man who says science is on the side of atheism, and such are the things he dispenses with the self-confidence of ignorance, as science. He asks, ' ' Can we see the propriety of so 304 CONFLICT OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. constructing the earth, that only an insignificant portion of its surface is capable of producing intelligent man? " Here we have more sagacious thought, from the boasting thinker who dares think for himself — there is too small a portion of earth congenial enough to produce — grow man. If he did not believe in evolution, v.-e might sup- pose he meant to say, '' to sustain the hfe of man." But as men grow like trees, it seems to us that there is abun- dance of soil capable of producing men of such ideas, and it would not be much detriment, were there no such soil — none which would not produce a higher type of in- telligent and good men than this scoffer ! It is clear that, whether this man attempts to grapple with questions of philosophy, science, or Scripture, he makes equally bungling work. Here he assumes an intelligence so much higher than that possessed by his Maker, that it enables him to see innumerable mistakes, blunders, and incongruities in his works, failing to perceive as the con- ditions of living existence the relation one thing bears to another. He would have made everything independent, all capable of resisting each other. It is the repetition of the almost idiotic sentiment, of the machine finding fault with its maker — the creature with the Creator — which was long since philosophically answered thus, " Nay but, O vain man, who art thou that repliest against God ? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it. Why hast thou made me thus? " (Rom. 9 : 20.) Think of it, a thing that cannot explain how he moves a finger, undertaking to instruct the Maker of the world ! Killing Animals for Food no Part of the Original Creation. - It will have been seen that it has not been merely our object, in this work, to expose the shallowness of this man's talk as the mouthq)iece of freethinkerism ; but to present reasons for the works of the Creator as they are. In regard to the ([uestion of food for man and the lower animals, we may remark that killing was no })art of the creation, but grew out of the curse of the earth and POPERY AND CHRISTIAN ZEAL. 305 man for his disobedience; hence Jt is written, '^ By sin, death entered into the world, and so death passed upon all men, for all have sinned." The original food for animals was provided and described thujs : ''And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bear- ing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed ; to you it shall be for meat. And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to everything that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat : and it was so." (Gen. I : 29-31.) An herb is a plant or vegetable with a soft succulent stalk or stem, and which dies to the root every year, and is thus distinguished from a tree or shrub, which have ligneous, or hard woody stems. Even after sin entered into the world with all its concomitant evils, the order of meat was not changed. ''And God said unto Adam, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree of which I com- manded thee saying, Thou shalt not eat of it ; cursed is the ground for thy sake ; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life : Thorns and thistles shall it bring forth to thee ; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field. In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread [This shows that the expression herb comprehended bread-stuffs.] till thou return unto the ground ; for out of it wast thou taken : for of dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return. And the Lord God said. Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil : and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever : therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. So he drove out the man ; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life." (Gen. 3.) By this deprivation of access to the fruit of the tree of life, which had the properties of its indefinite perpetu- ation, man necessarily lost everlasting life, or died, and 306 CONFLICT OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. as the deprivation reached all subsequent generations, death thus passed upon all men. Because of these calam- ities upon man and the ground, hard labor became a necessity, and a corresponding necessity for more substan- tial food. As this necessity increased, man began to kill the lower animals for food, whose existence was provi- sionary in the wisdom of God to meet the necessity which had now come. He foreknew because he foresaw it would come, and he also arranged the single, double, and mixed teeth to meet it. Nothing in the scientific world is better known than that vegetables and animals furnish food for each other. The organism of the lamb and ox converts vegetation into their own individual and peculiar struct- ure, so that when men devour these animals they indi- rectly devour vegetables, and Ingersoll's objection against animal food is of equal force against vegetable food, with the exception of the pain experienced in the act of kill- ing, but which would be the same in natural death ; but this being a philosophical necessity of organic life, and only lessening the days of the life of those animals used for food, was a necessity in their creation. The objection is founded on the foolish notion that it was possible for God to do an impossibility. Hence to have made animals with sensations and yet without them. Was it not an act of goodness, love, and mercy to have made man, and all other animals, with an organic system of sensitive nerves, from which every pleasure flows, every flower, every strain of music, every variegated color, and every luxury from cold or heat, and every motive resulting in protection from their extremes. Indeed, were it not for the pleas- ure of eating and drinking, or the feeling of relief they afford, men would forget to eat and drink, and die in con- sequence. The question therefore is, whether it would have been a wise provision to have had no pleasure or phase of animal happiness for a lifetime, if it would free us from a few pangs of pain while consciously dying? Accord- ing to Ingersoll's reflection upon the Creator for its ex- istence, it would be an act of love and mercy for one man to deprive another of all sensation during natural life, in POPERY AND CHRISTIAN ZEAL. 30/ order to relieve him from a few moments' pain just before it ended, and thus convert murder into goodness. Here again do we behold the absurdity of Ingersoll's criticism on infinite wisdom and love. But the extent of the folly- is only seen by taking into the account the fact, that in this short and suffering life, we may avail ourselves of the proposition made by the Creator, to introduce us into a re-created world, where death will never come, and as a consequence physical derangement in no degree can exist. IngersoU being ignorant of this promised destiny, which every man holds in his own hands, he talks about the present moment's living and dying as though it was with- out end ; while it is only the industrial school to prepare the scholar for an endless life of health and happiness. What Kind of Reformers are Atheists ? The sceptic says : ''If abuses are destroyed, man must destroy them." [And, we may add, that Christians are the only men who do such work.] " If new truths are discovered, man must discover them." [And the history of discovery reveals the fact that its most splendid periods have been those wherein Christianity was unrestrained by .civil enactments; and the vast majority of discoveries have been those inspired by Christian principle and hope, while atheism quenches its fires and blunts every noble sentiment.] He says, " If justice is done, labor rewarded, the hungry fed, and the naked clothed, man must do it." Yes ! but this is not and never has been the work of atheism — an inseparable mixture of pride, jealousy, and selfishness — while this work is ranked among the most prominent enjoinments of the Christian religion. Listen to its voice upon the subject : " Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you. Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth- eaten. Your gold and silver is cankered ; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days. Behold, the hire of the laborers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, 308 CONFLICT OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. crieth : and the cries of them are entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth. Ye have condemned and killed the just ; and he doth not resist you. Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord." (James 5.) Here is the work of the Christian Church — its suffering from the oppression by the rich, its promised reward, and the coming of the Lord to confer it. He says: ''If superstition is to be driven from the mind, man is to do it." This enunciates a good work ; but whatever is done toward it, must be the work of Christians, and not atheists : Satan makes bad work in casting out Satan. Superstition means a belief of that which is absurd — that for which there is no evidence, and which is connected with religion. Atheists believe either that the world was never made, or that it made itself, or that it came by the laws of nature, which they interpret to be active myths, abstract from nature and existing be- fore it. In the days of Paul, there were men in Athens of this class, who had no evidence for the belief of a God, and this because they knew nothing about him, and yet like IngersoU wrote and talked about him : '' Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars' hill, and said. Y^e men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too supersti- tious : for as I passed by, I beheld an altar with this in- scription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD." Ignorance and superstition are Siamese twins ; and IngersoU pro- fesses to know nothing about God — has no evidence for his existence — totally ignorant of the science of nature, whose princii[)les demonstrate his existence, and as totally ignorant of the fulfilment of the prophetic Scriptures, which also demonstrate them to have originated in the Mind of God. This ignorance he calls unbelief, being too proud to call it by its proper name : ignorant superstition. The pretender continues: ''If the defenceless are pro- tected and the right finally triumphs, all must be the work of man. The grand victories of the future must be won by man, and by man alone." Yes ! but the voice of history declares that no victories for the good of mankind were ever won by atheists, and if we heed its warning voice, no good is to be looked for from that source. This is POPERY AND CHRISTIAN ZEAL. 309 an attempt to hypocritically steal the principles of Chris- tianity with which to oppose it. He says : " During that frightful period known as the ' dark ages/ faith reigned, with scarcely a rebellious sub- ject. [No, sir, faith in its very nature is founded upon evidence, and what then reigned was the sentiment, " Ig- norance is the mother of superstition." It won't do, Robert, to confound the knowledge and fear of offending God with ignorance and no fear of him !] Her temples were carpeted with knees, and the wealth of nations adorned her costly and numerous shrines. The great painters prostituted their genius to immortalize her va- garies, while the poets enshrined them in song. At her bidding man covered the earth with blood. The scales of justice turned with her gold, and for her use were invented all the cunning instruments of pain. She built cathedrals for God, and dungeons for men. She peopled the clouds with angels and the earth with slaves." No ! Mr. Inger- soll, this is the picture of the false Church — the very anti- thesis of Christianity. It was the martyrer of the true Church, whose sacrificial blood you have just described ; the prehistoric record of wliich occupies a very large part of the prophesies, to predict, and two-thirds of the book called Revelation, to reveal ; besides being the bur- den of profane history for a thousand years, which simply records the fulfilment of the prophetic events. But Inger- soll being destitute of this knowledge, fits him to commit this blunder also. That Jesus Christ and his system are not responsible for this work of slavery and blood, is shown by the pre- historic record, announcing him as the grandest emanci- pator of which it is possible to form a just conception. *' And he came into Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up to read. And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Isaiah, and he found the place where it was written. And the spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the bhnd, to set at liberty them that are bruised, 310 CONFLICT OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. to preach good tidings unto the meek, to proclaim Hberty to the captives, and the opening of the prisons to them that are bound." ''Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke ? That thou deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house ? When thou seest the naked, that thou cover him, and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh." (Isa. 6i : I, and 58 : 6, 7.) (Luke 4 : 16-18.) " Remem- ber them that are in bonds as bound with them, and them which suffer adversity as being yourselves also in the flesh." (Heb. 13:3.) '' If the Son shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed." (John 8 : ;^6.) That Christianity was not responsible for the persecu- tion to which Ingersoll alludes, or was authorized by its founder, is further shown by such language as the follow- ing : " Remember the word that I said unto you, the ser- vant is not greater than his Lord. If they have perse- cuted me, they will also persecute y-ou ; if they have kept my sayings, they will keep yours also. But all these things will they do unto you for my name's sake, because they know not him that sent me." (John 15 : 20, 21.) " These things have I spoken unto you, that ye should not be offended. They shall put you out of the syna- gogues ; yea, the time will come, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service." (John 16: 1,2.) '' Offences must come, but woe unto that man by whom the offence cometh : it were better that a millstone were hanged about his neck and that he were cast into the depth of the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones which believe in me." Ingersoll thinks that if we induce men to reject Christ and his religion, all superstition and i)ersecution will be gone. There is, however, no surer test of Christianity and contrast be- tween saints and sinners, than that of persecution : those who suffer it for Christ's sake are saints ; while those who inflict it are sinners, even though they think that thus they do God service. This was the work of the false Church for a thousand years, and which is symbolized by poperV and christian zeal. 311 the Great Babylon of the Revelation and the prophets, and when the punishment predicted by Christ comes upon her : that a great millstone, as it were, sinks her into the depth of the sea, and which he inspired John to write was in these words : '' Rejoice over her, thou heaven, and ye holy apostles and prophets ; for God hath avenged you on her. And a mighty angel took up a stone like- a great millstone, and cast it into the sea, saying, Thus with violence shall great Babylon be thrown down, and shall be found no more at all." (Rev. 18: 20, 21.) What horrid darkness of mind and wilful ignorance must Ingersoll labor under, to confound these two classes and characters, denouncing the killed with the killers — the offended with the offenders — the flowing blood of the persecuted with the bloody work of the persecutors ! If he does this knowingly, he manifests the character of the most public defamer of Christ and his Church ; and if he does it ignorantly, he is twice guilty — for not enlighten- ing himself, as well as for the persecution. Atheism has had but one Period of Power afid Success. In the history of the world, atheists have never had but one period of civil power, and if you want to know how they used it, ask the crammed prisons and guillotine of the Parisian Feign of terror. Ingersoll animadverts against the dark ages, but had the atheist held its power for a thousand years, the people of every nation to which it extended would have been robbed and murdered, just as the Parisians were. It therefore comes with an ill grace from this representative of freethinkerism to reflect upon any period or nation, as covering the earth with blood, or building dungeons for men. These are the men that promise the people liberty if they will only turn against God, and adopt their boundless pride and conceit — that no being exists superior to themselves, and the foolish superstition that man and the world came into existence without the aid even of a living myth. 312 CONFLICT OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. The Scoffer Harangues the People to Rebel Against God. He says : '* Of what use has God been to man ? [We might change the form of the question and ask, of what use are men to God, especially such as those who are only happy in Satanic glee, when they are abusing him and trying to induce others to do likewise?] It is no answer to say that some God created the world, estab- lished certain laws, and then turned his attention to other matters, leaving his children too weak and ignorant to fight the battle of life alone. [In answer we may say, that none but Ingersoll and those of whom he is the mouth-piece, and a few devil-worshippers in the interior of Africa, ever said that God abandoned the world after having made it, leaving his children alone.] It is no solution to declare, that in some other world God will render a few, or even all, his subjects happy. What right have we to expect that a perfectly wise, good, and pow- erful being will ever do better than he has done, and is doing ? The world is filled with imperfections. If it was made by an infinite l:)eing, have we any ground for saying that he will render it nearer perfect than it is now. If the infinite Father allows a majority of his children to live in ignorance and wretchedness now, what evidence have we that he will ever imi)rove their' condition ? Will God have more power ? Will he become more merciful ? Will his love for his poor creatures increase? Can the conduct of infinite wisdom, power, and love change ? Is the infinite capable of imi)rovement ? " As Ingersoll is ignorant of the will and power of God, revealed in his Word and in the nature of man, even of this man himself, who hates what little he does know, it is natural that he should a.sk such questions. As an example, let us ask, how can God imi)rove him ? He is so ignorant of the Bible that he cannot expound a doctrine it contains. God has said to him, *' Search the Scriptures, that they are they which testify of me," and that such knowledge is able to make him wise unto salva- tion ; but he has despised the command and disobeyed POPERY AND CHRISTIAN ZEAL. 313 the instruction. Now, suppose infinite power took pos- session of, and controlled his mind, compelling him, for the time being, to love the teachings of the Bible, to love to search it for the truth ; love to teach it to others, to do which would make him an entirely differ- ent man ; but what credit would that be to him — what virtue would it be to Ingersoll ? He fought against the change and never yielded, what he now did and became was because his volition had been destroyed by the com- pelling power of the being that made him. Let that being remove the mental and physical force from the organism of the sceptic, and he would be the same hater of God and his word he was before. Whatever good was said or done by him after being reduced to a mere machine, must be put down to the credit of the compel- ling power of his God : How can God improve a per- sistent rebel ? In his fight with his Maker, he has the infernal audac- ity of abusing his Creator because he will not change to suit him — and sucti a change wrought as we have sup- posed, would show an improvement on the part of God. No man could say such things who had the faintest con- ception of the physical, mental, and moral philosophy in- volved in his own nature, that renders him with all the species so high in the scale of being, that it is impossible to compel him to do the least act, not even to lift a foot or finger. A stronger than he may lift the foot or raise the finger, just as he might if the man was dead ; but it would be the act of the physically stronger, and he alone would be responsible for it. If infinite power forced the will to move the foot or finger, or compelled the mental and moral organism to pray, it would not be the act of the man, but that of him who exerted the force. It was God and not the man that prayed. To force a man to do a voluntary act, is a contradiction in terms. It virtually says, the act is at once both voluntary and in- voluntary. It is the same indomitable power with which even all the lower animals are endowed ; and to which the adage gives expression: ''You may lead a horse to the water, but you cannot make him drink." CHAPTER XIII. METAPHYSICAL PHILOSOPHY OF POWER. When we ascribe wisdom and power to God, and then interpret it to mean that he can do things incon- sistent with the nature and power of other minds he has made — repugnant and antagonistic to his own wishes and purposes — we do that for which we have no authority. According to the dynamical philosophy in the nature of beings of mind, each grade and individual is omnipotent within his sphere of action. When God made a man a man, it carried with it the alternative that he could do as he pleased, and that the power to please and obey his Maker conferred also the power to displease and dis- obey ; leaving the alternative to make him thus, or not to make him with a will, and therefore like a plant. Reasoning from the known to the unknown, the analogy forces the conclusion, that the Maker of man had a pur- pose to accomplish in the act of his creation, as it is im- possible for man to do the least act without first forming a i)urpose ; and as it is the accomi)lishment of that purpose which constitutes the motive actuating it, the analogy teaches that the purpose of God in the act of man's creation must have been that he should please and obey his Maker, and the power to please and obey carried with it the power to displease and disobey. These acts must not only be voluntary, but in accordance with the inducement held out to the creature by the Creator ; and as the mental jjrocesses involve the impulses or feel- ings of the heart, it also follows tliat the man, won by the inducement, becomes a loving, loyal subject of the will of his Maker, and has a rational hope of an im- mortal resurrection and an incorruptible inheritance in the coming re-created world. It cannot be denied that METAPEIYSICAL PHILOSOPHY OF POWER. 315 if one man may accept this offer, every other man may do the same, and if either may accept it they may also reject it. It is another universally acknowledged fact that every man and woman have experienced feelings of aversion to that which they conceived to be the will and wishes of God concerning them at the time ; ,and have therefore done acts which they knew were displeasing to him and rebellious against his will. It is another fact attested by millions of living, rational beings, and from among the same class of people, that subsequently they passed through another experience by which the same God, without change on his part, looked upon them with complacency, as of a loving Father. It is another fact, that all those who had ceased to hold the unnatural and hopeless conflict with their Maker, have been induced to do so upon the condition that his service, as described in the Bible, was to be performed during natural life, and the pay, or reward not to be given until the re-creation of the world, and faith in the anticipation of this made them happier in the mortal life than though they possessed all the wealth, pleasure, and honor the present world affords. The trouble with In- gersoll and his like is, that being still on the rebellious side of the question, he is involved in the total darkness inseparable from ignorance upon the subject, and has none of the loving, loyal experience of which we speak ; being still without God and without hope in the world," as the Scripture expresses it. Of course, he can have no other conception than that all men are in the same con- dition of mind as himself. Hence the folly of the reflec- tion upon God for not making him a saint. It seems as though the man has mental calibre sufficient to compre- hend the theory of our argument — the experimental part we doubt whether he will ever know : not that the mercy of God is too limited to reach such a sinner ; but the difficulty lies in the fact that he has abused God, Christ, and the Bible so inveterately, and so pubhcly committed himself against the gospel, that his pride of heart and opinion will forever prevent him from repent- ing, so as to look upon God as his Creator, and Christ 3l6 CONFLICT OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. as his Saviour, or from receiving the Scriptures as con- taining the revealed will of God to man. " Try what repentance can ; what can it not ? Yet what can it, when one cannot repent ? " — Shak. Nature a?id Philosophy of Worship. The infidel says : '' Nations, like individuals, have their periods of growth, of manhood, and of decay." Rehgions are the same, and the same inexorable destiny awaits all. The gods created by the nations must perish with their creators. They were made by men, and like men they must pass away. The deities of one age are the by-words of the next. Ingersoll said this about the gods before, in answer to which we showed every statement of it to be in contradiction to the history of the national gods. But in answer to what he says about religion we may reply, that it is not a fact that man created it, of what- ever form ; but that its existence, like that of man him- self, is a truth of nature, a truth of the highest philo- sophical science, of which man is the natural exponent, the illustration, the manifestation. It is as natural to him as that he is a mental and moral being, of which religion is the appetite and the Word of God the food, equally universal as that his physical appetite exists and finds its food in the provisions of God, in nature. The first development of childish abstract reasoning, asks '' Who made me?" conscious of the existence of a being above the inquirer of sufficient knowledge and power to have performed the work, and by the implied concession beginning to pay the honor, the worship which is his due. [No child ever asked the atheistic questions, implying doubt, " Did anyone make me? " or '* Was I made? "] This is religion, and these universal and almost infantile expressions demonstrate it to be inborn. Thus every human being finds himself endowed with intellectual faculties, which compel him to search after a being superior to himself, as well as with a set of moral faculties, such as veneration and love, inciting him METAPHYSICAL PHILOSOPHY OF POWER. 317 to adore this higher something, and to love him for the goodness implanted in his capacities for pleasure and happiness, and the surrounding resources in nature for their gratification. This is religion, and whether written in a book, or expressed in outward symbols, as the existence of the gods, or their images, still it is religious worship and originated by creative implantation ; and we may add, that if the errors in religious faith and practice of the individual do not prevent him from honoring and loving this living God, to which these noble faculties of the gospel of nature, his nature, points his faith, then he is one of his children and with them awaits the glorious destiny of all. It is clear from this that religion is a unite unchanged by the variety of the modes in which it manifests itself, either among nations, governments, or generations. If this be so, it may be said that all wor- ship God but the freethinkers, who have so blunted their natural sensibilities that they see no God in the universe ; each of whom considers himself the highest living being, which reduces his worship to self-worship, and his hope, if he has any, to self-reward. This is the culmination of his poverty-stricken independence ; the champion of whom is Robert G. Ingersoll. National religion is the honor and loyalty paid to a sovereign, or chief- ruler, and for a citizen of one nation to pay to the ruler of another, is treason to his own lawful chief; of course, for any religionist to so confound an idol with his God and Creator, as to honor and love it, is idol treason to his only lawful God. Nothing is more universally conceded, and justly so, than that a father should receive the honor and obedience of his children, and for them to repudiate this by rendering it to another, without repentance and reformation, is an unpardonable affront ; it is the sin of idolatry to the father ; and yet he is but the agent of their existence, while God is the Creator, and therefore the proprietor of all men, hence the deeper turpitude of the offence, and merited punishment. It is self-evident that these intelligent creatures of God's handiwork cannot please and obey him without 3l8 CONFLICT OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. being first instructed in the nature and character of those things pleasing to and approved by him, as that a child cannot perform the will and pleasure of his human father, unless that father should instruct him in relation to those things he approves and disapproves. A bright child may infer the will of the father by his goodness toward him, without further revelation, and be thus induced to honor and love him ; and so a philosopher may see God revealed in nature, and be thus induced to honor and love him, which is natural and true religion ; but to facilitate this knowledge and to enable the Creator to accomplish his object with man and the world, in the shortest time the nature of the elements will admit, it becomes necessary that a written revelation of his will should be made to man, clearly describing those things he approves and disapproves. The investigation of such a revelation becomes an individual necessity, if he would meet the demands of his great Father, which are im- posed by such language as the following; ''Search the Scriptures ; for in them ye think ye have eternal life ; and they are they which testify of me." (John 5:39.) They reveal the fact and nature of endless being, and the conditions upon which it is offered. To encourage the investigation, they give such assurance as this, ''If any man will do his will he shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God." (John 7 : 17.) The Gods the People Make. In this relation to image- worship, its tendency to lead to the veneration of the images themselves, we would expect to find the will of God clearly and emphatically expressed, and the practice forbidden. A few of these passages read as follows: "Everyman is brutish in his knowledge : every founder is confounded by the graven image, for his molten image is falsehood, and there is no breath in them. They are vanity, and the work of errors ; in the time of their visitation they shall perish." (Jer. 10 : 14, 15.) " Thus saith the T>ord, learn not the way of the heathen, nor be dismayed at the signs of METAPHYSICAL PHILOSOPHY OF POWER. 319 heaven ; for the customs of the people are vain : for one cutteth a tree of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with an axe. They deck it with silver and gold ; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not. They are upright as the palm-tree, but speak not ; they must needs be borne, because they cannot go. Be not afraid of them, for they cannot do evil, neither is it in them to do good." (Jer. 10: 2-5.) ''They tempted and provoked the most high God, and kept not his testimonies ; they moved him to jealousy with their graven images ; when God heard this he was wroth, and greatly abhorred Israel." (Ps. 78: 56-59.) '' I am the Lord : that is my name : and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images." (Ps. 42 : 8.) '' Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth ; thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, for I, the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me ; and showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments." (Ex. 20.) Here we see the folly and wickedness of the infidels in confounding image worship with that of the living and true God, and because some of these nations abandon the religion of idol worship, and if the religion dies, that the same destined extinction awaits the religion and worship of the living God — that because the corruption of a thing dies, becomes extinct, the same destiny awaits the pure ; because counterfeit dollars become extinct, the same destiny awaits all pure dollars. This is the shallow rea- soning of the infidels. They rob God of the honor due him, by rendering it to other things, and commit the same offence by withholding it from him ; and in their ignorant pride the freethinkers suppose they worship no god, while they have only changed it to other objects of love and sacrifice ; even the very love and pride that they worship nothing, is the idol of their heart's devotion. Of such it is said, ''Ye have set up your idols in your hearts." 320 CONFLICT OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. The love of vain glory, empty boasting pride, is the god of the atheist, and ranks him below any heathen religionist, all of whom held and hold their gods to be greater than themselves, while the conceit of the atheist puffs him up higher than anything or being in the universe, and who thus performs self-devotion. Let us listen to our oracle's floundering fulminations among the gods, things of which he is totally unac- quainted. '' The religion of our day is no more exempt from the sneer of the future than the others have been," just as though all the religions but Christianity had be- come extinct. Of course, the religion of Christ never did and never will escape the sneer of the scoffer, especially as the world approximates the ignorance and irreligion of the antediluvians, which Christ says it will reach, at the time he comes to put an end to it. Hence we read, *' Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of his coming ? for since the fathers fell asleep all things continue as they were from the be- ginning of the creation, for of this they are willingly ignorant." (2 Pet. 3: 3-5.) "These are murmurers, complainers [Even complaining against God for his im- perfections.], walking after their own lusts ; and with their mouth speaking great swelling words, having men's per- sons in admiration because of advantage, clouds are they without water, carried about of winds ; trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots ; raging waves of the sea foaming out their own shame ; wandering stars to whom is reserved the black- ness of darkness forever." (Jude.) How near IngersoU and the rest of the puffed up atheists and scientific free- thinkers who were to come in the last days, answer to this predicted picture our readers must judge, but to our mind and in our day, these have gone beyond its highest coloring. " But as the days of Noah were, so also shall the coming of the Son of Man be : For as in the days that were before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and knew not until the flood came METAPHYSICAL PHILOSOPHY OF POWER. 32 1 and took them all away ; so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be." (Matt. 24 : 37-39.) Who cannot see, that the scoffing success of Ingersollism is bringing about precisely such a state of the world, through whose ignorant sneers and ridicule, bringing Bible study and teaching less than ever before since the reformation. Even those who pretend to teach it, substitute the opinions of men, and thus drag it down to the level of the sceptical science of chronological geology and evolu- tion ; for whose conclusions science is no more respon- sible than is the Bible for the corrupt compromise. Ingersoll asks, Who Will Supersede Christ? The scoffer says : '' When India was supreme, Brahma sat upon the world's throne. When the sceptre passed to Egypt, Isis and Osiris received the homage of man- kind." [This is contrary to history, for ancient Egypt, and it is about those times he speaks, was always supe- rior to India, and never borrowed her gods. Nor is it true that any one of the idol gods ruled the world, nor that they succeeded each other in receiving the homage of mankind ; for no god or rehgion was ever universal.] *' When Greece, with her fierce valor, swept to empire, Zeus put on the purple authority." This is also an his- toric blunder, as it skips the Chaldean and Medo-Persian monarchies, both of whom held Egypt as a dependency before Greece swept to power. Neither did Greece put on the purple, which was the badge of the Roman em- pire. Nor did Zeus become the national god of Greece, for this god of her's was always '' Diana." This, how- ever, has nothing to do with the argument ; but it serves to show the superficiaHty of the scoffer's learning, and detracts from the reliability of what he quotes as matter of fact, including what he quotes from the Bible and his- tory. He continues: ''The earth trembled with the tread of Rome's intrepid sons, and Jove grasped with mailed hand the thunderbolts of heaven. Rome fell, and Christians, from her territory, with the red sword of war, carved out the ruling nations of the world, and now 21 322 CONFLICT 'OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURV. Christ sits upon the old throne. Who will be his suc- cessor ? " Here is a conglomeration of the most unjusti- fiable ignorance and misrepresentation. Nothing is more positively forbidden, both by the example and laws of Christ, than the use of the sword, even for the defence of himself and his cause ; and as no one can be a Christian and disobey either source of the instruction, therefore, the Christians in the Roman empire never did this work, whoever else did, nor does Christ sit upon the world's throne, the erection of which is yet future, and to be built upon the destruction of all other thrones, at his personal return in the end of the world. No ! Christ ha.s no contemporary sitting upon a throne, nor is his throne ever superseded. This determination is one of the principal subjects of prophecy, and Christ grouped the events to trans] )ire at the erection of the throne and commencement of his reign, and revealed them to John, thus: "The second woe is past ; and, behold, the third woe cometh quickly. And the seventh angel sounded ; and there were great voices in heaven, saying. The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ ; and he shall reign for ever and ever. And the four and twenty elders, which sat before God on their seats, fell upon their faces, and worshipped God, saying. We give thee thanks, O Lord God Almighty, which art, and wast, and art to come ; because thou hast taken to thee thy great power, and hast reigned. And the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that thou shouldst give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear thy name, small and great ; and shouldst destroy them that destroy the earth." (Rev. II : 14-18.) " Then Pilate entered into the judgment I:all again, and called Jesus, and said unto him, Art thou the King of the Jews ? Jesus answered him, Sayest thou this of thyself, or did others tell it of me? Pilate answered, Am I a Jew ? thine own nation and the chief priests have delivered thee unto me ; what hast thou done ? Jesus METAPHYSICAL PHILOSOPHY OF POWER. 323 answered, My kingdom is not of this world ; if my king- dom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews ; but now is my kingdom not from hence. [It does not now begin.] Pilate therefore said unto him. Art thou a king, then ? Jesus answered. Thou say est that I am a king ; to this end was I born, and for this purpose came I into the world." (John 18 : 33-37.) Here are the facts taught that Christ was born to be a king, though his kingdom did not then begin ; but he is coming again to take pos- session of the whole world, which becomes his kingdom without successor or end. The universal government shall be upon the shoulder of the child that was born, the Son that was given : " His name shall be called the Wonderful, Counsellor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. Of his government there shall be no end. His Kingdom will be established with judgment and justice from henceforth [thenceforth] even forever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this." (Isa. 9:6, 7.) When Christ was on earth he said, " Now is my king- dom not from hence ; ' ' but when this prediction shall have its fulfilment, Christ having returned and having-^ assumed the government and kingdom of his new-made world, he will say, '' My kingdom is from henceforth even forever. ' ' History and Philosophy of Suffering. The scoffer says : '' We are informed by the clergy that this world is a kind of school ; that the evils by which we are surrounded are for the purpose of develop- ing our souls ; and that only by suffering can men be- come pure, strong, virtuous, and grand." There is a broad and well-defined distinction in the Scriptures be- tween the suffering consequent upon physical derange- ment, disease, and death, and that which men suffer at the hand of persecution for allying themselves with the cause of Christ. Such persecution has by no means been confined to what is called '' the Christian era," but has 324 CONFLICT OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. been the common lot of the saints beginning with Abel. As proof of this we quote the following : *' Take my brethren the prophets, who have spoken in the name of the Lord, for an example of suffering, affliction, and pa- tience." (James 5 : lo.) " Moses refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to suf- fer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasure of sin for a season ; esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt ; for he had respect unto the recompense of the reward." (Heb. II : 24-26.) " If ye suffer for righteousness' sake, happy are ye ; and be not afraid of their terror, neither be troubled ; but rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings ; that when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad with exceeding joy ; if ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye ; for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you ; on their part he is evil spoken of, but on your part he is glorified. But let none of you suffer as a murderer, or a thief, or an evil doer ; yet, if any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God on this behalf." (i Pet. 2 : 20; 3 : 14; 4= 13) Christ forewarned his followers that for his sake they would continue to suffer throughout all ages of the world. Hear him : "Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you, falsely, for my sake, rejoice, and be exceeding glad ; for great is your reward in heaven, for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you." (Matt. 5 : 11-12.) ''Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves, be ye therefore wise as serpents and harmless as doves. But be- ware of men, for they will deliver you up to the councils, and they shall scourge you in their synagogues, and ye shall be brought before governors and kings for my name's sake, for a testimony against them and the Gentiles. And the brother shall deliver up the brother to death, and the father the child, and the children shall rise up against their parents, and cause them to be put to death. And METAPHYSICAL PHILOSOPHY OF POWER. 325 ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake, but he that endureth to the end the same shall be saved. The disciple is not above his Lord. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more shall they call them of his household ? Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess before my Father which is in heaven ; but whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven." '^Think not that I am come to send peace on earth : I came not to send peace but a sword, for I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and a man's foes shall be they of his own household. He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me, and he that taketh not his cross, and followeth not after me, is not worthy of me. He that findeth his life [By abandoning Christ to save his temporal life.] shall lose it, and he that loseth his life [Falls a martyr for his sake.] shall find it. And that shall be the immortal resurrection Hfe." (Matthew 10.) From such instruction, it seems that even Ingersoll cannot fail to see that the kind of suffering here taught, and which develops the soul, the whole man into an immortal inhabitant of Christ's new world and endless kingdom, is to be reproached for being so much like him as to be known to be his disciple, which those cannot have or be who reproach him, and choose rather to reproach him and enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season, and lose those of immortality ; of course, they reap the harvest of the seed they sowed. Salvation of the Little Childre7t. Ingersoll asks : '^ Supposing this to be true, what is to become of those who die in infancy ? The little children, according to this philosophy, can never be developed. They were so unfortunate as to escape the ennobling in- fluence of pain and misery, and as a consequence are doomed to eternal mental inferiority." We have seen 326 CONFLICT OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. that the advantage of suffering for Christ's sake is, that it shows the sufferer loves him and is identified with his cause, and this the Httle children cannot have, nor do they need, as Christ pronounces such already fit for the kingdom ; and this shows IngersoU to be ignorant even of the theory of salvation, and when adult sinners are con- verted to his discipleship they are then exalted to the standard of the little child. Said he, " Suffer the little children to come unto me, for of such is the kingdom of heaven, and except ye be converted and become as a little child, ye can in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven." This objection of the scoffer shows how hard pressed he is for exceptional matter against the Bible and its religion, and secondly, his profound ignorance of plain scripture teaching. That he is, however, satisfied in es- tablishing the necessity for evil to do the work of righteousness, he asks: "If evil is necessary to the de- velopment of man in this life, how is it possible for the soul to improve in the perfect joy of paradise? " The absurdity of the question consists in supposing that evil, which shows what good is by contrast, begets the good. As though darkness begets light — cold, heat — death, life. In a word, that opposites are the product of the same conditions, the same causes. Not understanding the revealed fact, that the suffering of the present world, of whatever name, nature, or degree, is the result of sin, and that this ends with the present sinful world and with all its evil consequences. Absence of these in the world to come — i)aradise restored, proposes infinite and endless facilities for intellectual and moral development. There are angelic teachers with six thousand years' experience, to begin with, and the close, personal association with the Immanuelized God, "In whom dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily." Think of the grandeur of such a future, and of the limitless attainments even of the little children. Little, only when first entering the place, and soon growing to mature physical size, and then with the redeemed millions running the race of immortality together with their Tord, glorified to an exaltation of eternal honor. A nature so attuned to that of their METAPHYSICAL PHILOSOPHY OF POWER. 32/ Maker, that whatever they wish to do will be lawful to be done — " The glorious liberty of the children of God." This is the proposition and promise of our glorious gos- pel, while atheism leaves its votaries buried in the ob- livion of dark annihilation : such a man dies as the fool dieth. The Scoffer' s Closing Harangue. This brings us to consider the last passage of the lec- ture. The oracle says : " Day by day, religious con- victions grow less and less intense. Day by day, the old spirit dies out of the book and creed. The burning en- thusiasm, the quenchless zeal in the early Church have gone, never to return. The ceremonies remain, but the ancient faith is fading out of the human heart. The worn- out arguments fail to convince ; and denunciations that once blanched the faces of a race, excite in us only de- rision and disgust. As time rolls on, the miracles grow mean and small, and the evidences our fathers thought conclusive utterly fail to satisfy us. There is an irrepres- sible conflict between religion and science, and they can- not peaceably occupy the same brain and the same world." It is unnecessary here to say that there is no conflict between the revealed religion of the Bible and the true science of nature, as the arguments in these pages demonstrate, and this disposes of the strongest weapon in the hand of atheism. It is a fact that the conflict exists, and that it is irrepressible, but the idea Ingersoll bor- rowed from Christ, who declared : ''I came not to send peace on earth but a sword. ' ' But the conflict is between truth and error, light and darkness, sin and righteousness, Christ and Belial ; and the picture drawn by the pen of inspiration, and sang by the angels of Bethlehem, is that of universal and endless peace on earth, but it is the peace which results from the existence and reign of uni- versal righteousness, and in the very nature of the two principles could not be otherwise. The elements of sin' are war, and those of righteousness peace ; but it was the new earth about which the prophets discoursed and the angels sang; it was the earth "brought back from the 328 CONFLICT OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. sword," the earth with the curse taken off: *^ Behold, I create new heavens and a new earth ; and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind. But be ye glad and rejoice forever in that which I create ; for, behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy. And I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in my people ; and the voice of weeping shall no more be heard in her, nor the voice of crying. The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, they shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain." (Isa. 65th.) Mountain in prophecy symbolizes kingdom. Here is paradise restored to what it was when God first made it. ^' For as the new heavens and new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, saith the Lord, so shall your seed and your name remain. And they shall go forth and look upon the carcasses of the men that have transgressed against me ; for their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched ; and they [the car- casses] shall be an abhorring unto all flesh." They have had their resurrection to weakness, dis- honor, corruption, shame, and everlasting contempt." The fires of God's execution have put out their hfe, and could not be arrested in their work : they were unquench- able fires, and no power could arrest the work of decom- position upon the wicked. The carcasses are beheld by the immortal righteous: as described thus: ''When the wicked are cut off, thou shalt see it." (37th Psalm.) *'A thousand shall fall at thy right side, and ten thou- sand at thy right hand ; but it shall not oome nigh thee : only with thine eyes shalt thou behold and see the end of the wicked." (Ps. 91 : 8.) '' For behold, the day cometh that shall burn as an oven ; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble : and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch. But unto you that fear my name shall the Son of right- eousness arise with healing in his wings ; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall. And ye shall tread down the wicked ; and they [their carcasses] shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall METAPHYSICAL PHILOSOPHY OF POWER. 329 do this, saith the Lord of hosts." (MaL 4 : 1-3.) ^'The wicked shall perish, and the enemies of the Lord shall be as the fat of lambs : they shall consume away into smoke. Yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be, and the earth shall not be [Both are consumed into their elements by the fires of the last day.], but the meek shall inherit the earth." [The new earth.] " Wait on the Lord and he shall exalt thee to inherit the land." " Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth." (Matt. 5 : 5.) " Fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell." (Matt. 10: 28.) If in his search Ingersoll cannot find hell, let him be a little patient until its fires are kindled at the last day, as we here see is the time appointed for the work, and he will surely find it unless he repents: ''For behold, the Lord will come with fire, and his chariots like a whirl- wind [And his chariots are thousands of angels.], to ren- der his anger with fury, and his rebuke with flames of fire : for by fire and by his sword [His executing angels.] will the Lord plead with all flesh, and the slain of the Lord shall be many." (Isa. 66th.) T/ie Final Doom : The Galilean has Conquered. Christ has now accomplished his revealed purpose upon his enemies, " Who would not that he should reign over them. ' ' The devil and his servants, whether of angelic or human origin, are gathered out of his kingdom — the field — the present world, and are cast into the furnace of fire' and burned to destruction: ''For this purpose the Son of God was manifest that he might destroy the works of the devil." (i John 5 : 3.) The works of the devil are his obedient children, the children of the wicked one, the tares of the field. " Forasmuch as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he [Christ] himself likewise took part of the same; that through death [His resurrection from the dead.] he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is the devil [The devil used this power by introducing sin into the world, and death came in consequence.], and de- 330 CONFLICT OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. liver them who through fear of death were all their life- time subject to bondage." (Heb. 2: 14, 15.) When the time comes, according to these Scriptures, appointed for the destruction, and a devil or one of his chil- dren is left alive, then the Son of God has failed of his purpose; none, however, but men like Ingersoll suppose such a thing possible. This is the manner, Mr. Sceptic, in which the irrepressible conflict between you and Christ will be repressed. Here the Prince of Peace begins his reign of righteousness, never to be interrupted by a note of discord, or a seed of corruption. Every hostile will to the reign of righteousness are no more: ''Behold ! a king shall reign in righteousness." (Isa. 32 : i.) This has now commenced, and embraces all living, re-created animals, the lower as well as man. '' The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid ; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together ; and a little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down to- gether : and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. And the suckling child shall play on the hole of the a.sp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain [kingdom] ; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea." (Isa. II : 6-9.) '' And the work of righteousness shall be peace ; and the effect of righteousness, quietness and assurance for- ever. And my people shall dwell in a peaceable habita- tion, and a sure dwelling, and in quiet resting places." (Isa. 32: 17, 18.) Here the prophetic song of the angels, ''Peace on earth, good will toward men," is ful- filled. Christ came at first, not to send peace on earth, but a sword. But he has now come the second time, and established a universal government of righteousness upon earth, the effect of which is eternal Peace. It is the kingdom under the whole heaven, covering the now ])aradisiacal earth, "The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever." METAPHYSICAL PHILOSOPHY OF POWER. 33 1 General Unbelief Reigns when the World Ends. In our opinion, no living man has done so much as Ingersoll toward bringing about the unbehef which the Scriptures declare will exist at Christ's return to the world, consequently preparing it for destruction. But this he took into the account when drawing and revealing the picture as he foresaw it would be, but not as he would have it, ''Who would have every man to be saved." The scoffer predicts that the old zeal is dying out of the church, while he is doing all in his power to fulfil the prediction by the use of the arts of a most wily magician, and with infinite effrontery calls the success "progress," "improvement." Instead, however, of this delaying the end, they are so many voices of alarming apprehension to these willing victims of the deceptive arts, that the world is fast filling up the cup of its iniquity, " ripening the vine of the earth," for the work of the reaping angels of destruction, the conflagration of the last day. This general unbelief is implied in the question Christ asked thus, " Nevertheless, when the Son of Man cometh, shall he find faith on earth." (Luke i8 : 8.) Here we may remind our readers, that the first two chapters of the Bible record reveal the history of the creation of the temporary world. The rest of the Bible, the object of that creation to be a re-creation, delineating the charac- ter of its contemplated inhabitants, the requisite quali- fications and conditions upon which it may be obtained. The last two chapters record the prehistoric revelation of that object when accomplished ; the winding up scene of which is as follows: "He that sat upon the throne said, I am the first, and I am the last, I am he that liveth and was dead. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of living water freely and he shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he shall be my son." The achievement of this end vindicates and justifies the Creator in making and keeping the first world and its inhabitants in existence for its six thousand years. The 332 CONFLICT OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. indefensible blunder of the freethinkers, including in our day every grade of infidels, is, in attempting to account for the condition of things in the preliminary temporal world, without taking into the account the end proposed, the perfect, re-created, and endless world. CHAPTER XIV. HISTORY OF THE DEBATE, CHRISTIANITY DEFENDED BEFORE THE FREETHINKERS' CONVENTION. INTRODUCTION. [From the New York " Herald."] ^^Freethinkers' Convention — Orthodoxy to be Vindicated at Rochester — Elaborate Preparations for a Notable Gath- ering. " Rochester, N. Y., August 3, 1883. ^' There is every prospect and promise that the Free- thinkers' Convention, to be held at the Corinthian Acad- emy of Music in this city, on August 29, 30, 31, and September i and 2, will be one of the most notable gath- erings they have ever held in this country. A large num- ber of conspicuous men and speakers have been engaged, among whom are Thaddeus B. Wakeman, of New York ; Courtlandt Palmer, Z. C. Deland, and Samuel P. Putnam, of New York City ; the ex-Rev. George C. Miln, C. B. Waite, Professor John Stolz, and E. A. Stevens, of Chica- go ; Elizur Wright, George Chainey, William S. Bell, and George N. Hill, of Boston, Mass. ; Charles Watts, editor of the Secular Review, of London, England ; Mrs. Amelia Colby, of Buffalo, N. Y. ; Samuel H. Wixon, of Fall River, Mass. ; Mrs. H. S. Lake, of Milwaukee, Wis. ; J. H. Burnham, of Saginaw City, Mich. ; M. Babcock, of St. Johns, Mich. ; W. F. Jamieson, of Lake City, Minn. ; Allen Pringle, of Selby, Can. ; C. Frederick FarUn, M.D., of Binghamton, N. Y. ; J. A. Seitz, of North Conway ; N. H. J. Chapel, of Brighton, N. Y. ; Z. L. Brown, M.D., of Binghamton, N. Y. Tffi WD PRESBYTEfllAM MISSION LIBRARY 334 CONFLICT OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. ''It is confidently expected that the following named will also be present : Colonel Robert G. IngersoU, Horace Seaver, Professor Felix Adler, B. F. Underwood, and Professor Van Buren Denslow. '^OrtJwdox C/erg\';na/i to Speak/ '' The leading spirits in this modern movement propose to make the coming convention one that will greatly sur- pass in interest and importance all their other conven- tions. For a number of years the secretary has publicly invited the orthodox people of the country to send a representative to speak in behalf of Christianity on their platform, but no one has ever responded to the invitation until this year. The acceptance of the challenge by the Rev. Thomas Mitchell, of Brooklyn, heretofore announced in the Herald, has stirred up a deep interest in all sec- tions. It has caused much comment in religious circles in this city. At first the Christian people were in doubt as to Mr. Mitchell's ability to defend orthodoxy, but the well-informed ones in the church have quieted these doubts by asserting that he is one of the best theologians in the Methodist denomination. They add that no better man could be chosen in the United States to meet and put to flight the infidel horde. Thaddeus B. Wakeman, of New York, well known as a lawyer and one of the ablest men in the ranks of the freethinkers, has been chosen to reply to Mr. Mitchell, and it seems likely that the conflict between two such men will be watched with considerable interest, both by the Christian and infidel parties all over the country. The i)rospects are, too, that during the discussion many of the ablest men of the country, of all shades of opinion, will be i)resent. " The announcement made in \\\q Ilcra/d, in June, that the convention will be hapjjy to meet with them as their guest a representative of the orthodox churches, attracted wide attention, formed the subject of numberless edi- torials throughout the country, and succeeded in arousing one champion for the cause of Christianity. This is the Rev. Thomas Mitchell, a distinguished Methodist clergy- HISTORY OF THE DEBATE. 335 man and author, of Brooklyn, N. Y. His letter to the secretary of the Freethinkers' Association of the State of New York, was in the following quaint style : ''I accept the invitation of the Freethinkers* Associa- tion of the State of New York, to make an address before their convention, to assemble at Rochester, N. Y. , on Au- gust 29, 1883, in defence of the Christian religion, as published in the New York Herald of June loth. Please find enclosed papers, which, as we suppose, meet the con- ditions of your invitation in recommending me to appear and make the proposed address. That you may not be confused, permit me to say that I am not now a pastor of a church, though an ordained minister in the Methodist Episcopal Church, having devoted my time for a number of years, almost exclusively, to the work of authorship. My church relation is in Hanson Place Methodist Episco- pal Church, having a membership of 1,400, and of which the Rev. J. O. Peck, D.D., one of the most prominent ministers in the denomination, is now pastor. " Dr. Peck gave me the letter of recommendation en- closed the day before he went on his summer vacation. Wishing to be unobjectionable, we have availed ourselves of the clause of the invitation which says: 'Or either branch of the orthodox Church of the United States may send such representative.' Hence we applied to the Pres- byterian branch, and send you the enclosed papers, signed by Samuel D. Burchard, D.D., late chancellor of Ingraham College, New York, now president of Rutgers College, and pastor of Murray Hill Church, being also moderator of the Session. '' ' Dear Sir: I need not say to you that I wish to have it decided as soon as possible whether I am to be the representative to your Convention, as the task of prepara- tion imposed is so great, and which suspense increases. I shall be relieved of the latter by hearing from you that I am accepted, and of the former by being rejected. '' ' Yours respectfully, '' ' Thomas Mitchell, " ' No. 248 Lafayette Ave., Brooklyn.' " 33^ CONFLICT OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. The Champion's Indorsers. This letter was accompanied by the following indorse- ments : " Brooklyn, N. Y., July 9, 1883. **This will certify that Rev. Thomas Mitchell, of this city, is personally known to me, and that, in defence of Christianity as against materialism and free religion and modern scepticism, I consider him candid, able, and fearless. I approve of his meeting the challenge of the Freethinkers' Association to meet in Rochester, N. Y. ''J. O. Peck, D.D., '' Pastor Hanson Place Methodist Episcopal Church." "New York City, July 16, 1883. *' To the President of the Freethinkers' Association of the, State of New York. '' Dear Sir : Being acquainted with the character and ability of the Rev. Thomas Mitchell, we feel })repared to recommend him to rei)resent our individual church and the cause of evangelical Christianity in your Association, which is to meet in the city of Rochester, August 29, 1883. ''S. D BURCHARD, '' Pastor of Murray Hill Presbyterian Church, New York City, and Moderator of the Session." To these communications the secretary of the Associa- tion immediately forwarded the following reply to the Rev. Thomas Mitchell : " Salamanca, N. Y., July 18, 1883. *' My Dear Sir : Yours of yesterday received. I think you have substantially complied with the invitation of the New York State Freethinkers' Association as made through the Nezv York Herald, and we shall be very much i)leased to welcome you as a representative of evan- gelical Christianity at Rochester. And if it meets your HISTORY OF THE DEBATE. 337 mind, you may deliver your address at the Academy of Music, at which our convention is to be held, on Thurs- day evening, August 30th. The headquarters of our convention will be at the Clinton House, where my wife and I shall put up, and we should be pleased to have you stop where we do. Personally, I shall do all in my power to make your visit with us pleasant. ^' Truly yours, " H. L. Green, '^ Secretary Freethinkers' Association." It has been arranged that Mr. Mitchell's address shall be delivered before the convention on Thursday evening, August 30th. The Hon. T. B. Wakeman, of New York City, will reply to him on the following evening. The Address. Gentlemen of the Freethinkers' Association of THE State of New York : On accepting your invitation to make an address " defending or sustaining the claims of the Christian rehgion against infidehty, or both, as the speaker might choose," I cannot but avail myself of the whole extent of the option, not only because it is liberal, but because the defence implies the attack thus broadly. It cannot be intelligently questioned that the Bible sets up the claim that the words clothing the ideas de- scribing the Christian religion are of divine inspiration, and which are not to be changed or modified to the end of the world. Its language is : '' All scripture is given by inspiration of God." (2 Tim. 2 : 16.) " The pro- phecy came not in old time by the will of man ; but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." (2 Pet. i: 21.) '' For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the .prophecy of this book, if any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book ; and if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city." (Rev. 22 : 18, 19.) 33S CONFLICT OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. If, therefore, this book admits of no change of phrase- ology, then it admits of no change of meaning ; and any attempted change for improvement is positive corruption. It is equally unquestionable that the Bible claims God created the word according to the account given in Gene- sis, which is quoted throughout the Scriptures as the plain statement of the facts as they occurred, the two most l)rominent of which are that the whole work was done in six days of twenty-four hours each, and that the work in all its parts was as perfect as it has ever been. The hy- pothesis of evolution is the exact opposite of this ; hence there is an irreconcilable conflict between the two. We are also free to admit that science cannot prove that the world came into existence according to both of these claims ; therefore all true science must be on one side or the other, and the question is on which side ? Here is the clearly defined issue, and we take the Bible side of the question — King James's version, without note, com- ment, or marginal reading — asking no accommodating rule of interpretation not equally necessary to the lan- guage of any other book. We acknowledge the fact of the spread of infidel senti- ments in our day, as never before in the history of the world ; but, as we conceive, it has not been by the dis- covery of new defects in Christianity, nor by really new truths in science, much less in philosophy; but what is called "modern science," which we shall show is not science has been the chief cause of the evil. Of course, we refer to its ideas about the geological antiquity of the world, and its evolution, with that of man, from a sup- posed inherent potency in organic or in inorganic matter, to which the work is to be ascribed, leaving nothing for a supernatural workman to do. If this be true science, then whether there is a living God or not, is of but spec- ulative conse([ucnce to us. If God did not make the world and man, he is not their pro])rietor, and he has no right to imj^ose duties and restraints ui)on mankind ; and the freethinkers are right and j^hilosophic in rejecting the Bible containing them, together with the impositions of the Christian religion. But if we show by the resources HISTORY OF THE DEBATE. 339 of nature, her facts of science, and its highest type, philo- sophical science, that she has no such potency, and is utterly inadequate to the performance of the work, then their thinking has been erroneous, and their opposition to the creation of the world should forever cease. We shall not only show this, but that they cannot fall back upon atheism, which asserts that there has been an endless succession of living generations ; for even their superficial investigation has demonstrated to the intelli- gent evolutionists that there was a beginning of the world and of its inhabitants. At the outset it becomes neces- sary to know the formidability or feebleness of our an- tagonist, whether he is a giant or a pigmy. Taking into the account the nature of the proof which the originators of modern science have adduced, let us hear their own testimony as to whether they themselves claim it to be science, which means '' certain knowledge or understand- ing of truth by the mind." It is admitted by the four principal authorities on evolution — Darwin, Huxley, Tyndall, and Haeckel — that if it does not account for the origin of organic beings and things, the only alternative is the Biblical account of creation. Another admission granted by all these leaders in modern science is, that the claim, the primordial, originated by inherent forces in nature without supernatural interference, is a pure hypo- thesis ; and an hypothesis means, "something not proved, but imagined, or assumed for the sake of ar- gument." Darwin begins his argument on evolution with the assumed existence of a single living form — the primordial of all living forms, and which was the simplest of all living things. In contrast to this, the primordial of Scripture is the grandest and most perfect living Being. That the Biblical account of the world's primordial is the most consistent with philosophy and the facts of science, is demonstrated by the necessities of that which preceded the evolution, the unfolding — namely, the work of infold- ing, putting the things in which afterward came out, or were evolved. It is simply absurd to put evolution be- fore involution ; it supposes that living things can come out from whence even their embryons or seeds had not 340 CONFLICT OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. been put in ; especially when the embryon of an animal or plant is as grand a piece of workmanship as the animal or plant itself. It is self-evident, that the primordial, if it was a single one, from which every species of animals and plants have come into existence, whether it was that of Darwin or of Scripture, had the knowledge and ability to make the first pair of each, and involve in them the embryons or first rudiments, including every shade of dif- ference or susceptibility of variation which have or ever will manifest themselves in the evolution of all subsecjuent generations. This demonstrates the fact that the primor- dial involving such mechanical and physiological skill was the very paragon of a complete living organism himself, the living all-knowing — all-powerful creator, to whose existence every living thing, points and ascribes its own origin. If it was Darwin's primordial from which all these things have evolved, then, instead of its having been the simplest, it must have been the grandest em- bodiment of living being, as it involved the embryons within embryons of each link in the chain of being, losing one of these at each generation ; therefore becom- ing simpler and simpler until man was evolved, who, hav- ing lost all his embryons of different species, was the very simplest of all living things ! This argument completely reverses evolution, and shows that its primordial, instead of being the simplest, had the same involved ability as the Bible gives the living God of creation. Hence philo- sophical science and the well-known facts of physiologi- cal relation between jjarentage and organic transmission, prove the living God of Genesis to have been the primor- dial of the life of the world. What science demanded of Darwin before he proceeded another step in his hypothesis of evolution, was to show how lifeless nature was capable of performing the i)rior involution at least of embryonic rudimental life within the structure of the ])rimordial ; and this implies the ab- surdity of a thing communicating life, or the seed of life, before it lived itself — of organic nature acting before she was born ; and certainly this would have been a miracle. Had he done this, we should have been obliged to bow HISTORY OF THE DEBATE. 34 1 with reverence before the demonstration — having ceased to be an hypothesis — because it would have presented us with the work which science shows must have been per- formed in the origination of nature. The conditions upon which the first hving things were brought into ex- istence demanded work of which nature was incapable, hence superior, supernatural work ; for a miracle is simply a work of which nature is incapable. Though Darwin had not descended far enough from his quadruman ances- tors to comprehend the philosophic and scientific neces- sity in nature for the work of a creator, he did descend far enough to see that evolution was only an hypothesis. In his Belfast speech, Professor Tyndall asked : ' ' Whence came the primordial of Mr. Darwin ? " and declared that he ''saw the potency of hfe in those material atoms which we cover with opprobrium." But if he did see the primordial thus coming into life, his vision was so dis- torted that he has failed to give us the facts or to describe the process, so that others might behold the marvellous phenomenon. In his later published '' Fragments of Science " he says : '' Having adopted the nebula theory, I am bound to show that living things originated with- out the existence of antecedent life ; but all observation in proof of this has failed, and all experiment in its de- fence has utterly broken down." According to this tes- timony, there is no proof that evolution ever had a be- ginning, and that which never began cannot continue ; therefore this modern sceptical science has no existence, not even an hypothetical one. Professor Huxley corrob- orates these testimonies. In his '' American Lectures," delivered in New York and reported in the New York Tribune Extra, he said : '■'■ Man came into existence originally either according to the account in Genesis, or upon the hypothesis of evolution," and left it where he found it, a mere hypothesis. Since then Professor Hux- ley has pubHcly abandoned the godless myth of evolution, as being unable to account for the origin of the world's inhabitants. Professor Haeckel, in his ''History of Creation," says: "Though spontaneous generation is a pure hypothesis, never having been observed or proved 342 CONFLICT OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. by experiment, yet it is essential to the non-miraculous origin of living things ; and the evolutionists [Of whom he is one *of the most intelligent and devoted.] must ac- cept spontaneous generation, or the creation of living things." Thus evolution, according to its own showing, is unsustained by evidence. It is therefore a pigmy, and not a giant ! It is evident that that which gives vivacity to this con- troversy is the existence of a personal God. The scep- tics say, '' We will agree with you, if you will give up the claim to the existence of a personal God, of a per- sonal Christ, and call it the Godly, the Christly principle. This is beautifully modest, when all the evidence is on our side ; while they have nothing but hypothesis to be- gin with, inferences as continuity and irrationality to end with, not one of their propositions being established by philosophical science ; while all the real facts and well-known principles of natural science prove that evo- lution, according to natural selection, never had a start- ing-point ; and surely that which never started could not continue nor exist. The sceptics know full well that nothing but a personal being can issue laws to restrain their conduct and execute their penalty. They equally know that these penalties are not executed in the present life ; as they violate the laws with impunity, their course evinces a conviction and apprehension of fu/i/re punish- ?nent, and act as though they supposed that if they did not believe in the existence of a personal God, why then there would be none. All the facts of observation show that persons only can deviate from one source, and pur- sue another ; that persons only originate things, form purposes, and carry them into execution, that persons only have the conviction of moral responsibility, and the conception of the existence of persons or a person higher in the scale of being than themselves ; the exceptioiis being those who in their pride have so distorted their moral sensibilities, and perverted their reasoning faculties, that they can honestly believe or accept the foolish no- tion that there is no personal God, and nothing in the universe higher or greater than themselves ! It is no HISTORY. OF THE DEBATE. 343 wonder that such minds are capable of accepting any ab- surdity, as the supposition that the Christian rehgion is an abstract principle — '' the God, the Christ principle." What folly to suppose the Christian religion, which im- poses laws, and enforces duties, offers rewards, threatens punishment, and demands worship which can only be paid by the recognition of a superior Being, having the right to make the laws and to demand obedience to them, could exist without having originated in the mind of a personal God — a personal Christ ! As well suppose a moral law without a moral lawgiver, a religious principle imposed without a Being to impose it ! In a word. God- liness [Godlikeness] Christliness, without a God — without a Christ, the characteristics without the character ! As well talk about the laws of Lycurgus without the exist- ence of the Grecian lawgiver ; the code of Justinian if the Roman emperor had never existed ; or of the New- tonian system of astronomical science, had Sir Isaac never been born. The evolutionists having proved nothing, we might here claim a verdict against modern science, and in favor of the Scripture account of the origin of the world ; but we propose to vindicate the statements of Genesis by the well-known facts of natural science, both as to the manner of its construction and the time consumed in the origin of the world and its Hving inhabitants. The neb- ula theory of Laplace (and its name admits it to be a mere hypothesis) may be considered the foundation of an- imal and plant evolution, as well as that of the inorganic world, even of the solar system ; for if from this sup- posed form of matter, as the theory goes, the stars, as centres of revolving systems, formed themselves from this matter, it would be reasonable to conclude that their liv- ing inhabitants followed the same course of coming into existence ; and had he demonstrated the hypothesis, it would have settled the question ; but if he failed, and did not even make the attempt, then what right has any man to dignify it by the name of science, and how much less to adopt and build specious theories such as evolution upon it ? Humboldt talks about creation, but nothing is more 344 CONFLICT OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. apparent from his writings than that he attaches no other idea to the word than nature. He says : " Among the many wonderful things discovered by science and art, by the aid of powerful instruments scanning the regions of space, we see the remote nebulous mass resolving itself into worlds of stars." It is held by this scientist that the stars thus formed are suns, each having a planetary sys- tem like that of our own. Of course, if the nebulous mass resolves itself into stars, it leaves no work for the creator to do in forming suns, and therefore in bringing our sun and solar system into existence ; consequently, man is under no responsibility to him, even if there be such a being, and he may pay his devotions to his god ''Nebula" with impunity. The nebula theory is the strongest expression of sceptical materialism, and for which Humboldt virtually acknowledges its author has given no evidence. He says : '' Laplace has combined the results of the highest astronomical and mathematical bodies, and has presented them to his readers /;r<^_/>w;/ all processes of demonst?'atioji. The structure of the heavens is here reduced to the simple solution of a great problem in mechanics ; and yet his work has never been accused of incompleteness and want of profundity." Yes, in- deed, a very simple process ; for is it not childish simplic- ity to suppose that nebula — white cloudy vapor — should commence to work and resolve itself into suns and sys- tems of worlds replete with vegetable and animal life ? If it is a tax upon human intellect to admit this work to have been that of a living person, how infinitely greater is the tax upon human credulity to believe that a quan- tity of diffuse, lifeless vapor did the mighty work. If it is credulous bigotry to beljeve that this work was achieved by a person possessed of the wisdom and power it de- manded, how infinitely greater the faith which believes that the white vapor ofsi)ace commenced of itself and made all the suns and their planetary systems ! How such a faith should put the unbelief of church members to the blush ! If it is a reflection upon men for believing the origin of things to have been miraculous, how much more severe do those merit it, who believe the greater HISTORY OF THE DEBATE. 345 miracle, that lifeless cloudy vapor, or any other form of inorganic matter, achieved the mighty work ! Sceptics also say. We do not know where this God is, nor whence his origin. Well, do they know where or from whence is the power that brought them into exist- ence, whatever it was ? What we know is the fact that we exist, and that nature had no power to cause our ex- istence. Hence, correlatively, and of philosophic and scientific necessity, we know that there exists a being of wisdom and power equal to the task of our creation. This is what we know. Now, if we do not know where this Being resides at present, or whence his origin, and have never seen him, does such ignorance destroy what we do know ? We know that the sun produces light and heat upon our planet. If we do not know how the sun came into existence, nor the origin of its light, nor the mechanical and chemical principles involved in its pro- duction, does such ignorance destroy our knowledge that the sun exists, and that the light is its effect ? We know that we had a father and a mother, because we have seen them, and for other reasons. But suppose you had not seen your grandparents, would you not know you had them also, and be equally positive that every generation before them had parents ? and, by analogous reasoning, do you not know that your ancestors run back to a sin- gle man and woman ? and that these, being the first, could have had no parents ; for if they did have them, they could not have been the first, who, therefore, must have been the work of creation. You know, also, that dead parents produce no children, and therefore that the first pair — and there must have been a pair, male and female — were alive before the second generation was born. You know by the physiological science of life that the possession of vital organs is essential to life — lungs, heart, stomach, spinal column, anterior brain, etc. In a word, the involvement in a single body of all the parts, the removal of any one of which would prevent the con- tinuance of life, and as certainly its commencement. This establishes the fact that all your ancestors, including 346 CONFLICT OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. the first, possessed all these parts, the combination of which is life ; and the first pair must have had them all, as any succeeding generation, and each performing its function as an integral part of the life. Again, as nature always acts uniformly [and not to act thus she would work miracles], and does not now produce living things and beings from lifeless matter, nor children v. ithout par- ents, while she is in her maturity and not in a nascent state — as she is claimed to have been in when these things began — therefore nature had no power to bring the first pair into existence without parents ; and that, just as certainly as the second generation of men, or of any liv- ing thing, required parents in order to their existence, so certainly did the first pair require a living being to bring them into existence ; and the process must have been so short that the parts made first would not have decom- posed until the last were finished ; and this would not have admitted more than a single day to have com- menced its ravages. The work was therefore done in exact accordance with the account given in Genesis, and physiological science shows it could not have been done by the false science of evolution. This, then, is what we know by logical reasoning ui)on the facts and processes of nature ; from which it follows that that account is demonstrated to be the exact truth, both as to the man- ner and time it consumed. What kind of reasoning or thinking is that which de- nies we know anything concerning a fact of existence, because we do not know everything about it? Or, what is ecjually absurd, for a man to reject all phenomena the origin of which he cannot comprehend, when, as a mat- ter of fact, he cannot explain the mechanical principles involved in the motions of his finger ? And yet we hear one great scientist [Humboldt] complimenting another [Laplace], because he has not deigned to i)rove his scien- tific opinions ! Praising him because he has not demon- strated them, and falling in love with the scientific world for not calling in question their completeness and pro- fundity ! Think of it, undemonstrated profundity ! These are the men who stand at the head of the school of HISTORY OF THE DEBATE. 34/ modern scientists, the one the author of the nebula theory, and the other, one of its ablest defenders, ac- knowledging that Laplace, its author, gave no evidence in its defence. Let it, then, be remembered that all the inferences and conclusions of the evolutions drawn from the nebula theory are without force, philosophy, science, or fact ; therefore the structure of evolution built upon such a foundation is nothing but a fanciful myth, without the least claim to truth, or to be honored by the name of science. Then comes Professor Proctor, with his fiery astronomy, wholly founded upon the nebula theory, which of course has no more scientific existence than its imaginary foundation. The Professor says : ''It has been found that the sun and the whole solar system — the earth, moon, and planets — are moving in one direction ; and this uniformity of movement would seem to indicate a community of origin ; that at the same time the same influence was at work to set it in motion in the same di- rection. It is at this point, when we look into the heavens for the solution of the mystery, that we come upon the nebula hypothesis. This supposes [mark it, supposes — not proves] that the bodies composing the solar system once existed in the form of nebula; that this had a revolution on its own axis from west to east : that by the effect of gravity, the matter composing the nebula gradually became condensed toward the centre ; that the exterior thus had the velocity of their revolutions in- creased until, by centrifugal force, they were separated from the mass, and left behind in the form of a ring ; that thus the material of each of the planets was separated, while the main body was condensed, forming the sun ; and finally that each of the planetary rings, by a similar process, deposited other rings, ^ of which, by condensa- tion, its secondaries, or satellites, were formed." In one of his American lectures, delivered in New York, in giving some of his incomprehensible periods for the cooling of the earth's crust, so as to make it a suitable habitation for living beings, the professor said : " But back of all this lay the time occupied in the gradual cool- ing of the earth's crust, when the earth was a fiery mol- 348 CONFLICT OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. ten mass, whirling through space, a mass many times larger than it is now. As to the duration of this period, when the crust was slowly forming, it was very much longer than the subsequent one. According to Bischoft''s calculation, the time occupied in the formation of the earth's crust could not have been less than 350,000,000 years ; and this, the professor thought, erred rather on the side of deficiency than excess. But this did not fully measure the time since the earth began ; for back of the molten condition there lay another period, the va- porous stage, when the whole solar system was a mass of nebula vapor. This could only be obtained by approxi- mation, and perhaps a period of 500,000,000,000 years may be assigned as the duration of the time. Adding these figures together, it gave the age of the world. How can such baseless speculation lay claim even to a respect- able supposition ? It must be remembered that these cal- culations are all based on the supposition of the existence of the nebula supposition of Laplace, and for which there is absolutely no evidence ; hence the whole scheme is an atheistic fabrication of greater marvellous credulity, than to believe all the miracles recorded in the Bible, the ref- utation of which admits of no argument, since nothing is proved. We have however shown, in our published " Cosmogony," that the nebula in none of its stated forms could burn ; that a fiery mass has no gravity, electrical or chemical attraction ; without which forma- tion is impossible ; and that destruction, not formation, is the result of conflagration. We shall, however, in the sequel of the scientific part of our address, expose its ab- surdities by a number of syllogisms ; and if the nebulous fiery mass never existed, then it never cooled, and the periods of the cooling are the children of their parent myth. If the house never burned down, it consumed no time in the process. In the same work we have also ex- amined what purport to be facts in Sir Charles Lyell's *' Principles of Geology," giving the world a greater age than the Bible record admits, as well as the same preten- tious things found in other geological works ; and we have no hesitation in saying that not a fact of fossilization or of HISTORY OF THE DEBATE. 349 formation has been discovered which demonstrates the world to be even six thousand years old, or as old as Biblical chronology makes it. We return to Professor Huxley's American lecture for the purpose of showing still further that the origin of ani- mal life necessitated a creation just such as Genesis reveals. He says: " The hypothesis of evolution [here it is ad- mitted that evolution is mere hypothesis, supposition] that in any given time in the past we should meet with a state of things more or less similar to the present, but less in proportion as we go back in time. That the physical form of the earth could be traced back in this way to a condition of things in which its parts were separated as little more than a nebulous cloud, making part of a whole in which we find the sun and other planetary bodies re- solved [He finds this nebulous condition of things just as Laplace found it — that is, he found no such thing, nei- ther by observation nor calculation.]. And at no point of the continuity could we say, this is a natural process, and this is not a natural process ; but that the whole might be strictly compared to that wonderful series of changes which may be seen going on under our eye, in virtue of which there arises, out of that semi-fluid homo- geneous substance we call an egg, the complicated organ- ization of one of the higher animals. That, in a few words, is what is meant by the hypothesis of evolution." [Hypothesis and nebula express the two corner-stones of evolution.] '' The universe has come into existence somehow, and the question is whether it came into exist- ence in one fashion or another," says the professor. In the hen and egg illustration, is the conclusion true that '' at no point in relation to the manner in which the uni- verse and its inhabitants came into existence, from the nebula to the hen, can we say, this is a natural process, and this is not." We answer, it is not true. It makes no difference as to the nature of the work, whether it was a hen, egg, plant, or man, which was the first living thing. In the example of the egg, what are the facts and their correlation ? I. An egg exists. 3 so CONFLICT OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 2. By subjection to a certain temperature, a chicken is hatched from it. 3. The hen is possessed of a voluntary and an invol- untary department of machinery. The first enables her to go in quest of food, and to eat it when found. The second takes the food and from it manufactures the egg. 4. If the egg had a father and mother, it might evolve a chicken. If it had no father and mother it could not evolve a chicken ; therefore all eggs in the process of evo- lution had a father and mother. And also, if the egg had an air-space containing air for the chicken to breathe after it began to live, and until it gathered strength enough to break the shell of its confinement, then it could hatch a chicken ; but if it was full of meat, leaving no such .space, then it could not hatch a chicken. 5. The egg had in it the rudiments of every vital organ and every feature of the hen that laid it, and its products would be identical with its parents'. 6. If nature, in violation of this uniformity, should make an egg without an egg or hen, which w^ould pro- duce and reproduce chickens, hens, and eggs persistently, ^/la/ would be a miracle ; and according to evolution she did this very thing in making the first egg before a hen existed. And if the hen was first, then she made the liv- ing hen and evolved in her a chemical laboratory and me- chanical apparatus capable of making the egg. Hence nat- ure wrought a most stupendous miracle in bringing the first living thing into existence. But she has never repeated that act ; she only evolves subsequent generations, which is simply the unrollment of the one original miracle of involving all in the first ; and which makes the whole, from first to last, the one grand miracle of God, mani- fested in the phenomena of nature, and of which nature is utterly incapable. Surely, in view of this the honest sceptic will not object to our ascribing the miraculous work to a living being, when he .sees that if his god '■'■ Nature" did it, it was the same miraculous work, the unrollment of which comes under observation in every thing that is born. Each species of animals and plants, with all their generations, being these miraculous ma- HISTORY OF THE DEBATE. 35 1 chines, which for six thousand years have worked so per- fectly that a second interference on the part of the great Engineer of nature has been entirely unnecessary. Here we see Huxley's narrow conception of the subject which he attempts to handle, concluding that the process of bringing the first egg or hen into existence, was so like that which brings every succeeding egg or hen into exist- ence that we cannot say, " this is a natural process, and this is not a natural process. ' ' 7. The process of bringing one egg into existence re- quires about one day, and that of hatching a chicken from it less than one month. Expose an egg to the necessary temperature, and it will either hatch or decom- pose in less than one month. Therefore, the process of bringing the first chicken from the first egg could not have been longer than a single month ; and if the egg was formed first, no matter what power did it, the pro- cess must have been limited to this short period, and was so rapid that the parts formed first would not have de- composed before the last were finished. Of course, this argument admits of none of the indefinite periods which modern science appropriates for the work of bringing living things into existence, and shuts us up to the twenty-four hour-day statements of Genesis as the scien- tific and ultimate truth. In the history of the first hen, we have the fact that there was a moment before it lived, before it breathed, and the next moment it drew its first breath and lived ; and this implied that it had every vital organ as perfectly developed as any living thing has at the present day ; and so also has it been with every succeeding genera- tion ; for at no time does nature admit of a different or longer process ; therefore, the long periods and incipient stages of evolution for the performance of the work were always unscientific and impossible. These facts and principles of natural science demonstrate that the first progenitors of every species of animals were as perfect, and came into living form as suddenly, as the book of Genesis records them ; which equally demonstrates the so- called modern science to be no science, mere nonsense. 352 CONFIJCT OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. Hence we have the classic account of the work dictated by the great Naturahst himself, thus : *' And God cre- ated every living creature that moveth and creepeth upon the earth, after his kind ; the birds of the air and the fishes of the sea after their kind ; male and female created he them." The perpetual miracle manifested in the work is seen in the fact that each species was to be '* after its kind," never to be lost iti another ; and its con- firmation is the fact that nature, assisted by the cultivating and rearing skill of the great naturalists of the world, has never produced a generation different from its kind, and not a new species of aninial or plant has ever come into existence. The test of species is that by crossing they will not reproduce and persist ; while races are the modi- fication of species, and will always reproduce and persist ! Latest Discoveries Confirm our Position. To show that no later discoveries have been made to relieve evolution from these embarrassments, we quote the following from the July number of Nature, one of the most popular scientific periodicals of the day. It is a review by Henry De Varigny, an evolutionist, of a book by Albert Gaudry, another evolutionist, and Pro- fessor of Paleontology in the Museum of Natural History, Paris. De Varigny says, '^ A great deal has been written on the transformism -theory of Lamarck and Darwin, and it must be expected that much more will be written. One of the principal objections made to it is that, if a man is really the descendant of the ape, and the ape that of other mammalia ; if, generally, there exist linlis be- tween all animals, living and extinct, so that all animals trace their origin to a common ancestor, how is it that no link really exists between man and ape, or between fish and frog, or between vertebrate and invertebrate ? Embryological considerations, it is said, show a real con- nection between very different animals ; a frog, for instance, is a fish %>x some time during its youth, and amphioxus looks very much like an ascidian. But, not- withstanding numerous arguments to support Lamarck's HISTORY OF THE DEBATE. 353 theory, no transformist can show any species gradually losing its peculiar characters to acquire new ones belong- ing to another species, and thus transforming itself. However similar the dog may be to the wolf, no one has found any dead skeleton which might be as well ascribed to wolf as to dog, and therefore be considered as being the link between the two. One may say exactly as much concerning the extinct species ; there is no gradual and imperceptible passage from one to another. More- over, the first animals that hved on this earth are not, by any means, those that one may consider as inferior and degraded. M. Gaudry, in the first pages of his work, states very clearly that he prefers the theory according to which links do exist between the extinct animals of different groups, but he does not show any facts to sup- port it." Here we have two facts developed by the researches of evolutionists down to the present time. First, that the first animals which inhabited our earth were by no means inferior to those which now inhabit it. Second, that each species has preserved its identity ; both of which confirm the statements of Genesis as to the origin of animals, and as perfectly refute the theory of evolu- tion. For more than half a century the evolutionists have been searching for the links which gradually con- nect different species. They have ransacked all nature ; visited and searched every continent and island on the earth's surface, explored every sea, lake, and river ; climbed every mountain ; hunted every cave ; sunk shafts in the soil, and bored the rocks. They have paid par- ticular attention to snakes, snails and tortoises ; hunted burial-places for skulls, and calculated their age; and for their pains have not found a hving creeping thing or fossilized specimen upon which to hang the hypothesis of evolution ; but, on the contrary, have found all nature protesting against their folly ; and here are the latest wit- nesses, two eminent French authors and evolutionists, who would love to have the sceptical science true, but find no evidence by which to prove it. 23 354 CONFLICT OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. Scientific Origin of Plant-life. Let us now examine the origin of plant-life, in order to see whether it was the work of evolution or creation. The position we take in regard to the question is, that nature did not have the materials of which all plants are known to be composed, therefore the first plants were the work of supernatural power. In discussing the question we quote what is known upon the subject of scientific botany from the best text-books. What then is the nour- ishing media, or food of plants ? We can only satisfac- torily and precisely answer the question by stating what the simple and chemical component parts of vegetables are, because it is an established fact that everything they contain must be formed of that which is received from without. The bulk of every plant is composed of cellu- lar and vascular tissue and woody fibre, and their cellular membranes contain starch, resin, salts, chlorophyl, and a watery sap holding in solution sugar, gum, and acids in union with metallic oxides, albumin, volatile and fixed oils, with other fatty matters. The chief part of every plant passes, by combustion, into gaseous combination and disappears, and only the non-volatile metallic oxides and salts remain as ash, which forms an inconsiderable proportion of the weight of the plant. These substances are not in nature, for we never meet with woody fibre, starch, sugar, albumin, etc., except in the plant itself. It must therefore be the manufacturer of those articles out of the constituents of nature which it inhales from with- out — which is principally carbonic acid gas, composed of carbon and oxygen. Plants cannot receive carbon in its solid form into their circulation. Carbon is insolu- ble in water, but mixing with the oxygen of the air and water, for which it has a strong affinity, it is reduced to carbonic acid gas. This substance is received into the l)lant ])y its roots and leaves, and is decomposed by the I)lant itself, which expels the oxygen not needed in its formation ; retaining the carbon, and from it alone forms all the starch, sugar, albumin, woody fibre, etc., existing HISTORY OF THE DEBATE. 355 in nature, and which constitutes not only the food for all plants, but that also for all the animals of the world. All plants are formed of cells of about the same size and shape, of which there are 22,800 in a square inch. They are formed of layers from the outer to the inner layer, and down to the centre. Each of these cells form other cells exactly like themselves, adding cell to cell, and thus the plant enlarges or grows. As the cells thus succeed each other in coming into existence, if we begin at the last and count back, we come to the first — the primordial. If it was a plant-cell, it had the faculty of inhahng car- bonic acid gas from the surrounding air and earth, and then of separating the oxygen from it and of expelling it. It also had the faculty of manufacturing from this sub- stance starch, sugar, albumin, etc., the elements of which itself was composed, and of forming other cells of these materials, and of transmitting to these all its own faculties. This argues the prior existence of the first cell, and of which nature was always incapable of producing, because she did not possess any of the score of different compound substances of which the first was composed ; and, as the cell existed, demonstrates it to have been a work of which nature was incapable, and therefore a su- perior, supernatural, or a miraculous work — the work of a living Creator, who made the first plant of each species before there was any growing or any second generation. Hence we read the only scientific and satisfactory solu- tion of the problem in the scriptural account of the man- ner in which the first plants came and must have come into existence: ''And God made every plant of the field before it was in the ground, and every herb of the field before it grew, yielding fruit after his kind whose seed is in itself upon the earth." (Gen. i: 11; 2: 5.) Here were the first plants of each species made, involv- ing the mechanical department of producing ''seed after their kind," all of which have followed this identical order of reproduction — after their kind. " Never have men gathered grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles." Never, therefore, has there come into existence since the sixth day of creation a new species of plant kind ; and by no 356 CONFLICT OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. art of man has it been possible to produce one. Witli these proclamations of fact and science, all corroborating the Genesis of Scripture, how does the myth of evolution ap- pear, which declares that all species came from one, and all kinds from a single kind ! Here again does science and the Bible as perfectly agree as that both disagree with this so-called modern science of evolution, and the geo- logical fiction of the age of the world. Let us briefly consider the conditions and law of vege- table growth, and which will also show, by the interde- pendence of natural phenomena, how great a portion of the solar system is necessary to sustain the life of man. A seed must first exist ; yet not one atom it possesses would ever move toward life of itself. A seed, therefore, is not a law of nature, of plant production. Neither is soil such a law, nor yet solar light ; nor is the heat re- ceived from the sun such a law. These may exist, yet if the seed is kei)t out of the soil, no vegetable effect would follow. If the seed were planted in good soil yet amid perpetual darkness, still no vegetation would result, as no plant can be brought to maturity without sunlight. The law of vegetation, therefore, necessitates the astronomical motions of the earth and correlatively those of the solar system. Su])pose the earth did not revolve on its axis : in that case the half turned from the sun would be always dark and cold ; hence, if the seed were planted on that side of the earth, not one of its particles would ever move toward germination, and not at all, except to decompose, as they certainly would, unless the temperature was so low as to keep them frozen. We will also suppose the seed planted in a dry soil; but as moisture is an essential ele- ment of vegetable growth, dew or rain must fall upon the soil to prepare it to do its work. But this can only come from the atmosphere ; and as water is not a constituent of the air, it must be drawn into it l)y an inherent prin- ciple designed for the purpose. 'J'his is its evaporating power. The water is princii)ally taken u}) from the oceans, lakes, and rivers, and it would fall again directly into those bodies, were it not for the motion of the clouds, HISTORY OF THE DEBATE. 357 themselves formed by the evaporation. This motion is produced by the unequal expansion of the air, principally resulting from the ecliptic motion of the earth, and that upon its axes, perpetually changing its temperature. These correlative principles necessitate not only the exis- tence of the whole solar system, but its motions as perfect as at the present day ; all of which present us with the fol- lowing fundamental facts of the science of vegetable hfe : First, no plant or seed would grow unless it was first or- ganized according to the law of plant-life. Secondly, not the simplest plant could live in any nascent or half- formed condition of the globe, or in one less perfect than that which now exists, and without vegetable food ani- mals, with man at their head, could not have existed. Third, that the laws of nature are not abstractions, sus- ceptible of existence prior to nature, and as the evolution- ists claim brought her into existence, but that they inhere chemically and electrically as integral parts of the bodies, giving them their peculiarities, with which they were in- corporated by the Creator at the formation of the world. Thus does nature, or the solar system, the great law of vegetation, exhaust herself in sustaining the temporary life of man, demonstrating him to be the great object for which it was made. Thus does the well-known voice of botanical chemistry negative the airy thing called evolu- tion. If man is thus dependent upon the universe, let us briefly inquire how much of it depends upon him. for its perpetuation. One of the commonest objections scepti- cism makes to the Bible is that it regards man as the great object for which the world was made, delegating to him supreme dominion, and of course making all animals and living things subservient and dependent upon him. Man's desire to survive death, to live again, and his hope of eternal being, are attributed to his pride; ''for," say they, '^ he has really no more grounds for indulging such a hope than have the lower animals. As with these, so with him, death ends all." Indeed, modern science completely reverses this order, and makes man dependent upon a long line of ancestral weeds, shell-fish, and monkeys for his existence, through which he has crawled 358 CONFLICT OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. into being, so that in his devotions to his numerous pro- genitors he can sing, All hail thou mighty monkey ! all hail thou ancient clam ! Through you, by evolution, I came to be a man ! Our answer is, that the sustenance and continued exis- tence of the lower animals, fish and fowl, depend upon the simultaneotis existence and labor of man. Man is the only animal who clears the land of trees, and ctiltivates the soil, sows seeds, plants trees, and reaps harvests. There is no account of any race of men so low in the scale of being, that they did not do these things, nor of one that did not rear and use domestic animals. Wild wood will grow wherever there is soil enough to sustain any kind of plant, and they will be numerous in propor- tion to the richness of the soil. No cereals or fruit will grow in dense woods, not even grass for hay, while it does not require fifty years to grow a forest of oaks, and not half that time for one of various other kinds of trees. A large portion of the vegetable matter produced upon the earth is washed into the rivers, lakes, and seas by the falling rain, which supplies the food for the smaller fishes, while the larger ones prey upon and devour the smaller. Birds and fowls feed on fruits, vegetables, fish, and car- rion, while birds of prey devour the smaller ones, and the domestic birds and fowls. Let tis now suppose the sud- den extinguishment of mankind, and that the catastroi^he took place in the spring, too early to sow or i)lant. As a result, there would be no harvests reaped that autumn. By the next spring all the domestic animals would have died of starvation and exposure, while the carnivorous animals and birds of prey fattened and increasingly mul- tiplied. But the domestic animals being dead, they could only live thereafter by devouring each other, and before the end of ten years the last two of these would have met in deadly conflict, after which the survivor would have died of starvation. The flowers, vegetables, fruits, and dead animals — the food for insects — being gone, they too would have ceased to be, and the smaller birds, which fed upon these insects, would soon join the number of the HISTORY OF THE DEBATE. 359 dead. Those birds of prey which depended upon insect- feeding kind for food, would soon devour the few that re- mained, and finally also have died of starvation. Those birds which preyed upon the small fishes living close to the shore in shallow waters, would soon also perish for lack of food. These fishes had fed upon the living and dead insects, and vegetable matter washed from the cultivated farms, but the supply became exhausted, and they extinct. Upon these smaller fishes the larger ones of the deep de- pended for their food ; but the supply being cut off, they too preyed upon each other, and the last contest soon comes between the two surviving monsters of the deepest sea. The two strongest and most savage, uncivilized and therefore the most unfit to survive, kills and devours his antagonist, and then himself dies by starvation, after which universal death reigns over the animal creation. Look ahead to the end of a century, and see in what a condition are all the once cleared lands — the rich culti- vated farms ! Not a spot which would produce grass for cattle can be found uncovered by wild brush-wood and trees. The fruit-trees, overtopped and choked by wild- wood, long since became extinct. These facts not only confirm but demonstrate the Bible statements of the creation, that all organic beings and things, plants and animals, with man at their head, came into existence simultaneously, and that the world was made for man, and man for the world. CHAPTER XV. THE PHILOSOPHIC RELATION OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION AND MAN. Having now discussed the principal questions of science and philosophy in defence of the Bible statements as to the origin of the world, we proceed more directly to con- sider those which relate to the nature of the Christian re- ligion — that of man to it, and that of Christ to both ; and the first inquiry is, Who is Christ? An article in the " Encyclopaedia Britannica," headed " Confucius," men- tions it as a distinguishing mark of the greatness of the Chinese philosopher, that he deduced ''the Golden Rule" from the needs of human society. As this fact is used by sceptics to degrade Christ to the level of a mere philoso- pher, we call attention to the subject to show that he bor- rowed nothing from the Chinaman, and that Confucius had no conception of ''the Golden Rule." Confucius lived three hundred years before Christ, and Moses lived one thousand five hundred before Christ, and Christ de- clares that the ' ' Golden Rule ' ' he taught was deduced from the laws of Moses and the prophets, so that if either borrowed it, it was the Chinaman. The rule of Confu- cius was only negative. Its language is, " What you would not like to be done to you, do not do to others." It is obvious that a perfectly selfish miser may keep the rule of Confucius, which simply requires that we do no evil to others; while the rule of Jesus requires this, and, in addition, to do every good to others which lies within our power — everything we would have others do to us, were we in their circumstances. The practical part of the Christian religion therefore consists in doing those unselfish works which were exemplified in the life and taught by the injunctions of its author; and its best de- RELATION OF CHRISTIANITY AND MAN. 361 fence are the laws its founder enjoined. The Golden Rule of Christ, is in these words : ' ' Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them : for this is the law and the prophets. ' ' (Matt. 7:12.) As proof of our position, we present a brief summary of those principles from Moses and the prophets, and from which Christ deduced the Golden Rule, and we may add they were the constitution of re- vealed religion from the foundation of the world. ''The stranger that dwelleth with you shall be as one born among you ; thou shalt not vex him, and thou shalt love him as thyself." ''Thou shalt rise up before the hoary head, and thou shalt honor the face of an old man." " Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment, in mete- yard, in weight, in measure ; just balances, just weights, a just hin, shall ye have." " Regard not them that have familiar spirits, neither seek after wizards, to be defiled by them : I am the Lord your God." [The supposed gods of space, after which the familiar spiritualists seek for the living among the dead, are no gods — refrain from consulting those who have this animal magnetic power to glide familiarly into your mind, reading the brain-pict- ures of your history and returning them to you as revela- tions from the ghosts of the dead — do not thus defile yourselves.] " If there be among you a poor man thou shalt not harden thine heart, nor shut thine hand from thy poor brother ; but thou shalt open thine hand wide unto him ; thou shalt surely lend him sufficient for his need, in that which he wanteth." " Thou shalt not de- fraud thy neighbor, nor rob him." " The wages of him that is hired shall not abide with thee until morning." "Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thy heart." "Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people ; but thou shalt love thy neighbor as thy- self, and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart." "Thou shalt not deliver unto his master the servant that is escaped ; but he shall dwell among you within thy gates, in the place where it liketh him best : thou shalt not oppress him." " And when thou sendest away thine hired servant, thou shalt not let him go away 362 CONFLICT OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. empty : thou shalt furnish him hberally out of thy flock, and out of thy floor, and out of thy wine-press, of that wherewith the Lord thy God hath blessed thee." (See Leviticus 19th, Exodus 6th, and Deuteronomy 15th, i8th, and 24th chapters.) These scriptures are quoted by Christ and his apostles as the Code of the Christian religion. Says Paul. ''Re- member them that are in bonds, as bound with them," "Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ." "Love worketh no ill to its neighbor." " Love is the fulfilling of the law." Jesus said, " Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart ; and thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself, and on these two com- mandments hang all the law and the prophets. ' ' In his sermon on the mount, Christ reaffirms the provisions of these laws as the principles of his religion, and, in closing, resolves them all into the Golden Rule, which covers all the reciprocities of human relationship and obligations: "Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them ; for this is the law and the prophets." Is it not marvellous that in this late age anyone should be called on to defend such a system ? and should not its boasting pride feel the rebuke of its utter inability to add the least shade of improvement to the perfection and grandeur of its standard? Every system of mechanics or art, and of natural and social science, have their fundamental principles. These not only relate to each other, but are dependent upon the physical laws of the universe, limiting the term to signify the solar system and its Creator. If we understood the entire correlation of natural existences, we would be able to deduce the purpose of an existence from the fact of its existence ; the whole phenomena from a knowledge of a part, and its parts from the whole. For example, the globe from an atom, and the atom from the globe ; the ocean from a droj), and the drop from the ocean ; the at- mosphere from a breath, and the breath from the atmos- phere ; the vegetable from the animal, and the animal from the vegetable ; man from the universe, and the universe from man ; the existence of the Creator from that of man, RELATION OF CHRISTIANITY AND MAN. 363 and man's existence from that of his Maker. In a word, if nature is a system, any part correlates the whole, and especially does it include the end it proposes, namely, the development of man, the head of nature, to the highest mental, moral, social, physical, and religious exaltation of which his nature is susceptible, both in the temporary and endless world. If these postulates are true, it follows that any partial view of the supposed teaching of nature which does not blend with the whole, or which antagonizes some known part, demonstrates its error, and thereby excludes it from being any part of the universal science ; and this carries with it every assumption, hypothesis, inference, or sup- posed phase of natural teaching which is in opposition to any of its known parts. These principles of nature which for brevity we call truth, must be in harmony with each other, and all the truth and evidence must be on one side of every question, and on that side on which some truth is known to be arranged. There may be that which, for the time being, seems to involve truth and error on both sides of a question ; but this is because of superficial knowledge of the subject at the time, or science falsely so called. This involves the conclusion, that the principles adapted to such development may be deduced from the physical, moral, and religious necessities of mankind, and would be true if taught in no book ; so that if the principles of the Christian religion are adapted to such development, then the universal science and all its parts demonstrate their fundamentality and truth. If, then, all nature is interdependent, and each department is essential to the highest development of man, including what is called humanity as a part [for, as it cannot exempt man from death, the greatest deranging element in human society], it follows that such a state cannot be attained in the present world, and as conclu- sively, that there must come another world, wherein exemption from death will make it possible. The effect upon those in this world who have complied with the conditions of obtaining an entrance into the world of purity and universal righteousness, and have therefore 364 CONFLICT OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. been actuated in their human career by the purest motives and highest aims, which has made them the brightest examples of human society ; because they have refrained from every evil and practised every good within their power, which the real followers of Christ must and will do. As this temporary development is reached by belief in the promises of God of an inheritance in that world, ex- emplified by submission to the necessary sacrifices de- manded in this life of all degrading indulgences, a soci- ety composed of unbelievers in that purpose and those promises, cannot but be low in its aspirations, selfish in its spirit, and inconsistent in its acts ; all of which tend to degrade and disintegrate human society. If unbeliev- ers are too self-willed and proud to obey their Maker, how can they act otherwise toward their fellow-men ? This development is simply according to the philosophy which, while it aims at the higher, recedes from the lower ; and, while aiming at the supremely high — the possession of the eternal world of righteousness to come — it reaches the highest virtue and knowledge in- the present world, namely, the knowledge of God's will and pur- poses with man and the world. The fundamental prin- ciples and bonds of social union are not statutory enact- ments, secret compacts, communistic engagements, or conventional arrangements of whatever name or nature, but that which inheres iji the character of the individuals composing it. What each member is in himself is his standard of the social state. He acts out what he is within, evolves what he involves, and cannot for any considerable time do otherwise, because no man can be a permanent hypocrite and it not be known to others. These principles of deduction indicate both those of the highest human and immortal society ; the former being unattainable without proper conceptions and hopes of the latter. The anticipation of an endless life induces men to shun every evil and practise every virtue in this life; and when this is done for Christ's sake, it makes them Christians. This is the Christian religion, thus deduced from the wants, hopes, and susceptibilities of mankind, RELATION OF CHRISTIANITY AND MAN. 365 and its corroboration by the gospel statements demon- strates it to be the universal science of God, man, and nature for time and eternity. Let us hear the great Philosopher discourse upon the subject : '' Every tree is known by its fruit. Every good tree bringeth forth good fruit ; but a corrupt tree evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. A good man, out of the good treasure of his heart, bringeth forth good things ; and an evil man, out of the evil treasure, bring- eth forth evil things. First make the tree good, and the fruit will be good ; or make the tree corrupt, and the fruit will be corrupt. O generation of vipers ! how can ye, being evil, speak good things ? for out of the abun- dance of the heart the mouth speaketh." (Matt. 7 : 17, 18; 12 : 33-35.) We see by these sayings, which our daily observation confirms, that it is the heart of man — his moral, feeling, sensitive nature — which is the standard of human rectitude, purity, and virtue, and its action the development of the standard ; and that these principles divide mankind into but two classes. All are good or bad, as their hearts are such. We may also learn from these facts the utter impossibility of forming a permanent community composed of both these classes and charac- ters, for " how can two walk together, except they be agreed?" The attempt may be made, as it has often been, but the effort to counteract nature with nature al- ways fails. No conventionalities instituted by man change selfishness to kindness and benevolence, nor pride to humihty ; therefore, all schemes for the development of a permanent and prosperous social community, whose aims and hopes are limited to selfish human nature and the present world — call it what you will, even the relig- ion of humanity, or moral cultured humanity without re- ligion — must always prove a failure, from the fact that all such efforts reverse the great philosophy of God and man, by attempting to cure the social evil tree by doctor- ing its evil fruit. Its devotees seek to '' gather grapes of thorns and figs of thistles." They make efforts to sweeten the bitter fountain by medicating its streams. 366 CONFLICT OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. It is the attempt to practise the highest conditions of de- velopment without obeying the essential mandate, •'' Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart." This is first, and gives the qualification to fulfil the second re- quisition, ''Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." As though the Creator had said, " Thy mental powers shall first be devoted to the investigation and practice of those things which please me ; and secondly to those which will be best adapted to develop the highest inter- ests of thy fellow-men. The love which proceeds from the heart is always characterized by purity of intention, will both please me and work the greatest good to thy fellow-men." Therefore the second requisition is, '' Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." Hence the absurd- ity of supposing a man can act toward his God whom he does not love as though he did love him, and of think- ing that a man can act toward his brother-man whom he does not love as himself as though he did thus love him, or for a selfish man to be unselfish at the same time. This truth is read and confirmed in the decline and fall of all the great states of the world, and the ruins of cities. Human nature being the same, must always repeat itself in history. In our day it clamors for freedom from all religious restraint. Abolish the Sabbath, give us easy divorce. It ridicules God and the Bible, blasphemes Christ, and many make him the i)rinci])al wizard in the spiritualistic religion, and give us the ghostly revelation of free love, and with whom progress is the obliteration of all restraints upon passion. They repeat the cries of their prototypes, and say unto God, ''Depart from us ! we desire not the knowledge of thy ways." They proud- ly exclaim, " Who is the Lord, that we should serve him?" and indignantly cry, "Cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us ! " The two fundamental principles of the Christian religion are love and sacrifice; the latter being the means of its manifestation. One person may love another, but the only manner in which it can be made known is by sacrifice. The one has wants, and the other jjossesses the means and disposition to supply them ; and the degree of love is measured by RELATION OF CHRISTIANITY AND MAN. 367 the degree of sacrifice made to please the object loved. Our Maker, desiring to be pleased and obeyed by the first pair, while they did not know what would please or displease him, was obliged to make a revelation, and tell them what they might and what they might not do, and of the consequences. But if the man obeyed, his loyalty might be precarious, because it was not prompted by love, and to make it supreme and constant he must be brought to love him who imposed the duties. This the man could not yet do, because he had no wants which might be graciously supplied, he must therefore feel independent of his Maker. The possession and do- minion of the earth had been committed to him ; all nature was subservient to his happiness ; he knows of nothing he does not possess. But now he violates the obligation imposed, and deprives himself of the means of everlasting hfe. The loss carries with it the consciousness of shame and want, and teaches him what evil is. He can now love him who is able and willing to supply these wants, and relieve him of the apprehensions, even though it be by promises to be fulfilled in the future, and for which he may in faith and hope confidently look. These gracious promises the Creator made to the first generation of man- kind, and they have constituted the hope of the saints of all ages. To win the love and obedience of this pair, and of their offspring, God must make the greatest sacri- fice in his power so as to afford them the very strongest inducement to love and sacrifice for him in turn — and that must be the sacrifice of a life ; anything less would not show the greatest love for man and the world. Hence the revelation — " For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him might not perish, but have everlasting life." "■ For greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friend." But as the immortal God could not die, he must take on him a living nature in which he could die, which he did when he became '' Im- manuel, God with us — God manifest [seen] in the flesh." In this form God was both Father and Son. Before this 368 CONFLICT OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. he was only such in purpose, made known in decree, prophecy, and typical revelation. This Immanuelized being is the Christian's God, as taught in the Bible, the one living and true God, the Creator of all things. " Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he died for us." (i John 3: 16.) To show that this Re- deemer, Saviour, and destined King of the coming new world is the only living God, as taught in the Scriptures, we quote but one of its predictions and its revelation in the New Testament. '^ Thus saith the Lord, the king of Israel, and his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts : I am the first and I am the last ; and beside me there is no God. Is there a God beside me ? Yea, there is no God ; I know not any." (Isa. 44: 6, 8.) This passage is re- vealed by Christ himself to John thus : "I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, the Almighty.* I am the first and I am the last ; I am he that liveth, and was dead ; and behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen, and have the keys of hell and death." (Rev. I : 8, 17, 18.) It was not the human form which was Jesus Christ, nor was God Jesus Christ before he took this form ; but God in it was both God and Christ, the Father and Son — the Lord of Glory, and the man Christ Jesus. That this human form was the whole Godhead is also proved by the following apostolic declaration : " For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily." (Col. 2 : 9.) He was the Creator before he took human form, and was he any less the Creator afterward ? If God could make bodies for men, could he not make one for himself, involving himself in it ? If he could live in it as a man, could he not die in it as a God ? and while he was thus dead would not God be the same being as he was before the Immanuelization ? Or could he not on the third day become Immanuel the second time, thus investing himself with the same dead body, the human- mortal life of which he had sacrificed for men to win them to become his loyal, loving servants and thus, by his own living, immortal self, rendering it no more sus- ceptible of death ? And if this resurrected Lord thus be- RELATION OF CHRISTIANITY AND MAN. 369 came Christ again, can he not by [with] Christ, the whole embodiment of God, resurrect his saints from the dead, when the time appointed for that work arrives? Whatever was the substantial nature of God before he be- came Immanuel, he now becomes the palpable God-man revealed in human form ; a form in which he might sac- rifice himself for his creatures, in order to win loving friends for his kingdom and that he might be seen — '' God manifest in the flesh," and in this his last form to reign with his subjects and be like them in his endless world. From henceforth he is no more the invisible God, whose face no man had seen or could see ; but in the very glorified nature of his glorified brethren, be- comes forever visible. Upon this subject we have such testimony as the following : ''I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth, and in my flesh [the flesh of man] I shall see God." John testifies : ^' We shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is." ''No man hath seen God at any time, but the only begotten Son, he hath declared him ; " and Christ's declaration is, ''I and my Father are one, and he that hath seen me hath seen the Father also." No more the invisible, impalpable, but the Immanuelized God-man — " The Lord of lords, and King of kings : the first and the last, and beside whom there is no God." It is evident that the second creation of the world and its inhabitants demands the same wisdom and power as did its original creation ; and as Jesus Christ is the re- vealed re-creator and Saviour, it follows that, if he is any- thing less in wisdom and power than the original Cre- ator, he is inadequate to the work ; but after his second Immanuelization from the dead, we hear him declaring, " All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth." (Matt. 28 : 18); and Paul, in i Cor. i : 24, says that " Christ is the wisdom of God, and the power of God." He therefore embodies it all, and which the Immanueli- zation alone explains. Indeed, the power and wisdom he displayed in his mortal history over organic and inor- ganic matter — in stilling the tempest, raising the dead, and controlling the laws of vegetable and animal life — 24 3/0 CONFLICT OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. were manifestations of all the wisdom and jxjwer which the creation of the world demanded : and when this work is accomplished, it is the promised salvation of which the gospel is the glad tidings : the re-created world being the kingdom of God and of Christ — one God with various titles. All the revealed instruction concerning its nature and coming is the gospel of the kingdom ; and when its immortal inhabitants take possession of it, then they are saved — safe beyond all future liabihty. This is expressed in such language as the following : '* Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls " — yourselves ; for the Christian religion does not propose, like heathen- ism, to save a disintegrated part — a mere ghost of a man, but the man himself — body, soul, and spirit — * ' Man all immortal." In this world Christians are saved by faith. '* That is, they believe they will be saved when the salvation comes. Then faith is superseded by possession, and ends. In the present world they 'Mvalk by faith and not by sight." Their eye is fixed on the salvation which they do not yet see. They are also declared to be " saved by grace." This is the gift of God, comprehending the bestowment of eternal life in the endless world. This gracious promised reward has been a sufficient induce- ment to encourage the saints of all ages to sacrifice every- thing of the present world, even life itself, rather than for- feit their heirship to it ; and in their trials they hear the cheering words, '- My grace is sufficient for you." '' He that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved." "■ He that overcometh shall inherit all things : and I will be his God, and he shall be my son." '' Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind ; be sober, and hope to the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ." Again it is said, "We are saved by hope, and if we hoi:>e for that we see not, then do we with i^atience wait for it." (Rom. 8 : 24,25.) "Look- ing for that blessed hope, and the glorious api)earing of the great God our Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ : who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working RELATION OF CHRISTIANITY AND MAN. 37 1 whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto him- self." (Phil. 3: 21.) Here Jesus Christ, the Saviour, is to come and give the great salvation for which the saints of all ages have hoped. Hence " we are saved by hope" — we hope then to be saved. Abraham looked for a heavenly country, and was heir of the world — the world to come — the new heaven and new earth. Hence says Christ, '' But they which shall be counted worthy to obtain that world, and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry nor are given in marriage ; neither can they die any more ; for they are equal unto the angels and are the children of God, being the children of the resurrection." (Luke 20 : 35, ;^6.') It is also said, " We live by faith." Jesus said, " I am the resurrection and the life. He that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live." Paul says, " For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory." Who can see an inconsistency in this instruction, or an impossibility of its execution ? Let us for a moment return to our Protoplast. Here is a man and a woman physically mature, bearing the corresponding marks of age, as did all animals, plants, and rocky strata, though but one week old. " And God called their name Adam, 'm the day when they were cre- ated." (Gen. 5:2.) They possess faculties to think, will, and act. But a man can only act after he wills to act. He can only will after he thinks. He can only think after he has brains and organs of sense ; and only then after he is alive. As no man can think for him or will for him, so no man can act for him, not even his Maker ; for if the Maker should compel his will, and he should act under such compulsion, it would not be the act of the man, but that of the controlling will ; and for such an act the will which prompted it would be alone responsi- ble. Here are two persons, each having a will. Each person must have a will, and no person can have two wills. One is the Creator, the other the creature. The creature desires to be pleased with what he makes, and 3/2 CONFLICT OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. expects it to subserve the purpose he designed — that it should in some way minister to his pleasure and satisfac- tion. From these characteristics of the creature, we rea- son that the Creator also desires to be pleased with what he makes, and that it should answer the purpose for which he designed it, and thereby minister to his pleas- ure and gratification. Indeed, it is no more possible for the Creator to make a thing on purpose to displease him, than for a creature to commit such folly. If, then, the man can will and act, and act independently of the Cre- ator — which simply means that he can do a voluntary act at all — it follows that he has the ability to act in accord- ance with the will of his Creator, and to obey him. This implies the ability to act contrary to his will, and to dis- obey him. Having thus made him a man, and endowed him with the gift of volition and the power to displease him, how to win such a being to love and obey his Creator, is the vital question ; for, to secure his love and fidelity, and rescue him from infidelity, would afford him greater pleasure than to behold all the glories of the universe be- sides, which had no power to disobey him. And how is this enhanced when we consider man's intellectual facul- ties ? By the use of these man alone is capable of inves- tigating and of ai)ijreciating the wonderful wisdom and l)ower displayed by the Creator in the mechanism of the world, and the adaptation of its parts to work out God's purposes and ends ; thus pleasing his great Father as a precocious son pleases his natural father ; for man alone has the power to discover the grandeur of the great Ar- chitect of the universe ; and every such conception draws from the myid of him who ente«;tains it an act of merited honor and worship, elevating to himself, and, as a conse- quence, brightening the halo of glory encircling the great Inhabitant of eternity. Now, if some of his creatures thus " give the Lord the honor due unto his name," is it not arrogant for others who, in their selfish jjride and jealousy, desire all honor to be paid to themselves, to question the right of the Maker to have made those who remain proud and con- RELATION OF CHRISTIANITY AND MAN. 373 ceited ? That because one refuses to perform the duties which another recognizes and discharges, and thereby gains his Maker's approval and promised reward, God had no right to cause both men to exist ! That the Crea- tor has no right to be honored and obeyed, because some persist in dishonoring and disobeying him ! As if the disobedient father of an obedient son should not have been born, thus depriving the obedient son of existence. Or, as all fathers are disobedient at some period of their lives, and have violated the laws of God, although mul- titudes of them would have repented of their folly, see- ing that the loss would fall only upon themselves, and would have been ''converted from the error of their way." This complaint against God for having made man, is the argument of the disobedient, the self-willed and proud, but never of the lover and worshipper of God. If God was morally like themselves, would they not glory in having such a distinguished leader, just as they glory in such men as Robert G. Ingersoll and Charles Brad- laugh? The weakness of their defence obliges them, against their own reason, to make every effort to dissi- pate from their minds the conviction of the existence of God, and the truth of the Christian religion, which are the greatest sources of their trouble. If they would make half the effort to end the contest with their Maker that they do to prolong it, O ! what changed men would they become ! Has not God blessed these men with life? If they did not esteem life a blessing, would they not com- mit suicide? For its preservation they submit to three score and ten years of toil, hardship, and suffering. If temporal life is the gift of God, and for which he de- mands and they pay such an enormous price, can they expect him to give them eternal life without any price or sacrifice, and while they continue his enemies? If nature is the god that brought them into being, does he deal so mercifully and mildly with them that they should praise and worship him ? They complain against God, because he threatens to punish them if they continue all their life to disobey his laws and refuse to be his loyal subjects ; 374 CONFLICT OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. but they praise their god nature, while he instantly and implacably punishes friend and foe alike for every trans- gression of his laws, and mercilessly sends forth his con- flagrations to burn, his gravity to crush and mangle, hurricanes to scourge, famines to starve, pestilences to devour, floods to drown, lightnings to kill, earthquakes to engulf, and lets loose the whole host of deadly diseases to torture his devotees; and at death executes upon them hopeless annihilation ! Why should they prefer such a god? Another of these complaints against God is, that he knew when he made these opposers and detractors of his character and honor that their end would be punishment and destruction ; and because such an end is inevitable, they say they will not serve a god that would inflict it. We admit that God foreknew this destiny. He foreknew it because he foresaw it just as a man foreknows that a steam-boiler which he has made will explode under cer- tain circumstances ; but did his knowledge explode the boiler? God foreknew, because he foresaw, that sin and death would reign six thousand years in the world which he was going to make. The disobedience of men would make this reign, and God saw it. Had mankind always been loyal to his laws, death had never entered the world. This history he would also have foreknown, because hav- ing foreseen it ; but in neither ca.se would his knowledge have produced any effect upon the result. Knowledge simply qualifies to act, but does nothing. God deter- mined on having a certain number of inhabitants in his new world, and foreknew, because he foresaw, how long it would require him to induce this number to accept the conditions of the citizenship, and thus become candidates for the eternal empire ; and he appointed the very day on which he foresaw the last man needed to com])lete the number would accept the terms of loyalty, as that upon which he would return and finish the work he had deter- mined to accomplish. To deny this right of the Pro- prietor of the world, involves the absurdity that a uni- versal government of virtue and righteousness has no right to exist, because it displeases the vicious and rebel- RELATION OF CHRISTIANITY AND MAN. 375 lious ; or that a government has no right to destroy those who would destroy it ; that a king has no right to exclude from his dominions those who had taken the lives of mil- lions of his subjects and would exterminate them all, and the king himself, rather than be themselves exterminated. Who can but desire the establishment of a government covering the whole earth, wherein all apprehensions of decay or death have been superseded by organic immor- tality ? wherein those who had been the righteous poor in the former world, have taken possession of incorrupt- ible riches ; wherein pain and sorrow have been ex- changed for strength, health, and endless pleasure : where- in ignominious persecution for Christ's sake is repaid by eternal honors ; wherein the weakness of mortality is superseded by the power of an endless life, and the badge of the despised and abused Nazarene is exchanged for the eternal companionship of God, angels, and immortal men ? Who is so in love with sin and the present world that he cannot be induced to make the necessary sacrifices to ob- tain such an exalted reward ? Such are the provisions, such are the promises, and such the hope of the Christian religion ! Who would blot it from the records of the world ? If any — '' Father, forgive them ! they know not what they do ! " Forty Syllogistic Conclusions. That the force and conclusiveness of the principal argu- ments we have now presented may be more readily per- ceived, we resolve them into the form of syllogisms and aphorisms. 1. Persons exist ; impersonality cannot create persons ; therefore the Creator is a person. 2. Persons are creatures; creatures had a Creator; therefore there is a creator. 3. A thing has locality ; space has no locality ; there- fore space is not a thing. 4. A thing has locality ; God is something ; therefore God has locality. 5. The origin of nature demands volition ; nature is 3/6 CONFLICT OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. incapable of volition ; therefore nature did not originate nature. 6. The Creator could not have been created ; that would have made him a creature ; therefore he was un- created. 7. All things in nature are effects ; effects are less than their cause ; therefore the cause was supernatural. 8. The cause could not have begun to be ; that would have made it an effect ; therefore the cause was uncaused. 9. All minds are causes ; causes are limited to first and second orders. Man is a second cause, as his existence was caused. 10. Created minds cannot create the simplest thing of nature ; therefore all had a Creator, as much greater than man as he is greater than the greatest work of art. 11. Whatever makes things of which nature is incapa- ble [a locomotive engine, for example], is a creator. Man makes such things ; therefore man is a creator. 12. The mechanical power of each mind is limited to that which it can comprehend. Man cannot comprehend the mechanical principles involved in his own nature ; he therefore acknowledges the existence of that which he cannot comprehend. 13. Everything is a miracle of which nature is incapa- ble; nature is incapable of making a living animal or plant ; therefore the origin of living things was miraculous. 14. Every act of nature is involuntary ; involuntary acts originate nothing ; therefore the origin of all things was a living, supernatural Being of voluntary power. 15. All power is of mind; nature manifests power; therefore nature is the work of mind. 16. Whatever nature evolves must have been first in- volved in her ; all nature is evolution ; therefore involu- tion was first, was creation, and brought nature to birth. 17. There was a time before nature existed ; a thing cannot act before it existed ; therefore nature did not cau.se her own existence. 18. All acts of nature are upon conditions ; conditions exist before their resultant acts ; therefore the conditions was nature's creation. RELATION OF CHRISTIANITY AND MAN. 377 19. Inorganic things move by necessity; that which moves by necessity had no power to commence the mo- tion ; therefore the power was supernatural. 20. Organic things are greater than inorganic things, the lesser cannot make the greater ; therefore the organic was miraculous work. 21. Living things cannot evolve from those which do not involve their embryons ; living things do evolve from embryons ; therefore the embryons and the living things which possess them were creations. 22. Rudiments cannot perform functions ; the first living things performed all the functions of life ; therefore it was a perfect living organism, without a rudiment. 23. The process of bringing the first living thing into existence must have consumed so short a time that the part made first could not have decomposed before the last part was finished ; therefore the time and process must have been according to the statements made in the book of Genesis. 24. Whatever is essential to life is a part of the life ; all the vital organs are essential to life ; therefore the first living things were as perfect organizations as any of their successors have been. 25. Each species preserves its own identity ; no new species has ever come into existence ; therefore the first pair of each were created at the beginning of the world. 26. Each species has natural parents ; the first pair of each had no natural parents ; therefore the first pair of each species were creations. 27. The food of plants is not in nature; plants make their own food ; therefore the first plants were creations. 28. Living things succeed each other in coming into existence. Beginning at the first and counting back, we come to the first ; therefore there was a first. 29. Inorganic things cannot form purposes; such things manifest purposes ; therefore a supernatural power involved these dynamics. 30. Nothing but a reasoning being possesses economy ; unreasoning nature shows economy ; therefore a reasoning Being involved this principle in her works, 3/8 CONFLICT OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 31. The solar system [it is said] was once a fiery, molten mass. Fire destroys that upon which it preys ; therefore the world did not come into existence upon the fiery hypothesis. 32. Nebula vapor cannot burn [it is said the nebula was before the fire] ; therefore the fiery world never ex- isted. 33. Evolutionists say the original matter was homo- geneous : homogeneous matter has no chemical com- pounds to dissolve; therefore it could never have burned, as burning is dissolution. 34. Gases must have been formed into compounds before they could have dissolved by burning ; therefore the world was never in a state of gaseous fusion. 35. The atmosphere contains only twenty-seven parts of inflammable gases ; therefore it was never a fiery mass. 36. Fossils are found in rocks ; liquid fire leaves no fossils ; therefore the rocks were never liquid fire. 37. If left to cool, fire leaves nothing but ashes and cinder. The crust of the earth is not ashes and cinders ; therefore it was never a fiery, nebulous mass. 38. Gravity was essential to the formation of the solar system ; a world of liquid fire has no gravity ; therefore the world never commenced its existence upon the nebula theory. 39. If the Creator ever caused the account of the origin of the world and its inhabitants to be written, that account must bear the stamp of the highest philosophical science. As we have found the Scripture statements of that work to be philosophic necessities, therefore the author of those statements w^as the Creator of nature. 40. To suppose there was no higher object in bringing the world and its inhabitants into existence than that which they manifest, argues the Creator acted without a reasonable puri)Ose ; but as everything in nature answers such a purpose, forbids such a reflection, and indicates the ultimate purpose to be of future development, and cannot be of less perfection than that consummation re- vealed in the Bi])le. 41. The Scriptures contain the prehistoric, or pro- RELATION OF CHRISTIANITY AND MAN. 379 phetic, record of the civil, moral, and religious march of the family of man down through all the ages to the pre- sent day, therefore none but a Being who saw the end from the beginning, could have been their author. 42. Man is a being of mercy ; a merciless being could not have made one of mercy, because he would have been better and greater than himself; therefore God is merci- ful. 43. God made man with power to obey him ; that carried with it the power to disobey ; therefore man can only become a subject of God's government by induce- ment offered to his understanding. If he persistently re- fuses to obey, his Maker may destroy him ; but destruc- tion is not government, and the man still triumphs. 44. The proprietor of man's existence must desire his obedience, as the disobedience of his creatures mars his happiness ; therefore, if he would be supremely and end- lessly happy, there must come a time when every created being, whether of human or angelic origin, will be recon- ciled to the will and government of the Creator, or have perished. 45. The interest manifested by the Creator in the de- tails of organic and inorganic nature, forbids his indiffer- ence to the smallest acts of his intelligent creature ; yet in the present world his most loving and loyal subjects suffer the greatest hardships. This demonstrates the necessity, upon the ground of justice, that there shall be another world, in which all this will be reversed, and " Lazarus will have his good things, and the rich man his evil things." Man Cannot Co7'nipt the Scriptures. In conclusion, permit me briefly to allude to the charge that the Scriptures have been corrupted in passing through various translations. Our answer is a flat de- nial ; and we assert that there cannot be produced a translation which has omitted or inserted a single doc- trine not taught in every other. We affirm, moreover, that the corruption has always been impossible. They 380 CONFLICT OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. were given in such diversity of manner and division, that an error by addition or omission in one part may be corrected by reference to another. What we mean to say is, that they are so divided that the distinctive parts are each complete in themselves, and each contains the whole system of revealed truth. The first division is the types and revelations of Genesis, from which God preached the gospel to Abraham. (Gal. 3:8.) Second, It is all taught in the commands, types, and precepts of the laws of Moses. Third, The whole gospel is taught in the Scrip- tures of the prophets. Fourth, It is also as comprehen- sively written in the book of Psalms. Fifth, The sermon on the mount and plain teachings of Jesus while on earth also contain the whole gospel ; all of which was taught before in the Old Testament. Sixth, Christ's parables, most of which were copied from or built upon Old Testa- ment records, leave no part of the gospel out. Seventh, It is equally full in the book of Acts. Eighth, The epis- tles of the apostles also give us a complete gospel. Ninth, The book of " The Revelation of Jesus Christ," all of which is the unfolding of inspired prophecy, contains an unbroken chain of gospel truth, and the whole of it. Each of these grand divisions of the Word of God is such a perfect expression of his will and purposes with man and the world, that had we anyone of them, and were there but one instead of nine, we would be furnished with a perfect system of Gospel truth. Hence the wis- dom of giving it thus, so that each age of the world had it all, and in such a manner as to render all the divisions impossible either of corruption or destruction. The fol- lowing declarations show that Paul preached the whole gospel from the Old Testament, and before there was a New Testament : " Wherefore I take you to record this day, that I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God." (Acts 20, 26, 27.) " But this I con- fess unto thee, that after the way which they call heresy, so worship I the God of my fathers, believing all things which are written in the law and in the prophets ; and have hope toward God, that there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and of the unjust," (Acts RELATION OF CHRISTIANITY AND MAN. 38 1 26: 22.) *' Having therefore obtained help of God, I continue unto this day, witnessing both to small and great, saying none other things than Moses and the prophets did say should come." Upon what, then, let me ask, is the gigantic super- structure of modern scepticism founded? We answer, ignorance" of the book of nature, and equal ignorance. of the written revelation of the will of God to man. And to-day, by the blessing of God, we break the spell of its lying charms, and strip the gauzy drapery from the shrine of the goddess of modern science [so called] and ancient scepticism ; and that, too, at the very moment of its greatest expected triumph ; thus not only leaving Christianity untarnished and unscathed in the conflict, but more radiant by the accumulation of the testimonies of all known science, philosophy, and history, written alike in great nature's profundity and the hallowed har- monies of the book of nature's God — presenting its Au- thor more sublimely enthroned for the contemplation of his creatures, as the centralized power, wisdom, goodness, and glory of his vast universe. We now submit the question whether every honest sceptic is not bound to disprove all these arguments, or put himself in harmony with what they indicate ? We close by saying that we feel abundantly able to brush away the sophistry from all objections to these argu- ments, and to defend by philosophy, science, history, and scripture every position we have taken, for which our allotted time may not have afforded sufficient oppor- tunity. We heartily thank the Freethinkers' Association for the courtesy shown us, and for the patient and respectful at- tention with which the Convention has listened to our humble effort ; and may the blessing of the great God, my Maker and your Maker, rest upon you. CHAPTER XVI. EFFECT OF THE ADDRESS ON THE CONVENTION AND FREETHINKERISM. At the close of the session we were congratulated, seem- ingly from all quarters, as having turned the tide against the Freethinkers. This is confirmed by the fact that, during the nine years which have elapsed since, they have not challenged another minister to meet them in public discussion. On this occasion, though an admission fee was charged, the Corinthian Academy of Music was filled, and it was the sixth annual convention of the Freethinkers. We did not commence our Address until eight o'clock, and knew it would take two hours and a half in deliv- ery. For fear of not being able to finish, we began too rapidly to produce the effect it might otherwise have done. Feeling this, we stopped abruptly, and said we are spoil- ing our lecture fearing there will not be time to finish. At this point a gentleman rose and made a motion to give us all the time we needed, which was carried without a dissenting voice. This gave the needed relief, and we consumed the full two hours and a half, and we may add, that none left the hall until it was finished. The Secretary of the United States League of Free- thinkers said to us, '' Our people have not studied these subjects as you have done, and cannot answer your argu- ments. He also said that Mr. Wakeman and Mr. Palmer had made about a dozen appointments to hold Free- thinker conventions or deliver lectures in Western cities, the next at Buffalo, and that he was to accompany them and make the arrangements ahead. Thaddeus B. Wake- man's Address, i)urporting to be an answer to ours, was delivered the following evening, at the conclusion of which the convTution voted us an half-hour'to answer. EFFECT OF THE ADDRESS 383 We commenced by congratulating the convention for having chosen Mr. Wakeman, of course in its estimation the best quahfied to answer our arguments and de- mohsh Christianity, leaving the inference that if he failed neither could be done. As we desire to know the truth, no matter what may be the effect in exposing our ignorance and error, we want the same test applied to this convention and in this discussion. We are compelled to say, that though we followed Mr. Wakeman's speech as closely as possible, we were unable to discover that it refuted or even weakened one of our arguments. Possibly he may have done this and we failed to perceive it ; we therefore appealed to anyone in the audience who heard both addresses to rise in his place and refer us to any such exposure ; and we paused to give an opportunity ; but as there was no response, we continued : Surely, it cannot be that the whole convention considers our argu- ments conclusive in the defence of Christianity [and we considered them to be such] ; that the Freethinking talent of the United States and of England here assembled, is unable to find a single objection. Come, gentlemen, come up to the confessional ! Here we paused to give another opportunity ; but still no reply was made, or a word heard from any of the dozen orators of Free Thought who were with us upon the platform. After a little longer time, a man rose in the audience and said Mr. Wakeman said things which were true, not needing argument, and sat down. We replied. That is beautiful ! Then, we are to understand that the free thought of Free- thinkers requires no thought at all, only free talk ; un- founded assertion to satisfy and confirm them in their scepticism. Who would suppose that such men think ! In contrast to this, we receive no assertion, no opinion, coming from whatever source, even from that of the Bible itself, unsupported by evidence, the result of thought and reason. To this effect its author has is- sued this challenge to the world, '' Come, let us reason together, saith the' Lord." We still wait to give the convention every chance to extricate itself from the meshes into which the false theories of Freethinkerism 384 CONFLICT OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. have plunged it, and which our arguments have made manifest. In a few moments another man rose and said, " I did not hear Mr. Mitchell's address," and intimated that had he done so, he could have made fatal objections to it, and sat down. We replied, That is wonderful ! Here on the platform are assembled the most able representatives of the infidelity of the civilized world, and not one of them is able to rise in his place and point to a single one of our arguments as objectionable, or one which Mr. Wakeman showed to be inconclusive in the establishment of revealed Christianity ; but if this gentleman had heard them, he would have been abundantly able to have done it. It is a great pity for the now lost cause of Freethink- erism that he was absent ! Here, however, is a man who is not afraid to say something in attempting to raise up the fallen Dagon, and this illustrates the fact that ignorance, as well as knowledge, gives confidence, while he who has part of both is afraid. [Immense ap- plause.] We appeal to this audience whether the conclu- sion is not legitimate, that by their silence here manifest, the Freethinking talent of the country, here assembled, have no reason, no objection, no argument or evidence against Christianity, which to their own satisfaction gives them confidence enough to rise before this audi- ence and state it, either philosophic, scientific, or bib- lical, and must we not press the consideration demand- ed by the most ordinary regard for truth and consis- tency, that not one of their voices shall ever again be heard protesting against its inspired and revealed system, which cannot be done but at the expense of honest courage, and in the absence of those, as here, able to ex- pose the sophistry and ignorance which prompt them. And now we have consumed more than the time kindly allotted us by the convention, and have not considered one of the sophistries which make up Mr. AVakeman's speech. As we turned to take our seat, amid cheers and cries from all parts of the house, except the platform — " Go on — go on," and a vote was unanimously carried, giving us all the time desired, and we continued by say EFFECT OF THE ADDRESS 385 ing, There was one thing Mr. Wakeman talked about at great length, and as it is one lying at the foundation of the sceptical science of evolution, though so late we may spend a few moments upon it. This was Protoplasm. This substance is said to be composed of very little creat- ures, and these were our ancestors. It cannot be ques- tioned that if these little fellows exist, it has been deter- mined by observation — they have been seen either by the naked eye or microscopic art. It is laid down by all logicians and mental philosophers, as a fundamental prin- ciple, that if a thing is a fact at all it is a universal fact ; a single exception proves it to be no fact. There was a very learned lecture upon protoplasm delivered some time ago, at the Liberal Club Rooms, in Eighth Street, New York, to which Mr. Wakeman and myself listened. Be- fore the lecturer concluded he undertook to answer the objection — why, if these little creatures exist they have not been seen, even by the aid of the microscope — and as- signed as the reason that each one of them was smaller than a ray of light, which, therefore, completely envelops it. Now, if these little folks have never been seen by the human eye, aided by the microscope, how does anybody know they exist ? Of course the ingenious sophism was to prevent its detection, which can only result from anal- ogous reasoning between things known to exist, while the protoplastic myth was not known to exist. It struck us at once that the fraudulent attempt to shut off investigation upon the starting-point of the evolution machine, was nevertheless fatal to its existence, except as false science ; for the microscope offers no relief, be- cause it magnifies the ray of light equally with the object it covers ; and we thus knock the bottom out of the evo- lution tub, which buries all the mythic speculations of the protoplastic foundation stone of evolution. It was now eleven o'clock and we took our seat, but still amid cries of '' Go on." Although we make no apology for being found at this meeting of the Liberal Club [for we would not hesitate to go into the very ante-chamber of any kind of devils, in order to obtain facts with which to cripple their influence for further evil], we may, however, say 25 386 CONFLICT OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. that on this occasion we had been invited to lecture be- fore the club on biblical criticism. In order to form an estimate of the talent to whose criticisms we would be subjected, we attended two of the previous weekly meet- ings, and Mr. Wakeman will never forget .the answer to his criticism upon our lecture, which set the audience in a roar of api^lause at his expense. At the conclusion of our reply to Mr. Wakeman 's speech, the convention also voted him time to reply, which he did simply by saying : " We supplied facts in our address, leaving the audience to supply the reasons ; it was an intelligent one and needed no further light." A vote of thanks was given us, and the session adjourned near midnight. We refer to this ad- mission of Mr. Wakeman, as confirming our charge, that he offered no argument, reason, or evidence against any- thing in our address. Reply to Courtland Palmer' s Speech on Spiritual Life. That Mr. Wakeman felt the weakness of his effort to destroy the force and influence of our arguments, is also shown by the fact of having called Mr. Palmer to his as- sistance, a part of whose speech he anticipated thus : "I am glad that before this Association adjourns, my friend, Courtland Palmer, who has thought this new world out with me, and whose poetic nature feels it clearer, will lay this wonderful story before you in his own words. He will show you that, just in proportion as the integrations of mankind have advanced, the spiritual and altruistic life has become more and more, and that the higher in- tegrations will sur})a.ss all others and extend the glory of spiritual conceptions of every form." On Saturday even- ing Mr. Palmer delivered his address, which abounded in three high-sounding phrases — spiritual life, religion of humanity, and immortality ; but all of which had their realization in human life. When Mr. Palmer finished he took his seat next us, and we said to him, '' Mr. Palmer, that address must have cost you a great deal of labor ; ' ' to which he replied, '' Oh ! the Holy Ghost helped me." EFFECT OF THE ADDRESS 38/ And we responded, " Then the Holy Ghost was alive un- til he helped you out ! " He looked chagrined, but made no reply. We were sorry for not having an oppor- tunity of answering it, as the convention was to close on Sunday morning by a lecture from Hon. Elizur Wright, of Boston, one of the oldest and most talented Freethink- ers of the country ; for which reasons his address was given the honorable place of closing the convention, and was looked forward to as a great feast. On Sunday morning a very large audience assem- bled, and the president. Dr. Brown, was making some remarks in relation to the business matters of the Asso- ciation when we came in, and no sooner had become seated, than applause began and cries from the audience for a speech. The president turned toward us, and said, " They want you to speak." We rose and said, " Please excuse us ; we came to hear Mr. Wright. Let us hear him." But this only increased the cries for a speech. The president said again, " You will be obhged to speak." So, as we advanced toward the front of the platform, it came to us like an inspiration to ex- pose the atheism of Palmer's speech, and we were almost overjoyed at having the opportunity ; so, when the ap- plause had subsided, we commenced by saying : ''Most of us listened to Mr. Palmer's lecture last evening, and although it was a very labored and beautiful composition, I noticed that it called forth but little applause. One reason to our mind for this was that the audience thought it too religious, by its frequent expressions of the religion of humanity, the higher spiritual life, and that of immor- tality, which men should seek after. But there was one objection we thought we discovered while it was being delivered, and which we would be glad to make before you if an opportunity presented itself, and which you have now most unexpectedly given. The objection to which we allude is that it was atheism from beginning to end." This remark created a stir, but no voice of dis- approval was heard. Mr. Palmer talked fluently about immortality, but made it consist in great achievements of individuals in the present life by which they would be 388 CONFLICT OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. remembered in coming generations ; but it began with human hfe and ended with it, so far as they were con- cerned. No matter how renowned or long the applause of the living, no sound could awaken the dull, cold ear of the dead to its appreciation. Had we time, we might present an unanswerable argument from the philosophy of human action to disprove such a theory, which supposes a man capable of acting without an adequate motive — one which would in some way and at some future time ad- minister to his interest and happiness, which, in the nat- ure of moral and physical philosophy, is impossible for the remembrance immortality to accomplish. But let us endeavor to illustrate the fallacious theory. Some are remembered by the living for their good deeds, and others detested for their bad ones, and there are more of the great deeds of the wicked, who have o])- pressed the poor and trampled upon the rights of man- kind, remembered and detested than of those of the righteous dead. What satisfaction would it be to a_dead man, supposing him capable of appreciating what may be said of him when he was dead, which atheism denies and which Mr. Palmer's immortality denies? On the one hand he knows that the living are pouring contempt upon the great deeds of his life, and for the same acts others are awarding him honor and praise. In common life, can a man be happy as long as half of those who know him curse him for the deeds of his life which have, or are supposed to have, made them suffer ? For example : A Washington may be receiving the im- mortality for having acted the most conspicuous part in wresting the American Colonies from the government of England, while King George is receiving the immortal- ity for having put a price upon his head, as a traitor to his country. You have heard of Julius Caesar and Bru- tus, who, by their deeds have the remembrance immor- tality for which Mr. Palmer contends, and for which we should strive in the present life : "They waded through slaughter to a throne, Ancl shut tlie gates of mercy on mankind." EFFECT OF THE ADDRESS. 389 According to evolution by natural selection, their immor- tality should have developed in steadily increasing honors through all succeeding ages ; instead of which their very names have degenerated to the use of canine symbols — Caesar is a dog and Brutus keeps sheep. Do you want such immortality as that ? Audible responses were made, No, no. You have also heard of Dr. Franklin, who had the remembrance immortality in a very high degree ; but would it be any honor to him to know that in every city his name has degenerated to be a sign for liquor saloons — The Franklin House ? Would it be any compensation for you to labor and sacrifice in the present life to have your name used for such a purpose after you were dead ? Voices responded — No, no ! Well, this is all Mr. Palmer's address offered you after death ! Is such an immortality worthy of your life-long effort? Again responses came from the audience — No, no. Better say with Paul, ''If in this life only we have hope, then we are of all men most miserable." At this point, Mr. Palmer rose and said, ''Mr. Chairman, has not the time arrived for the regular lecture ? " To this we replied before the presi- dent could speak, " Yes ! but the audience compel us to speak." And "Yes," responded the president, "but what can I do, only to wait for Mr. Mitchell to get through." To which we responded : "Do you think we shall become exhausted?" "No," he replied, "but that the audience will hear Mr. Wright." During this interruption the audience were applauding and cheering, amid cries of Go on — go on, which we did as soon as the applause ceased and said : ' ' These are the men who have made their mark in the history of the world ; but what hope, even of such immortality, is there for such little folks as you and I ? Alas for us ! we shall always remain mortal and be forgotten in a brief space after we are dead ! According to our observation [we continued] based upon the developments before us, there are but a very few real atheists. To become such requires a long stifling of reason and servile subjugation of the noble powers of mind and heart to the low passions and desires 390 CONFLICT OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. to have it so ; and an obliteration of every vestige of fut- ure hope. It is the philosophy of hope that encourages us to bear the ills and disappointments of life, and endure the heart-sickness of hope deferred for the long life of three score and ten years ; but the sufferer will not despair so long as he hopes for future life — the true immortality ; but blot hope from his mind and fear goes with it, and the crazed victim flies to suicide ! Without hope a man cannot be held long in the human furnace of afflic- tion. In philosophic necessity and scientific harmony with this mental endowment, Christianity offers a man a resur- rection from the dead, which is equivalent to a re-crea- tion ; and can it be questioned that the Being who made him live once, is able to make him live a second time? The proposition is not to reduce, and leave a man a ghost, a thousand of whom can stand upon the })oint of a needle and all the room be left ; but to rej^roduce the man him- self — his vital organism — his moral, phrenological brain, upon whose tablets every event of his history stands i)hoto- graphed, by which it is possible for a man to remember and become identified with himself. But gravity renders it impossible for such a man to live in an ethereal ghost- house forever, and therefore the same Being who created the world has revealed his purpose to re-create it into one of perfection and endless duration, thus adapting it to a suitable habitation for man — all immortal, soul, body, and spirit. Atheism is the antithesis of this glowing prospect — the Christian's future hope. Its victims die like the beasts, and remain dead forever. No ray of hope illumines the grave of its loved ones. The interest you have manifested in calling us to speak in the place of others — a stranger in the place of admired friends — and the applause with which we have been greeted, for which we return our ])ersonal acknowledgments, convince us that it has been because of what we have said in brushing away the cobwebs of atheism from your minds and hearts. This truth has drawn out the numerous expressions of gratefiil approval, and convinces us that no sceptical delu- sion will ever be able to draw many of you back into its EFFECT OF THE ADDRESS. 39I ruinous embrace ! Here we took our seat ; but still amid cries of Go on ! Hon. Elizur Wright was then introduced and gave his lecture on Miracles, which was received almost without applause. Feeling this, the lecturer hurried through, turning over a half-dozen pages at a time. It was evident that something had been done to quiet the enthusiam of the convention for atheism. After the audience was dis- missed the reporter of the New York Herald came to us and said, ''Your exposure of Mr. Palmer's speech was more than he could bear, as his attempt to prevent you from going on showed. ' ' Dr. Brown, president of the con- vention, said to us, "I will never attend another Free- thinkers' convention, unless you are there," and expressed a strong desire to converse with us. Mr. Charles Watts of London, editor of the Secular Press, the organ of the Freethinkers, congratulated us, and in a manner indicat- ing approval of our efforts at the convention. In reply we said, Mr. Watts, we have one more important act to perform in this direction, and one which we think you can bring about, and that is a public debate in London between Hon. Charles Bradlaugh and myself, where we will go at our own expense for the purpose : occupying the same platform an equal part of the time each evening, until one of the parties succumbs. If you will do this it will confer a great personal favor upon us, and aid in spreading light upon these all-important subjects. In re- ply he proinised to try and bring it about ; but we have heard nothing more about the challenge. At the hotel the Secretary of the National League of Freethinkers said to us, " I have just returned from Buffalo and in great haste to see you before starting for Brooklyn," assigning as a reason that he had been to Buffalo, and that their friends said the people of Buffalo, having read the reports of the debate at Rochester — which they considered unfavorable to the Freethinkers — it would be impossible to get an audience in the city to hear Wakeman and Palmer ; that there was but one thing which could be done, and that was to induce Mr. Mitchell to come to Buffalo and give him half the time to answer Wakeman in public debate; 392 CONFLICT OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. and the question is, " will you go, and we will pay you all your expenses," to which we unhesitatingly consented. The discussion at Buffalo was in the theatre, and there was a large audience assembled, at fifty cents admission. Mr. Wakeman and myself sat behind the scenery, and just before commencing the debate, he said to us, '^ Mr. Palmer has gone home and left me alone ; ' ' and we may add the fact that the next day Mr. Wakeman also went home, leaving the dozen Freethinkers' conventions en- gaged to be held in Western and Southern cities, unheld that year. Wakeman and Palmer knew that the people of those cities had seen the newspaper reports of their failure .at Rochester and Buffalo, and they went home de- moralized. The conditions of the debate at Buffalo, as advertised, was that Mr. Wakeman was to speak the first hour, beginning at eight o'clock, and we the following hour. Notwithstanding this, Mr. Wakeman continued his speech until near ten o'clock, though some time before he closed, we audibly asked, why do you intrench upon our time, to which he replied, ''I am going to speak until I get through." And we may add that there was no ap- plause during his whole speech, which was simply a re- hash of Herbert Spencer's speculations on protoplasm. We began by saying, you saw how Mr. Wakeman at- tempted to intimidate us by exalting Spencer to such an altitude in the literary world, that, as he said, no man dare question his conclusions. He has not only wrong- fully taken our time, but endeavored to make it appear presumption in us to question the authority of Spencer. Of course, this was his only hope to impose atheistic schemes upon you for truth — to prevent us from speaking at all, and if we did speak, to not call in question the au- thority of his master Spencer. In view of the lateness of the hour we simply rise to make an apology for not at- tempting to make a speech. These remarks called forth loud applause from all parts of the house, mingled with cries of Go on, go on ! and we continued : We need scarcely say, that the course of Mr. Wakeman, in thus violating the rules of honest debate, had the effect of arousing our indignation to a degree that relieved us EFFECT OF THE ADDRESS. 393 from care to use smooth words toward a man who had no more respect for himself or a piibHc audience who had paid to hear a debate. It also had the effect of relieving us from undue leniency in handhng Spencer's atheistic science. We continued by saying : You have listened to a long, and as we judge, a wearisome rehash of Herbert Spencer. Mr. Wakeman said : No conceivable God is imagined back of this order of nature, as Mr. Spencer has shown, and is thinkable to us ; but all was unmixed with an idea of his own. He was, however, original in his furious at- tempt to terrify us away from calling in question the foolish protoplasm speculation of so great an authority as Herbert Spencer ; but we appeal to the audience if such an effort does not come with an ill grace and imperti- nence from such a man as Mr. Wakeman, who has here, to-night, called in question the authority of God Almighty and even denied his very existence. [Loud and con- tinued applause.] Mr. Wakeman' s long speech is a true type of his master's long written volumes, in which he asserts everything and proves nothing. Spencer starts with the sophistical statement, that every truth has some error mixed with it. In saying this, if he is honest, Spen- cer admits his inability to discover and draw the line of demarcation between truth and error, or else dishonestly attempts to hide it, so as to make his books appear as truthful as others. The fact, however, is that truth and error are as eternal opposites, as light and darkness, and the effect of the darkness is to prevent the light from being seen, just as error hides the light of truth. But in his superficial reasoning, Spencer adds book after book, sophism after sophism, assertion upon assertion, in vain attempts to make the foolish myth of protoplasm, which lies at the foundation of evolution, appear to be scientific truth ; and he has the audacity to declare spon- taneous generation to be science ; and Mr. Wakeman echoes the presumption, and refers you to Prof Haeckel as authority, making this author state as a fact of science that for which he himself declares there is no evidence in its defence. In his '' History of Creation " Haeckel says : 394 CONFLICT OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. "Though spontaneous generation is a pure hypothesis, never having been observed, or proved by observation or experiment, yet it is essential to the non-miraculous ori- gin of living things." Thus does Mr. Wakeman come here and, either ignorantly or dishonestly, misquote the writers on evolution, of course presuming upon your ig- norance, and upon such false attempts to set aside the philosophic necessity for a miraculous creation of living things. We make the assertion, and hold ourselves able to defend it by every source of human knowledge, that there never was an author who wrote upon the problems of natural science, whose works contain so much error as those of Herbert Spencer, not excepting Thomas Paine I We had so completely demolished the theory of proto- plasm in the debate at Rochester, that we are astonished at the presumption of Mr. Wakeman in repeating the foolish thing here ; but as it is the only leg upon which evolution can stand, though amputated in one place, its defenders go to another and declare it to be a good, healthy, and true leg still. Nothing is clearer than that such men both fear and hate the truth, whether revealed in philosophical science, the work of God, or in his written Word. You recollect how Mr. Wakeman told you to look up and behold the blue sky, and that this Avas protoplasm. Such sayings are those upon which the false science called evolution is based, such fanciful flights are its facts. According to this instruction, if you wish to experiment in order to satisfy yourself as to the truth of the science, take a peck measure and ascend high enough above the earth's surface to get it full of blue sky, and then ask yourself what have I got, and the answer will be — a peck of my protoplastic ancestors — a peck of my parental progenitors ! What do you think of our orator's profound arguments and repeated facts of modern science ? As soon as the applause had ceased, we said, Take another example of the wonderful protoplastic reve- lation, and one which has more pali)ability than the sky- blue phenomenon : Do you see that s\vam[), to which Mr. Wakeman referred you, and if you wish to demon- strate the truth of the science of evolution, go there and EFFECT OF THE ADDRESS. 395 measure up an exact quart of its stagnant water, and you have a quart of our fathers and mothers. This gives us an insight into the magnificent science of evohition, which, Mr. Wakeman says, has come to take the place of all natural science. Behold ! what a thing to be of suf- ficient power to shut God out of his universe ! Here we took our seat ; but still amid cries of Go on, though it was now eleven o'clock. We may remark that the whole of our speech was received with every mark of interest, and even enthusiasm. Such was the satisfaction we had for going to Buffalo. Ifigersoll Challenged to Public Debate, atid Refused. It was in the spring of the year of this convention that Freethinkerism was at its zenith in the United States, and at which time we went to Washington, D. C., and chal- lenged Robert G. Ingersoll to a public discussion in that city, and at his own home. The topics were to be those of his sceptical lectures. The challenge was published in the Washington Republican, requesting him to answer through that paper. The conditions were that he and I were to speak alternately each night, and from the same platform, equally dividing the time, and to continue the discussion until one of the parties was vanquished. We waited in the city a week for a reply, but none was made. Not willing to let Ingersoll off in this way, we went to his residence, and found him in his parlor with two friends. After introducing myself, I said, '^ Did you see the challenge in the paper for a discussion ? " to which he replied that he had, and added, ''Why did you not come to me privately? " I said, " Did you not make a general challenge in your answer to Dr. Talmage, in the words : ' No minister dare meet me in public discussion.' This is what we have come to accept, and our object in doing it through the press was to bring public opinion to bear, making it more likely for you to accept." " Well, what do you want me to do? " I replied, '' Consent to hold the discussion." He said, " The platform is open to you as well as me." " Yes, but the same persons who 396 CONFLICT OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. hear you will not generally hear me ; and in this manner they will hear both sides of every question and be pre- pared to judge upon which side lies the truth. ' ' After a Httle hesitation he said, ''Well, I will not do that." I asked, '' Why will you not ; have you not got the time ? " '' Oh, yes, I have plenty of time ; but I will not do that," and he assigned no reason for refusing. At this point he commenced his cunning tactics of mak- ing ministers appear ridiculous by asking questions and playing upon the replies, as subject matter for his public lectures, in order to make fools laugh and get their money, as is his common practice. So he said, ^' I suppose you have come to save my soul ? " to which I replied : '' Well, I would like well enough to be the means of that ; but your soul is not worth much ; what we want to do is to save the thousands of souls you have poisoned ! ' ' This put an end to his efforts in that direction, and more than ever confirmed the opinion that Ingersoll ranks among the lowest braggarts of the scoffing world, and with an increas- ing disgust for the man we left him. The year before we had published a book entitled '' Cosmogony," concerning which the press of the country had said many good things, generally admitting that the arguments wrest natural sci- ence from the hands of the sceptic, and turns its powerful weapons against him, by demonstrating evolution to be false science, as well as the claim of geology, making the world older than the statements of Genesis show it to be. From its notice in the sceptical press, we could not but infer that Ingersoll had read the book, and we entertain the opinion that no man can do this and then be induced to hold a public discussion with its author, whether his atheism masquerades under the deceptive color of a sci- entist, or as a more honest and openly avowed atheist. We were sure of accomplishing one of two things by thus challenging Ingersoll. First, if the great scoffer accepted and the debate was held, it would have left him paralyzed for future harm in the field of infidelity. Secondly, if he refused, that would be published throughout the country, and it would be nearly as effectual in destroying his influ- ence for evil. The result was that the secular and relig- EFFECT OF THE ADDRESS. 397 ious press, as well as that of the sceptics, did publish it. Even The Truth did this, and headed its article, '' Inger- soll Challenged to Public Discussion in His Own City, and Backs down." This was nine years ago, and who has heard of Ingersoll lecturing since upon his sceptical themes, especially until very late ? And we wish here to say, that the challenge remains the same for his accept- ance, or for that of any other sceptic or opponent of the Bible. At the request of a number of clergymen of Washing- ton, we wrote the account of the interview with Inger- soll, and asked the editor of the Republican to publish it, which he said he would be glad to do. The article closed by saying: ''It is beHeved by many that Ingersoll is a sincere seeker after truth. If he is, why did he not accept this challenge, so that both sides of the questions of the subjects of his public lectures might be heard by the same audiences ? This refusal shows him to be conscious of his inability to defend the attacks he makes upon God and the Bible, and that he is a moral and intellectual coward, engaged in a dastardly crusade of slandering God and his laws against evil, and that too for the love of money — the worship of his mammon-god — the World." Up to this time The Washington Republican, the most popular paper in the city, every few days published a reported interview with Ingersoll ; these reports were copied by the press of the country, which became its most popular reading, especially by the young men. But after this cowardly refusal to hold a public discussion with the first minister who had accepted his public-defiant chal- lenge, the conductors of the paper ceased to publish In- gersollism, in consequence of which the voice and pen of the arch scoffer for future evil was as dumb as a sphinx ! COSMOGONY. Cosinoj^onv's '' Critic. "'