Heretics And Heresies: From 'The Gods and Other Lectures'Ingersoll, Robert Green
Religion
Heretics And Heresies: From 'The Gods and Other Lectures'
Ingersoll, Robert Green
Free thought; Heresy
Catharine II assassinated her husband. Stepping upon his corpse, she
mounted the throne. She was the murderess of Prince Iwan, grand nephew
of Peter the Great, who was imprisoned for eighteen years, and who
during all that time saw the sky but once. Taken all in all, Catharine
was probably one of the most intellectual beasts that ever wore a crown.
Catharine, however, was the head of the Greek Church, Socrates was
a heretic and Penelope lived and died without having once heard of
"particular redemption" or of "irresistible grace."
Seventh, With repudiating the idea of a "call" to the ministry, and
pretending that men were "called" to preach as they were to the other
avocations of life.
If this doctrine is true, God, to say the least of it, is an exceedingly
poor judge of human nature. It is more than a century since a man of
true genius has been found in an orthodox pulpit Every minister is
heretical just to the extent that his intellect is above, the average.
The Lord seems to be satisfied with mediocrity; but the people are not.
An old deacon, wishing to get rid of an unpopular preacher, advised him
to give up the ministry and turn his attention to something else. The
preacher replied that he could not conscientiously desert the pulpit, as
he had had a "call" to the ministry. To which the deacon replied, "That
may be so, but it's very unfortunate for you, that when God called you
to preach, he forgot to call anybody to hear you."
There is nothing more stupidly egotistic than the claim of the clergy
that they are, in some divine sense, set apart to the service of the
Lord; that they have been chosen, and sanctified; that there is an
infinite difference between them and persons employed in secular
affairs. They teach us that all other professions must take care of
themselves; that God allows anybody to be a doctor, a lawyer, statesman,
soldier, or artist; that the Motts and Coopers--the Mansfields and
Marshalls--the Wilberforces and Sumners--the Angelos and Raphaels,
were never honored by a "call." They chose their professions and won
their laurels without the assistance of the Lord. All these men were
left free to follow their own inclinations, while God was busily
engaged selecting and "calling" priests, rectors, elders, ministers and
exhorters.
Eighth. With having doubted that God was the author of the 109th Psalm.
The portion of that psalm which carries with it the clearest and most
satisfactory evidences of inspiration, and which has afforded almost
unspeakable consolation to the Presbyterian church, is as follows:
Set thou a wicked man over him; and let Satan stand at his right hand.
When he shall be judged, let him be condemned; and let his prayer become
sin.
Let his days be few; and let another take his office.
Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow.
Let his children be continually vagabonds, and beg; let them seek their
bread also out of their desolate places.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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