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."