A Tribute to the Rev. Alexander Clark
Grave-side tribute.

by Robert G. Ingersoll
(1879)

From The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll (Dresden Edition, 1900–1902), Volume 12.
Source: https://thegreatagnostic.com/works/tribute-to-alexander-clark/
Public domain. CC0 / Public Domain Mark 1.0.

────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

A Tribute to the Rev. Alexander Clark

Washington, D. C. July 13, 1879.

UPON the grave of the Reverend Alexander Clark I wish to place one
flower. Utterly destitute of cold, dogmatic pride, that often passes for
the love of God; without the arrogance of the "elect;" simple, free, and
kind—this earnest man made me his friend by being mine. I forgot that
he was a Christian, and he seemed to forget that I was not, while each
remembered that the other was at least a man.

Frank, candid, and sincere, he practiced what he preached, and looked
with the holy eyes of charity upon the failings and mistakes of men. He
believed in the power of kindness, and spanned with divine sympathy the
hideous gulf that separates the fallen from the pure.

Giving freely to others the rights that he claimed for himself, it never
occurred to him that his God hated a brave and honest unbeliever. He
remembered that even an Infidel had rights that love respects; that
hatred has no saving power, and that in order to be a Christian it is
not necessary to become less than a human being. He knew that no one can
be maligned into kindness; that epithets cannot convince; that curses
are not arguments, and that the finger of scorn never points toward
heaven. With the generosity of an honest man, he accorded to all the
fullest liberty of thought, knowing, as he did, that in the realm of
mind a chain is but a curse.

For this man I felt the greatest possible regard. In spite of the taunts
and jeers of his brethren, he publicly proclaimed that he would treat
Infidels with fairness and respect; that he would endeavor to convince
them by argument and win them with love. He insisted that the God
he worshiped loved the well-being even of an Atheist. In this grand
position he stood almost alone. Tender, just, and loving where others
were harsh, vindictive, and cruel, he challenged the admiration of every
honest man. A few more such clergymen might drive calumny from the lips
of faith and render the pulpit worthy of esteem.

The heartiness and kindness with which this generous man treated me can
never be excelled. He admitted that I had not lost, and could not lose,
a single right by the expression of my honest thought. Neither did he
believe that a servant could win the respect of a generous master by
persecuting and maligning those whom the master would willingly forgive.

While this good man was living, his brethren blamed him for having
treated me with fairness. But, I trust, now that he has left the shore
touched by the mysterious sea that never yet has borne, on any wave, the
image of a homeward sail, this crime will be forgiven him by those who
still remain to preach the love of God.

His sympathies were not confined within the prison, of a creed, but ran
out and over the walls like vines, hiding the cruel rocks and rusted
bars with leaf and flower. He could not echo with his heart the fiendish
sentence of eternal fire. In spite of book and creed, he read "between
the lines" the words of tenderness and love, with promises for all the
world.. Above, beyond, the dogmas of his church—humane even to the
verge of heresy—causing some to doubt his love of God because he
failed to hate his unbelieving fellow-men, he labored for the welfare of
mankind and to his work gave up his life with all his heart.
