Alms at the Temple Gate by Christian Intelligencer

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, Cal. · Jan 28, 1886

Alms at the Temple Gate.

By Christian Intelligencer

ROBERT INGERSOLL asked his hearers the other evening, whether a poor wretch, arriving in town without a dollar in his pocket, would inquire the way to a Presbyterian deacon's house; and they greeted the sally with immense applause. He was trying to get off a smart satire on the meanness of orthodox Christians as contrasted with the generosity of infidels; but he missed his aim. Everybody knows that ministers, and other well-known Christian people, are the first to be besieged by beggars. I have frequently said to these persons, "Why do you come here? Why do you always go to ministers' houses?" The invariable answer is, that they think they will be more likely to receive sympathy and help there than elsewhere.

We might retort the question of the jolly lecturer, and ask whether a poor stranger was ever known to inquire where the infidels of the town lived, or whether a person in any sorrow was ever known to seek out an infidel to afford him comfort. Will the man who goes about ridiculing Christianity tell his audience the next time he lectures, where they can find an infidel hospital, or refuge of any kind for poverty and distress, or any society composed of infidels which seeks out and relieves the suffering, in this country or in any other on the face of the earth?