hat is their
opinion of you and of your views?

_Answer_. Most of them envy me; envy my independence; envy my
success; think that I ought to starve; that the people should not
hear me; say that I do what I do for money, for popularity; that I
am actuated by hatred of all that is good and tender and holy in
human nature; think that I wish to tear down the churches, destroy
all morality and goodness, and usher in the reign of crime and
chaos. They know that shepherds are unnecessary in the absence of
wolves, and it is to their interest to convince their sheep that
they, the sheep, need protection. This they are willing to give
them for half the wool. No doubt, most of these minsters are
honest, and are doing what they consider their duty. Be this as
it may, they feel the power slipping from their hands. They know
that the idea is slowly growing that they are not absolutely
necessary for the protection of society. They know that the
intellectual world cares little for what they say, and that the
great tide of human progress flows on careless of their help or
hindrance. So long as they insist upon the inspiration of the
Bible, they are compelled to take the ground that slavery was once
a divine institution; they are forced to defend cruelties that
would shock the heart of a savage, and besides, they are bound to
teach the eternal horror of everlasting punishment.

They poison the minds of children; they deform the brain and pollute
the imagination by teaching the frightful and infamous dogma of
endless misery. Even the laws of Delaware shock the enlightened
public of to-day. In that State they simply fine and imprison a
man for expressing his honest thoughts; and yet, if the churches
are right, God will damn a man forever for the same offence. The
brain and heart of our time cannot be satisfied with the ancient
creeds. The Bible must be revised again. Most of the creeds must
be blotted out. Humanity must take the place of theology.
Intellectual liberty must stand in every pulpit. There must be
freedom in all the pews, and every human soul must have the right
to express its honest thought.

--Washington correspondent, _Brooklyn Eagle_, March 19, 1881.

A REPLY TO THE REV. MR. LANSING.*

[* Rev. Isaac J. Lansing of Meriden, Conn., recently denounced Col.
Robert G. Ingersoll from the pulpit of the Meriden Methodist Church,
and had the Opera House closed against him. This led a _Union_ reporter
to show