" ; :
10 Conservative *
AFTERNOON.
The noon has passed ; but cartli is bright
With toiulur toucli ofHummor'H light ;
And soft thu air
O'er mellowed scenes that tranquil lie
Stretched out beneath the rr/.uro sky ,
In beauty fair.
The trembling dews of early day ,
That glittered in each dawning ray ,
Will shine no moro.
The hours that morning's triumph led
Have with their buoyant freshness lied ,
Their eheer is o'er.
And yet the clav is newly blest ;
The happy sunlight falls with rest
And gentler beams.
And softer , sweeter are the clear
Bird notes that greet the ear ,
Like songs in dreams.
Earth's beauty and its calm repose
Bring quiet thought that deeper grows.
In calm review ,
Wo see the truth the hours have taught ,
The latest moments are each fraught
With treasures new.
Beyond the noon the day's far spent.
A peaceful spirit of content
Now broods o'er all.
The ripened harvests round us lie ;
Ere long will glow the sunset sky
And night will full.
But with the night comes restful sleep ;
And soon , when twilight shadows creep ,
Will gleam and shine
For us the guiding lights above ,
To show the Father's watchful love
O'er day's decline.
MAUY FRENCH MORTON.
INGKKSOLVS UKLIGION.
Colonel IngRrsoll recently addressed
"The Free Religious Association" in
Boston. The colonel's religion was so
"free" that even ho could not pin it ,
define it , or fence it in , not even with
words. The doughty champion of anti-
ccclesiasticism is , as a religionist , much
like Mr. Bryan as a politician. The
v'l
colonel well , which colonel ? is an ag
nostic. All agnostics are feuco-strad-
dlerp. Agnosticism is very much of an
"I don't know ; it may be , and then
agin it mayn't. " There are some things
Ingorsoll knows something about , mor
ality being one of them. There are
others of which ho knows nothing
here again he bears a strong resem
blance to Colonel Bryan. Ingersoll
knows as much about religion as Bryan
br068 ° nauce- Both are blind leaders
, ; a their respective fields. Both go to
k/Muthority for their information. In
both cases the authority is equally blind.
Is it any wonder that they and their
followers find themselves falling into
the ditch together ? Ingersoll goes to
the theologians , to ask about the "living
God , " who seek their information in
the mouldy vaults of traditional super
stition. In some things Ingersoll stands
on "common sense" but not in religion.
He goes prowling around the dismal
cavern or tradition like some thief in
the night looking for the living truth
among the mouldy skeletons of gangre
nous error. Ingersoll is a curiosity He
flatly denies thn existence of the mould
while boldy affirming that religion con-
, " I
sists iu fear of it. There is still a very
dense film of theological moulds at
tached to Ingersoll's ganglion colls.
This accounts for their restricted action.
Ingersoll's rebellion against traditional
superstition is of an emotional rather
than intellectual nature.
Injjrrsoll'H Irrellglnn In Deud Tradition.
IngRrsoll says "Religion has done
nothing to reform human beings. "
How is it possible for a dead and
mouldy tradition to perform that act of
prestidigitation in the living. Even
lugersoll does not believe that the dead
can come to life again. Then why de
mand that it give vitality to a dead
moral nature ? He says that "religion
makes slaves , " because based on fear.
That shows that Ingersoll knows naught
of true religion. He has studied the
spurious article put up by theologian in
the rusty casing of ecclesiastical ignor
ance. No moro is Ingersoll's "real
religion , real worship , " the religion in
Nature , for it is not the work of religion
in all things "to find the subtle threads
that join the distant with the now , " un
less it be the religious action ; nor has
real religion anything directly to do
with "takingburdens from the weak ;
to develop the brain , to defend the right ,
to make place for the soul. " So far as
religion goes Ingersoll knows naught of
the ripe fruit of the tree of knowledge.
He needs some of the madness of Paul
to drive the superstition of Festus from
his mind. He talks glibly of philosophy
and may have been a dilettante peripatetic
along the by-ways of Athens , but he
never stopped in the Stoa to converse
with Zfino , nor has he tasted of the
waters of living truth as they gush from
the oracle at Delphi. Ingersoll knows
not himself or he would know that re
ligion is in , of and through all things.
Had he been as diligent a follower of
the "spirit" as he has been a student of
the letter of Thomas Paine , he would
have cast the musty precedents of the
ological irreligiou behind him , and ,
looking within , have felt the springs of
eternal religion overflowing his whole
being like a perennial fountain. Inger
sell reviles the Bible , seeing naught in
it but the decaying mould of traditional
ignorance , while the grand religion in it
utterly escapes him , e'en though the
psalmist was overwhelmed by it , as we
all are , when standing on some hill-top
at eve and with the sun sinking in its
golden bed unconsciously lose all thought
save that
The Heavens declare the glory ,
The firmament Bhowoth the handiwork ,
Day unto day speaketh , and
Night unto night munifflsteth ,
The universality of religion.
True religion kuoweth not fear. True
religion worshipeth not. True religion
hath not a characteristic of traditional
irreligion. True religion countenances
no rival. It kuoweth naught of religions.
It is not Nature worship. Self-worship
is the basest idolatry. True religion
leaves that to the advocates of pseudo
religions.
True Religion
is the mightiest , most all-embracing
manifestation of force. To the true
scientist there is but one force in Na
ture. That is , attraction. The "forces
of Nature" are but manifold degrees or
forms in which attraction is manifest.
Attraction makes the continuity and
solidarity of the whole. While each indi
vidualized part of Nature attracts every
other part all the other parts exert a
compound-complex attraction on each in
dividual part. Thus is the unity or
oneness of the whole maintained. The
intensity of the religions attraction , the
actual force of the religious feeling in
man , understood by scarcely any , can
only bo approximately appreciated
when it is realized that there is always
a force transmission from the body of
greater magnitude to the body of lesser ,
and we think that man , individually , is
the body of lesser magnitude , while the
entire cosmos , outside ourselves , is the
body of greater magnitude. Religion
then is that conscious yet incomprehen
sible feeling which binds all things into
an unchangeable and eternal whole , and
the intelligent conception of this unity.
It was some such conception that filled
the mind that formulated the materials
in the first two chapters of Genesis. It
was this that man meant when he said
"God made man in His own image"
and , do not forget it , "male and female
created He him. " It was this again
man meant when he said "God made
man out of the dust of the ground. "
Again man expressed the unity and in-
separableuess of all things when ho said
"From dust thou art , unto dust shalt
thou return. " The theologians have
done their best to perpetuate a blind
idolatry and to shut the eyes of the people
ple to the universe religion of which
they are but a manifestation in common
with the Heavens , the earth , the sun ,
the moon , the stars , the mighty ocean
and the mountain torrent. Man sings
of it , the lark carols it , the cricket
harps it ; the tiny violet manifests that
which maketh all things one. To Inger
sell it might be said : "Goto the ant ,
thou sluggard , consider her ways and be
wise. " The same eternal force marketh
its intelligence which is manifest in
the sublimest reason of the most pro
found philosopher.
FRANK S. BILLINGS.
Graf ton , Mass.
The artificial
SOOTHING
sleep produced m
babes by soothing
syrups is not more detrimental to physi
cal health than the free-coinage-silver
syrup is to the political health of those
who habitually use that economic nos
trum.
--1 * J.
