{
  "schema": "tga.work.v1",
  "identifier": "dresden:vol-12:tribute-to-alexander-clark",
  "slug": "tribute-to-alexander-clark",
  "title": "A Tribute to the Rev. Alexander Clark",
  "subtitle": "Grave-side tribute.",
  "excerpt": "Tribute at the grave of the Reverend Alexander Clark.",
  "year": 1879,
  "volume": 12,
  "category": "Tribute",
  "author": {
    "name": "Robert G. Ingersoll",
    "wikidata": "Q360326",
    "viaf": "44331023"
  },
  "isPartOf": {
    "title": "The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll",
    "edition": "Dresden Edition",
    "publisher": "C. P. Farrell",
    "year": 1900
  },
  "license": "https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/",
  "url": "https://thegreatagnostic.com/works/tribute-to-alexander-clark/",
  "wordCount": 599,
  "body": "A Tribute to the Rev. Alexander Clark\n\nWashington, D. C. July 13, 1879.\n\nUPON the grave of the Reverend Alexander Clark I wish to place one\nflower. Utterly destitute of cold, dogmatic pride, that often passes for\nthe love of God; without the arrogance of the \"elect;\" simple, free, and\nkind—this earnest man made me his friend by being mine. I forgot that\nhe was a Christian, and he seemed to forget that I was not, while each\nremembered that the other was at least a man.\n\nFrank, candid, and sincere, he practiced what he preached, and looked\nwith the holy eyes of charity upon the failings and mistakes of men. He\nbelieved in the power of kindness, and spanned with divine sympathy the\nhideous gulf that separates the fallen from the pure.\n\nGiving freely to others the rights that he claimed for himself, it never\noccurred to him that his God hated a brave and honest unbeliever. He\nremembered that even an Infidel had rights that love respects; that\nhatred has no saving power, and that in order to be a Christian it is\nnot necessary to become less than a human being. He knew that no one can\nbe maligned into kindness; that epithets cannot convince; that curses\nare not arguments, and that the finger of scorn never points toward\nheaven. With the generosity of an honest man, he accorded to all the\nfullest liberty of thought, knowing, as he did, that in the realm of\nmind a chain is but a curse.\n\nFor this man I felt the greatest possible regard. In spite of the taunts\nand jeers of his brethren, he publicly proclaimed that he would treat\nInfidels with fairness and respect; that he would endeavor to convince\nthem by argument and win them with love. He insisted that the God\nhe worshiped loved the well-being even of an Atheist. In this grand\nposition he stood almost alone. Tender, just, and loving where others\nwere harsh, vindictive, and cruel, he challenged the admiration of every\nhonest man. A few more such clergymen might drive calumny from the lips\nof faith and render the pulpit worthy of esteem.\n\nThe heartiness and kindness with which this generous man treated me can\nnever be excelled. He admitted that I had not lost, and could not lose,\na single right by the expression of my honest thought. Neither did he\nbelieve that a servant could win the respect of a generous master by\npersecuting and maligning those whom the master would willingly forgive.\n\nWhile this good man was living, his brethren blamed him for having\ntreated me with fairness. But, I trust, now that he has left the shore\ntouched by the mysterious sea that never yet has borne, on any wave, the\nimage of a homeward sail, this crime will be forgiven him by those who\nstill remain to preach the love of God.\n\nHis sympathies were not confined within the prison, of a creed, but ran\nout and over the walls like vines, hiding the cruel rocks and rusted\nbars with leaf and flower. He could not echo with his heart the fiendish\nsentence of eternal fire. In spite of book and creed, he read \"between\nthe lines\" the words of tenderness and love, with promises for all the\nworld.. Above, beyond, the dogmas of his church—humane even to the\nverge of heresy—causing some to doubt his love of God because he\nfailed to hate his unbelieving fellow-men, he labored for the welfare of\nmankind and to his work gave up his life with all his heart.\n"
}