Charles Bradlaugh: a Record of His Life and Work, Volume 1 (of 2): With an Account of his Parliamentary Struggle, Politics and Teachings. Seventh EditionRobertson, J. M. (John Mackinnon)
History
Charles Bradlaugh: a Record of His Life and Work, Volume 1 (of 2): With an Account of his Parliamentary Struggle, Politics and Teachings. Seventh Edition
Robertson, J. M. (John Mackinnon)
Bradlaugh, Charles, 1833-1891
A friend in Sheffield has lent me the report of the discussion, printed
at the time by Mr Leader of the _Sheffield Independent_, and which both
disputants agreed was a very fair representation of what was said.
According to the arranged terms, Mr Bradlaugh led the first night, and
the Rev. Brewin Grant on each succeeding evening. The proposition to
be affirmed by "Iconoclast" on the first evening was: "The God of the
Bible, revengeful, inconstant, unmerciful, and unjust. His attributes
proven to be contradicted by the book which is professed to reveal
them." His opening speech was made in clear, concise language, was
directly to the point, and was listened to with the utmost attention.
He drew the picture of the Deity who, reviewing his creation,
pronounced everything that he had made "very good" (Gen. i. 31); "yet
in a short period the same Deity looks round and declares that man
is so bad that he repented that he had made man on the earth, and it
grieved him at his heart [Gen. vi. 6]; and in consequence God, to
relieve himself from this source of grief, determined to destroy every
living thing, and he did destroy them by deluge, for it repented him
that he had made them, because man was so very wicked." He dwelt upon
this at some length; then passed on to the selection of Noah and his
family, "part of the old stock of mankind having personal acquaintance
with all pre-existing evil," to re-people the earth; and concluded
his first half-hour by asking where was the love, where the justice
towards the Amalek, against whom "the Lord hath sworn" to have war
"from generation to generation"? It was now the turn of the Rev. Brewin
Grant to reply to this terrible indictment against the Deity whose
professed servant he was; and it is interesting to mark the manner in
which he set about his task. He commenced by unburdening himself of
a few minor personalities against my father, and when a few of these
petty sneers--the only possible object of which could be to provoke ill
feeling--were off his mind, he indulged his overwhelming passion for
raising a laugh. For this he made an opportunity in dealing with the
causes which led to "the Flood," asking whether "Iconoclast imagines
that, because God knew of these sins before they were committed, he
should have drowned men before they were created." This, of course,
provoked the desired merriment, and, temporarily satisfied, Mr Grant
proceeded to his argument with acuteness and ability. Unfortunately,
his peculiar temperament would not allow him to keep this up for
very long; and while still in his first half-hour speech he drew a
comparison of God's repentance with that of a merchant who repents him
of engaging a certain clerk, and made the merchant say, "Wherein can
you find fault? Am I a Secularist that I should lie, or an infidel
committee-man that I should violate a ratified agreement?" "Iconoclast"
is once more taunted with blindness and ignorance; and "infidels" with
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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