Bob Ingersoll in Heaven

INCERSOLILR LI J IN HEAVEN Plunking His Harp ongwith Enough to Plead With Rev BillyI Sunday on Earth to Let UpOn Preaching HellI 1 Christ Rode Upon an Ass but AE sesa Now Ride Upon Christ I Pontiac ILL March 14 190 6e Charles G Moore I i Dear SIre had Billy Sunday with j us last fall and ho just raised hellI after It had lain smouldering a long I time The enclosed will explain It I self Please publish It if you think it t worthy of space Respectfully RespectfullyJ J 3such Heaven March 14 1905 ITo the Good People of Pontiac Ill I I understand that you have ha ding In your midst a little ranting tall s 10machine in tho person of the Rev s wBilly Sunday who told some 2000 ofd you that I was in hell and that If I c Uwas not the Bible is not worth the l paper It is printed on While I was on earth I admitted n that there were many good and beau c flint passages in the Old and New fl Testament and that from the lips of Christ dropped many pearls of indothe of1ness ness and love Every verse that was n true and tender I treasured In my n heart I loved to read the following o passages from the Old Book and fi theyare worth far more to mankind P than the paper they are printed on n f Read these passages Mr Sun aye and ponder Judge not and ye snot shall be judged Condemn not and yenow shall not be condemned For giveNhen and ye shall be forgiven I used to read Luke with a g Batsays deal of pleasure when he said latbegin Christ upon the cross forgave I11sYou avecrimes murderers I could never bell Ivecrimes when Christ forgave the men latIng drove the nails into his hands Illslod feet that plunged a spear Into hish side the soldier that in the hour of death offered him in mockery bit an terness to drink that he forgave them wall freely I could never believe won bile to earth that when Christ forgave has such men ho would in the evening of its the 19th century damn me to eternal fire for condemning such par if the m 9 Bible as tho loVth Psalm Rndor ryJFt lug to take from the New Tej tamefll the infinite savagery the shore leas ci malevolence of eternal pain the ab pla surdity and ignorant belief in the doc pun trine of devils I accepted the rest as glorious With these things left out how every o erwatching book would shrink and shrivel w nThere 41compared with the Blblelen But with hell and the devil left ox out creeds would crumble and the men Rev Billy Sunday would have to goto back to ball playing for a livIngth I have said a thousand times Inth my lectures that only flowers should laid upon the tomb that in ill osthat last pillow there should be no tho taethese The doctrine of hell should never be and preached ever What right have you Mr Sund ayWhile to stand at the portals of the tomb do in the vestibule of eternity and fill I v the future with horror and with fear 7 thl I never believed that doctrine 1I er d r you If you did you would not was sleep one moment Any man who be chE balt lieves In it and has within his breast P ° l a decent throbbing heart would go P01 insane A man who believes that has doctrine and does not go Insane has terror the heart of a snake the conscience child of a hyena ror The Rev Billy Sunday preaches upon this doctrine I ask him Can the be such lievlug husband in heaven be happyI with his unbelieving wife in hell C 1Sunday the father in heaven be happy with gersoll his unbelieving children in hell C 1of I the loving wife in heaven be happy ringLook with her unbelieving husband In he 1Look He replies I tell you Yes such ble will be their sense of justice that it drink drinwill rather diminish their blissthaI There is no wild savage in all thisN thisf the reputation would not be tarnished by the expression of such aas I do trlnethat doetinoWhile on earth I regretted veryI pfl much that there were so many minis yond ters who seemed think siror I to it was their duty to malign me because I denied where their creeds But I made the wor IdJudge better I the thinkin cast got pulpit to thinking I taught that love is the only bow onI I lifes dark cloud that it is the mornerty ing and the evening star that shines France upon the child in the cradle and sheds bold isy blessed Without that sacred passion th atBradlaugh divine boon we are less than beasts others but with it earth is heaven and wea lot are gods That is as good as theWI Psalmlight The schoolhouse is my cathedral that If I rob Mr Smith and get forgiveness from by my repentance how does that help but n Mr Smith If I ruin a trusting g1 rlToo and she I ends her life In a low dive give the I may join the church and go to heaven > mvI cn she to hell Wives weary and worn mothers mothersN Treat your wife with infinite kindness and she will strew your path yourf souls with perfect June I have always condemned divorce and polygamy The home where vIrtue dwells with love is like a lily vlthan a heart of fire the fairest in all the theour world Keep your word with yourIn child the same as with your ban kerfIn The blow that you strike your child leaves a scar upon the soul To do justice defend the right to be a hellstrength to the weak a shield for thIn defenceless to raise the fallen to toI keep pace between neighbors and na tlons this is worship I should not want to assume any such knowledge concerning any soulHer as the Rev Billy Sunday assn 11 concerning mine I should feel a little hesitancy in seating myself on Gods throne in such a fashion I know that Mr Sun day means well but the men who nail ncant ed our Lord to the cross also meant wellWhen When people broke away from ig norance through fear of hell lenAnd came the child of intelligence that filled the world with light Dont go back keep your face to the East The children of today are more intelligent noble of heart and more shapely and fair showing oreRead of the married harmony of form and function than any in the ages w lenAnd people were the prey of priests and ministers and king the fool of sup SUPIay Mr Sunday says the people are now a reeking mass of rottenness sopts When a man begins to call people old bucks and hypocrites and says they are fast going to hell I begin to doubt that man You have more charity and fewer crimes in the world today consider Ing Its number than at any other per lod of its history and there is less hell taught also Well Christ didnt condemn me for honest thought but I am too busy with my harp to pay much attention the Rev Billy Sunday because he taken himself outside of all llm of a gentleman He traduces American men and 0A men in the language of the beasti istAnd It t have ever listened to and any ho will do that is an unaa Via ciatlvo barbarian Where did this 1 plagiarist get the doctrine of eternal punishment punishmentIt It was born in the eyes of ana esSayl snakes that hung in fearful coilsJ watching for their prey callanv There is no God in the serene heav J that will damn his children for the expression of an honest doubt More have died in their sins according the creeds of the orthodox than there are leaves in all the forests of world S Tell me that these men are In hells these men are in torment that these children are in eternal pain and M sadfor that they are to be punished forever and foreverl f While on earth I denounced this doctrine as the most infamous of lies was right but the Rev Bill Sunday thinks I am in hell despised that doctrine while I 0 on earth because It covered thee cheeks of the world with tears It In polluted the hearts of children and poisoned the imagination of men Itt been a constant pain a perpetual to every good man woman ando It has filled the good with horror and with fear but it has no effect Ai the base who in delight say and such a man is in hell j Did not the statement by the Rev Sunday on Sabbath evening that In Ti was in hell wring the hearts all the tender In the large gather In TIble Institutions etc I admit that y 1Call more than you ought to 1I BI drinking is becoming more unpopular at any other age minister with brains preaches AI infamous doctrine of hell I died lived Proudly I entered the dawn W you call death Unshrinkingly passed the twilight purple hills be Vet the reach of an exhorters harm help to the vast realms of joy And I dwell with Christ who said not you who are without sin the first stone Big am with Paine the apostle of liberty with Voltaire who humanized So with Hume and with Hum J who lifted Germany into the E light with Darwin Volney i Bradlaugh Emerson and thousands of who were sentenced to hell by Then of two by four ministers < When ministers stand up before en ened audiences and tell them Eve I am in hell I think of the lines Hume Christ rode on an ass So now asses ride on Christ bad too bad but God will for them and so will L I shall be Lo first Mr Sunday to take your E mvIhand I withwith In lidAs deNot tA laThe 0 Ive And But We Had And And A A A And IsUpon alWhen Say lIsMust Not a Well Adam Truth You Then Call But And Where g Yet Birdie For Sol