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NATIONAL SECULAR SOCIETY
COL. INGERSOLL’S AMERICAN SECULAR LECTURES.
Personal Deism Denied.
BY
COL ROBERT G. INGERSOLL,
MINISTER OF THE GOSPEL OF FREE THOUGHT IN AMERICA.
PRICE ONE PENNY.
Manchester : Abel Heywood & Son, 56 & 58, Oldham Street.
London : Truelove, 256, High Holborn
�COL. INGERSOLL’S LECTURES,
Cheap Edition, One Penny Each.
1.
Mistakes of Moses.
2.
Ghosts.
8.
Hereafter.
4.
Hell.
5.
What must we do to be saved ?
6.
Heretics and Heresies.
The above six, bound in wrapper, price 6d.
7.
Ingersoll’s Reply to Talmage.
8.
Skulls.
9.
Gods : part I.
10.
Gods : part II.
11.
Personal Deism Denied.
12, Intellectual Development.
The above Six, bound in wrapper. 6d., or the twelve price One Shilling.
By post Is. 2d.
BISHOPSGATE INSTITUTE
REFERENCE LIBRARY
No.
1991
Classification ......... ..................
�PERSONAE DEISM DENIED.
HOEVER attacks the prevailing religious opinions of his time
must, in his turn, expeeW) b® attacked. We have not yet out
grown the barbarism that »gument can be answered by
HI
personal abuse. The religious world of to-day has not yet
outgrown the belief that you have to answer every argument
not by showing it is bad, but by showing that the man who makes it is
bad. It makes no difference whether the maker of an arithmetic turned
out to be a rascal or not, we should still have to believe that ten times
ten is a hundred. I expected to be attacked, and I have not been disap
pointed I had always supposed religion taught men to love their
enemies, or, at least, treat their friends decently, but I never knew or a
minister who ever loved me, or who could forgive me. In return, I only
want them to act so that I won’t have to forgive them. I don t pretend
to love my enemies, for I find it hard work to love my friends and if 1
have the same feelings towards my enemies as'towards my friends, I
have no humanity in me. I deny that any man is under obligation to
love his enemies. I believe in returning good for good, and for evil
Confucius’ doctrine, exact justice without any admixture of revenge.
All I ask of the Christian world is simply to tell the truth, but that is a
good deal more than they will ever do. There was a time when false
hood from the pulpit smote like a sword, but now it has become almost
m innocent amusement. Lying is now the last weapon left in the
arsenal of Theology. They say I am in favour of too much liberty, but
I am only in favour of justice, liberty, society. You can t make men
good by slavery ; there is no regeneration in the chain. You can t make
a man honest by tying his hands behind him. Good laws don t make
good people, but good people make good laws. There was no reformation
in force or in fear. You might scare a man so that he would not do _ a
thing but you could not scare him so that he would not want to do it.
All the laws in the world won’t change the disposition of a human being.
It has been charged against me by the Rev. Joseph Cook, that I am in
favour of the dissemination of obscene literature.
When Cook made that statement he wrote across his reputation the
» word liar. When he said that, he knew he lied wilfully and malignantly,
and every man who repeated the slander knew that he lied, and every
religious editor who put it in his paper knew that he lied. With one or
two exceptions I never knew an honest editor of a religious paper ; if
truth was red-hot it would never scorch them. I am simply in favour of
allowing to the Literature of Science the same rights exactly in the
yia.ils of the U. S. as is allowed to the Literature of Superstition. I
despise beyond the power of speech the man who would read or circulate
W
�a book, the tendency of which would be to leave a stain on that fairest
of all flowers, the heart of a girl or boy. The Rev. Joseph Cook is said
to have spent a year in an insane asylum ; that is the way I account for
this lie of his. His friends made two mistakes, they were a little too
slow in putting him in, and a little too fast in letting him out. If any
orthodox clergyman will read to his congregation certain passages in the
Bible that I will select, I will pay him $100 in gold. There wouldn’t be
a lady left in the church, and if a» man stayed, it would be to chastise
the man for insulting the women. I believe in keeping the family pure,
and men who are trying to blacken my reputation are not fit to blacken
my shoes. It is one of my arguments against a personal God that such
men exist, an infinitely wise God would never have produced them.
Nearly everybody is afraid to express his thoughts on thesubject of God.
They imagine there is some kind of being up yonder who would be filled
with wrath at some poor human being who dared to express his best
thoughts. Can you injure this God ? No. Why ? Because he is infinite.
What do you mean by that ? Conditionless. How can you injure a man?
Only by changing his condition. If there is a God who is conditionless,
you can’t possibly change his conditions, because he hasn’t any; there
fore you can’t interfere with him in any way. You can’t commit a
single sin against him ; therefore, you need have no fear. I can say my
say fearlessly, and so can every other man. But all these hundreds of
years the clergy have been telling the people there is such a crime as
blasphemy. There is a personal God up there that made the world.
He made you, and you ought to go down on your knees and thank him.
Thank him for what ? Ought the beggar to thank him, who is starving
in the midst of plenty ? Ought the man who is born under some des
potism and has to toil hard year after year, yet never sees a decent dress
on his wife, nor takes a decent meal ? Ought the woman whose husband
is a drunkard ? Ought the poor invalid who is a slave to some hereditary
disease ? Ought the one who is born deformed ? Ought the millions of
poor slaves to thank God ? Let us be honest! Ought the black man to
thank God for having made the white man mean enough to hate him
because he was black ? Ought the poor widow who lives in misery and
destitution ? Ought the man who is forced to enter the army of a despot
against his will ? If you credit God with every thing that is good, let
us keep a double set of books, so as to keep the accounts straight on the
other side and debit him with everything that is bad.
Suppose we go to some strange island of 100,000 inhabitants, we see
a gentleman there who tells us all about it. Who do you have for your
governor 1 An infinite being. Does he know everything ? Everything.
Can he do just what he wants ? Exactly. After a little while I see
some men dragging a woman along, tearing her child from her, and
the poor woman shrieking in agony. I ask, what are they going to do
with that woman ? They are going to burn her. Does your governor
know of it ? Oh yes, he knew of it the moment they intended to do it.
Could he have stopped it ? Perfectly easy. Is that woman an enemy of
his? Oh no, just the opposite ; she prays and thanks him morn, noon
and night, and she will do it in the midst of the flame and smoke. Are
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the men. who are burning her his friends ? No. they are his enemies.
Such is the God that governs this world. Suppose the next man who
tried to commit a murder should drop dead ; suppose the hand of the
next man who raised it to strike his wife a cruel blow should fall
paralyzed at his side ; suppose the next man who tried to commit any
crime should fall to the ground, how many crimes do you think would
be committed when that state of things came round generally ? Not
many. Is it possible any intelligent person really believes there is some
Being who interferes with the affairs of this world ? I read extracts
from two sermons the other day. How I came to do it I don’t know, but
I did it. One was a sermon by the Rev. Mr. Moody on the subject of
prayer, urging upon people to pray that portion of the Lord’s prayer,
“ Thy will be done,” as if it was necessary to coax God to have his own
way. He says in his sermon, there was a poor woman who had an ex
ceedingly sick child ; the doctor told her it couldn’t live. Oh ! said the
mother, I can’t consent that my darling child should die. She prayed to
God such a prayer that it was almost a prayer of rebellion, “I can’t spare
my child, oh, God, spare it to me.” She didn’t want God’s will done, but
her own. God heard her prayer and saved the child, but when it
got well it was an idiot, and the poor woman had to watch over and take
care of that child 15 long years, and the moral of the story is, how much
better it would have been to let God kill that child when he wanted to.
Js there any one here who believes in such a God as that ? Yet this
doctrine is preached from almost every pulpit in the world. I read in
another paper a sermon by the Rev. De Witt Talmage about Dreams,
that God still appears to men in dreams. Just think of it! An infinite
being catching some poor fellow asleep and going at him.
According to this story there was a poor old woman that had the
rheumatism, and another woman nearly as poor that hadn’t got rheu
matism, and the woman without rheumatism used to wait on the other
and take care of her. All at once the one without the rheumatism died.
Then the other old lady said, where am I going to get anything to eat ?
That night God left his throne, after having given directions about
winding up the sun and the moon, and came to this old woman in a
dream. He took her out of her house and carried her to where there was
a large mountain of bread on the right hand and a large mountain of
butter on the left hand. When I read that I said to myself, what a good
place to start a political party. God said to the poor woman—all these
provisions belong to your father ; do you think he will allow one of his
children to starve ? And the reverend gentleman says that the next day
.a man was in some mysterious way moved to go to the old lady, and,
seeing her destitution, he took pity on her and took care of her till she
•died. Is it possible there is a being who interferes with the affairs of
this world, and interfered to feed that poor woman ! Then why don’t he
feed hundreds and thousands of others ? Why show her mountains of
bread and butter, and allow millions to die of famine in other parts of
the world ? Look at that terrible famine in China, which might have
been prevented by a slight change in the wind. If God had changed the
wind that would have changed the direction of the clouds, and they
�6
would have gone over all that parched-up district and emptied themselves
upon it, and there would have been plenty. But God didn’t change the
wind, and the clouds emptied into the sea. What would you think of a
gardener who had an immense barrel of water in his garden, and when
the ground got parched and the flowers and fruit were all dying from
drought, took a pail of water from the barrel, carried it round the garden
and emptied it into the barrel again. That is what God did to China
when he allowed the clouds to empty themselves into the sea. Has God
ever interfered in the affairs of this world ? This is an all-important
question, for upon it depends the question whether we have any human
right at all. If there is an infinite being who does everything to suit
himself, we have no rights and can’t have any. Let him go on and do
what he likes, we needn’t trouble ourselves any more because we can't
alter his plans.
No one ever interfered to prevent slavery in any country—at anytime
or in any place. No one ever interfered to prevent any other form of
human oppression or wrong. Hence you can’t start a religion without a
miracle. You must show that the facts of nature have been changed.
Hence they have always proved that point, that there is a God who inter
feres with the affairs of this world. But admit that he is infinite and it
matters not whether you pray to him or not. It makes no difference
what you do. It is like trying to lift yourself by the straps of your boots ;
it is no good but you get good exercise from it. So it is with prayer.
Let us go back to the time when society was first formed, a long time
ago. Blackstone and Locke have always taken the ground that society
was first formed by contract. I don’t believe it. They write as though
they supposed the trees formed groves by contract ; that animals formed
themselves in flocks and herds by agreement. How did men originally
come to act together ? By contract ? No. By necessity ? Yes. V/hep
men first formed themselves into society, they were not equal to the
beasts. The latter were superior, and that is the reason why men at
first worshipped beasts. No man ever worshipped anything that he
didn’t believe his superior. Let us get to the foundation of this idea of
worship. When man first looked upon the lion he saw an animal that
had greater strength than he. When he saw the serpent climb without
hands, run without feet, and live apparently without food, it struck him
with awe ; when he saw the powerful eagle flying against the storms and
gazing at the blazing sun, he saw something that was superior to him.
He didn’t know how they got their living. He was filled with wonder
and admiration, and the result was that he began to worship beasts, and
made gods out of lions, snakes, and eagles. The story of the serpent in
the garden of Eden and of the brazen serpent in the wilderness, are but
reminiscences of an old serpent worship. Almost all kinds of animals
were deified. The old Jews themselves, including Moses, worshipped
Jehovah in the form of a bull. That accounts for the “horns on the
altar.” They not only worshipped that God but many others. Even in
the time of Solomon and Jeraboam there were thirty temples in which
other gods were worshipped besides Jehovah, After men found out
that one animal by itself was not their superior they began to make gods
�7
composed of several animals. They took the lion for strength, the eagle
for swiftness, and the serpent for cunning, or long life, making together
an animal that could not be killed. Take the Mexican Indians. What
is their name for God ? Stone spirit. One who wore an armour of stone.
Where did they get that idea from ? The armadillo that could not be
pierced with their arrows ; something they could not kill. I want to
convince you all, as we go along, that we manufacture these gods our
selves, and everyone of them is a poor job. After men got through
worshipping beasts, simple and compound, they began worshipping man,
the beastial qualities in man as well as the good ones. The gods were
first beasts, then men. Right here let me tell you that there is not a
person in this house who can think of God except in the form of man.
Why ? Because that is the highest intellectual form you are acquainted
with. You can’t think of God on four legs or as a woman. Why ? Be
cause man made all religions. We haven’t yet become civilized enough
to worship a principle.
If we worshipped God as a woman I should be more apt to join some
church myself. Now having traced the origin of God, the next question
is—does God interfere in the affairs of this world, for upon this depends
the great question of human rights. The savage has always believed it.
When his poor hut was blown down he thought God was mad with him
Or with one of his neighbours. Just think of the infinite maker of every
world getting mad at the poor savage and pulling up his house. I _ tell
you this world has been mightily abused, and it almost makes one die of
pity to read its religious history. The priest said—You will have to em
ploy me. I have influence. I am a lobbyist in the legislature of heaven.
The priest said to the poor fellow—Divide with me. That was the com
mencement of slavery. The next point was to teach that God would
hold a whole community responsible for what one man did There could
not be a meaner principle. They then taught that this God wanted to
be worshipped, and a fine temple must be built to worship him in ; that
an infinite Being likes to see men go down on their knees and thank him.
How gratifying would it be to us to have the millions of little animalculas everywhere around us go down on their knees to us ! Since God
demanded worship, there must be some order to it, and certain gentle
men knew just what this being wanted, and just the kind of ceremony
that would suit him. Hence the church, and all these religious
mummeries. All at once some terrible calamity would befall that
Community. Then what 1 Somebody has insulted God : has not brought
his sacrifice, has not killed his sheep. Let us hunt him up and kill him
and then our God will be appeased. They went so far as to say without
the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins ; and they would
sacrifice to God the one they loved best. Think of that man in Pocasset,
Mass., who read the old and new testament so carefully and believingly
that he killed his own child as a sacrifice. And no wonder either, if he
believed those books. God told Abraham to take his son Isaac and kill him;
Abraham started off to do the inhuman Work and was just going to kill his
gon when God fortunately stopped him in the nick of time. Jephtha made a
bargain with God that if God would let him whip his enemies, he would
�8
sacrifice the first thing that greeted him on his return. The prayer was
granted and as he neared his home, a company of girls met him, and at their
head was his own daughter. He sacrificed her. That man in Mass., hav
ing read these beautiful stories-—infamous lies I call them■—made. up
his mind God wanted him to sacrifice one of his children. If God told
me to sacrifice one of my children to him, I wouldn’t do it though I
knew it was God who demanded it. I would say to Him, dash me to the
lowest depths of hell, and I will go there rather than have the blood of
my darling on my hands. This man only followed the example of
God himself who sacrificed his own Son. I say there never was, and
never will be a God who demands a sacrifice. Could it make any in-,
finite Being any better to g’ive up to him that which you love most. It
is simply insanity. The next step taken by the priest was to teach not
only that all religion came from God, but all political power came from
God also—that God had made priests to tell people what to believe, and
kings to tell them what to do. Only a little time back we found kings
claiming that they reigned by divine right. The Bible says, “ Be subject
to the powers that be, because they are ordained of God.’- I deny it.
If that doctrine had been carried out, there never would have been any
revolution in the world from that day to this. All political power com es
from God, said the priest, consequently if a man said a word against the
king, or one of his nobles, he was a traitor to the Divine Being. The
altar and throne fitted each other like the upper and lower jaw of a
hyena, and crushed liberty under foot. Just so long as men believed
political power came from God, they were cringing slaves, and the men
who taught such a doctrine were themselves hypocrites and tryants.
After a while people began to think that after all, political power
didn’t always come from God. The kings, however, kept on taking a
little more and a little more, and the people grew more and more
wretched and downtrodden, till finally they said, Power does not come
from God, and in 1776 our fathers retired God from politics altogether.
They said power comes only from the consent of the governed, and not
from God. The true source of power is the will of the people. We are
not going above the clouds to look for authority. Did our fathers under
stand religious liberty ? Only two or three of them. How then did
they come to leave God out of the Constitution 1 The colonies were not
in favour of religious liberty; the pilgrim fathers were not. They left
England for conscience sake ; they wanted the right to worship God as
they thought best, and went over to Holland. There they had to
worship God according to their conscience, but other people also had
the right to worship in a different way and to preach different doctrines,
so the pilgrims came over here. They left England to escape persecu
tion, and left Holland to get away from religious liberty. When they
got over they were ready to kill all those who differed from them.
How then did they come to frame a Constitution without God ? Be
cause no three States had the same religion, and they could not agree
upon which religion should be the bride of the State, which church
should be married to the Constitution, so each church, rather than see
some other church the bride of the State, was willing to see the State a
�9
■bachelor, and God was left out in the cold. It was all owing to the
meanness and jealousy of these churches, that we have got a Constitu
tion with no superstition in it There are some lunatics even now-adays who want to put God in the Constitution. I am opposed to it. If
you get one infinite Being in, there will be no room for other folks, and I
don’t think God himself would feel much complimented by being put
there. These men had no idea of human rights, for they believed that
God would hold a community responsbile for the deeds of some indi
vidual. When the train of cars went down recently in Scotland the
pulpit resounded with talk about Divine Judgments for violating the
Sabbath. One of the passengers was a sailor coming home to see his
widow mother, to take care of her in her declining years. Just think of
God killing that man for crossing that bridge on a Sunday. Imagine
some rosy-cheeked little boy in a boat on Sunday fishing. At the end of
their lines are fastened pin hooks, and an Infinite Being descends and
keels over their boats because it is Sunday.
Our fathers had no idea of religious liberty in their time, and their
descendants to-day have not. In many States a man cannot testify in
a court of justice because he doesn’t believe in their God. If my wife
and child were killed before my eyes and I took their corpses into court
I would not be permitted to say who did it. This is not only depriving
me of testimony, but it deprives the State of testimony. I can’t believe
in a personal God in any land where there is injustice; where innocence
is not safe, where honest men toil and rogues ride in carriages, where
hypocrisy is crowned and sincerity degraded. I can’t conceive of this
world being governed by an infinite being. If any good is to be done,
man has got to do it. We must depend on ourselves. We must not con
sider the lilies of the field—we must sow the field and reap and harvest
the crops ourselves.
I want to show you the extent to which the church has gone. Reli
gion has never relied upon argument. Protestantism never gained
an inch of soil except at the mouth of the cannon or the point of the
sword; the smallest island in the seas has never been taken by Catholic
or Protestant except at the point of the bayonet. Religion of love has
always been shot into nations. Who are the most warlike nations in
the world to-day ? Christian nations. Who invent the best guns and
greatest cannon for killing human beings ? Christian nations. Does
any one of you wish to become a millionaire and famous for the rest of
his fife ? Then invent a cannon that will blow more Christian brains
into froth than the best cannon will, and your fortune is made, and your
name will become famous. In the last eight years the national debts of
Christendom have increased over §6,000,000,000. What Catholic nation
is the most orthodox to-day ? Spain. And is there any meaner nation ?
What next ? Portugal. What next ? Italy, the land covered with
brigands, every one of whom carries an image of the Virgin Mary or
some favourite saint, and who crosses himself with holy water in the
cathedral before he starts on his brigand work. What next ? Ireland,
poor Ireland, crushed beneath the heels of oppression for hundreds of
years. Why ? Simply because her oppressor was of a different religion.
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It is religion which, has reduced Spain to a guitar, Italy to a hand-organ,,
and Ireland to exile. What is the most orthodox Protestant nation to
day? Scotland; and in 1877 there were 12,000 women arrested in
Glasgow for drunkenness. What nation is the most infidel to-day ?
France. Which is the most prosperous country in Europe to-day?
France.
Go with me to Siberia. Who are these poor creatures drawing
waggons on their hands and knees. Girls of sixteen, seventeen and
eighteen or twenty ! what are they there for 1 For having said a word
in favour of human liberty. That is all. Do you blame the lovers or
parents of these girls if they endeavoured to send a bullet to the heart
of the Czar who allows such brutality ? In such a case my sympathies
are closed around the point of the dagger. I have said that in many of
our States an infidel is not allowed to testify in a court of justice. Let
me prove it. [The lecturer here read extracts from the laws or con
stitutions of the various States in support of his assertion. J In alluding
to the judgment day, he said: Won’t the orthodox be happy on that
day ? I want to show you a little picture I got from the old church
where Shakspeare was buried, giving a description of the judgment
day. About fifty fellows are coming out of their graves, and little devils
grabbing them by their heels. There was a great cauldron with about
twenty fellows in it, and devils pouring boiling pitch into it; five or
six more were hung upon hooks by their tongues. Right in the other
corner were some saints, and I never saw such a self-satisfied grin on
any person’s face in my life. They seemed to say to the sinner, “ How
now, Mr. Smartie, what did I' tell you 1 ” I believe there are lots of
clergymen in the United States willing to die to see me in hell. I once
read a little poem, translated from the Persian, of a good man who
worked for seven long years in acts of charity" and then mounted the
steps of heaven and knocked at the gate. Who is there ? cried a voice.
Thy slave, O God ! No answer. Again he toiled seven long years, in
acts of charity and piety, and again ascended to the gate and knocked.
Who is there 1 Thy servant, O God. No answer. Again he went back
and toiled seven more years, and then mounted to the gates of heaven
and knocked. Who is there 1 Thyself, O God 1 The gate opened and he
entered heaven. The next great thing for us to do is to get God out of
religion. Just so long as God is in religion there will be popes, car
dinals, priests, clergy, cathedrals, and churches, and all these religious
creeds coming down from high for men to swallow. There will be no
religious liberty until man himself is the source of religion, and hu
manity takes the place of superstition. I want to take a “ d ” from
the name of the devil, so as to make it evil, and I want to stick an “ o ”
into the word God, so that it will be the supreme good that men will
worship in the future. When we do that, there will be perfect religious
liberty, and not till then. Hell is rapidly cooling off, and a man will
have to take his overcoat with him. The liberty of man is asserting
itself, and will eventually become the religion of the world.
�RELIGIOUS INTOLERANCE.
Lecture by Col, R. G. INGERSOLL, at Pittsburgh Opera House,
October 4th, 1879.
THE SABBATH—PREACHERS.
“Tr-'rOW anybody ever came to the conclusion that there was any
LI God who demanded that you should feel sorrowful and miser'
gTf j able and bleak one-seventh of the . time is beyond my
r(rl comprehension. Neither can I conceive how they can say
one-seventh of the time is holy. That day is the
most sacred day on which the most good has been done for mankind.
Now, there was a time among the Jews, when if a man violated
the Sabbath, they would kill him. They said, God told them to
do it. I think they were mistaken. If not, if any God did tell them to
kill him, then I think he was mistaken. I hope the time will come
when every man can spend the Sabbath just as he pleases, provided he
does not interfere with the happiness of others. I would fight just as
earnestly that the Christian may go to church as that the infidel
may have the right to spend his Sabbath as he wishes. Are the people
who go to church the only good people ? Are there not a good many
bad people who go to church ? Not a bank in Pittsburgh will lend a
dollar to the man who belongs to the church, without security,
quicker than to the man who don’t go to church. Now, I believe
that all laws upon the statute-book should .be enforced. I do not
blame anybody in this town. I am perfectly willing that every preacher
in this town should preach. They are employed to preach,, and to
preach a certain doctrine, and if they don’t preach that doctrine they
will be turned out. I have no objection to that. But I want the
same privilege to express my views, and what is the. difference,
whether the man pays the day he goes in, or pays for it the week
before by subscription ?
What would the church people think if the theatrical people should
attempt to suppress the churches ? What harm would it do to have an
�12
opera here to-night? It would elevate us tnore than to hear ten
thousand sermons on the world that never dies. There is more
practical wisdom in one of the plays of Shakespeare than in all
the sacred books ever written. What wrong would there be to see one
of those grand plays on Sunday ? There was a time when the church
Wmld
all°W you to cook on SundaY You had to eat your victuals
WaS a ^me they thought the more miserable you feel the
better God feels. There are sixty odd thousand preachers in the United
States. Some people regard them as a necessary evil; some as an un
necessary evil. There are sixty odd thousand churches in the United
States ; and it does seem to me that with all the wealth on their
side; with Providence on their side ; with all these advantages they
ought to let us at least have a right to speak our thoughts.
RIGHT AND WRONG.
Col. Ingersoll next entered into his argument on the origin of
religion, referring to the first impressions of the savage. Havingenunciated these views.
c
“ The history of the world shows me that the right has not always
prevailed. . When you see innocent men chained to the stake and the
flames licking their flesh, it is natural to ask, why does God permit this ?
If you see a man in prison with the chains eating into his flesh simply
for loving God, you’ve got to ask why does not a just God interfere?
You’ve got to meet this; it won’t do to say that it will all come out for
the best. That may do very well for God, but it’s awful hard on the
man. Where was the God that permitted slavery for two hundred
years in these United States?
The history of the world shows
that when a mean thing was done, man did it; when a good thing was
done, man did it.
“But there was a time when there was a'drought, and this tribe of
savages with their false notions of religion, said somebody has been
wicked.
Somebody has been lecturing on Sunday.
Then the
tribe hunted out the wicked man.
They said you’ve got to stop.
We cannot allow you to continue your wickedness, which brings
punishment upon the whole of us. What is the reason they allow me
■to speak to-night ? Because the Christians are not as firm in their
belief now as they were a thousand years ago. The luke-warmness and
hypocricy of Christians now permit me to speak to-night. If they felt
■as they did a thousand years ago, they would kill me. So religious
persecution was born of the instinct of self-defence.
DUTY TO GOD—DUTY TO MAN.
Is there any duty we owe to God ? Can we help him ? Can we add
to his glory and happiness ? They tell me this God is infinitely wise—I
cannot add to his wisdom; infinitely happy—I cannot add to his
�13
happiness. What can I do ? May be he wants me to make prayers
that won’t be answered. I cannot see any relation that can exist
between the finite and the infinite. I acknowledge that I am under
obligations'to my fellow-man. We owe duties to our fellow-man. And
what ? Simply to make them happy.
The only good is happiness; and the only evil is. misery, or
unhappiness. Only those things are right that tend to increase the
happiness of man ; only those things are wrong which tend to increase
the misery of man. That is the basis of right and wrong. There
never would have been the idea of wrong’ except that man can inflict
suffering upon others. Utility, then, is the basis of the idea of right
and wrong.
The church tells us that this world is a school to prepare us for
another, that it is a place to build up character. Well, if that is the
only way character can be developed it is bad for children who die
before they get any character. What would you think of a school
master who would kill half his pupils the first day ?
THE BIBLE.
Now, I read the Bible, and I find that God so loved this world
that he made up His mind to damn the most of us.
I have
read this book, and what shall I say of it ? I believe it is generally
better to be honest. Now, I don’t believe the Bible. Had I not better
say so ? They say that if you do, you will regret it, when you come to die.
If that be true, I know a great many religious people who will have no
cause to regret it—they don’t tell their honest convictions about the
Bible. There are two great arguments of the church—the great man
argument and the death-bed. They say the religion of your fathers is good
enough. Why should a father object to your inventing a better plough
than he had ? They say to me, do you know more than all theologians
dead ? Being a perfectly modest man, I say I think I do. Now we have
come to the conclusion that every man has a right to think. Would
God give a bird wings and make it a crime to fly. Would he give me
brains and make it a crime to think ? Any God that would damn one
of his children for the expression of his honest thought, wouldn’t make
a decent thief. When I read a book and don’t believe it, I ought to say
so. I will do so and take the consequence like a man.
THE CONSTITUTION.
Col. Ingersoll next gave his views of the Puritans, declared that
they left Holland to escape persecution, and came here to persecute
others. He referred to the persecutions heaped upon those of other
religious belief by the Puritans, paid the Catholics the compliment to
say that Maryland, which they ruled, was the first colony to enact a law
tolerating religious views not held by themselves, and went on to
explain that God was never mentioned in the Constitution of the
�14
United States because each colony had a different religious belief, and
each sect preferred to have God not mentioned at all than to having
another religious belief than their own recognised. “ In 1776,” said the
speaker, “our forefathers retired God from politics. They said all
power comes from the people. They kept God out of the constitution,
and allowed each State to settle the question for itself.”
The present laws of different States were next reviewed, so far as
they relate to the prevention of infidels giving testimony and to religious
intolerance in any way, and these features were all branded and
discussed as a gigantic evil.
The lecture was attentively listened to by the immense audience
from beginning to the end, and the speaker’s most blasphemous flights
were the most loudly applauded.
�E. C. INGERSOLL’S FUNERAL.
A very affecting scene was -witnessed at the funeral of Ebon C.
Ingersoll in Washington, June 2, 1879.
His brother Robert had
prepared an address to be read on the occasion, but when the large
company of friends had gathered, and the time came, the feelings of the
man overcame him. He began to read his eloquent characterization of
the dead man, but his eyes at once filled with tears. He tried ro hide
them behind his eye-glasses, but he could not do it. and finally he bowed
his head upon the man’s coffin in uncontrollable grief. It was only after
some delay, and the greatest of self-mastery, that Robert was able to
finish reading his address, which was as follows :
COL. R. G. INGERSOLL’S FUNERAL ORATION.
My Friends : I am going to do that which the dead often promised
he would do for me. The loved and loving brother, husband, father,
friend, died where manhood’s morning almost touches noon, and while
the shadows still were falling toward the west. He had not passed on
life’s highway the stone that marks the highest point, but being weary
for the moment he laid down by the wayside, and, using a burden for a
pillow, fell into that dreamless sleep that kisses down his eyelids still.
While yet in love with life and raptured with the world, he passed to
silence and pathetic dust. Yet, after all, it may be best, just in the
happiest, sunniest hour of all the voyage, while eager winds are kissing
every sail, to dash against the unseen rock, and in an instant hear the
billows roar, a sunken ship.
For whether in mid-sea or among the
breakers of a farther shore, a wreck must mark at last the end of each
and all. And every life, no matter if its very hour is rich with love,
and every moment jewelled with a joy, will at its close become a
tragedy, as sad, and deep and dark as can be woven of the ward and woof
of mystery and death. This brave and tender man in every storm of
life was oak and rock, but in the sunshine he was love and flower. He
was the friend of all heroic souls that climbed the heights and left all
superstitions here below, while on his forehead fell the golden dawning
of a.grander day. He loved the beautiful, and was with color, form and
music touched to tears. He sided with the weak, and with a willing
hand gave alms ; with loyal heart and with the purest hand he faithfully
discharged all public trusts. He was a worshipper of liberty and a friend
�16
of the oppressed. A thousand times I have heard him quote the words ;
“For justice all place a temple and all season summer.” He believed
that happiness was the only good, reason the only torch, justice the only
worshipper, humanity the only religion and love the priest. He added
to the sum of human joy, and everyone for whom he did some loving
service to bring a blossom to his grave he would sleep to-niglt beneath
a wilderness of flowers. Life is a narrow vale between the cold and
barren peaks of two eternities. We strive in vain to look beyond the
heights. We cry aloud, and the only answer is the echo of a wailing
cry. From . the voiceless lips of the un-replying dead there comes no
word ; but in night of death hope sees a star and listening love can hear
the rustle of a wing. He who sleeps here when dying, mistaking
the approach of death for the return of health, whispered with his
latest breath, “I am better now.” Let us believe, in spite of doubts
and dogmas and tears and fears that these dear words are true of all the
countless dead. And now, to you who have been chosen from among
the many men he loved to do the last sad office for the dead, we give his
sacred trust. Speech cannot contain our love. There was—there is—no
gentler, stronger, manlier man.
Abel Heywood & Son, Printers, Oldham Street, Manchester,
�
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Victorian Blogging
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A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
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Conway Hall Library & Archives
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2018
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Conway Hall Ethical Society
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Pamphlet
Dublin Core
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Title
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Personal deism denied
Creator
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Ingersoll, Robert Green [1833-1899]
Description
An account of the resource
Place of publication: Manchester; London
Collation: 16 p. ; 19 cm.
Series title: Col. Ingersoll's American secular lectures
Series number: No. 11
Notes: Stamp inside front cover: Bishopsgate Institute Reference Library, 21 Nov. 1991. No. 58a in Stein checklist. List of Ingersoll's lectures inside front cover. Contents: Personal Deism Denied -- Religious Intolerance (lecture by Col. R.G. Ingersoll at Pittsburgh Opera House, October 4th, 1879 -- E.C. Ingersoll's Funeral. Part of the NSS pamphlet collection.
Publisher
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Abel Heywood & Son; Truelove
Date
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[188?]
Identifier
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N385
Subject
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Deism
Rights
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<a href="http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/"><img src="http://i.creativecommons.org/p/mark/1.0/88x31.png" alt="Public Domain Mark" /></a><span> </span><br /><span>This work (Personal deism denied), identified by </span><a href="https://conwayhallcollections.omeka.net/items/show/www.conwayhall.org.uk"><span>Humanist Library and Archives</span></a><span>, is free of known copyright restrictions.</span>
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application/pdf
Type
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Text
Language
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English
Deism
NSS
Religious Tolerance