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CHAPTER IX.

A PREACHER AND PROFESSOR.

A PREACHER IN THE CHURCH OF THE DISCIPLES. ESTIMATION OF HIS ABILITIES AMONG HIS OLD NEIGHBORS. -RISE OF INFIDELITY AT CHAGRIN FALLS.- SPIRITUALISM AND CHRISTIANITY. EXCITING PUBLIC DISCUSSION.- PROFESSOR DENTON VS. PROFESSOR GARFIELD. - HOW THE VICTORY WAS WON.— MR. GARFIELD'S POPULARITY AS A TEACHER.-TESTIMONY OF STUDENTS. MARRIAGE WITH MISS LUCRETIA RUDOLPH. -HIS SPEECH AT HIRAM.

ON his return home Mr. Garfield was received with great joy by all his friends. The founders and supporters of Hiram College had already laid their plans to engage him sooner or later as a teacher. While many of the congregations of the Disciples, to whom he had preached, had equally confident hopes of securing him for a permanent pastor. It is said

that he had not definitely marked out a course for himself, but told his friends that he should probably follow preaching as a profession. With a seeming view to that calling, he supplied many pulpits and attended many general meetings of his denomination. Among the people of the interior towns of Ohio it was considered a very great achievement to graduate from an Eastern college; and Mr. Garfield was at once received as a man of learning, and his ideas on theological questions were accepted by the

lay members at least, as the authoritative exposition of scriptural truth.

He had ever been a close reasoner, and an enthusiastic admirer of the Bible from his early academic days. In some places he was looked upon with that awe and respect with which they might receive a prophet. In fact, it is seldom the lot of any man, in Church or State, to receive such devoted and loving expressions as those which were given to Mr. Garfield throughout his ministerial work.

An incident, illustrating both his ready wit, and ability to cope with difficult questions in science, philosophy and religion, and the respect in which he was held by his denomination, occurred at Chagrin Falls, near his old home.

Professor Denton, somewhat noted for his adherence to spiritualism, gave a series of lectures at Chagrin Falls, and attempted to prove by scientific discoveries that the Bible could not be true.

In the course of his discussion he had been able to convince quite a number of people, and it began to be boldly asserted, on the streets and in the factories, that the Bible was only an ingenious fable.

Professor Denton was a critical scholar and had a very plausible way of stating his theories; and there was no one found to withstand his arguments. Ministers attacked him, but only with invectives, which did more harm than good. Teachers and public speakers often ridiculed him, but such things only avail against a shallow reasoner, or one manifestly unpopular. Professor Denton was gaining the think

ing men and women, and felt sure, as his adherents boasted "of shutting up the churches and abolishing the Bible from Chagrin Falls." It was one of those strange, almost unaccountable freaks of public opinion, and men were drawn into it who, all their lives, had been the most orthodox believers in the Holy Bible.

The Churches of the Disciples viewed the success of Professor Denton with the deepest dismay. The church at Chagrin Falls seemed in danger of annihilation, and the whole denomination viewed its tottering condition with great alarm. It happened that the noted professor had one weak point illustrating the truth of that Book he was endeavoring to overturn, wherein it says that "great men are not always wise." He had a habit of boasting; and one evening he went so far as to challenge any and every believer of the Bible in Ohio to refute his statements. He offered the use of the hall and ample time to any person who dared to undertake the task.

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At once, the listeners who adhered to the Bible thought of Mr. Garfield. They had heard him preach at Chagrin Falls and in the surrounding country towns, and they felt that if any man could cope with the learned professor, it would be he. They felt that some one must champion their cause or all would be lost. In a distress of mind not easily realized by people living in other portions of the religious world, these sincere and sorrowful Christians turned toward Mr. Garfield for help. At first he declined to meet the professor, thinking it unbe

coming a Christian man to debate such questions in a public hall. But the continued petition of his friends and the alarm of the churches, caused him at last to consent, and a committee of citizens was appointed to arrange for the public discussion.

It was a great day at Chagrin Falls, and one which will not soon be forgotten, when these two champions met in the arena of serious, earnest, religious debate. Mr. Garfield had never heard Professor Denton and was consequently supposed to be ignorant of just the position which the professor would take.

But Mr. Garfield had been too wise to risk a cause which he believed so holy, to the impulses and guesses of an impromptu speech; and, as soon as he knew that he was to meet the professor, he had taken steps to find out the arguments which the infidel used. Having ascertained privately that the professor was to lecture on the same topic in a distant part of the State before the date of the discussion, Mr. Garfield had sent a friend to hear these lectures, and write them out for his use.

Of course the professor knew nothing of this, and had no doubt of his ability to silence a man who had not made science a special study. When, however, Mr. Garfield had received the copies of the lectures, he had at once sent in various directions and procured the latest scientific books, together with those the professor had quoted as being against the Bible. He had also obtained learned opinions of distinguished

scholars, and, before the day of the discussion, was thoroughly armed with arguments and authorities.

When the hour came for the discussion, the hall was crowded to suffocation by an eager, and on the part of the Disciples, an almost breathless audience. But they did not lose faith in Mr. Garfield. They thought that if any one could overcome the learned professor, then they had secured the right man.

The professor, amid the smiles of his followers and with a perfect confidence in his ability, opened the debate with his statements of scientific facts and their bearing on the accounts of creation and the miracles in the Bible. The professor did not try to be precise and accurate in all his statements, for he was sure that Mr. Garfield would not attack him on scientific ground, and, when he stated any difficult question, he explained it very kindly in "simple language" for Mr. Garfield's better understanding. He repeated, however, almost verbatim, the lecture of which Mr. Garfield had a copy.

Mr. Garfield said nothing until his turn came, and, when he arose, it was apparent to all that the professor had predisposed the audience in favor of infidelity.

When, however, Mr. Garfield coolly and with readiness and knowledge which really astounded his hearers, took up the professor's arguments, one by one, and, quoting voluminously from books and history, using the professor's own authorities against him and piling up unanswerable names above them, there was such a sudden overturning as an earth

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