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
And Mr. Wesley also believed in the actual existence of the devil. He
believed that devils had possession of people. He talked to the devil
when he was in folks, and the devil told him that he was going to
leave; and that he was going into another person; that he would be
there at a certain time; and Wesley went to that other person, and
there the devil was, prompt to the minute. He regarded every
conversion as an absolute warfare between God and this devil for the
possession of that human soul. Honest, no doubt. Mr. Wesley did not
believe in human liberty. Honest, no doubt. Was opposed to the liberty
of the colonies. Honestly so. Mr. Wesley preached a sermon entitled,
"The Cause and Cure of Earthquakes," in which he took the ground that
earthquakes were caused by sin and the only way to stop them was to
believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. No doubt an honest man.
Wesley and Whitfield fell out on the question of predestination. Wesley
insisted that God invited everybody to the feast. Whitfield said He
did not invite those He knew would not come. Wesley said He did.
Whitfield said: "Well, He didn't put plates for them, anyway." Wesley
said He did. So that, when they were in hell, he could show them that
there was a seat left for them. And that Church that they founded is
still active. And probably no Church in the world has done so much
preaching for as little money as the Methodists. Whitfield believed in
slavery and advocated the slave trade. And it was of Whitfield that
Whittier made the two lines:
He bade the slave ships speed from coast to coast, Fanned by the wings
of the Holy Ghost.
We have lately had a meeting of the Methodists, and I find, by their
statistics, that they believe they have converted 130,000 folks in a
year. That in order to do this, they have 26,000 preachers, 226,000
Sunday-school scholars, and about $1,000,000,000 invested in church
property. I find, in looking over the history of the world, that there
are 40,000,000 or 50,000,000,000 of people born a year, and if they are
saved at the rate of 30,000 a year, about how long will it take that
doctrine to save this world? Good, honest people; they are mistaken.
In old times they were very simple. Churches used to be like barns.
They used to have them divided--men on that side, and women on this. A
little barbarous. We have advanced since then, and we now find as a
fact, demonstrated by experience, that a man sitting by the woman he
loves can thank God as heartily as though sitting between two men that
he has never been introduced to.
There is another thing these Methodists should remember, and that is,
that the Episcopalians were the greatest enemies they ever had. And
they should remember that the Free-Thinkers have always treated them
kindly and well.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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