Show DECLINE IN RELIGION decoration day in new york was celebrated celebrate cl on a grand scale several of the chief national and state authorities honored the exercises with their presence the oration of the occasion was delivered by col robt G ingersoll whereat great indignation arose in certain quarters and a cry was raised as if the foundations of society were in danger of 0 f being shaken and 0 overthrown by the eloquence of the redoubtable skeptic from the text of the reputed speakers address however as published in full by the then N Y times it appears that there was no cause for the trepidation and tribulation of the pious shepherds of the par parochial ochial flocks for once in his life ingersoll kept himself confined to the subject and thia this was of such ouch a dignity gravity and solemnity that the irrepressible scoffer sooner refrained from uttering any of his wonted sarcasms of the faith and attacks on the hope of millions of believers only the name of the speaker will prevent the speech from being esteemed as one of the master efforts of patriotic gr oratory and preserved as az a fitting tribute to the dead and a stirring appeal to the living Never nevertheless the tile fact of the infidel ingersoll delivering tho the address on that holiday oliday li of the nation into which should enter the most deeply religious accepts the aspirations after a life beyond and crowns of glory liere hereafter after this fa fact et has ila a singular significance it portends the aseen dency of skepticism agnosticism cism and infidelity and the crumbling away of the buttresses old fait faith lip the N Y sun which opened its columns to correspondents on both sides of the question recognizes the ultimate meaning of the decoration day oration of the daring denier all divine demonstrations it says reviewing the conflicting views editorially it means mean in our judgment that there has been a general decline in religion that infidelity is spreading in the community that there is doubt and denial where there was faith falth before that there is scoffing now where reverence and adoration formerly prevailed if this process continues for fifty years the christians will form a very small minority of the people of tins this country but perhaps borne boine new manifestation of religious life may arise arise among ug u to arrest tho spread of infidelity infidel it Y wo lamont lament to sault say it but the churches seem to be almost powerless the editor of the great N new ew york daily notices the decay of the churches with wonder priests and ministers deplore it with sorrow aver over their vanishing stipends but to latter day saints the dissolution of the tile daughters of the mother of abominations is as natural a spectacle as the decay of dead sea apples or the downfall of a house built on the sand of the seashore sea shore by TELEGRAPH we get the following paragraph from a tribune editorial on the oregon election the probability is that the republicans public ans ane will have a majority in the legislature thus securing the republican successor to senator grover the democratic ex gov arnor of crobin notoriety it is made evident therefore that the extreme position which the democrats in congress took on the question of chinese immigration did not strengthen them on the pacific coast As usual they played the demagogue for nothing |