“INGERSOLL'S CREED” ANNOTATED.
The lectures of Colonel Ingersoll have done more than any one thing to popularize a certain gross phase of infidelity, characterized chiefly by brilliant and scurrilous wit, and utter unscrupulousness in misrepresentation. In a late number of the Burlington Hawkeye, Mr. Robert J. Burdette pays his respects to the Colonel in a particularly happy way. The larger part of the article we reproduce here:— Some one sends us a little tract containing epigrammatic expressions from Col. Robert G. Ingersoll's latest lecture, “What must we do to be saved?” We have read the tract, and we have read the entire lecture. If this is truly Ingersoll's creed, the Colonel isn't far out of the way. He is coming round, maybe. He manages to get considerable Scripture into his creed, as he sets it forth. There is lots of hope, in fact there is a great deal of certainty, for the Colonel. We subjoin a few articles of this great man's creed, just to show from what book he got his declaration of faith. “Honest industry is as good as pious idleness,” says the Colonel. Well, that's all right. That's orthodox. The Bible says the same thing, and said it long before the Colonel thought of it—“Faith without works is dead.” Christ believed the temple of God to be the heart of man.—Ingersoll. Yes, that's orthodox too. We “must worship him in the spirit.” “Know ye not that ye are the temple of the Holy Ghost?” If I go to Heaven, I want to take my reason with me.—Ingersoll. Of course, and so you will, “For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face; now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.”—1 Cor. 13:12. Fear is a dagger with which hypocrisy assassinates the soul.—Ingersoll. That is good gospel, and “perfect love casteth out fear.” If I owe Smith ten dollars, and God forgives me, that doesn't pay Smith.—Ingersoll. Correct you are; the prayer of Christianity is, “Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.” “Owe no man anything.” If you go to hell, it will be for not practicing the virtues which the Sermon on the Mount proclaims.—Ingersoll. That's all orthodox. “If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them.” The men who saw the miracles all died long ago. I wasn't acquainted with any of 'em.—Ingersoll. Same way with the men who saw Servetus burned. But the Colonel most firmly believes that Servetus was burned. A little miracle now, right here—just a little one—would do more towards the advancement of Christianity than all the preaching of the last thirty years.—Ingersoll. “If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rose from the dead.”—Luke 17:31. God will not damn a good citizen, a good father, or a good friend.—Ingersoll. Certainly not; nor any good man. “A good man showeth favor, and lendeth; he will guide his affairs with discretion. Surely, he shall not be moved forever: the righteous shall be in everlasting remembrance.”—Psalms 112:5, 6. Study the religion of the body in preference to the religion of the soul. A healthy body will give a healthy mind, and a healthy mind will destroy superstition.—Ingersoll. That explains why the Indians have no superstitions. People who have the smallest souls make the most fuss about having them.—Ingersoll. Of course, Colonel, they are the hardest kind to save. I will never ask God to treat me any fairer than I treat my fellow-men.—Ingersoll. Well, that's perfectly orthodox. “For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you; but if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” “For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged; and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you.” Upon the shadowy shore of death, the sea of trouble casts no wave.—Ingersoll. The Colonel must have been singing that good old hymn, “When I can read my title clear,” in which occur the lines: “And not a wave of trouble roll
Across my peaceful breast.”