THE IRtilGA TWN A GE. 



373 





" R .bt. G. Ingersoll is dead." 

 This announcement caused 

 great surprise. We pictured 

 the great skeptic as well, strong, jovial, 

 never a c sociating him with the thought of 

 the grim reaper. The end came, as per- 

 haps he would have wished could he have 

 had his ch->ica swiftly painlessly. Xo 

 lingering on A bed of sickness but a 

 sudden end that found him surrounded by 

 his loved ones. 



Often people have speculated as to what 

 manner of death this great free thinker 

 would die: ministers have prophesied at 

 the last an agonizing struggle, a great 

 turning to the religion derided during 

 health and perhaps a "death-bed repen- 

 tance." But his death gave them no 

 theme of horror from which to point a 

 moral. It would be vain to try to count 

 the number of sermons which have been 

 preached on Ingersoll's death or in which 

 the great agnostic was mentioned, and 

 upon reading the things said against him 

 by many of the ministers throughout the 

 country, one is compelled to wonder 

 whether it was the sincere desire to 

 benefit their hearers or a little bit of 

 personal feeling against one whom they 

 could not vanquish during his life, that 

 actuated them in choosing their theme. 



A man of great brain power died; a man 

 who lived, as all are forced to confess, a 

 good life, who was a faithful husband, a 

 kind father, a true friend, a loyal citizen, 

 humane, philanthropic, whose only creed 

 was to do the right, who believed that 

 "Hands that help are better far than 

 hands that pray ." whose crime was that 

 he dared to doubt. A few days later 

 there died iu prison a man guilty, in all 

 probability, of one of the most brutal 

 crimes on record of low instincts, cmel, 

 unfaithful, base. Which one did the min- 

 ister take for his text when he wondered 

 if there were mercy for such as he? Of 

 which one did he say it was best that he 

 should die? Surely not of the good man. 

 Yes, even of him for he dared to doubt. 

 We must not be understood as upholding 

 the stand Ingersoll took upon religious 

 questions: he claimed to be an agnostic 

 one who does not know but he was in 

 reality an iconoclast, tearing down man's 

 beliefs and giving him nothing better in 



return, but we do) condemn the min. 

 isters of the gospel who pretend to 

 judge this man and speculate as to where 

 his eternity will be spent. ''Shall not the 

 Judge of all the earth do right?" 



Years hence, Col. Ingersoll will be 

 rerognized as one of the great reformers, 

 for while his methods are not to be 

 entirely approved of, he has, in reality, 

 done more for religion than any other 

 man of our day: he has taught the doctrine 

 of humanity, of tolerance, of goodness, for 

 its own t^ake: has forced people to become 

 more liberal-minded. He was intolerant 

 not so much of religion itself as of the 

 creeds and can't. And we must not for- 

 get that "to assail false creeds is not to 

 attack religion and to pluck the mask 

 fr->m hypocrites, is not to raise an impious 

 hand toward the crown of thorns." 



"DECLARATION O? THE FREE." 



[From "The Truth=eeker" of June 3, 1899 

 Ingersol 's Last Composition.] 



We have no falsehoods to defend 



We want the facts: 

 Our force, our thousht, we do not spend 



In vain at'acus. 

 A nd we will never meanly try 

 To save some fair and pleasant lie. 



The simple truth is what we a>k, 



Not the ideal; 

 We've set ourselves the noble task 



To find the real. 



If a 1 there is is nought b' t dross. 

 We want to know and bear our loss. 



We will not willingly be fooled 



By fables nursed; 

 Our hearts by earnest thought are schooled. 



To bear the worst; 

 And we can stan i erect and dare 

 all things, all facts tuat really are. 



We have no God to serve or fear 



Xo hell to shun, 

 Xo devil with malicious leer. 



When life is done 



An endless sleep may close our eyes. 

 A sleep with neither dreams nor sighs. 



We have no master on the land, 



Xo king in air, 

 Without a manacle we stand. 



Without a prayer, 

 Without a fear of coin'.nz night 

 We seek the truth, we love the light- 



We don't bow down before a guess, 



A vague unknown: 

 A senseless force we do not bless 



In solemn tone. 



When evil comes we do not curse* 

 Or tli. ink because it is no wor>e. 



