Dr. Abbott's Equivocations--Crimes Punishable by Death under Mosaic and English Law--Severity of Moses Accounted for by Dr. Abbott--The Necessity for the Acceptance of Christianity--Christians should be Glad to Know that the Bible is only the Work of Man and that the New Testament Life of Christ is Untrue--All the Good Commandments, Known to the World thousands of Years before Moses--Human Happiness of More Consequence than the Truth about God--The Appeal to Great Names--Gladstone not the Greatest Statesman--What the Agnostic Says--The Magnificent Mistakes of Genesis--The Story of Joseph--Abraham as a "self-Exile for Conscience's Sake." REPLY TO ARCHDEACON FARRAR. (1890.) Revelation as an Appeal to Man's "Spirit"--What is Spirit and what is "Spiritual Intuition"?--The Archdeacon in Conflict with St. Paul--II. The Obligation to Believe without Evidence--III. Ignorant Credulity--IV. A Definition of Orthodoxy--V. Fear not necessarily Cowardice--Prejudice is Honest--The Ola has the Advantage in an Argument--St. Augustine--Jerome--the Appeal to Charlemagne--Roger Bacon--Lord Bacon a Defender of the Copernican System--The Difficulty of finding out what Great Men Believed--Names Irrelevantly Cited--Bancroft on the Hessians--Original Manuscripts of the Bible--VI. An Infinite Personality a Contradiction in Terms--VII. A Beginningless Being--VIII. The Cruelties of Nature not to be Harmonized with the Goodness of a Deity--Sayings from the Indian--Origen, St. Augustine, Dante, Aquinas. IS CORPORAL PUNISHMENT DEGRADING? (1890.) A Reply to the Dean of St. Paul--Growing Confidence in the Power of Kindness--Crimes against Soldiers and Sailors--Misfortunes Punished as Crimes--The Dean's Voice Raised in Favor of the Brutalities of the Past--Beating of Children--Of Wives--Dictum of Solomon. THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION; INGERSOLL'S OPENING PAPER [Ingersoll-Black] By Robert G. Ingersoll In the presence of eternity the mountains are as transient as the clouds. A PROFOUND change has taken place in the world of thought. The pews are trying to set themselves somewhat above the pulpit. The layman discusses theology with the minister, and smiles. Christians excuse themselves for belonging to the church, by denying a part of the creed. The idea is abroad that they who know the most of nature believe the least about theology. The sciences are regarded as infidels, and facts as scoffers. Thousands of most excellent people avoid churches, and, with few exceptions, only those attend prayer-meetings who wish to be alone. The pulpit is losing because the people are growing.