The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 42
The Fruits
The Fruits.
Then the freethinker was introduced as a model gentleman; faithful to his wife and children, kind and true to all men; and yet the poor fellow has to be shut out of heaven simply because he could not agree with the narrow-mindedness and bigotry of the churches.
After this some delinquent disciple asks permission to pass into the realms of bliss. When strictly questioned he is found to be a liar, a thief and a bigamist, and a scoundrel on general principles; and yet he is permitted to enter through the pearly gates, simply because he believes that God made Adam and Eve. And all this senseless drivel is presented as being the veritable faith of the whole Christian world. This shows what an easy thing it is to make a creed for an opponent, and then condemn him for the foolish things you have made him affirm.
In this comparison, the best character among sceptics is opposed to the poorest character among believers. Suppose that some clergyman should deal with the subject in this way! Let him present the pious Knox or the God-fearing Wesley as samples of Christian life, and with them compare some lecherous scapegrace as the legitimate work of unbelief! Would they not everywhere raise the cry of unfairness? And yet these are real characters, while those of Mr. Ingersoll were purely imaginary. Believers have in their ranks multiplied thousands of the purest and noblest men on the earth. It is also true that infidelity represents hundreds of thousands very like the brutal Rand, whose soul was saturated with every vice, and whose very name had almost become a synonym for all the more fearful crimes known to the catalogue, who, when the crowd pressed upon the prison bars to look upon this caged lion, looked them undauntedly in the face and then, stretching himself to his full height, said, "I am a Bob Ingersoll man!"
We do not shrink from any comparison of systems, either by the use of reason or of fact. It is not possible that the influence of scepticism upon morals can be otherwise than injurious. The doctrine of materialism is the doctrine of individual irresponsibility. And when a man is made to believe that he will die like a beast, he will most likely live like one. If there is no future dependent upon the character formed here, then the wish of the hour will furnish the rule of life. Am I told that there are men and women of honor among infidels? I readily grant it. But their honor is in no way attributable to their infidelity. They are better than their philosophy, for it is without a redeeming feature.
He has the Christian doctrine of the atonement saving the murderer while it damns the murdered. We would not have known of the existence of any such a doctrine but for the gentleman's kindness. The atonement has made it possible for all men to be saved, while if any refuse they are left where their own sins have placed them.