great joy and peace and happiness. Suppose a man should come to town
who is as lean as a skeleton and is slowly dying because he is not
getting enough nourishment out of the food he eats, and should begin
to lecture well-nourished and healthy people for eating the food they
are eating. Would we not put him down as a fool? Well, if he would
add the claim that we are well fed because we are ignorant and
deluded, while he is suffering and dying because he knows too much on
the food question, he would be on a par with many of our infidelic
friends.

It is said that Beecher and Ingersoll were both present at a banquet
in New York City. Ingersoll brought a railing accusation against
Christianity. Everybody expected Beecher to reply, but he held his
peace until later in the evening, when it became his turn to speak.
When Beecher arose he said: "When I came to this hall to-night I saw
an old, crippled woman wending her way across the crowded street on
crutches. When she had reached about midway, a burly ruffian came
along and knocked the crutches out from under her, and she fell
splash into the mud." Turning to Ingersoll, he said, "What do you
think of that, Colonel?" "The villain!" replied Ingersoll. Beecher,
pointing to Ingersoll, said: "Thou art the man! Suffering, heart-
broken, dying humanity is wending its way through this world of
sorrow and turmoil on the crutches of Christianity. You, sir, come
along and knock them out from under them, but offer nothing in their
place." It was a crushing blow to Ingersoll and his gospel of
despair.

We do not understand how spirit and matter can be inter-related, and
we can not conceive that our willing it can move our arm; but this
does not deter us from moving, because we know through experience