dust--I would rather
think of them as gurgling in the stream, floating in the clouds,
bursting in the foam of light upon the shores of worlds--I would rather
think of them as the inanimate and eternally unconscious, that to have
even a suspicion that their naked souls had been clutched by an
orthodox God.

But for me, I will leave the dead where nature leaves them. And
whatever flower of hope springs up in my heart I will cherish; but I
can not believe that there is any being in this universe who has
created a human soul for eternal pain. And I would rather that every
God would destroy himself; I would rather that we all should go to
eternal chaos, to black and starless night, that that just one soul
should suffer eternal agony. I have made up my mind that if there is a
God, he will be merciful to the merciful. Upon that rock I stand. That
he will forgive the forgiving. Upon that rock I stand. That every man
should be true to himself, and that there is no world, no star, in
which honesty is a crime. And upon that rock I stand. The honest man,
the good, kind, sweet woman, the happy child, has nothing to fear,
neither in this world, nor the world to come. And upon that rock I
stand.

INGERSOLL'S ANSWER TO PROF. SWING, DR. THOMAS, AND OTHERS

After looking over the replies made to his new lecture, Col. Ingersoll
was asked by a Tribune reporter what he thought of them. He replied as
follows:

I think they dodge the point. The real point is this: If salvation by
faith is the real doctrine of Christianity, I asked on Sunday before
last, and I still ask, why didn't Matthew tell it? I still insist that
Mark should have remembered it, and I shall always believe that Luke
ought, at least, to have noticed it. I was endeavoring to show that
modern Christianity has for its basis an interpolation. I think I
showed it. The only gospel on the orthodox side is that of John, and
that was certainly not written, or did not appear in its present form,
until long after the others were written. I know very well that the
Catholic Church claimed during the Dark Ages, and still claims, that
references had been made to the gospels by persons living in the first,
second and third centuries; but I believe such manuscripts were
manufactured by the Catholic Church. For many years in Europe there
was not one person in 20,000 who could read and write. During that time
the Church had in its keeping the literature of our