nimble devotees vie with each other in
proclaiming that they thought that way all the time; had neglected
to say so (through an oversight); but that it was one of their very
strongest holds from the beginning. They have recently told us that
modern scientific doctrines (evolution included) are "plainly indicated
in the Bible," and that Science has at last worked up towards the
comprehension of scriptural truths.

It used to be the fashion to burn the man who got up a new theory or
discovered a new law of nature that interfered with the "revelation"
theory; but the style now is to go into the mental gymnastic business
and "reconcile" the old dogma with the new truth. The only kind of
reconciling the Church ever thought of in the days of her power, was to
become reconciled to the death of the scientist or thinker. To-day she
can take evolution and revelation, shake them up in a theological bag,
and then bring them forth so marvellously alike in appearance that their
own father would not know them apart. And the rest of us can't recognize
them at all.

To-morrow, when she has to yield her whole field to science, she will
hasten to assure us that it was only a few mistaken souls who ever
objected to Col. Ingersoll's style of theology; and that if we would
only interpret the Bible aright (and understood Hebrew) we should at
once discover that Col. Ingersoll was the "biggest card" they had had
yet.

You may not live until that to-morrow; I may not live until that
to-morrow; but it is as sure to come as it is certain that the old
tenets have yielded one by one before the irresistible march of an age
of intelligence and freedom, in which a priest or a Church can no longer
be judge, jury, and counsel.

Not long ago I heard two gentlemen--one a very devout Christian--talking
about what use the Church could make of Col. Ingersoll's teachings. One
said he was such a moral man, and always insisted so strongly upon right
action in this world, that it was a pity he did not have more faith. He
said, "What a power he would be in the Church! What a preacher he would
make! He would be a second St. Paul--I have been praying for years for
his conversion." "Well," said the other, "you needn't waste your time
any longer; softening of the brain doesn't run in Robert's family."

KNOWLEDGE NOT A CRIME.

Let man rid himself of the pernicious idea that knowledge is a crime,
and then let only the man who is afraid to enter the world o