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diff --git a/38303.txt b/38303.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..70d709f --- /dev/null +++ b/38303.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2946 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Ingersoll in Canada, by Allen Pringle + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Ingersoll in Canada + A Reply to Wendling, Archbishop Lynch, Bystander; and Others + +Author: Allen Pringle + +Release Date: December 14, 2011 [EBook #38303] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK INGERSOLL IN CANADA *** + + + + +Produced by David Widger + + + + + +INGERSOLL IN CANADA + +A REPLY TO WENDLING, ARCHBISHOP LYNCH, BYSTANDER; AND OTHERS. + +By Allen Pringle + +"If all mankind, minus one, were of one opinion, mankind would no more +justified in silencing that one person than he, if he had the power, +would be justified in silencing mankind."--_J. S. Mill, On Liberty_. + + "Here's freedom to him that would read, + Here's freedom to him that would write; + Thert's nane ever feared that the truth should be heard, + But they whom the truth would indite."--Burns. + +"He who will not reason is a bigot; he who cannot is a a fool; and he +who dares not is a slave."--_Philosopher_. + +PER CONTRA: "Do not try to reason or you are lost."--_Moody, the +Evangelist_. + +"Hew to the line, let the chips fall where they may." + +"Fear first made Gods in the world."--_Lucretius_ + + +"Theology I define to be the art of teaching what nobody knows."--_Lord +Brougham_ + +"It matters not to me whether my neighbors believe in one God or +twenty"--_Jefferson_ + +"The natural world is infinite and eternal. The universe was not called +into being from non-entity."--_Plato_ + +"To assert that Christianity communicated to man moral truths previously +unknown, argues, on the part of the assertor, either gross ignorance or +else wilful fraud."--_Buckle_ + +"Nature is seen to do all things of herself without the meddling of the +Gods."--_Lucretius_ + +"Is there no 'inspiration,' then, but an ancient Jewish, Greekish, Roman +one, with big revenues, loud liturgies, and red stockings?"--_Thos. +Carlyle_ + +"Inanity well tailored and upholstered, mild-spoken Ambiguity, decorous +Hypocrisy, which is astonished you should, think it hypocritical, taking +their room and drawing their wages: from zenith to nadir you have Cant, +Cant--a universe of incredibilities which are not even credited, +which each man at best only tries to persuade himself that he +credits."--_Thomas Carlyle_ + +"The highest possible welfare of all present mankind is my religion; +the perfectibility of the future of our race here upon this planet is +my faith; and I would the time had come, as it yet will come, that this +faith were the religion of all mankind."--_Lord Queensbury_ (who +was recently excluded from the English House of Lords because of his +unorthodox opinions.) + + + + +PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION. + +TO THE CLERGY AND COLLEGE STUDENTS OF ONTARIO. + +Gentlemen,--Through the generous and voluntary liberality of a highly +esteemed and estimable Freethought friend, and at his suggestion, I have +been enabled to get out this Second Edition of my pamphlet, of upwards +of 4,000 copies, chiefly for gratuitous distribution among yourselves. +The gentleman referred to conceived the project of supplying every +Minister in the Province with a copy, and it was further decided to also +supply the College Students. + +The compliment to pamphlet and author, which this action on the part of +an intelligent and discriminating Liberal implies, I, of course, duly +appreciate. When the work was written a few months ago, at the request +of fellow-liberals, I had no expectation that it would ultimately +go before so critical and learned a body of readers as the Clergy, +Graduates, and College Students of Ontario. I supposed one modest +edition of 2,000 copies would be all that would ever see the light. +But it has been otherwise desired by my readers. I have, therefore, +no further apology to make for presenting you with the work (my object +being the advancement of truth), and I earnestly submit for your best +consideration its subject matter rather than its literary merits or +demerits. The time has come when these great questions must be examined, +for they _will_ come to the front in spite of the most tenacious +conservatism. Everywhere, thoughtful men are earnestly looking into +them. That the old landmarks in religious belief are being effaced and +the Creeds and Confessions rapidly breaking up is becoming every day +more and more apparent. Goldwin Smith, a man of great historical acumen, +has recently said "A collapse of religious belief, of the most complete +and tremendous kind, is, apparently, now at hand."* The Rev. Hugh +Pedley, B.A., Cobourg, in a very able paper in the July (1880) number of +the _Canadian Monthly_, on "Theological Students and the Times," says: +"There can be no doubt that all forms of thought, all systems of belief, +however venerable with age, are being: handled with the utmost freedom. +Skepticism is becoming more general, and is protean in its adaptibility +to circumstances. There is the philosophical skepticism for the +cultured, and popular skepticism for the masses: the Reviews for the +select, Col. Ingersoll for the people. No _Index Expurgatorius_, whether +Catholic or Protestant, whether ecclesiastical or domestic, is barrier +strong enough to stem the incoming tide." He also says: "I would +advocate a manly, courageous dealing with the doubts of the age in all +our theological schools." * * * "Let there be no timid reserve. Let our +young ministers face the whole strength of the rationalistic position." +* * * "It is not enough that ministers should be well read in church +history, not enough that they should be able to expound in logical +fashion the church doctrines of the Trinity, the Atonement, &c, not +enough that they should understand the architecture of a model sermon. +These matters are quite right in their place, but the minister should go +further. He must go down to the root question, and enquire whether the +history, the systematic theology, and the homilectics are based on a +really Divine Revelation, or only on a series of beautiful legends which +foolish, but reverent, hands have wreathed about the person of Jesus of +Nazareth, a wonderful, religious genius that long ago illumined the +land of Palestine." Further, Mr. Pedley says: "We find men talking as if +thoroughness of investigation would inevitably lead to a loosened hold +on Christianity. So much the worse then for Christianity. If young men +of average intellect, and more than average morality, find that the more +keenly they study Christianity, the less able they are to accept it, and +preach it, then must Christianity be relegated to the dusty lumber-room +of worn-out and superseded religious systems." + + * "The Prospect of a Moral Interregnum." + --Atlantic Monthly, Nov., 1879. + +Mr. Pedley then goes on to point out the effects of ignorance, on the +part of the minister, of the arguments and writings of Freethinkers. He +says: "If he be pastor in a reading community, he will know less than +his congregation about matters which it is his special business to +understand. He will stand towards the Bible, as an ignorant Priest +stands towards the Pope, accepting an infallibility that he has never +proved. He will appear before the intelligent world as a spiritual +coward, a craven-hearted man, who dare not face the enemy who is slowly +mastering his domains. He will become a by-word and a reproach to the +generation which he is confessedly unable to lead, and which sweeps by +with disdainful tread, leaving him far in the rear." + +These are brave words and frank admissions, which should be well +pondered by every clergyman, minister and priest, and every theological +student, for should they fail to acquaint themselves with the doctrines +and arguments of their opponents, they will speedily find themselves, as +Mr. Pedley warns them, preaching to people who know more than they about +matters which it is their special business to know. + +Yours earnestly for Truth, + +A. P. Selby, Nov. 22nd, 1880. + + + + +INTRODUCTORY + +Col. Robt. G. Ingersoll, the American Freethinker and eloquent +iconoclast, visited Canada in April last and lectured on theological +subjects in various places, including Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, +Belleville and Napanee, thereby agitating the theological caldron as it +has never been agitated before in this country. + +And "when Mars was gone the dogs of war were let loose!" Since +Ingersoll's departure there has been a profuse shower of "Replies" +and "Refutations" from the press, and a tempest of denunciation and +misrepresentation from the pulpit. Indeed, before the departure of the +redoubtable idol-smasher, the vituperation and slander commenced, under +the aegis of "A warning against the Fallacies of Ingersoll." The pious +Evangelists of the Y. M. C. A., of Toronto, (abetted doubtless by the +clergy) issued this propagandist gospel-manifesto containing slanderous +statements against Mr. Ingersoll. This, with much more zeal than +courtesy, they thrust upon all entering the Royal Opera House on the +first evening of the lectures. The lecturer, in opening, branded the +base slander of this Christian document that he (Ingersoll) had signed a +petition to allow obscene matter to pass through the mails, as a wilful +and malicious falsehood. As this calumny is yet reiterated from press +and pulpit, implicating all Freethinkers as being in favor of obscenity, +the Resolution on this subject which Col. Ingersoll submitted to the +Cincinnati Convention of Freethinkers in September, 1879, will not be +out of place here. It was as follows, and passed unanimously:-- + +Resolved,--That we are utterly opposed to the dissemination through +the mails, or by any other means, of all obscene literature, whether +inspired or uninspired, holding in measureless contempt its authors, +publishers, and disseminators; that we call upon the Christian world +to expunge from the so-called sacred Bible every passage that cannot be +read without covering the cheek of modesty with the blush of shame. + +The cowardly conduct of the Toronto press, with one or two exceptions, +in reference to Ingersoll's lectures, was as astonishing to +liberal-minded men as it was deplorable to all, especially in the "Queen +City of the West," which is, or ought to be, the centre of intellectual +activity and progress in Canada. This exhibition of narrow-minded +bigotry on the part of the Toronto press excited (rather unexpectedly +to them, no doubt) great surprise and severe animadversion from many +quarters. The daily _Globe_ and _Mail_ have, of course, a very wide +circulation, and being the leading newspapers in the country, their +numerous patrons look to them for _all_ the news on _all_ public +questions and events. Imagine, therefore, their surprise and indignation +on opening their papers and looking for reports of Col. Ingersoll's +lectures in Toronto, to find not a word there! Not a syllable by these +puritanical publishers is vouchsafed to their expectant patrons, who +pay their money for--not merely what suits the religious whims and +prejudices of publishers and editors--but for _all_ the news. But +they would scarcely repeat this mistake--or rather imposition on their +readers. They have since unmistakably learned that in this act of +pusillanimous servility to the priesthood, they took a false measure +of their constituencies; and lamentably failed to gauge correctly the +intellectual and moral status of a majority of their patrons. + +The honorable exceptions to this servility of the Toronto press, were +the _Evening Telegram, Weekly Graphic_, and _National_. + +In Belleville, also, there was, I believe, one commendable exception to +the narrowness of the press in reference to Ingersoll's lectures. +This was the _Free Press_, which has on former occasions proved itself +broader than most of its contemporaries. + +The Montreal _Canadian Spectator_ is another notable exception to this +vassalage of the Canadian press; for, though edited by a clergyman, +it has proved itself in favor of freedom of speech and liberty of +conscience, and boldly denounces the narrow prejudice and bigotry which +would gag Ingersoll to-day if it could, and would have burned him two or +three centuries ago at the stake. + +Chief among the "Replies," and "Refutations" which have issued from the +press in Canada since Ingersoll's departure, is that by Hon. Geo. R. +Wendling. This honorable gentleman has, for some months past, been +shadowing Mr. Ingersoll from place to place with his "reply from a +secular stand point;" albeit in Toronto he _preceded_ his opponent, and +replied (?) before the people of that city to a lecture of Ingersoll's +which they had never heard. But, as with the Dutch judge, so with our +Christian friends, _one side_ of the case was enough to hear in order to +be able to give a verdict, and Mr. Wendling was duly applauded for his +"satisfactory answer" to the absent heretic! + +Subsequently, however, Mr. Ingersoll put in an appearance in the +Queen City, and gave his lecture on "The Gods," to which his honorable +opponent had replied in advance. This eloquent and argumentative lecture +was greeted with such obvious favor and vociferous applause that the +"Willard Tract Depository and Bible House" of that city deemed it +imperative to do something to counteract the "poisonous" influence that +had gone forth. They accordingly hastened forthwith to issue Wendling's +"Reply to Robert Ingersoll." This Christian politico-religious +_brochure_ was heralded by some half dozen Toronto Professors and +Doctors of Divinity, and one Vice-Chancellor, to wit: Messrs. McLaren, +Rainsford, Potts, Castle, Powis, Antliff and Blake. These gentlemen, in +a neat little preface, certify their approval of and admiration for Mr. +Wendling's "Reply to the infidelity advocated by Col. Ingersoll," and +add the hope that "it may be circulated by thousands." + +To this no Freethinker has, of course, any objection, so long as he +enjoys an equal right to circulate his documents too. Of this right I +propose to avail myself, and briefly review the salient points (if there +are any) of some of Ingersoll's Canadian critics. Not that I feel called +upon to defend Col. Ingersoll. Should defence be necessary, he is amply +able to defend himself. But as our Christian friends, like drowning men +catching at straws, have, in their alarm for the safety of their creed, +desperately clutched a _layman_, and issued with their unqualified +endorsation, this "lay" reply of Mr. Wendling, who comes before the +public, he tells us, "as a citizen, as a business man, as a lawyer, and +as a politician," and withal as a "man of the world," I have thought +that for another layman--a materialistic layman--(though no lawyer +or politician) to examine some of Mr. Wendling's lay logic and legal +sophistry and politico-religious hash would be a move in the right +direction in the interests of truth. + +Our Christian friends, in issuing their pamphlet, have very judiciously +"improved the occasion" by a liberal sprinkling of admonitory Scripture +texts, which adorn the insides of the covers, etc. By these texts we are +reminded that "all Scripture is given by inspiration of God," and that +"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," etc., etc. But these, our Christian +opponents, are not quite consistent. Verily, the Christian Church is not +willing to take its own medicine--the medicine it mixes for "infidels." +_We_ are warned that if we criticise that book, or take away from the +words of it, or ridicule its absurdities, we will surely incur the +wrath and "plagues" of an angry God; yet these Christians themselves are +complacently doing this very thing. They have already eliminated from +its sacred pages infant damnation, and eternal torture; while a "Bible +Revision Committee," composed of learned and distinguished dignitaries +of different branches of the Christian Church, are now actually engaged +in "taking away from the words of this book!"* Consistency! thou art +a jewel!! Greg, Strauss, Colenso, Renan, Ingersoll, Underwood, and a +thousand others, are consigned to Hades for their destructive criticism +of the Christians' Bible; while those learned Christian Doctors of +Divinity of the "Revision Committee" can tamper with the "Word of God" +and alter it to suit the enlightenment of the age with impunity! They +can excise whole passages without incurring the "plagues" we are told +shall be visited upon any man who adds to or takes from it. + +Now, I have thought if I should adopt the advice contained in the Latin +proverb, _fas est ab hoste doceri_, and take a lesson from the ingenious +propagandic tactics of our Christian friends in placing conspicuously +before their readers choice texts from their Evangelists and Apostles, +it may not be amiss. Hence, we, too, will do a little skirmishing with +some choice sayings of some of the most eminent and learned apostles of +our school. And to those trenchant utterances of Huxley, Tyndall, Mill, +Carlyle, etc., herein given, I beg to direct the careful attention of +the reader. + +To disarm possible criticism, I may say that this little pamphlet has +been written by request, amidst a pressure of farm work, in snatches +of time intervening between other more imperative duties: and to the +advanced Materialist who has gone over the same ground on the different +subjects as myself, I may say it is not written for him, as he does +not require it. But it is for another class of _quasi_ liberals, and +Christians who have read Wendling and the others replied to, and are in +an inquiring mood after truth. And if the arguments are not wholly _new_ +I would simply urge in extenuation that there is scarcely anything new +under the sun, and also my entire agreement with Montaigne, when he +declares he "has as clear a right to think Plato's thoughts as Plato +had." + +ALLEN PRINGLE. + +Selby, Ont., June 25, 1880. + + * The following appears in the press:--"The New Testament + Revision Committee have struck out as spurious the last + seven verses of the last chapter of St. Mark." Now why have + they done this thing? To an "outside barbarian" the true + reason would appear to be that according to those seven + verses there are no Christians on the earth to-day, as not + one from the Pope of Rome or the Archbishop of Canterbury + down to the humblest follower of Jesus can prove himself a + Christian by the plain test therein given. + + + + +REPLY TO WENDLING + +On reading Mr. Wendling's "Reply to Robert Ingersoll," it is difficult +to determine precisely its theological status, or what are Mr. +Wendling's positions, doctrinally, in reference to Christianity. By the +flexibility of doctrine, and dubious orthodoxy, displayed therein, it is +no easy matter to _place_ Mr. Wendling; and his uncertain positions and +theological gyrations remind one of the famous mathematical definition +of Infinity--"a sphere whose circumference is everywhere and whose +centre is anywhere." + +Mr. Wendling says he "champions no creed, no sect," and he assures us he +"places humanity above all creeds." Now, Christianity is undoubtedly a +creed; albeit, some modern theologians, seeing that the dogmas on which +it rests are fast crumbling away, have discovered that Christianity is +simply a "life." As to "placing humanity above all creeds," this move +is decidedly rationalistic and utilitarian. It is clearly a positive +doctrine of the Atheistic philosophy; and it looks more than suspicious +that this shrewd lawyer has been "stealing our thunder," for he will +find no such doctrine in the Bible, and it certainly has no place +in Christian ethics or philosophy. The Bible represents man as below +everything else rather than above--"a mere worm of the dust" It +represents him as utterly depraved, "deceitful above all things and +desperately wicked," and without any good in him. Christianity, +instead of holding humanity above all creeds, has, without compunction, +immolated man by scores of thousands on the bloody altar of creed and +dogma. To maintain its creeds intact, Christianity has reddened the +surface of the earth with human blood. Therefore, whatever Mr. Wendling +may think about the elevation of man above creeds, Christianity does not +hold humanity above its creeds. + +With respect to the authenticity and inspiration of the Bible, Mr. +Wendling's position is extremely dubious. He tells us that "so much of +that book" (the Bible) "as properly records His" (Christ's) "works and +truthfully reports His sayings, must be true." But who is to decide +which the particular portions are which "properly record" and +"_truthfully_ report" Christ's works, especially as these "records" and +"reports" are self-contradictory, and more especially as nothing was +recorded in Christ's time of His sayings or doings, nor until half a +century or more after His death, as historical criticism and research +abundantly prove? If Mr. Wendling believes the Bible to be an inspired +book, wholly authentic and true, the foregoing statement about "so much +of it" as "_truthfully_ reports," &c, is surely a most extraordinary +one. Again, Mr. W. says, "I say so much of that book as bears upon the +Ideal Man" (Christ) "and so much of that book as the Ideal Man has set +the seal of His approval on, we may accept as the long sought for moral +teacher," &c. As before, I would ask, who is to decide what particular +part or parts of this book "the Ideal Man has set the seal of His +approval on?" or whether the "Ideal Man" ever set His seal upon any of +it? or, indeed, whether this "Ideal Man" ever had other than a +purely _ideal_ or subjective existence in the minds of men? Some able +scholars--notably Rev. Robt. Taylor--have, after careful historical +research, come to the conclusion that the Christ of the Gospels never +existed. But, be this as it may, scholars now generally agree that +whether such a person as Jesus of Nazareth lived or not, we have no +authentic account of Him; and not a syllable of His alleged sayings was +recorded during His alleged lifetime, nor for more than half a century +after His death. The reader who wishes to pursue this subject of the +wholly unauthentic character of the Gospels, &c, &c, is referred to +Greg's "Creed of Christendom," Lord Amberley's "Analysis of Religious +Belief," and the great work lately published in England, and now +reprinted here by the Messrs. Belford of Toronto, viz., "Supernatural +Religion." + +It will thus be seen that Mr. Wendling's doctrinal attitude towards the +Bible and Christianity is extremely problematical, and a Materialist +scarcely knows where to place him, or how to deal with his mongrel +positions. Being, as he tells us, "a business man," "a lawyer," "a +politician," and "a man of the world," this versatile gentleman has +evidently imbibed largely of the utilitarian and humanitarian spirit of +the age, while at the same time retaining his Christian predilections; +and hence the hybrid homily with which we have to deal, and which he +calls a "Reply to Robert Ingersoll from a Secular Standpoint." That a +layman, however, should give so uncertain a sound as to his orthodox +whereabouts, and, in attempting to defend his positions (whatever +they are) and answer Freethinkers, should bring forth such a doctrinal +nondescript, is not indeed to be much wondered at, seeing that the +clergy themselves, being mercilessly driven from pillar to post +by modern science and research, occupy the most inconsistent and +incongruous, not to say ridiculous, positions, in doctrine and dogma, in +ecclesiastical formulary and Biblical exegesis. + +However, though of dubious doctrine and doubtful orthodoxy, some of Mr. +Wendling's positions, or rather assumptions and assertions, are clear +enough, and not to be misunderstood; and in a few of the more important +of these I propose to follow him. + +At the outset he dogmatically postulates the assumption that "what most +we need is the conviction that there _is_ a personal God." From social, +commercial, and political considerations this belief in a personal God +is what we most need--so says Mr. Wendling. He talks as though, were +it not for this theistic belief, everything would go to the dogs; and +universal, moral, social and political chaos would come. This, however, +is simply assumed without a shadow of proof. He then goes on with his +demonstration (?) of the existence of a personal God; but it is the +old, old story over again. First he assumes, in the face of the highest +authorities to the contrary, that "among every people in every quarter +of the habitable globe, there exists, and there has existed from the +very furthest reach of history, the idea of one eternal and all-powerful +God." He then gives us a rehash of Paley's design argument to prove the +existence of a God, which he considers conclusive. And, finally, as if +conscious of the weakness of the intellectual argument, he takes refuge +in the moral argument,--in conscience in man as showing the existence +of a personal God with moral attributes. This is the last refuge of the +Theist--the _dernier ressort_ of the theologian. Driven utterly from +the realm of reason they fly to _conscience_ and to _consciousness_ to +establish subjectively what cannot be proved intellectually. Now, this +sort of evidence may do for the Theist and theologian who are determined +to believe in Theos; but to those who live in the light of reason, and +in the realm of intellect not wholly submerged by the emotions, +such inner-consciousness evidence will not be satisfactory; for they +experience no such subjective proof in their own minds, and do not care +to take the mere _feelings_ of others as evidence of anything further +than the existence of nervous ganglion and brain. + +I will now take up Mr. Wendling's arguments to prove the existence of +a personal God, _seriatim_, and briefly consider them. As already +remarked, before setting out to prove a God, Mr. W. postulates the +necessity of one. For the preservation of moral order, social purity, +and commercial integrity, what most we need, it is assumed, "is the +conviction that there is a personal God." This assertion certainly has +a queer look when we reflect that Theism is at present the prevailing +belief among the masses, and has been in the past; and that our prisons +are full of persons who believe in a personal God; and that believers in +God ascend the gallows almost daily, and are swung off to "mansions in +the skies!" Here are some half dozen examples of this kind at hand, the +whole of which I quote from one newspaper, a late issue of the Kingston +_British Whig_:-- + +Breaux, who was hanged in New Orleans, "ascended the gallows smiling +and said he had made his peace with God and all men." Bolen, who was +executed at Macon, Mississippi, said on the gallows: "My mouth will soon +be closed in this world. I rested in the arms of Jesus last night. I am +satisfied. I feel guilty of nothing. God is well pleased with my soul." +Macon, who was executed at the same place, said, "I feel ready to die, +because God has pardoned my sins. I risked my soul on the murder, but +God has forgiven me. There is not a cloud in the way." Brown, who was +also executed at Macon, with the other two, the same day, said, "I have +made peace with God, and will surely go to heaven, I will cross the +river with a rope around my neck that will lead my wicked soul on +to glory. Blessed be God! I am going home!" Stone, who was hanged at +Washington, and Tatio at Windsor, Vermont, the same day as the four +above, both had made their peace with God, and were on their way "to +meet the Lord Jesus Christ." + +A belief in God did not it seems avail to keep these men, nor thousands +of others, from crime; nor does it, in my opinion, to any great extent, +operate as a deterrent of crime. People with favorable organizations and +good surroundings will not be apt to commit murder whether they believe +or disbelieve in a God; while persons born with, bad organizations--bad +heads and impure blood--will very likely, under favorable circumstances, +continue to follow their predominant impulses, whether they believe in +one God or twenty, and, if Christians in belief, they will ultimately +rely on that "fountain of blood open for sin and all uncleanness." +Unscrupulous men who have strong natural tendencies to crime, and +believe in the Christian plan of salvation, will, in bad surroundings, +scarcely fail to indulge their propensities and finally avail themselves +of the "bankrupt scheme"--take a bath in that impure fountain and be +"washed" clean (?) like the gentry instanced above. + +In January and February of this year (1880) Rev. E. P. Hammond, the +noted Methodist revivalist, made a professional tour through Canada +in pursuit of his favorite and profitable calling of "saving souls" +(favorite, probably, _because_ profitable). Among other places he +visited St. Catharines, and before leaving that city, preached a sermon +for the especial benefit, it would seem, of the Universalists. Now, +Universalism has always been specially odious to the other more +evangelical sects, especially the Methodists, who seem positively +shocked at the horrid idea that hell may perhaps be ultimately emptied +of its human contents and all mankind get into heaven. The Universalists +appear to have a good degree of that noble human quality, benevolence, +and hence they believe that the God they worship is too good to damn +forever any creature he has made. For this good opinion of their +Creator they are duly stigmatized, contemned and reprobated by the ultra +orthodox party, who can brook no nonsense about the possibility of the +fires of hell ever being extinguished. These people are evidently well +pleased at the idea that there is a place of torture into which the +non-elect of their fellow creatures may be turned for ever and ever. +How like the God of the Old Testament, these disciples of His are! Mr. +Hammond, it would seem, is of this class; and accordingly, in the sermon +alluded to, proceeded to unbudget himself against Universalism and +Universalists in vigorous style. The sermon was reported in the St. +Catharines _Journal_, and called forth an able and spirited reply +through the same-medium from the Rev. J. B. Lavelle of Fulton, Township +of Grimsby. I propose to make some extracts, quite relevant to the +subject under consideration, from the reply of Rev. Lavelle,--who is a +gentleman, I am informed, of exemplary character and broad intelligence, +and highly respected. Mr. Lavelle says: + +"Permit me to say, Mr. Editor, in justice to Universalists, both on +this continent and in Europe, among whom are some of the ablest Biblical +scholars, and some of the best men, that there is not a particle of +truth in Mr. Hammond's representation. * * * Mr. Hammond, with other +ministers of the endless misery school, believes in the doctrine of +'imputation,' 'substitution,' or 'vicarious' suffering of Christ, which +they erroneously, as we think, call the Atonement; and that the greatest +villain, who has lived a life of crime, rapine, and murder, can take the +benefit of this Spiritual Bankrupt Act (for it is nothing else) at any +time before he dies, and 'go to heaven'--yea, even while standing on +the gallows, swing 'into glory' and thus escape the consequences of his +wicked life. + +"For instance, A and B are two consummate villains, and have been so +for years, but in a quarrel A murders B--of course B goes to an eternal +hell--but, through the labors of Mr. Hammond and others of the +so-called orthodox churches who visit him in his cell before his +execution--he repents. (?) They lay this Spiritual Bankrupt Act before +him. He sees it is the only alternative to keep out of hell; so he takes +the benefit of it, is hanged, and goes to heaven. Thus, the murderer +gets to heaven by the lucky chance of being the murderer instead of the +murdered. If his victim had been fortunate enough to-strike the fatal +blow, he could have changed places with him; and so the endless destiny +of each would have been reversed by the chance blow of a street fight! +Is it, I ask, on such grounds God distributes rewards and punishments? +What must be the moral influence of such a doctrine? + +"Again: A lives a life of crime for sixty years, and on the very next +month or day, repents by taking the benefit of this Spiritual Bankrupt +Act, dies and goes to heaven. B lives a life of virtue and goodness +for sixty years, and the very next day or month makes a false step, or +commits a crime, and is consigned to an endless hell to suffer intense +misery without relief and without end. And yet we are told by the +advocates of this unscriptural doctrine that this is a just distribution +of rewards and punishments under the government of God who 'is Love,' +but above all, THE FATHER. + +"Look at the case of one Ward, who, in one of our counties a while +ago, murdered his wife--was sentenced to death, and attended by his +'Orthodox' spiritual advisers before execution. He also repented (?) and +took the benefit of this Spiritual Bankrupt Act. When he stood upon the +gallows, he said, he 'had but two steps to take--one into eternity and +the other into glory.' And his poor wife--what became of her? Gone, +'with all her imperfections' to suffer unmitigated misery as long as +God himself shall endure, and this, too, according to the unscriptural +doctrine of the same churches which teach 'no change after death.' Again +we ask, what can be the moral influence of such teaching? + +"The truth is the burden of the most of the teaching of the day is, +to 'die right;' 'make your peace with God in time,' and 'get religion +before you die;' thus making religion to mainly consist in one general +scramble to get into heaven and keep out of hell." + +As Freethinkers, we boldly impeach the Christian plan of salvation as +being essentially immoral in its tendency,--as offering a premium on +vice and crime; and for doing this on previous occasions and designating +it a "bankrupt scheme," the writer of this has been the subject of +severe and indignant animadversion from his intimate Christian friends. +Yet here is a Christian minister who takes substantially the same +position as ourselves in reference to the plan of salvation as preached +by Methodists and others, and denounces it as a "Spiritual Bankrupt +Act." And I have made the above extracts from his pen to strengthen my +position against Mr. Wendling, viz., that a belief in God and the Bible +is _not_ essential to social and commercial morality, and the safety of +the State. + +On this subject, Lord Bacon, himself a Christian, says:-- + +"Atheism leaves a man to sense, to philosophy, to natural piety, to +laws, to reputation: all which may be guides to an outward moral virtue, +though religion were not. But superstition dismounts all these, and +createth an absolute monarchy in the minds of men; therefore Atheism did +never perturb States, for it makes men wary of themselves, as looking +no further, and we see the limes inclined to Atheism (as the time +of Augustus Caesar) were civil times; but superstition, that bone +of contention of many States, bringeth in a new _primum mobile_ that +ravishes all the spheres of government." + +There are thousands of Atheists in almost every civilized country, and +how is it, if Atheism tends to crime, that you will seldom or never +find one in prison for any crime? Buddhism, one of the most ancient +religions, long ante-dating Christianity, is essentially Atheistic. It +has had, and has now, hundreds of millions of followers, and for pure +morality no system of religion has ever equalled it. Webster, the +Christian lexicographer, admits that Buddhism was "characterized by +admirable humanity and morality." The religion of Confucius--of him +who taught the "golden rule" five centuries before Christianity +appeared--was also Atheistic. Therefore, what we "most need" is, not a +"conviction that there _is_ a personal God" (we have that already; all +the murderers, thieves and defaulters believe that doctrine), but we +need more of the "admirable morality" of Buddhism, and more of the +practice of the "golden rule" of Confucius to "do not unto others what +you would not they should do to you." As Emerson has said, "We want some +good Paganism." + +Mr. Wendling's next argument for the existence of a personal God is the +assumed universality of the belief in God, "among every people in every +quarter of the habitable globe," now and "from the very furthest reach +of history." As the value of this argument turns simply on a question +of fact, and as every educated or well-read man knows that the facts +in this case are against Mr. Wendling, and that his assertion is +historically incorrect, it is hardly worth while to spend much time over +it. However, as some readers may not have looked into the authorities on +the subject, I may, perhaps not unprofitably quote briefly from some of +them, and simply refer the reader to others. + +To say nothing of the _Atheistic_ character of the Buddhistic religion, +already referred to, with its millions of followers, there have been, +and are to-day, tribes and peoples who have no belief whatever in, or +conception of, a God or Gods. This fact is conclusively proved by +such authorities as Livingston, the great African explorer (himself a +Christian), Sir John Lubbock, J. S. Mill, Darwin, and even John Wesley, +the founder of Methodism, who, surely, ought to be good authority +with Christians; and him we will first put in the witness box against +Mr.-Wendling. Wesley says, in his Sermons, vol. 2, Sermon C: + +"After all that has been so plausibly written concerning the 'innate +idea of God;' after all that has been said of its being common to all +men, in all ages and nations, it does not appear that man has any more +idea of God than any of the beasts of the field; he has no knowledge +of God at all. Whatever change may afterward be wrought by his own +reflection or education, he is by nature a mere Atheist." + +Charles Darwin, the greatest naturalist in the world, and who is +proverbially careful in his statements, has the following on this +subject in his "Descent of Man," vol. 1, p. 62-3:-- + +"There is ample evidence, derived not from hasty travellers, but from +men who have long resided with savages, that numerous races have existed +and still exist, who have no idea of one or more Gods, and who have no +words in their languages to express such an idea." + +Again, in vol. 2, p. 377, Darwin says:-- + +"The belief in God has often been advanced as not only the greatest, +but the most complete, of all the distinctions between man and the lower +animals. It is, however, impossible, as we have seen, to maintain that +this belief is innate or instinctive in man. On the other hand, a +belief in all-pervading spiritual agencies seems to be universal; and +apparently follows from a considerable advance in the reasoning +powers of man, and from a still greater advance in his faculties +of imagination, curiosity and wonder. I am aware that the assumed +instinctive belief in God has been used by many persons as an argument +for His existence. But this is a rash argument, as we should thus +be compelled to believe in the existence of many cruel and malignant +spirits, possessing only a little more power than man; for the belief +in them is far more general than of a beneficent Deity. The idea of a +universal and beneficent Creator of the universe does not seem to +arise in the mind of man, until he has been elevated by long-continued +culture." + +I would refer the reader who wishes to pursue the subject further, to +Livingston's writings, to Sir J. Lubbock's "Prehistoric Times," and his +"Origin of Civilization," and also to the _Anthropological Review_ for +August, 1864. + +Mr. Wendling's next argument to prove the existence of a personal God +is the once celebrated but now obsolete "design" argument of Catwell and +Paley; but he seems either not to know or he ignores the fact that this +"design argument" has been so thoroughly refuted by the sternest logic +and most indisputable natural facts that the more advanced theologians +of the present day have wholly abandoned it. To reproduce these, or to +give any elaborate refutation, it is unnecessary here. The whole +matter may be disposed of briefly by one or two simple syllogisms which +everybody can comprehend. The famous "design argument," then, may be +formulated into simple syllogistic propositions thus:-- + + Whatever manifests design must have had a designer: + + The world manifests design; + + Therefore, the world must have had a designer. + +This is the whole Christian reasoning on the subject in a nutshell, and +it has been considered by them perfectly conclusive and unanswerable. +The logic is certainly unexceptionable, that is, the conclusion is quite +legitimate from the premises; but it so happens that the premises are +unsound, and in such a case the most unexceptionable logic goes for +naught. If premises be erroneous, though the reasoning be ever so good, +the conclusion must be erroneous. The major premiss of the foregoing +syllogism, that "whatever manifests design must have had a designer," +is a pure assumption, if by design is meant adaptation in Nature. So, +likewise, is the minor premiss an assumption if by design is meant +anything more than the adaptation pervading the universe, or at least +that part cognizable to us. That the _fitness and adaptation_ observable +in Nature do not establish intelligent design, is amply shown by the +highest authorities--by the most eminent naturalists (Haeckel, Darwin, +&c.) of the present day, to whom the reader is referred, and I need +not here amplify in that direction. Nor is it at all necessary for my +present purpose and work. It is only necessary to apply the _teductio ad +absurdum_ to the above argument from design to show its utter fallacy. +We will admit the premises and carry the reasoning of our Christian +friends out a little further. By granting the truth of their major +proposition and reasoning, logically from it we can prove more than is +wholesome for the theologian, as thus:-- + + Whatever manifests design must have had a designer: + + God, in his alleged personality and attributes, manifests design; + + Therefore, God must have had a designer. + +It will thus be seen that Mr. Wendling's design argument from Catwell +and Paley proves entirely too much for his own good, and hence it is +that the astute theologians of the day have abandoned Paley and his +design argument to their fate, where they have been duly relegated by +the incisive logic of the modern materialist. + +Finally, Mr. Wendling comes to the moral argument, and in _conscience_ +finds proof of the existence of a personal God. He complacently avers +that "God made man with this omnipresent 'I ought' implanted in his +nature." Now, in the first place, it is a great mistake that this +"I ought" or conscience is _universally_ implanted in man--is +"omnipresent," as Mr. Wendling puts it. That there are tribes without +the moral sense of conscience, is sustained by the same unimpeachable +authorities referred to in proof of the absence in them of any theistic +conception or belief; and even in civilized (?) society we unfortunately +find an occasional specimen of the _genus homo_ with no noticeable trace +of that "variable quality" we call conscience. + +That conscience is _innate_ in man, and a God-given faculty, instead of +acquired by development, is another convenient assumption without any +substantial foundation. If conscience is a Divine gift to humanity, how +is it that consciences differ so widely, not only in _degree_, but in +_kind_? If conscience is a Divine "monitor" and "guide" from heaven, why +is it that it so often becomes a very blind guide, and leads people into +many by-paths? How is it that under the sanction of conscience the most +horrid crimes and cruelties against humanity have been committed in +the name of God, its alleged author? How is it, if conscience is an +"unerring guide" to conduct, implanted by God, that it has guided +man, in the name of its author, to let out the life blood of his +fellow-creatures in rivers, on account of differences of opinion +_conscientiously_ entertained? Does God give one man one sort of +conscience and another man another and wholly different sort, leading +them in opposite directions, and then prompt the conscience of one to +put the other (his fellow) to death for conscience sake and for God's +sake? If so, it is very questionable work, surely, for a good (?) God +to be engaged in! If God implants the conscience in man, why not be +fair and just and give _all_ men consciences? and give them all the same +article? and not give one man a tolerably good article of conscience +(the Freethinker, for example) and then go and give others (some of +our Christian friends, for example) so poor an article, so to speak--so +flexible and elastic--that it allows them to murder, cheat, lie, +slander, rob widows and orphans, and run away with other people's money +and other men's wives without compunction--without any troublesome pangs +from this universal "I ought" over which Mr. Wendling grows so eloquent! + +The Christian world has been quite long enough teaching an irrational +and absurd doctrine about conscience. They not only blunder as to its +origin, but as to its nature and functions. Nearly every Christian +writer defines conscience as an "inward monitor" to tell us right from +wrong; a divine faculty enabling us to "_judge_ between the good and the +bad;" a "_guide_ to conduct," &c, &c. In the light of our present mental +science this definition of conscience is utterly false. Conscience is +not an _intelligent_ faculty at all--it is simply a feeling. By modern +metaphysics conscience has been relegated from the domain of the +intellect to its proper place among the emotions. Hence it _decides_ +nothing, _judges_ nothing as between right and wrong, or anything else, +for that is a function of intellect. Conscience, instead of being a +"guide" or "judge," is but a blind impulse needing itself to be guided. +It is simply a feeling for the right--a thirsting for the good--but the +_intellect_ must decide what _is_ right; and the nature and character +of its decisions will depend upon various circumstances, such as +organization, education, &c.; and the decisions of different individuals +as to right and wrong will differ as those circumstances differ. We hear +a great deal about "enlightening the conscience;" but it cannot be done. +You might as well talk of enlightening a sunflower, which instinctively +turns its head to the light; or a vine, which instinctively creeps up +the portico. The intellect, however, may be enlightened. Reason, +which is the only and ultimate arbiter and guide to conduct, may be +enlightened; and we may thus modify, guide and direct the blind impulses +of conscience. The truth is, conscience in man, such as it is, is a +development--is acquired rather than innate; has been developed by +Nature instead of "implanted" by God. The moral sense, without doubt, +gradually developed in man as he rose in the scale of intelligence. +Where there is little or no intelligence, the moral sense would be +inapplicable and incongruous, and is not needed, hence does not exist. +When it is required, Nature, in perfect keeping with all her other +adaptations, develops it. Darwin, in the "Descent of Man," vol. i, pp. +68-9, says:-- + +"The following proposition seems to me in a high degree +probable--namely, that any animal whatever, endowed with well-marked +social instincts, would inevitably acquire a moral sense or conscience, +as soon as its intellectual powers had become as well developed, or +nearly as well developed, as in man." + +On this point John Stuart Mill also has the following in his +"Utilitarianism," p. 45:-- + +"If, as is my own belief, the moral feelings are not innate, but +acquired, they are not for that reason less natural." + +The reader is also referred to "Psychological Inquiries," by Sir B. +Brodie, for further evidence on this subject. + +The moral sense, therefore, which exists in a portion of +mankind--distinct traces of which are also found in some of the lower +animals--has been gradually acquired during the evolution of man from +a lower to a higher condition. It has come down to us from primitive +barbarism through long ages of hereditary transmission. The "spiritual +yearnings" of man's nature, thought by Christians to prove a God as +their author, have, in like manner, been gradually acquired. These +subjective emotions and desires--whether you call them _carnal_ or +_spiritual_--are, unquestionably, in the light of modern science, all +matters of gradual development, hereditary inheritance, and education. +The great doctrine of EVOLUTION in nature explains them all. + +Having thus dealt with the arguments of Mr. Wendling in evidence of a +personal God--a primary assumption upon which he predicates many other +assumptions--there is little else in his "Reply to Robert Ingersoll" +demanding attention. One or two, however, of his extraordinary +assertions, it may not be amiss to look into a little; especially as Mr. +Wendling, having waxed valiant over the supposed conclusiveness of his +arguments, triumphantly throws down the glove to "infidelity" in this +wise:-- + +"To my mind the great central thought of Christianity is that every +living soul, of every race, of every clime, of every creed, of every +condition, of every color--every living soul is worthy the Kingdom * * +* And here I challenge infidelity. I lay the challenge broadly down. I +challenge infidelity to name an era or a school in which this doctrine +was taught prior to the advent of the Ideal Man." + +Here, again, Mr. Wendling's orthodoxy is badly out of joint, and his +facts at loose ends. This "central thought" that "every living soul +is worthy the Kingdom" has no place in Christianity. It is by no means +biblical doctrine, however well so humane an idea may fit into Mr. +W.'s own mind. Hence, to designate the _brotherhood of man_ the "great +central thought of Christianity"--a system which is to consign a +majority of mankind to an endless hell of fire and brimstone--is purely +gratuitous. To claim benevolent fatherhood or brotherhood for a religion +which declares that the road to hell is "broad," and many shall go +in thereat, while the way to Heaven is "narrow," and few shall go in +thereat, is to play fast and loose with the Bible. To say that "every +soul is worthy the Kingdom," and call this the "great central thought of +Christianity," in the face of what the "Word of God" cheerfully tells +us on this subject, is, indeed, a "marvellous flexibility of language," +which I do not at all propose to tolerate in discussion with "a lawyer," +"a politician," "a man of the world," or any other man. Hear ye! O! +non-elect, what comforting things the Scripture saith to you on your +"future prospects!" + +"For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate." "For the children +being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the +purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of +him that calleth." "Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, +and whom he will he hardeneth." (Romans, 8th and 9th Chapters.) "The +wicked are estranged from the womb; they go astray as soon as they be +born, speaking lies." (Psalm 58.) "Ye believe not because ye are not of +my sheep." (John 10.) "Ye be reprobates." (II. Corinth. 13.) "Jacob have +I loved, but Esau have I hated." (Romans 9.) He hardened their hearts, +"That seeing they may see, and not perceive; and hearing they may hear, +and not understand." (Mark 4.) "Hath not the potter power over the +clay." &c. (Romans 9.) "He that believeth not shall be damned." + +This is benevolent (?) fatherhood, and the spirit of the _brotherhood of +humanity_, with a vengance! We are distinctly told that God, "from +the beginning," has deliberately fixed upon the ultimate misery and +destruction of a portion of His hapless creatures; that He moulds them +as clay in the hands of the potter; hardens their hearts and blinds +their eyes, and then tells them He will damn them for not doing what +He has prevented them from doing, and what He knows, beforehand, they +cannot and will not do! This is what Mr. Wendling calls the "great +central thought of Christianity--that 'every soul is worthy the +Kingdom,'"--and he calls loudly upon "infidelity" to name an era or a +school in which this doctrine was taught before the "Ideal Man" taught +it. He is right! We cannot do it! We may search the philosophies and +sacred writings of the Pagans in vain for so fiendish a doctrine. +For pure, unadulterated malevolence, the Vedas, the Shaster, the +Zend-Avesta, afford no parallel for this truly Christian doctrine. + +If, however, Mr. Wendling challenges us to name an era or school in +which the _brotherhood of man_ (as we understand it) was taught before +the time of the "Ideal Man," we unhesitatingly accept his challenge. +It was taught by Buddha, Confucius, and numerous Pagan writers and +philosophers long before the time of Jesus, for proof of which I refer +the reader to Prof. Max Muller, Sir Wm. Jones, Lord, Amberly, &c, or to +the writings themselves. Mr. Wendling desires us to "Tell me (him) why +it is that all the creeds of Christendom and all the civilized nations +unite in accepting the Ideal Man of Christianity despite the laws of +climate and of race?" + +I will answer this question in the Irishman's fashion, by asking one or +two others. Tell me why it is, if Christianity is a divine system, +and its author omnipotent, that, after eighteen centuries of active +propagandism and aggression, compassing sea and land to make proselytes, +it has to-day, according to recent statistics, but the meagre following +of 399,200,000; while Buddhism has 405,600,000, and Brahmanism, +Mohammedanism, etc., 500,000,000? Not nearly one-third of the world's +population Christians, and the number rapidly diminishing! Tell me why +it is, if Christianity is true that its foundations are melting down +like wax in the light of Modern Science?' Tell me why it is, if the +Bible is an inspired book, a divine revelation, that scarcely a single +really eminent scientist or scholar of the present day accepts it as +such? Tell me why it is that Atheism, Agnosticism, and Rationalism are +making such rapid headway among the educated and intelligent, in every +civilized country, both in the church and out of it? That the dogmas +upon which Christianity rests are doomed; and as Froude, the historian, +says, "Doctrines once fixed as a rock are now fluid as water?"* If the +Bible can bear the light of science and historical research, how is it +that these have already irrevocably sapped its very foundations; and +that, as a consequence, the world is completely "honey-combed with +infidelity," as a Toronto paper recently asserted of that city? The +only answer Mr. Wendling can give to these questions is this: Because +Christianity is unable to show its titles; because the Bible, being +human in its origin, and, as a consequence, abounding in errors, both in +science and morals, cannot bear the penetrating light of modern science +and criticism. + + * "Science and Theology, Ancient and Modern."--The + International Religio-Science Series.--Rose-Belford + Publishing Company, Toronto. + + + + +REPLY TO LYNCH + +A CRUSHING (?) EDICT FROM ST. MICHAEL'S PALACE. + +(_Brutem Fulmen_,) + +BY + +"Yours in Christ, (Signed), John Joseph Lynch." + + +Since Ingersoll's visit to Canada, Archbishop Lynch, of Toronto,-has +also felt called upon to issue a bull against the Freethinkers; and, I +propose to take this "bull" by the horns and _lynch_ him (I may say _sub +rosa_ that the Bulls of Rome were long ago emasculated, yet, strangely +enough, they still keep _multiplying_!) Under the circumstances, I +think such a work (lynching the bull) will not be one wholly of +_supererogation_,--though it may be more than a _venial_ offence--indeed +possibly a _mortal_ sin for which I can get no _absolution_--to presume +to criticise an Archbishop, and break a lance with his holy bull! I +have, however, desperately resolved to take my chances of purgatory or +limbo and go in for the bull. + +Some of the Archbishop's flock, it would seem, had ventured to exercise +the natural rights of man to the very modest extent of going to hear +Mr. Ingersoll lecture, and also attending some of the meetings of the +Toronto _Liberal Association_. Hence the fulmination of the aforesaid +"bull," wherein his Grace, with that meekness, charity and toleration +born of piety and infallibility, orders his people to "avoid all +contact with these Freethinkers, their lectures and their writings," +and threatens all Catholics who "go to the meetings and lectures of the +Freethinkers or Atheists" with refusal of "absolution," which priestly +function, he patronizingly tells them, he "reserves" to himself. + +Now, may we not indulge the hope, in this age of reason, and land of at +least professed liberty, and esoteric freedom of conscience, that +every man, be he Catholic or Protestant, will look upon this attempted +exercise of medieval bigotry and intolerance with practical disregard, +and deserved contempt. As for the Freethinkers, they can afford to smile +at the impotent Archbishop, who seems to imagine himself in the ninth +instead of the nineteenth century, and in Rome or Spain instead of the +Dominion of Canada. They can but look at him and his foolish "bull" as +most ridiculous anachronisms. On reading this precious document it is +plain that all this deputy "Vicegerent of God" requires to make him a +first-class modern Torquemada is the power--the outward authority to +carry out his subjective hatred of "brutalized" Freethinkers. But this, +thanks to science, and consequent civilization, he has not got. +The Rationalist can, therefore, at this day, afford to deride the +malevolent, though fortunately impotent, ravings of this zealous bishop +of an emasculated Church. He and his Church (the whole Christian Church) +are, fortunately for humanity, shorn of their wonted strength, which, +in the past, they have used with such fiendish ferocity and brutality +on human kind. The day has gone by when the Church may light an +_auto-da-fe_ around the body of a Bruno. The time has passed when she +may thrust a Galileo into prison and force him to recant the sublime +truths of Astronomy. She can no longer cast a Roger Bacon into a noisome +dungeon because of his scientific investigations. True, she can still, +if she choose, excommunicate a Copernicus for what she denounced as his +"false Pythagorean doctrine," but that is all. Darwin, Huxley, Tyndall, +Proctor and the rest are safe. This relentless enemy of Science and +liberty, and consequently of mankind, can no longer clutch every young +science by the throat and strangle struggling truth, which, crushed to +earth has risen again in its might; and history will scarcely repeat +itself in the case of Bruno the Atheist, or Galileo the Astronomer, +or Roger Bacon the Philosopher, or a thousand other victims of this +ruthless "Bourbon of the world of thought"--the Church. She may still +continue to fulminate her absurd and innocuous _anathemas_, but this is +about all. The Holy Inquisition, with its two hundred and fifty thousand +human victims; the Crusades with its five millions; the massacre of St. +Bartholomew with its fifty thousand; to say nothing of the religious +horrors of the Netherlands, of England, Scotland, and Ireland since the +reformation--all these holy horrors, let us hope, are "hideous blots on +the history of the past never to be repeated." Or will it be said of the +future history of Christianity, as has been frankly admitted of its past +by one of its ardent disciples, Baxter, that "Blood, blood, blood stains +every page?" + +The tables are now turning. The Church, to-day, instead of burning +unbelievers, and strangling science by immuring in dungeons its +votaries, is herself being strangled by science (with no loss of human +blood, however). Her cruel theology and irrational dogmas are prostrate, +writhing in their death throes, at the feet of the Hercules of modern +science and criticism. + +A little digression will not be out of order here. Our comic +caricaturist at Toronto (of which, on the whole, Canada may feel proud), +recently had a cartoon representing the theological Gamaliel of St. +Michael's Palace, Toronto, strangling the _serpent_ "Freethought." +Now, though usually on the side of truth and impartiality, _Grip_ has +undoubtedly, in this case, taken an oblique squint at truth and justice, +and has for once, at least, got the cart before the horse. Facts and +truth demand that the positions of the gladiators in his cartoon must be +reversed, and the zoological nomenclature corrected. And if _Grip_ had +read Huxley and Tyndall, and correctly observed the signs of the times, +he would scarcely have fallen into this unpardonable error. Let us quote +Prof. Huxley on this subject of strangling serpents:-- + +"It is true that, if philosophers have suffered, their cause has been +amply revenged. _Extinguished theologians lie about the cradle of every +science as the strangled snakes beside that of Hercules_; and history +records that, whenever science and orthodoxy have been fairly opposed, +the latter has been forced to retire from the lists, bleeding and +crushed, if not annihilated; scotched, if not slain. But orthodoxy +is the Bourbon of the world of thought. It learns not, neither can it +forget; and, though at present bewildered and afraid to move, it is as +willing as ever to insist that the first chapter of Genesis contains the +beginning and the end of sound science; and to visit, with such petty +thunderbolts as its half-paralyzed hands can hurl those who refuse to +degrade Nature to the level of primitive Judaism."--_Lay Sermons_, p. +277-8. + +From this, _Grip_ will see that instead of the fair form of reason +and Freethought (which he represents as a snake) being strangled by +a prelate of the church, it is the serpent, orthodoxy, which is being +strangled by the Hercules of science. It is to be regretted that _Grip_, +notwithstanding his professions of independence and impartiality, is +himself obnoxious to the very moral cowardice he has so often fearlessly +and justly exposed in others. Else why does he represent Freethought as +a snake? Is it because Freethought is yet comparatively weak in numbers, +and unpopular, and because this sort of thing will please the Church, +which _is_ popular and powerful? What characteristic of the snake +attaches to Freethought or Freethinkers? None; and we fearlessly +challenge _Grip_ and the Church on this point. Freethought has none of +the reptilian qualities of hypocrisy, cunning or deceit, but is frank +and fearless. Amid all the obloquy, denunciation, persecution, social +ostracism, calumny, and "holy bulls" hurled at them, Freethinkers have +the courage of their opinions; and bear all these, as well as business +detriment, for the sake of what they sacredly regard as _truth_. + +What does Prof. Tyndall say of Freethinkers and Atheists? To Archbishop +Lynch, who, in his pronunciamiento, says, "A person who, disbelieves in +the Ten Commandments, in hell or in Heaven, can hardly be trusted in +the concerns of life;" and to _Grip_ who cowardly crystalizes this base +assertion into a baser cartoon, I quote with pride the language of +this noble man, and eminent scholar and scientist. In the _Fortnightly +Review_ for November, 1877, Prof. Tyndall says: + +"It may comfort some to know that there are amongst us many whom the +gladiators of the pulpit would call Atheists and Materialists, whose +lives, nevertheless, as tested by any accessible standard of morality, +would contrast more than favorably with the lives of those who seek to +stamp them with this offensive brand. When I say 'offensive' I refer +simply to the intention of those who use such terms, and not because +Atheism or Materialism, when compared with many of the notions +ventilated in the columns of religious newspapers, has any particular +offensiveness to me. If I wished to find men who are scrupulous in their +adherence to engagements, whose words are their bond, and to whom moral +shiftiness of any kind is subjectively unknown; if I wanted a loving +father, a faithful husband, an honorable neighbor, and a just citizen, I +would seek him among the band of Atheists to which I refer. I have +known some of the most pronounced amongst them, not only in life, but in +death--seen them approaching with open eyes the inexorable goal, with no +dread of a 'hangman's whip,' with no hope of a heavenly crown, and still +as mindful of their duties, and as faithful in the discharge of them, as +if their eternal future depended on their latest deeds." + +Let the Archbishop, and _Grip_, and every reader ponder these +brave words of so high an authority in defence of the reprobated +class-stigmatised as "infidels," to which they refer; and then, for +corroboration, compare the testimony given with the living facts around +them.. + +The Archbishop says, these "foolish men" (the Freethinkers) are +"striving to replunge the world into the depths of Barbarism and +Paganism," etc., etc. To those who know that the present attitude of +all the great scientists and eminent _savans_ towards the dogmas of the +Christian Church, is one of undoubted unbelief and hostility; and +who are conversant with the history of the Archbishop's own church in +particular, during the past fifteen centuries,--to them the Archbishop's +vituperation is as foolish as it is ridiculous. From the days of +Constantine to this year, 1880, the Church, of which this learned (?) +prelate is a representative, has strenuously opposed learning, and +retarded civilization; has tolerated no freedom of conscience or liberty +of thought, thus narrowing instead of extending the liberty enjoyed +in Pagan and Imperial Rome, over whose ruins she reared her tyrannical +head. Talk of "Paganism!" His Church needs, as Emerson puts it, "some +good Paganism." She left behind her the liberty even of Pagan Rome, her +maligned precursor. Renan tells us, "We may search in vain, the Roman +law before Constantine, for a single passage against freedom of thought, +and the history of the imperial government furnishes no instance of a +prosecution for entertaining an abstract doctrine." And, Mosheim, +the ecclesiastical historian, tells us that the Romans exercised this +toleration in the amplest manner. + +"The prosecutions of the Christians by the Pagans, it is now universally +conceded by Christian historians, have been greatly exaggerated; +Christians have killed, in one day, for their faith nearly half as many +heretics as all the Christians put to death by the Pagans during the +whole period of the Pagan Empire." (The Influence of Christianity on +Civilization, pp. 24-5, Underwood.) + +The Archbishop's Church is, therefore, no improvement in respect of +liberty or toleration, on the Paganism he reviles. + +What progress the world has made in liberty and civilization, has been +made, not with the assistance of the Christian Church, but in spite of +its determined opposition and deadly hostility. Dr. Draper, author of +the "History of the Conflict between Religion and Science," and other +works, tells us that: + +"Latin Christianity is responsible for the condition and progress of +Europe from the fourth to the sixteenth century," and subsequently +avers, "Whoever will, in in a spirit of impartiality, examine what had +been done by Catholicism for the intellectual and material advancement +of Europe, during her long reign, and what has been done by science +in its brief period of action, can, I am persuaded, come to no other +conclusion than this, that, in instituting a comparison, he has +established a contrast." ("Conflict," p. 321.) Lecky, in his "History +of Morals," vol. 2, p. 18, tells us:--"For more than three centuries the +decadence of theological influence has been one of the most invariable +signs and measures of our progress. In medicine, physical science, +commercial interests, politics, and even ethics, the reformer has been +confronted with theological affirmations that have barred his way, which +were all defended as of vital importance, and were all compelled to +yield before the secularizing influence of civilization." (Protestant as +well as Catholic Christianity is, however, obnoxious to this stricture +of Lecky.) + +The Freethinkers "striving to replunge the world into the depths of +barbarism!" What can the Archbishop's idea of barbarism be? Doubtless in +his priestly mind everything is "barbarism" which does not square +with the Encyclical, or with the dogmas of his infallible Church. +If, however, barbarism is in reality just the opposite of our most +enlightened and highest civilization in Art, Science, Literature and +Ethics, it will, I have the presumption to think, be found that those +"foolish men"--those "brutalized" Freethinkers--are leading the van +of progress forward to a higher civilization, instead of dragging it +backward to barbarism. The truth of this is patent everywhere, in every +civilized country, and many of our Christian opponents admit it, though +Archbishop Lynch may not. A clergyman of Toronto--Rev. W. S. Rainsford, +of St. James' Cathedral--(from whom the Archbishop of St. Mary's +Cathedral might probably, to his advantage, take a lesson in +toleration), in a sermon preached in that city, Nov. 17th, 1878, +in speaking of Freethinkers, made use of the following language, as +reported in the _Globe_ of the 18th: + +"This sort of infidelity, that of Materialism, has its students in +the laboratory and in the library. It includes men of moral lives, of +earnest purposes, * * * men who uphold morality, chastity, self-denial, +perseverance with as clear a voice as Christians do, but on different +grounds." + +Years ago the N. Y. _Independent_, a religious paper, made the following +ingenuous admission: + +"To the shame of the Church it must be confessed that the foremost in +all our philanthropic movements, in the interpretation of the spirit of +the age, in the practical application of genuine Christianity, in the +reformation of abuses in high and low places, in the vindication of +the rights of man, and in practically redressing his wrongs, in the +intellectual and moral regeneration of the race, are the so-called +infidels in our land. The Church has pusillanimously left, not only the +working oar, but the very reins of salutary reform in the hands of +men she denounces as inimical to Christianity, and who are practically +doing, with all their might, for humanity's sake, what the Church ought +to be doing for Christ's sake; and if they succeed, as succeed they +will, in abolishing slavery, banishing rum, restraining licentiousness, +reforming abuses and elevating the masses, then must the recoil on +Christianity be disastrous. Woe, woe, woe, to Christianity when Infidels +by the force of nature, or the tendency of the age, get ahead of the +Church in morals, and in the practical work of Christianity. In some +instances they are already far in advance. In the vindication of Truth, +Righteousness, and Liberty, _they are the pioneers_, beckoning to a +sluggish Church to follow in the rear." + +The _Evangelist_ also, made the following admission of the same facts: +"Among all the earnest minded young men, who are at this moment leading +in thought and action in America, we venture to say that four-fifths are +skeptical of the great historical facts of Christianity. What is held as +Christian doctrine by the churches claims none of their consideration, +and there is among them a general distrust of the clergy, as a class, +and an utter disgust with the very aspect of modern Christianity and of +church worship. This scepticism is not flippant; little is said about +it. It is not a peculiarity alone of radicals and fanatics; most of +them are men of calm and even balance of mind, and belong to no class of +ultraists. It is not worldly and selfish. Nay, the doubters lead in the +bravest and most self-denying enterprises of the day." + +From a Church which has always opposed the education of the people, when +she had the power, and exterminated or expatriated the best intellects +under her jurisdiction, this talk of Freethinkers "re-plunging the world +into the depths of barbarism" comes with a very bad grace from his +Grace of Toronto. By this Church the Moriscoes were driven out of +Spain--100,000 of them--and this because they were the friends of +progress, of art and science. Buckle, the historian, tells us:--"When +they were thrust out of Spain there was no one to fill their places; +arts and manufactures either degenerated or were entirely lost, ard +immense regions of arable land were left uncultivated; whole districts +were suddenly deserted, and down to the present day have never been +repeopled." The Jews also were expelled, as they, too, were in favor +of knowledge and improvement, and this was sufficient cause for their +expatriation. + +This relentless enemy--the Church--of all science, all progress in +knowledge among the people, ruthlessly exterminated the best minds +within its grasp for centuries. Darwin, in his "Descent of Man," vol. 1, +p. 171-2, says:-- + +"During the same period the Holy Inquisition selected with extreme care +the freest and boldest men in order to burn and imprison them. In +Spain alone some of the best men, those who doubted and questioned--and +without doubting and questioning there can be no progress--were +eliminated during three centuries at the rate of a thousand a year." + +Talk to us of barbarism and paganism! A church which, from the time, +nearly fifteen centuries ago, when she burnt the Alexandrian +Libraries and Museum--the intellectual legacies of centuries--to the +present time, has never yet called off her sleuth-hounds with which she +has always hunted down the sacred principles of liberty of thought +and freedom of conscience! A Church which from "the beginning of that +unhappy contest," as Mosheim tells us, "between faith and reason, +religion and philosophy, piety and genius, which increased in succeeding +ages, and is prolonged even to our times with a violence which renders +it extremely difficult to be brought to a conclusion," to this day, +would hold the world in barbarous ignorance if its paralyzed hand could +but avail against the resistless march of knowledge and truth! Draper, +in speaking of the condition of the people under Catholicity in the 14th +century, thus pictures the civilizing (?) and elevating influences of +that Holy Religion:-- + +"There was no far reaching, no persistent plan to ameliorate the +physical condition of the nations. Nothing was done to favor their +intellectual development, indeed, on the contrary, it was the settled +policy to keep them not merely illiterate, but ignorant. Century after +century passed away, and left the peasantry but little better than the +cattle in the fields. * * * Pestilences were permitted to stalk forth +unchecked, or at best opposed only by mummeries. Bad food, wretched +clothing, inadequate shelter, were suffered to produce their result, +and at the end of a thousand years the population of Europe had not +doubled." + +For centuries, and centuries, in the Western Empire, subsequent to the +invasion of the barbarians, when the Church this Toronto prelate owes +allegiance to, had absolute control, such was the dense ignorance that +scarcely a layman could be found who could sign his own name. There was +very little learning, and what little there was the clergy carefully and +jealously confined to themselves; and as Hallam, the historian, tells +us:-- + +"A cloud of ignorance overspread the whole face of the church, hardly +broken by a few glimmering lights, who owe almost the whole of their +distinction to the surrounding darkness." The same historian (Middle +Ages, p. 460,) tells us:--"France reached her lowest point at the +beginning of the eighth century, but England was, at that time, more +respectable, and did not fall into complete degradation until the middle +of the ninth. There could be nothing more deplorable than the state +of Italy during the succeeding century. In almost every council the +ignorance of the clergy forms a subject for reproach. It is asserted by +one held in 992 that scarcely a single person was to be found in Rome +itself, who knew the first elements of letters. Not one priest of a +thousand in Spain, about the age of Charlemagne, could address a common +letter of salutation to one another." + +Lecky, in his "History of Morals," vol. 2, p. 222, tells us that: + +"Mediaeval Catholicity discouraged and suppressed, in every way, secular +studies," and further, that, "Not till the education of Europe passed +from the monasteries to the universities; not until Mahomedan science +and classical freethought and industrial independence broke the sceptre +of the Church, did the intellectual revival of Europe commence." + +And, I would ask Archbishop Lynch, what was the condition of +the Byzantine Empire during the thousand years or upwards of its +existence?--An empire under the sway of his Church, from its foundation +by the first Christian emperor, Constantine--that exemplary Christian +murderer who, because the Pagan priests refused him absolution for his +enormities, hastened to the bosom of the Christian Church, whose priests +he found more pliable, having little compunction or hesitancy about +granting absolution to the new proselyte. What is the record of history +touching this Empire under the aegis of Catholic Christianity? The +historian Lecky thus graphically sets forth its condition:-- + +"The universal verdict of history is that it constitutes, without a +single exception, the most thoroughly base and despicable form that +civilization has yet assumed. Though very cruel and very sensual, there +have been times when cruelty assumed more ruthless, and sensuality more +extravagant aspects, but there has been no other enduring civilization +so absolutely destitute of all the forms, the elements, of greatness, +and none to which the epithet _mean_ may be so emphatically applied. The +Byzantine Empire was pre-eminently the age of treachery. Its vices were +the vices of men who ceased to be brave without learning to be virtuous. +* * * The history of the empire is a monotonous story of the intrigues +of priests, eunuchs and women, of poisonings, of conspiracies, of +uniform ingratitude, of perpetual fratricides." In speaking of the +condition of the Western Empire the same author proceeds:--"A boundless +intolerance of all divergence of opinion was united with an equally +boundless toleration of all falsehood and deliberate fraud, that could +favor received opinions. Credulity being taught as a virtue, and all +conclusions dictated by authority, a deadly torpor sank upon the human +mind, which for many centuries almost suspended its action, and was only +broken by the scrutinizing, innovating and free-thinking habits that +accompanied the rise of the industrial republics in Italy. Few men who +are not either priests or monks would not have preferred to live in +the best days of the Athenian or of the Roman republics, in the age of +Augustus, or in the age of the Antonines rather than in any period +that elapsed between the _triumph of Christianity and the fourteenth +century_." + +The same historian, whose accuracy Archbishop Lynch will scarcely +attempt to impeach, thus judicially and impartially sums up the +influences of Catholic Christianity both in the Eastern and Western +Empires during many centuries when it had the fullest sway:-- + +"When we remember that in the Byzantine Empire the renovating power of +theology was tried in a new capital, free from Pagan traditions, and for +more than one thousand years unsubdued by barbarians, and that in the +west, the Church, for at least seven hundred years after the shocks of +the invasion had subsided, exercised a control more absolute than any +other moral or intellectual agency has ever attained, it will appear, +I think, that the experiment was very sufficiently tried. It is easy to +make a catalogue of the glaring vices of antiquity, and to contrast them +with the pure morality of Christian writings; but, if we desire to +form a just estimate of the realized improvement, we must compare the +classical and ecclesiastical civilizations as wholes, and must observe +in each case not only the vices that were repressed but also the degree +and variety of positive excellence attained." + +Before the art of printing was discovered, the Church had less +difficulty in keeping the people in ignorance, but after the invention +of that boon to mankind she found herself ominously confronted with the +tree of life from which the people would soon learn to pluck the fruit +of knowledge. Hence the establishment, by Pope Paul IV., about the +middle of the sixteenth century, of the _Index Expurgatorius_, whose +functions, we are told, was "to examine books and manuscripts intended +for publication, and to decide whether the people may be permitted to +read them." This is what his Grace of St. Michael's Palace, in Toronto, +proposes to do for the good Catholics of that city--decide what they +shall read and what they shall not read, as though they were ninnies +and not able to decide that matter for themselves! The fact is, however, +that, in this priestly arrogance and assumption, the Archbishop is +consistent enough; for, although such mediaeval tyranny is altogether +inconsistent with the spirit of this age, and ludicrously out of place +in 1880, in the City of Toronto, it, nevertheless, perfectly accords +with the tenets and spirit as well as the antecedents of his Church; +which, while it accuses Freethinkers of "barbarism," allows not an inch +of latitude of private judgment in matters of religion, and tolerates +no freedom of conscience: And what is this but barbarism? All freedom of +conscience was fiercely denounced by Gregory XVI. as insane folly, +and the Archbishop of Toronto reiterates this unsavory stigma on +civilization. And why shouldn't he? Theology never learns. The Church +changes not. How can she when she is infallible? Yet an infallible +Pope of an infallible Church, not long since, found himself, while +encompassed with many difficulties, spiritual and temporal, to be about +like other weak mortals in flesh and blood; and, though infallible, +remember, and with the power of miracles and all that, he succumbs and +whiningly complains to a vulgar world that he is "a prisoner in his own +palace in Rome!" And the heretical and sceptical world--the "outside +barbarians"--with a contemptuous leer, gape at the queer spectacle of +the "Vicegerent on Earth" of an all-powerful God being obliged so easily +to succumb to heresy--to a little temporal power. Such, however, is +life--or rather the "mysterious ways of providence," which "ways" always +seem though, as Cromwell observed, to be on the side of the heaviest +artillery,--not the artillery of heaven, but the base artillery of +earth. Indeed, this worldly artillery--the artillery of science and +civilization--has, in this nineteenth century, been making such havoc +with creeds, confessions, and dogmas, that the crowning dogma +of all--this fundamental pillar of the Vatican, the dogma of +infallibility--was, it would seem, fast becoming a _dead dog_; when the +Holy Catholic Church finds it imperatively incumbent upon her to attempt +a resuscitation. This happened in Rome in "_anno domini_" 1870, at that +great Ecumenical Council--that unique anachronism of the nineteenth +century. I know not whether that mediaeval assembly of Holy "Fathers in +God" was honored by the presence of his Grace of St. Michael's Palace, +in Toronto, or not; but, be that as it may, his reverence's entire +loyalty to the notorious Encyclical and Syllabus of that Council is not +to be questioned or doubted. The miniature Toronto _bull_ of May 9th, +1880, has the true Vatican ring of the big _bull_ of the Council in +Rome in 1870. It, too, denounced, with its usual, though harmless, +_anathema_, Atheism, Pantheism, Naturalism, Rationalism and every other +ism that failed to square with Papal dogma. By the fulmination of that +Syllabus the world learned among many other things, that "No one may +interpret the Sacred Scriptures contrary to the sense in which they are +interpreted by Holy Mother Church, to whom such interpretation belongs." +It was further decreed that "All the Christian faithful are not only +forbidden to defend, as legitimate conclusions of science, those +opinions which are known to be contrary to the doctrine of faith, +especially when condemned by the Church, but are rather absolutely bound +to hold them for errors wearing the deceitful appearance of truth." + +As examples of the holy canons which were actually fulminated and +promulgated by that Ecumenical Council in the latter part of this 19th +century, here are a few:-- + +"Who shall refuse to receive, for sacred and canonical, the books of +Holy Scripture in their integrity, with all their parts, according as +they were enumerated by the Holy Council of Trent, or shall deny that +they are inspired by God, _Let him be anathema_." + +"Who shall say that human sciences ought to be pursued in such a spirit +of freedom that one may be allowed to hold as true their assertions, +even when opposed to revealed doctrine, _Let him be anathema_." + +"Who shall say that it may at any time come to pass, in the progress +of science, that the doctrines set forth by the Church must be taken in +another sense than that in which the Church has ever received and yet +receives them, _Let him be anathema_." + +These are the modest assumptions of the Church of Rome in this age; and +a prelate of that Church breathes the same noxious vapors forth into the +intellectual atmosphere of the City of Toronto! It remains to be seen +whether in Toronto there are such slaves or fools as will submit to this +worse than Egyptian bondage. Will intelligent Catholics put their necks +in a yoke so galling? None but slaves or barbarians would do it. The +Archbishop would thus fain make barbarians of his own people, and then +he would have the pagans at home without hunting among Freethinkers for +them. In his lecture in Napanee, in April last, Col. Ingersoll gave it +as his opinion that any man--no matter what Church he belonged to, or +what country he lived in--who claimed rights for himself which he denied +to others, is a barbarian! Now, according to this definition, who are +the barbarians? The Freethinkers, or the Archbishop himself and those he +ignominiously holds in mental bondage? + +In conclusion, we thank Archbishop Lynch for his timely "bull." As a +propagandist document for the spread of Freethought, and really in the +interests of those "foolish" and "brutalized" Freethinkers against +whom it was directed, it must prove a great success. It is another +illustration of the essentially bigoted and intolerant spirit of +Christianity in general.* + + * I am well aware that the Protestant sects of Christianity + repudiate this charge of the intolerant and persecuting + spirit of Christianity in general, and vainly attempt to + shift the whole onus and odium upon the Church of Rome. They + tell us that Christianity itself is not persecuting--that it + is not responsible for having reddened the earth with blood + --but that this was all done contrary to the spirit and + teachings of Christianity by men who were not really + Christians. We deny it. We take the position that + Christianity itself is essentially intolerant and + persecuting in spirit; and, we take the New Testament itself + to prove it. We take Christ's alleged words as reported + there, and Paul's alleged words as reported there, and can + thereby abundantly sustain our charge. "He that believeth + not shall be damned." "A man that is a heretic after the + first and second admonition, reject." What is that but the + quintessence of bigotry and intolerance? "I would they were + even cut off which trouble you." How kind! "Think not that I + come to send peace on earth, etc., etc" Scores of passages + could be quoted from the New Testament of similar import, + and the Old Testament is worse yet, for it recommends + putting even your wives or brothers to death should they try + to persuade you to worship their God.--See Deut. 13, 6, 7 + and 8. + + + + +REPLY TO "BYSTANDER." + +I approach this part of my prescribed duty with some hesitation, and not +a little reluctance. _Bystander_ is brilliant, learned, independent, +and honest; and for these qualities, though differing from him on +some important subjects, I entertain a respect and esteem amounting to +affection. I hope, therefore, that I may not write a word here having +even the semblance of discourtesy; for of that sort of treatment the +gentleman in question has had a full share since he honored Canadians by +casting his lot amongst us. + +For the benefit of some readers who, possibly, may not have seen it, I +may say that _The Bystander_ is a "Monthly Review of Current Events," +published in Toronto by Messrs. Hunter, Rose & Co., and written by a +certain distinguished literary gentleman, as referred to above, whose +name I would like to give here only that I feel in courtesy bound to +respect the "impersonality of journalism," the protection of which the +gentleman in question has the right, and with good reason, to claim. + +The last three issues of _The Bystander_ (for April, May and June) have +each a paper on Col. Ingersoll, his lectures, and cognate subjects; the +general tone of which is very liberal, but, at the same time, containing +strictures upon Mr. Ingersoll and his teachings which I consider unfair +and unjust (unintentionally no doubt), and to which I here propose +briefly to reply. + +Having heard Mr. Ingersoll lecture but once I am not in a position from +personal knowledge to speak fully as to the alleged "blasphemy," and +his general "tone" on the platform; but this much I can say, that +_Bystander's_ assertion that "he" (Ingersoll) "repels all decent men, +whatever their convictions; for no decent man likes blasphemy any more +than he likes obscenity," is certainly not true of the one lecture I +heard, or of the score of others of his I have read. I humbly claim +to be myself a "decent man," and I did not find myself "repelled" on +listening to Ingersoll's lecture, but rather attracted. I also saw many +decent people at the lecture (some from a distance), and they did not +seem repelled; but, like myself, well-pleased. In Toronto, according +to the reports in the _Evening Telegram_, there were large audiences of +decent, intelligent people: and instead of being repelled, they greeted +the lecturer with the most enthusiastic approbation and applause, +repeated over and over again. The same reception was accorded him in +Montreal, Belleville and Napanee. + +Bystander contrasts Ingersoll's "offensive tone" on the platform with +the "gentleness and sympathy of the Christian preacher on Mars' Hill," +who, he tells us, "delivered the truths he bore at once with the dignity +of simple earnestness, and with perfect tenderness towards the beliefs +which he came to supersede." Let us, for a moment, examine this claim +of "simple earnestness," and "perfect tenderness" in behalf of Paul the +great preacher of the New Testament. Paul says, (Roman iii. 7) "For if +the truth of God hath more abounded through my lie unto his glory, why +yet am I also judged as a sinner?" He also tells us (2nd Cor. 12: 16) +that "being _crafty_, I caught you with guile," and likewise assures us +that he was "all things to all men;" to the Jews he "became as a Jew," +etc. What "simple earnestness" this is truly! And the Church of Christ +has nearly always acted in accordance with this Scriptural doctrine that +in _lying_ for God's sake the "end justifies the means." Mosheim, +the ecclesiastical historian, tells us that in the early ages of the +Christian Church, "It was an act of virtue to deceive and lie, when by +that means the interest of the church might be promoted." + +As to Paul's "perfect tenderness toward the beliefs which he came to +supersede," let us look a little into that. In writing to the Galatians +he says [tenderly] "As we said before, so say I now again, if any man +preach any other gospel unto you than that you have received, let him +be _accursed_." (Gal. 1:9.) That is tender toleration for you! Again, +"A man that is a heretic after the first and second admonition, reject" +(Titus 4:9.) "I would they were even cut off which trouble you" (Gal. +5: 12.) We, Freethinkers, would stand a poor chance to-day if Paul's +precepts were carried out! Again, "If any man love not the Lord Jesus +Christ, let him be _Anathema Maranatha_" (1 Cor. 16: 22.)-What "perfect +tenderness" this is! With a vengeance are these curses and maledictions +tender! _Bystander_ may search in vain in Ingersoll's lectures, or any +Freethinkers' writings, for such consummate bigotry, intolerance, and +even cruelty as this "Christian preacher" pours out upon all who venture +to differ from him in belief. And what "perfect tenderness" in Paul +to denounce and stigmatize even those of his own church--his +co-religionists--as "_false apostles, deceitful workers, dogs, and +liars!_" Did _Bystander_ or anybody else ever hear such language from +Ingersoll or any other Freethinker? Is it not "offensive to any sensible +and right-minded man?" Does it not "repel all decent men?" + +_Bystander_ admits that when Ingersoll "attacks dogmatic orthodoxy he +is in the right." What more does he attack? This is exactly what he does +attack, and _Bystander_ admits that in so doing he is doing right, thus +showing that he himself does not believe in dogmatic orthodoxy. Now, if +the Christian's God, as described in the Bible, is included in "dogmatic +orthodoxy" (and He surely must be) is Ingersoll blasphemous in attacking +Him? Surely not, according to _Bystander_ himself. _Bystander_ may say, +however, that he does not mean to include the Christian's God in +the "irrational and obsolete orthodoxy," against which he admits +"Ingersoll's arguments are really telling." But does _Bystander_ himself +believe in the God of the Bible? From the tenor of his language he +surely cannot. Does he believe in the God of whom the Bible itself gives +the following description? (For want of time to refer to, and space to +insert chapter and verse, they are not given, but every Bible reader +will recognize the passages given as substantially correct):-- + +"He burns with anger; his lips are full of indignation, and his tongue +as a devouring fire." "His fury is poured out like fire, and the rocks +are thrown down by him." "The Lord awaketh as one out of sleep, and like +a mighty man that shouteth by reason of wine." "Smoke came out of his +nostrils, and fire out of his mouth, so that coals were kindled by it." +"He had horns coming out of his hand." "Out of his mouth went a sharp +two-edged sword." "The Lord shall roar from on high. He roareth from +his habitation. He shall shout as they that tread the grapes." "He is +a jealous God." "He stirred up jealousy." "He was jealous to fury." +"He rides upon horses." "The Lord is a man of war." "His anger will +be accomplished, and his fury rest upon them, and then he will be +_comforted!_" "His arrows shall be drunken with blood." "He is angry +with the wicked every day." "A fire is kindled in mine anger and shall +burn unto the lowest hell. I will heap mischief upon them; I will spend +my arrows upon them I will also send the teeth of beasts upon them, and +the poison of the serpents... both the young man and the virgin, the +suckling also, and the man of gray hairs." [What did the "suckling" do +to merit this?] "He reserveth wrath for his enemies." "He became angry +and swore." "He cried and roared." + +Does _Bystander_ believe in a God like that? whom it is "blasphemy," it +seems, for Ingersol to attack! It is true there are good qualities and +attributes ascribed to God by the Bible as well as bad; but that +does not affect the fact that these are ascribed to him; while the +co-existence of two diametrically opposite sets of attributes in the +same Being is simply absurd. Why is it blasphemy to attack such a +conception of God, any more than to attack any of the other Pagan gods +of antiquity? As he is represented in the Bible, He is certainly no +better than they; and _Bystander_ himself would have little hesitancy +in making an onslaught on the Pagan gods. When primitive Judaism and +Christianity set up a God for _our_ worship and adoration, and at +the same time tells us, "by the book," that He commanded the cruel, +fiendish, and indiscriminate murder of men, women, and innocent children, +we beg to decline to worship, or adore, or believe in any such Being; +and we do not think it "blasphemy" to attack the false belief and the +false God. When we read in the "word of God" that the Lord commanded +one of his prophets to diet on excrement; that the Lord met Moses at a +tavern and tried to kill him (see Exodus, 4, 24); that the sun and moon +stood still; that it rained forty days and nights, and that nearly the +whole world was drowned; that the first man--Adam--was made of clay, and +Eve of a rib, about 6000 years ago; that the world was made in six days, +and that vegetation flourished before there was any sun,--when we read +of all these wonderful things, we beg to be excused from believing them, +and claim the right to ridicule them to our heart's content. If this is +"disrespect," or "insult," or an "ignoble spirit of irreverence," then +we plead guilty to the charge, and are willing to abide by it. + +We do not deny that there may be a God; we only deny the existence +of such a one as the Bible sets forth. We attack only the gods whom +barbarous peoples have fashioned in their own imaginations and set up +for our worship, and not any high or noble conception of a Deity. We +fully admit the existence of a great and mysterious power or force in +the universe which we cannot understand or comprehend. We believe with +Spencer in the great _Unknown_ and _Unknowable_, and have no "attack" +to make upon this power, no word of ridicule, no blasphemy; but, like +Tyndall, stand in its presence with reverence and awe, acknowledging our +ignorance. + +While, however, acknowledging this unseen Power, we decline to +anthropomorphise it--to call it a _person_ or _being_, and invest it +with mental and moral functions similar to our own, differing only in +degree not in kind. It is only the anthropomorphism we attack--only +the superstitions, assumptions and dogmas. We only attack that which +is incredible and absurd--that which "shocks reason." We believe in +religion--the Religion of Humanity--to do right--a religion of _works_ +instead of faith and creeds, and _Bystander_ himself admits that +"religion is carrying a weight which it cannot bear," and that, "unless +the credible can be separated from the incredible, the reasonable from +that which shocks reason, there will be a total eclipse of faith." + +"The Cosmogony of Moses," says _Bystander_, "will, of course not bear +the scrutiny of modern science; few probably are now so bigoted as +to maintain that it will." If it will not bear such scrutiny, is it +blasphemy to attack it, or its author? for the God of the Bible is the +alleged author of that Cosmogony, inspiring Moses or whoever wrote it. +But _Bystander_ further remarks that the Mosaic Cosmogony "need not fear +comparison with the Cosmogony of any other race." We thank him for that +favor. It is exactly what we claim, to wit, that the Cosmogony of Moses, +like all the others, is simply a human production, for it would be +absurd to talk of "comparing" an _inspired_ Cosmogony of _divine origin_ +with _human_ Cosmogonies. Hence, according to _Bystander_ himself, the +Mosaic Cosmogony is simply, like the rest, human: only he thinks it a +little better than the others. It will not, however, "bear the scrutiny +of modern science." Very likely not! What then, becomes of the "fall +of man," the "redemption" the "Ideal Man," and the whole Christian +Superstructure which rests upon the Mosaic Cosmogony? If the pillars are +taken away the building _must_ come down. + +It is also admitted by _Bystander_ that "The moral code of Moses is +tribal and primeval; it is alien to us who live under the ethical +conditions of high civilization and the Religion of Humanity." Precisely +so! And for this magnificent favor also, we again thank _Bystander_. No +materialist or utilitarian could have possibly put it better; albeit a +Christian would experience some moral obfuscation in trying to make out +why, if the "moral code of Moses" is from heaven, it should be "alien +to us" and to these times? He would be hardly able to understand why he +should be comparing his _Divine_ code with _Pagan_ codes to see whether +it is "worse or better than other codes framed in the same stage of +human progress?" Let the Freethinkers take courage. _Bystander_, to +all appearances, will soon be squarely on our side; and then we can +truthfully say, that though the Christians have the greatest scientist, +probably, in Canada (Prof. Dawson, of Montreal,) on their side, we will +have the greatest scholar, historian and _literateur_ in Canada on _our_ +side. Three cheers in the Liberal camp for _Bystander!_ Indeed, we have +some hopes, too, even of Prof. Dawson, whose Mosaic orthodoxy seems to +be relaxing a little of late; and he evidently feels his isolation, his +scientific brethren all being on our side. + +While writing this, the Montreal _Daily Witness_ of June 15th, 1880, +comes to hand from a Freethought octogenarian friend in Port Hope (Wm. +Sisson, Esq.) with the familiar pencil mark, drawing my attention to a +report of the proceedings of "The Congregational Union," at present in +session in Montreal. From it I learn that Rev. Hugh Pedley, B. A., made +an address before the _Union_ on "The Freethought of the Age," from +which I cull the following, as reported in the _Witness_:-- + +"One of the principal difficulties," he said (of the clergy), "was the +prevalence of freethought among the people. There was a time when the +New Testament was received by almost everybody * * * But things had +changed * * * Some time ago the weapons of skilled historians were +turned first against the Old and then against the New Testament * * * +Dr. Norman McLeod, writing from Germany, said, 'I am informed on +credible testimony that ninety-nine out of every hundred persons here +are sceptics.' * * * Germany was to-day more Pagan than Christian * * * +The press passed up and down the land, scattering into every home things +which set men thinking." [Ah! there is the secret; when men begin to +think and reason on theological subjects as they do on secular, good-bye +creeds! goodbye confessions!] "Goldwin Smith, a man who had so studied +the past as to be able to interpret the present, had told us that a +religious collapse of the most complete and tremendous character was +apparent on every hand." It was only very recently that a sceptical work +on 'Supernatural Religion' passed through a number of editions in a few +months. Col. Ingersoll had recently visited the country. He came, he +saw, and in some sense he conquered. (Cries of No! No!) The second night +he had a much larger attendance than on the first. No matter who, ran +Ingersoll down, he was a man of great power of oratory and strong in +those qualities which control audiences. + +The Rev. gentleman then referred deprecatingly to the inadequate-college +training of theological students in "apologetics," as they were not +allowed to read the works of sceptics for themselves, but had to take +their tutors' version of the sceptics' arguments. This "putting up a +little argument and then knocking it down," he said was neither "the +fair nor the true way." He recommended putting "the very sceptical works +into the hands of the students, and he would even say to go and hear +Ingersoll if he came." + +That "man's idea of God rises with his progress in civilization," +_Bystander_ admits; but he attempts to explain the fact away on theistic +grounds, and dilute its strength as an argument that God is simply a +projection of the human mind. He asks:-- + +"If this conception" (a conception of God) "flows from no reality, from +what does it flow? It is a phenomenon of which, as of other phenomena, +there must be some explanation; and we have not yet chanced to see +in the writings of any Agnostic an explanation which seemed at all +satisfactory." + +I would respectfully suggest to _Bystander_ that there _is_ a +satisfactory explanation, though to him it may not be so. In answering +his question I will ask another. If the conception of, or belief in, a +devil or devils, flows from no reality, from what does it flow? The same +of witches, fairies, sprites, hob-goblins, _et hoc genus omne_. Belief +in these is quite as general as belief in God, though _Bystander's_ +question seems to assume that belief in the latter is universal. +This, however, is not the case, as has been conclusively shown in the +foregoing reply to Wend-ling. Therefore, this "conception" argument, +like the famous "design" argument, proves too much, and consequently +proves nothing. As to the _origin_ of the belief in spiritual agencies, +and conceptions of God, Darwin tells us it is not difficult to +comprehend how they arose. He says, "Descent of Man," vol. i, p. 63-5:-- + +"As soon as the important faculties of imagination, wonder, and +curiosity, together with some power of reasoning, had become partially +developed, man would naturally have craved to understand what was +passing around him, and have vaguely speculated on his own existence * * +* The belief in spiritual agencies would easily pass into the belief of +one or more Gods." + +_Bystander_, while freely admitting that the Theistic theory is +compassed with difficulties; and requires "re-statement," reminds us +that the-"materialistic hypothesis is not free from difficulty." The +difficulty he discovers in materialism relates to the order of priority +of matter and force. He asks:-- + +"Which of the two is the First Principle? Force cannot have been +produced by matter, for without force, matter cannot move, change, or +generate at all. Matter cannot have been produced by force, because +force is nothing but the impulsion of matter. Apparently there must have +been something before both, which produced them and determined their +relations; and it must be something beyond the range of sense." + +_Bystander_. I think, has not correctly apprehended the materialistic +position here, and hence the argument for a "something before both +matter and force which produced them," being built upon a postulated +premiss which we cannot accept, has no weight in establishing the +existence of a God behind matter and force. His error lies in the +assumption of the possibility of matter and force existing separately +and independently. He asks, "Which of the two is the First Principle?" +Our answer is, there can be no _first_ as between matter and force, +for there can be no matter without force, and _vice versa_. The two are +inseparable, even in conception, and the existence of one is absolutely +essential to the existence of the other. Hence the argument proceeding +from the assumption of their divisibility and possible independence +fails. The Theist has no right whatever, logically speaking, to assume +that there "must have been something before matter and force which +produced them." So long as matter and force are amply adequate (as far +as we can discern) to the production of all cognizable phenomena, we +are not warranted in assuming the existence of any being or thing behind +them. As soon as the Theist does this, we have the logical right to +carry his reasoning further, and at once assume something else behind +it again, and thus not only one but a thousand gods could be postulated +without the shadow of real proof of one of them. + +There is an ultimate ground, however, upon which the Theist and +Materialist may meet in common, and, so far as I can see, the only +ultimate position they can occupy in perfect corelation. The universe +exists; man as a part of the universe--a mode of existence--is here; +in this we agree. Man, then, being himself the highest intelligence +he knows of, continually seeks an explanation of the universe and of +himself as a part of it. This is the common ground upon which we +all stand--Rationalist, Theist, Agnostic, Atheist--barbarous and +civilized--the weakest and the mightiest intellect. + +All seek to explain the great mystery of the universe--some one way, +some another--from the rude thaumaturgic fancies of the primitive +barbarian up to the abstruse speculations and subtle reasonings of the +cultured Pantheist, intellectual Agnostic, and logical Materialist. +It is true one may be more reasonable and logical than the rest (as I +undoubtedly think is the case), yet they all occupy the common ground of +uncertainty. Not one can _demonstrate_ his position, and in this we are +all alike. (One, however, among all the rest thinks he _knows_ he is +_right_ and can prove it, viz., the dogmatic Christian Theist.) We may +all, therefore, stand together in the presence of Nature and acknowledge +our ignorance. Though each school has its theory, its hypothesis, its +solution, yet the mystery of the mighty universe is still an unsolved +problem. + + + + +REPLY TO "A RATIONALIST" + +We have another reply to Ingersoll in a pamphlet of twenty pages, issued +in Toronto, with the following modest title:--"A Refutation of Col. R. +G. Ingersoll's Lectures, by 'A Rationalist.'" This proemial announcement +is certainly calculated to excite high expectations; but it is only +necessary to look into the rational (?) "refutation" (?) to see that the +names the writer has given himself and pamphlet are both misnomers. How +such an irrational jumble of orthodoxy, heterodoxy, obsolete philosophy, +and moribund metaphysics could by any possibility pass for rationalism, +even in the eyes of its author, is one of those profound mysteries which +"no fellah can understand." Is it not a little singular that all these +"replies" and "refutations" from the orthodox side come from theological +nondescripts--from men who are but half orthodox (the other half not +being recognizable), and not one reply from a thoroughly orthodox +champion? A correlative fact, not without much significance, is that, +though no argument comes from the orthodox side, the denunciations all +come from that source. On the other hand in proportion as the opposing +champion is unorthodox, in that ratio is he tolerant, courteous, and +in favor of free speech and equal rights. "A Rationalist's" essay is +pervaded by the kindliest spirit personally towards his opponent, and +this, in a measure, redeems its literary and logical defects. + +Though "Rationalist" zealously defends the Bible, and argues for a God, +it is impossible to tell how much of the Bible he accepts, or what +God he believes in. He says, "every jot and tittle of the Bible is +inspired," yet in another place tells us, "The Apostle Paul is not +one of the inspired writers," as "His words will not bear a spiritual +interpretation." It would, therefore, seem that no part of the Bible +is inspired except that which will stand this method of "spiritual +interpretation." To get rid of the numerous errors, absurdities, and +immoralities contained in the Bible, "Rationalist" spiritualizes them. +He has a first-class recondite and spiritual meaning for every one of +them, which seems to be entirely satisfactory--to himself. With the +utmost facility everything is explained away; and armed with his occult +style of Bible exegesis he can laugh at the infidel scientist. He says +we must "rub off the literal meaning" in order to get at the spiritual, +and by this convenient method every difficulty between the two sacred +lids vanishes into thin air. This "rubbing off" business he also +applies to the God of the Bible, whose characteristic _anthropomorphism_ +"Rationalist," of course, rubs all off, even his _intelligence_. So that +there would seem to be little more left of the Jewish Jehovah, under +modern scriptural exegesis, than what Beecher describes as a "dim and +shadowy influence." "Rationalist" divests Deity of intelligence to +escape the effects of the following argument:-- + + Intelligence presupposes a greater intelligence, + + God has intelligence, + + Therefore, there must be an intelligence greater than God. + +Seeing the logical force of this, he quibbles thus: "We do not say that +God _has_ intelligence, but that God _is_ wisdom in form and love in +essence, and therefore the infinite source of all intelligence." This +will not do, Mr. "Rationalist!" It is entirely too vague. You must +either contend for a personal or an impersonal God. Give us either Deism +or Pantheism, and not an incongruous mixture, and then we will know on +what ground to meet you. If you mean that God is simply the aggregate, +or even the essence, of all intelligence, all love, all good, why this +is a mere abstraction, and even an Atheist might accept it; but if you +are contending for anything like the Christian's God, as set forth in +the Bible, you will have to alter your definitions very materially. + +As a specimen illustration of "Rationalist's" spiritual method of +resolving Scriptural difficulties I give below his version of the story +of Elisha, the children, and the bears, under the "rubbing off" process. +We, Freethinkers, he says, will not "object to the bears" when we +understand what the story means, and here is his elucidation, _verbatim +et literatim_:-- + +"Elisha represents the external or literal words of Holy Writ on +which the mantle of spiritual truth still rests. Children represent +affections--don't fond mothers even yet call them 'little loves?'--They +also correspond to the opposite, and so evil loves which destroy +obedience to the external life of goodness, taught in, at least, some +of the literal words of Scripture, naturally mock at the baldness of +Elisha. Baldness, since it refers to the head, and the head corresponds +to that union of will and intellect in man which rules, and is, the +life, and ultimates in the very extreme of its very minute external, +corresponds to the most external of the will and thought of Elisha, who +represents the literal meaning of Scripture. So this incident means that +evil loves could see no ultimate good to _themselves_ in the doing +of any good in a practical every-day way even where that was clearly +enjoined, and rendered as beautiful externally as hair is, and therefore +mocked at it, or rather at what seemed to them the lack of it. Then the +bears, which correspond to the animal passions of the animal man, came +out of the woods--woods correspond to the natural perceptions of natural +truth in man--and utterly destroyed these evil loves out of the life. +Again you see we find the same truth; that the Lord implants remains of +goodness and truth in every degree of man's life, even in the natural +man, fitted to cope with and conquer his evils, if man himself will but +permit it." + +There's a sample of "spiritual interpretation" for you! And what +_clearness_ is there, dear reader! Just return to the fourth sentence of +the above extract, commencing with "Baldness," and re-read it, and see +if you can make anything out of it. What the sentence does really +mean is to me as profound a mystery as the incantations of a Gypsy +thaumaturgist. It would be interesting to get "Rationalist" to try his +hand at spiritualizing some of the following passages of Holy Writ:-- + +"In the same day shall the Lord shave with a razor that is hired," +&c. "And it came to pass by the way in the inn, that the Lord met him" +(Moses) "and sought to kill him." "I have seen God face to face." _Per +Contra_: "No man hath seen God at any time." "I am the Lord, I change +not, I will not go back, neither will I repent." _Per Contra_: "And God +repented of the evil that he said he would do unto them, and he did it +not." "There is no respect of persons with God." _Per Contra_: "Jacob +have I loved, and Esau have I hated." "I am a jealous God, visiting the +iniquities of the fathers upon the children." _Per Contra_: "The son +shall not bear the iniquity of the father." "It is impossible for God +to lie." _Per Contra_: "If the Prophet be deceived when he hath spoken +a thing, I the Lord have deceived that Prophet." "Be not afraid of them +that kill the body." _Per Contra_: "And after these things Jesus would +not walk in Jewry, because the Jews sought to kill him." "And the anger +of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he moved David against them +to say, 'Go number Israel.'" _Per Contra_: "And Satan provoked David to +number Israel." "I bear witness of myself, yet my record is true." _Per +Contra_: "If I bear witness of myself, my witness is not true." "A man +is not justified by the works of the law." _Per Contra_: "Ye see, then, +how that by works a man is justified." "There shall no evil happen to +the just." _Per Contra_: "All that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall +suffer persecution." "Wisdom's ways are ways of pleasantness and all +her paths are peace." _Per Contra_: "In much wisdom is much grief and he +that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow." "It shall not be well with +the wicked, neither shall he prolong his days." _Per Contra_: "Wherefore +do the wicked live, become old, yea, are mighty in power." "Thou shalt +not: commit adultery." _Per Contra_: "Then said the Lord unto me, 'Go +get, love a woman, an adulteress.'" + +Here, certainly, is ample scope for exegetical ingenuity. The passages +quoted, besides scores of others, many of them too indecent for these +pages, would seem to require the touch of "Rationalist's" spiritual +interpretation wand. When the literal meaning is "rubbed off," the +occult, spiritual meaning will appear. + +As a sample of "Rationalist's" metaphysical philosophy I give the +following:-- + +"Will and love are identical... Will or love is life. A man cannot +think unless he wills to think; and he can only think that which he +wills--only that and nothing more. He can only do what he wills and +thinks. There is no action which is not the effect of will and its +thought. A man wills in order to think," etc. He also tells us that God +gave man a will "as _free_ as His own." Matter is spoken of as "mere +dead inert matter." + +Is more evidence than this needed that "Rationalist" is living in the +past, and has utterly failed to grasp modern thought? His philosophy is +bad, but his metaphysics is worse. Any man who at this day attempts to +"refute" Materialists should at least be somewhat acquainted with the +results of modern thought and scientific research; but "Rationalist" has +apparently advanced no further than the occult Swedenborgian mysticism +of the last century. Further, to talk to-day of "dead inert matter," is +to talk the language of an obsolete philosophy of the past; for modern +science and philosophy alike agree that matter is not "that mere empty +_capacity_ which philosophers have pictured her to be, but the universal +mother who brings forth all things as the fruit of her own womb." As +Pope says:-- + +"See thro' this air, this ocean, and this earth, All matter quick and +bursting into birth." + +Equally absurd is this talk about "Free Will" and "Free Moral Agency." +These metaphysico-theological dogmas have melted in the light of +mental science, and are now as "dead as a door nail," of which fact +"Rationalist" will be convinced if he will take the trouble to look into +Hamilton, Combe, Mill, Buckle, Lewes, Spencer, Huxley and Tyndall, and +he will then, probably, write no more such nonsense as quoted above. It +is not necessary, however, for any observant and thoughtful man to go to +any authorities outside his own mind to be convinced of the fallacy of +the "Free Will" dogma, for his own observation and reflection will do +it. And "Rationalist" can have the same conviction without the aid of +science or philosophy,--without even observation or reflection. Let him +turn to his Bible, which he champions, and read it, and he will find +abundant proof (such as it is) that man's will is not free. Let him read +the 8th, 9th and 11th Chapters of Romans. Let him then read Phil. 2, 13, +"For it is God which worketh in you _both to will and to do_ of His good +_pleasure_." Then read Isaiah, 46, 910, "I am God and there is none like +me, _declaring the end from the beginnings_ and from ancient times _the +things_ that are not _yet_ done, saying, my council shall stand, and I +will do all my _pleasure_." + +Now, I submit that if an omnipotent and omniscient God has "declared the +end from the beginning," and ordered all "the things that are not yet +done" (and you have his word for it here) how is it possible for +mortal and finite man to do any thing contrary to the thing ordered, +or accomplish any "end" but the one "declared from the beginning?" Here +you, who believe in God and the Bible, have his word for it that he has +declared all things "from the beginning." Man then _must_ do and think +as God has declared, and can do nothing else, hence he is _not free_. + +The idea that "a man cannot think unless he wills to think" is too +preposterous (laying the Bible aside) for any reasonable man to accept +who is not a slave to creeds and dogmas. Let "Rationalist," after +reading this sentence, stop reading, and assume a quiescent state (for +of course _his free will_ will enable him to do this)--a state of mental +passivity, as it were,--let him _will nothing_ for the time being,--and +then see if thoughts of some kind do not spontaneously arise in his +mind. And then let him _will_ to have _no thoughts_ for the space +of five minutes, and see if the thoughts do not steal into his brain +(providing of course he has one) unbidden, and in spite of him--in spite +of all his boasted freewill power. Let any reader put this impossible +and absurd dictum of "Rationalist" to the test, and he will have a +living demonstration in his own brain, which will render any further +argument on this point entirely superfluous. + +"Rationalist" worries himself into inextricable confusion over causes +and effects, first causes, first causes and last effects, etc., etc. +Because Ingersoll has said "a first cause is just as impossible as a +last effect," Rationalist well nigh swamps himself in a most ludicrous +"muss-of-a muddle-of-a-jerry-cum-tumble" of bad diction and worse logic +to prove that by such reasoning as Ingersoll's we come to "chaos" and +to "nothing," (hasn't the gentleman himself come to chaos if not to +nothing?) We reason everything out of existence, he says, and just now +we will have left "no nature, no God, no man, no matter" (it would be +_no matter_ if some _bipids_ were gone) "no force," no "nothing"-- +"literally nothing." Shades of Bacon! let us take breath; for this would +certainly be a very bad state of things, from which "good Lord deliver +us!" It would be nearly as bad as before the "creation," when nothing +existed throughout the infinite realms of space save Jehovah himself. + +I will endeavor to make what materialists mean by the impossibility of +a first cause or last effect clear to "Rationalist." We believe in one +existence, and only one--the universe--which, though never itself having +been created or brought into existence (being eternal), is the primal +(or "first" if you like) cause of all phenomena Rationalist will thus +see that in one sense there is no _first came_ as the universe is +eternal, yet in another sense there _is_ a first cause, viz.: the +universe, as it is the primal cause of all phenomena. As to a "last +effect," it should be obvious to every _rational_ mind that as matter +and force are indestructible, and hence eternal in duration, there can +be no last effect; for as long as matter and force exist effects must of +necessity ensue. + + + + +REPLY TO REV. A. J. BRAY + +It is a great relief to a Freethinker to find a man among the clergy +like Mr. Bray, in point of religious liberality. It is like coming upon +an oasis in the waste desert of orthodox bigotry and intolerance. + +Mr. Bray is the able editor of the _Canadian Spectator_, of Montreal; +and also preaches, I believe, every Sunday in Zion Church in that city. +Unlike his clerical brethren generally, when Mr. Ingersoll lectured in +Montreal, in April last, Mr. Bray went to hear him, and answered him +from his pulpit the two following Sundays. These "Discourses" were +published in the succeeding numbers of his paper, the _Spectator_. Hear +him on free speech:-- + +"In a free country all kinds of freedom must be allowed, and Mr. +Ingersoll had just as much right to come here and say his say in his own +manner, and according to his own discretion, as Mr. Hammond has to come +and preach and teach in his way. If men are free to agree with us, they +are also free to differ with us; to differ a little, to differ much, +to differ altogether. If the Mayor had found a law by which he could +prohibit Ingersoll from lecturing against our religious beliefs, I would +have started an agitation at once for the repeal of that absurd and +antiquated law. If hearing arguments against our faith is likely to +unsettle us, then we had better be unsettled. We are badly off with all +our religious literature and preaching, if we cannot endure any kind of +criticism, and witticism, and argument." + +These are brave words, and every fair-minded man in this Dominion will +agree with Mr. Bray in his liberal and courageous utterances. They are +timely words to go forth in that city where the war of sects has waxed +so hot and virulent of late. Montreal needs more men like Bray in her +churches, to mollify the bigotry, and stamp out the bitter feuds, and +fierce antagonism of Christian against Christian. + +As this pamphlet has already reached a much greater length than +originally intended, I have but little space to devote to Mr. Bray's +Reply to Ingersoll. One or two points, however, must be noticed. + +Mr. Bray falls into the same error as "Bystander" in accusing + +Ingersoll of attacking a theology which, he tells us, is "opposed to +all reason," and now "well nigh obsolete." I would simply say if it is +"obsolete," it is the stock in trade of the Christian Church today. Take +away from it this obsolete theology (which is "opposed to all reason,") +and there is nothing left of Christianity worth speaking of; for the +morality Christianity contains does not of right belong to it It is +Pagan. It has been _appropriated_ by Christianity, and is not original +with it. There is not a single moral precept in the Bible, but was +taught before that book was written. (For proof of this, see Sir +Wm. Jones, Max Muller, Lord Amberly, and "Supernatural Religion.") +Therefore, when you take away the dogmas of Christianity--its "obsolete +theology"--you take away Christianity itself to all intents and +purposes. And hence the utter inconsistency and absurdity of our +opponents in taxing us with merely attacking a dead theology, when that +dead theology is all there is of a religion which they defend and +wish to perpetuate. Seeing, then, that the theology of Christianity is +admittedly dead, why not give it up and come over to us? for all you +have left--the brotherhood of man--belongs to us: it is our RELIGION OF +HUMANITY. + +As the only salient point, to my mind, in Mr. Bray's reply to Ingersoll +is dealt with in the following letter, which I addressed to the +_Spectator_, and which appeared in its columns, I have only space here +to reproduce that letter:-- + +To the Editor of the Canadian Spectator: + +Sir,--In your issue of the 10th instant, in a discourse in reply to Col. +Ingersoll, I find the following:-- + +"The lecturer, who seemed to imagine that he understood everything else, +was compelled to acknowledge that he did not understand why there should +be so much hunger and pain and misery. Why, the world over, life should +live upon life. When he has cast Jehovah out of the Universe, he is +pained and puzzled to account for the presence of wrong and sorrow. With +God he cannot account for it; without God he cannot account for it. If +Col. Ingersoll, or any other of that school, can give me an intelligent +theory of life, and satisfactory solution of the problem of the presence +of evil and pain without God, I am prepared to consider it." + +Now, Sir, having the honor (or dishonor, as the case may be,) to belong +to that school, I venture to take up the gauntlet thus thrown down. From +our stand-point we are able, we think, to give an intelligent theory of +these things; and although it may not be wholly devoid of mystery, we +claim it is less mysterious than the Christian theory. We claim that +the Materialistic explanation of the Universe and its phenomena is more +reasonable and less mysterious than the Theistic; and this is why +we find ourselves compelled to adopt it and become Atheists. On the +Materialistic hypothesis of development and evolution we are certainly +_not_ "puzzled to account for the presence of wrong and sorrow," however +much we may be pained at their fearful prevalence. It is only on the +hypothesis of being under the governance of an omnipotent and infinitely +_benevolent_ Being that we are utterly unable to account for such-a +state of things. Although the ultimate tendency of the forces of +the-Universe seems to be towards a higher, and higher, and more perfect +condition, not only for man, but all animals, and even plants, yet +these-forces are, as Science abundantly proves, utterly without +mercy--without pity for man or any other animal. Therefore, on the +evolution philosophy of things, we can reasonably predicate pain, +sorrow, and wrong; and are not puzzled at their existence. It is only on +the theory of a _good_ God controlling the Universe that we stand dumb +with confusion and wonderment in the presence of all this woe, pain, +misery, and wrong-with which the world is filled--this terrible +"struggle for life," where the-strong prey upon the weak, where animal +eats animal, and man eats-man! + +The theologians have had upwards of two thousand years to reduce the +Materialistic paradoxes of Epicurus on the existence of evil, but have +they done so? If there be a God, and He is all-powerful, He _could_ +remove the _surplus_ evil and pain from the world, and if He is all-good +He _would_ remove it, is an argument which has never yet been answered +by a Paley, a Butler, a Dawson, or any other Christian Theist or Bible +apologist. I use the phrase "_surplus_ evil and pain" for this reason: +As a sort of apology for the rank malevolence abroad in the world, and +as an argument for the existence of a beneficent God, Christian Theists +tell us that pain is necessary as an antecedent to the proper enjoyment +of pleasure; that it is necessary to the growth and development of +character; that the storm of the ocean is an essential pre-requisite to +the adequate enjoyment of the subsequent calm; that all smooth sailing +would be monotonous and insipid. Now, we will admit this for the sake +of the argument; but there yet remains the mass of _surplus_ evil to +be accounted for, which is wholly unnecessary for such corrective and +distributive purposes. It may, perhaps, be necessary that the tempest +toss the ship about on the bosom of the ocean in order that the living +freight may have a keener appreciation of the succeeding calm, and also +to develop awe and sublimity in their breasts; but to accomplish this it +is scarcely to the purpose to send all to the bottom of the ocean! That +we may have a proper relish for our food and a due appreciation of the +blessings of a good appetite, it may be necessary that we feel the pangs +of hunger and starvation occasionally; but to give us this wholesome +discipline it would seem hardly necessary that millions of human beings +should actually be starved to death! + +Now, on the theory of _inexorable law_* instead of a _beneficent +Providence_, we are not surprised that a ship which is not strong enough +to ride the storm should go to the bottom, even though five hundred +bishops and clergymen be aboard supplicating an unknown God for succor. +On the theory of inexorable and merciless law in which we are fast +bound, we are not "puzzled" that millions of human beings should +starve to death when these laws or conditions of Nature are violated in +over-population and a false political and social economy. Or when a Tay +bridge goes down with its living freight under the pressure of train +and tempest, the Atheist is neither surprised nor puzzled: but the +Christian, who worships a benevolent (?) God and believes that not a +hair falls from his head without His notice, can only look at such a +malevolent horror in dumb silence and amazement--he has no explanation. +Our theory of the presence of evil in the world is, therefore, at +least rational; but, is the Christian theory rational? Is it rational +to-suppose that all the pain, sorrow, and evil in the world have been +caused by the puerile circumstance of a woman eating an apple? This +would be as monstrously unjust as it is irrational and absurd. + +As to the origin and maintenance of life "without God," it is quite as +comprehensible and rational without God as with one with the Christian +conditions and qualifications. An universe of matter containing +the "promise and potency of all forms and qualities of life" is +as intelligible and comprehensible as a God _outside_ the Universe +embodying the potency of all life. From the time that Lucretius declared +that "Nature is seen to do all things spontaneously of herself without +the meddling of the Gods," and Bruno that matter is the "universal +mother who brings forth all things as the fruit of her own womb," down +to Prof. Tyndall, who discerns in matter "the promise and potency of +every form and quality of life," scientists have never been able to +discover the least intrusion of any creative power into the operations +of + + * Materialists, in using the phrase "law of Nature," use a + popular expression, but not in the popular sense as + presupposing a law-giver. By "law of Nature" we simply mean + natural sequence--the uniformity of Nature's operations. + +Nature and the affairs of this world, or the least trace of interference +by any God or gods. In the primeval ages of ignorance and barbarism the +gods were supposed to do everything, from the production of wind, rain, +tempest, thunder and lightning, earthquakes, &c, down to dyspepsia +and potato-bugs. Science now explains all these things and a thousand +others. Indeed, in modern philosophy there is no room for the gods in +the Universe, and nothing left for them to do. And there cannot be any +room _beyond_ it for them, for "above Nature we cannot rise." + +The Materialistic theory (and to it we subscribe) is that there is +but _one existence_, the _Universe_, and that it is eternal--without +beginning or end--that the matter of the Universe never could have been +created, for _ex nihilo nihil fit_, (from nothing nothing can come,) and +that it contains within itself the potency adequate to the production of +all phenomena. This we think to be more conceivable and intelligent +than the Christian theory that there are two existences--God and the +Universe--and that there was a time when there was but one existence, +God, and that after an indefinite period of quiescence and "masterly +inactivity" He finally created a Universe either out of Himself or out +of nothing--either one of which propositions is philosophically absurd. +And in either case, to say that God would be infinite would be equally +absurd. + +Respectfully, + +ALLEN PRINGLE. + +Napanee, Ont., April 23, 1880. + + + + +THE OATH QUESTION + +(TO CANADIAN FREETHINKERS.) + +As this Pamphlet will be widely circulated throughout Canada (especially +Ontario), it will come into the hands of most Canadian Freethinkers, and +I have therefore thought this an opportune time to bring this question, +in which we are all so deeply interested, before the Freethinkers of +Canada, and urge upon them the necessity of agitation for reform. The +time has come, I think, for action in petitioning Parliament to remove +the serious and most unjust disabilities under which we, as a class, are +now placed, and thus have equal rights extended to all citizens. As the +law now stands we are deprived of our rights in the courts, and the ends +of justice are often defeated, not only to our detriment but that of +Christians themselves. If the presiding judge choose to adhere to the +strict letter of the law the testimony of Atheists is refused. It is +very easy to see how the gravest injustice could be inflicted upon +Freethinkers and Christians alike under this unjust law. A Freethinker +may be the only witness to a case involving the interests of a +Christian, or he may be the only witness for himself as against a +Christian; and by his not being eligible as a witness the ends of +justice are defeated. Or an unscrupulous believer may claim that he is +a Freethinker to get rid of giving evidence altogether. It is true there +seems to rest with the Judges a large amount of discretionary power as +to whom they will or will not accept to give evidence; and the majority, +perhaps, of our Canadian Judges exhibit a commendable spirit of +liberality in the matter of accepting the testimony of Freethinkers. But +occasionally one is to be met with, too full of religion and bigotry to +recognize our rights or extend any discretion in our favor. In the +city of Toronto, a few months ago, the testimony of two respectable +and intelligent witnesses was refused because they did not believe +the dogmas of the popular religion.* As an offset to this, however, an +Ottawa-Judge recently showed his fairness and liberality by allowing +a Juryman Freethinker, who declined to take the oath, to make an +affirmation. The Grand Juror referred to, Mr. John Law, of Ottawa, is +described as-a gentleman of "unimpeachable honor and probity," and +hence his simple affirmation being, as he stated, fully binding on his +conscience, would, or certainly ought to, have more weight than the +oaths of many witnesses (believers) who are taken into the witness box. +The presiding Judge, doubtless, so regarded the matter, and therefore, +in his discretion, magnanimously allowed Mr. Law to affirm. + +In England, under "The Evidence Amendment Act" of 1869,32* and 33 Vic, +c. 68, s. 4, Atheists can make the following affirmation instead of +taking the Christian oath, and the Court must allow all Freethinkers to +do so who demand it: + +"I solemnly promise and declare that the evidence given by me to the +Court, shall be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth." + +We want a similar Act in Canada, and then Counsel will not be able as +now to badger witnesses about "infidel belief," and turn the court into +an inquisition; nor will a bigoted judge have it in his discretion to +order Atheists down from the witness-box as not fit to give evidence. +At almost every sitting of our courts it is demonstrated beyond a doubt. +that believers in the Bible, who take the oath on that Book, do not +all tell the truth under oath. Every judge and lawyer in the land knows +this, and all know it who have much to do in courts of law. The simple +word or affirmation of an honest man, whether Christian or Infidel, is +better than a thousand oaths of many believers in the Bible, who are +without hesitation taken into the witness-box. Moreover, the Atheist in +making the above affirmation under the Act referred to, is subject to +the same penalties for perjury as the Christian is in taking, the usual +oath. There is, therefore, no good reason why we should! not have +a similar Act here, and it behooves us to begin to move towards its +consummation. Freethinkers are getting numerous in Canada, and they are, +to say the least, as exemplary citizens, socially and morally, as their +Christian neighbors? Why then should they be longer denied equal rights +with their Christian neighbors? + + * Since writing this I have been informed by one of the + witnesses alluded to, that no blame can be fairly imputed to + the presiding Judge in this case, as he felt compelled, + against his sympathies, to carry out the unjust law. + +In England they still have a State Religion, yet the rights of +Rationalists in this respect are conceded to them. Here we have no +state religion, and yet we suffer under religious disabilities which are +utterly out of keeping with the spirit of the age, and which are fast +being swept away in every civilized country. The Bradlaugh imbroglio +recently in the English House of Commons has had the effect of opening +some people's eyes, especially those conservative Christians who +are still afflicted with lingerings of that bigoted, intolerant, and +persecuting spirit which formerly lighted the fires of Smithfleld, +hung quakers, imprisoned so-called "blasphemers," and violated civil +contracts in the name of God. In the last election in England, a few +months ago, Charles Bradlaugh, the eminent Atheist and Republican, was +elected to the English House of Commons for the borough of Northampton, +and in entering the House he claimed his right, instead of taking the +Parliamentary oath, to affirm under the Act referred to above. The +House at first refused, vacillated, appointed Committees, and vigorously +debated the matter; while the bigoted members at once proceeded to +unbudget themselves in true Christian style against the "vermin" +Atheist. Meanwhile the levelheaded Atheist knew what he was about, and, +as the sequel showed, proved himself more than a match for the English +House of Commons. Meanwhile also, the people of England--the working +classes--were-watching the whole business, and finally when Bradlaugh +was refused both oath and affirmation, and the intention to keep the +Atheist out of Parliament became manifest, they (the people) promptly +came to the front. Just then it began to dawn on "the powers that be" +that _vox populi, vox Dei_ had more truth than poetry in it. The people +of England--the producers--(called "lower classes" by the "upper" +_non_-producers) assembled in scores of thousands in indignation +mass-meetings all over England, demanding the admission of Charles +Bradlaugh (their best friend) to his rightful seat in the English House +of Commons. The aforesaid "powers that be" took the alarm. Seeing that +the "voice of the people" was even more potent than the "voice of God," +they prudently bowed to its mandate. They perceived that no Clock Tower, +or other tower in England would hold the workingman's friend even for +the space of seven days. Bradlaugh must be released or the House of +Brunswick might peradventure soon be in mourning--not, probably, for +spilled blood, but for a crown, aye, a crown! No wonder the English +Government feared to see Charles Bradlaugh enter the House of +Commons. He had impeached the House of Brunswick. And it was no "soft +impeachment." No, but a terribly hard indictment! Was it ever answered? +No, it was too true to answer. The only answer was from Lord Randolph +Churchill in the House of Commons, and it was characteristic. This rabid +monarchist, with much more Christian zeal than knowledge or discretion, +took Bradlaugh's "Impeachment of the House of Brunswick" and cast it +viciously under his feet on the floor of the House of Commons. That was +the way the "Impeachment" was answered! Well, as Shakspeare says, "let +the galled jades wince!" But the Atheist had his revenge! They had put +him in the Tower, but they very soon let him out. He had been somewhat +accustomed to fighting the English Government, having beaten them twice, +and he feared not. He was imprisoned one day, but released the next. +An Act was speedily passed giving more even than Bradlaugh at first +demanded--giving every member who wishes in future, the right to affirm +instead of taking the Christian Oath. Bradlaugh has accordingly made +his affirmation as he at first demanded, and has taken his seat in the +English House of Commons as M. P. for Northampton,* And now let every +Freethinker throughout the civilized world rejoice, for this is a great +victory for our cause! The eloquent champion of our dearest rights +has achieved a glorious victory on the very threshold of the English +Parliament before he enters it! Let us take courage! The indomitable and +invincible Iconoclast has now attained a position where his voice will +be heard in behalf of liberty and the rights of man the world over! He +is called "coarse" by some over-cultured people, but his coarseness is +of the kind the world needs, and therefore _we_ do not object to it. The +superstitions, and errors, and wrongs, and oppressions still weighing +down our fellow-men need bare-handed ("coarse") handling, without +gloves, and Bradlaugh wears none of these, but fearlessly throws down +the gauntlet to falsehood and oppression whenever and wherever found. +But I fear I am getting a little off the Oath Question here in my +enthusiasm for Charles Bradlaugh, Member of Parliament for Northampton. + + * The press of Canada, with very few exceptions, have done + Mr. Bradlaugh a great injustice in connection with the oath + question, as they have (perhaps unintentionally) utterly + misrepresented him. They have charged that he "flaunted his + Atheism before the House of Commons," that he at first + _refused_ to take the oath on conscientious grounds and + subsequently "swallowed his scruples" and offered to take + the oath; and that, therefore, the Atheist is without + conscience and without principle, sacrificing all for place. + Now, this is all utterly untrue. He did not flaunt his + Atheism before the House. He did not _refuse_ to take the + oath, but simply claimed to be allowed to affirm. The + Speaker having intimated to Mr. Bradlaugh that if he desired + to address the House in explanation of his claim he would be + permitted to do so, Mr. Bradlaugh said, "I have repeatedly, + for nine years past, made an affirmation in the highest + courts of jurisdiction in this realm: I am ready to make + such a declaration or affirmation." And subsequently when + Mr. Bradlaugh offered to take the oath, it was after he had + made an explanation that although a portion of it to him was + a meaningless form, yet that the oath as a whole, if he took + it would be binding on his conscience substantially the same + as an affirmation. These are the facts, all taken from + authentic official sources, and not from what bigoted and + prejudiced correspondents have sent us across the ocean. My + authority is the record of the proceedings of the + Parliamentary Committees on the Bradlaugh case, where the + facts I have stated were distinctly brought out in evidence, + to which source I beg to refer the newspapers of this + country and call upon them to make the _amende honorable_ by + setting this matter right before their readers. + +In conclusion, I beg to again urge upon my fellow Freethinkers +throughout Canada the necessity of taking such action as will secure +for us our legal rights in the Courts of this country. I trust that the +petitions to Parliament for an Evidence Amendment Act, which we design +ere long to put in circulation, may be numerously signed and diligently +circulated by the liberal friends in the various places to which they +will be sent. + +Selby, Lennox Co., Ont., July, 1880 + + +"It can do truth no service to blink the fact, known to all who have the +most ordinary Acquaintance with literary history, that a large portion, +of the noblest and most valuable moral teaching has been the work, not +only of men who did not know, but of men who knew and rejected, the +Christian faith."--J. S. Mill. + +"The history of Christ is contained in records which exhibit +contradictions that cannot be reconciled, imperfections that would +greatly detract from even admitted human compositions, and erroneous +principles of morality that would hardly have found a place in the most +incomplete system of the philosophers of Greece and Rome."--Rev. Dr. +Giles. + +"That any human creature, be he peer or peasant, man or woman, pauper or +millionaire, should be visited with pains and penalties because of +his or her speculative opinion on a subject whereon but few even of +professing Christians are agreed, is a bitter satire on our vaunted +liberty. My Lords, it is the spirit which lighted the martyr-fires of +Smithfield, and led to the stake gallant and noble souls such as Bruno. +It is a noble; company you are placing me in, my Lords, and I shall +thank you for it."--_Ibid_. + +"Who shall number the patient and earnest seekers after truth, from the +days of Galileo until now, whose lives have been embittered, and their +good name blasted, by the mistaken zeal of Bibliolators? Who shall count +the host of weaker men whose sense of truth has been destroyed in the +effort to harmonize impossibilities--whose life has been wasted in the +attempt to force the generous new wine of Science into the old bottles +of Judaism, compelled by the outcry of the same strong party." _Prof. +Huxley_. + +"Thou shalt not kill, even the smallest creature. + +"Thou shalt not appropriate to thyself what belongs to another. + +"Thou shah not infringe the laws of chastity. + +"Thou shalt not lie. + +"Thou Shalt not calumniate. + +"Thou shalt not speak of injuries. + +"Thou shalt not excite quarrels, by repeating the words of others. + +"Thou shalt not hate." + +--_Moral Precepts from Buddhistic Sacred Books._ + + +"I discern in matter * * the promise and potency of all forms and +qualities of life."--_Tyndall_ + +"A poor man, in our day, has many gods foisted on him; and big voices +bid him 'Worship or be --------' in a menacing and confusing manner. +What shall he do? By far the greater part of said gods, current in the +public, whether canonized by Pope or Populas, are mere dumb asses and +beautiful prize-oxen--nay, some of them, who have articulate faculty, +are devils instead of Gods. A poor man that would save his soul alive is +reduced to the sad necessity of _sharply trying his gods_ whether they +are divine or not, which is a terrible pass for mankind, and lays an +awful problem upon each man."--_Tomas Carlyle_ + +"These Gospels, so important to the Church, have not come to us in one +undisputed form. We have no authorised copy of them in their original +language, so that we may know in what precise words they were originally +written. The authorities from which we derive their sacred text are +various ancient copies, written by hand on parchment. Of the Gospels +there are more than five hundred of these manuscripts of various ages, +from the fourth century after Christ to the fifteenth, when printing +superseded manual writing for publication of books. Of these five +hundred and more, _no two_ are in all points alike: probably in no two +of the more ancient can _even a few consecutive verses_ be found +in which all the words agree."--_Dean Alford, "How to Study the New +Testament_." "I find Armenian Christians who say that it is a sin to eat +a hare; Greeks who affirm that the Holy Ghost does not proceed from +the Son; Nestorians who deny that Mary is the mother of God: Latins +who boast that in the extreme West the Christians of Europe think quite +contrary to those of Asia and Africa. I know that ten or twelve sects +in Europe anathematise each other; the Musselmen disdain the Christians, +whom they nevertheless tolerate; the Jews hold in equal execration the +Christians and Muselmen; the Fire-worshippers despise them all; the +remnant of the Sabeans will not eat with either of the Other sects; +and the Brahmin cannot suffer either Salbeans, or Fire-Worshippers, or +Christians, or Musselmen, or Jews. I have a hundred times wished that +Jesus Christ, in coming to be incarnated in Judea, had united all the +sects under his laws. I have asked myself why, being God, he did not use +the rights of his divinity; why, in coming to deliver us from sin, he +has left us in sin; why, in coming to enlighten all men, he has left +almost all men in darkness. I know I am nothing; I know that from the +depth of my nothingness I have no right to interrogate the Being of +Beings; but I may, like Job, raise a voice of respectful sorrow from the +bosom of my misery."--_Voltaire_. + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Ingersoll in Canada, by Allen Pringle + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK INGERSOLL IN CANADA *** + +***** This file should be named 38303.txt or 38303.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/8/3/0/38303/ + +Produced by David Widger + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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