Lectures of Col. R. G. Ingersoll, Volume I: Including His Answers to the Clergy, His Oration at His Brother's Grave, Etc., Etc.Ingersoll, Robert Green
Religion
Lectures of Col. R. G. Ingersoll, Volume I: Including His Answers to the Clergy, His Oration at His Brother's Grave, Etc., Etc.
Ingersoll, Robert Green
Free thought
Strange, that nearly every man that has answered me has answered me
mostly on the same side. Strange, that nearly every man that thought
himself called upon to defend the Bible was one who did not believe in
it himself. Isn't it strange? They are like some suspected people,
always anxious to show their marriage certificate. They want at least
to convince the world that they are not as bad as I am.
Now, I want to read you just one or two things, and then I am going to
let you go. I want to see if I have said such awful things, and
whether I have got any scripture to stand by me. I will read only two
or three verses. Does the Bible teach man to enslave his brother? If
it does, it is not the word of God, unless God is a slaveholder.
"Moreover, all the children of the strangers that do sojourn among you,
of them shall ye buy of their families which are with you, which they
beget in your land, and they shall be your possession. Ye shall take
them as an inheritance for your children after you to inherit them.
They shall be your bondsmen forever."--(Old Testament.)
Upon the limbs of unborn babes this fiendish God put the chains of
slavery. I hate him.
"Both thy bondmen and bondwomen shall be of the heathen round about
thee and them shall ye buy, bondmen and bondwomen."
Now let us read what the New Testament has. I could read a great deal
more, but that is enough.
"Servants, be obedient to them that are your masters, according to the
flesh in fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart, as unto
Christ."
This is putting the dirty thief that steals your labor on an equality
with God.
"Servants, be subject to your masters with all fear; not only to the
good and gentle but also to the froward."
"For this is thankworthy, if a man for conscience toward God endure
grief, suffering wrongfully."
The idea of a man on account of conscience toward God stealing another
man, or allowing him nothing but lashes on his back as legal-tender for
labor performed.
"Let as many servants as are under the yoke count their own masters
worthy of all honor, that the name of God and His doctrine be not
blasphemed."
How can you blaspheme the name of God by asserting your independence?
How can you blaspheme the name of a God by striking fetters from the
limbs of men? I wish some of your ministers would tell you that. "And
they that have believing masters let them not despise them." That is to
say, a good Christian could own another believer in Jesus Christ; could
own a woman and her children, and could sell the child away from its
mother. That is a sweet belief. O, hypocrisy!
"Let them not despise them because they are brethren, but rather do
them service because they are faithful and beloved, partakers of the
benefit."
Oh, what slush! Here is what they will tell the poor slave, so that he
will serve the man that stole his wife and children from him:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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