THE TORCH OF REASON, SILVERTON, OREGON, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 2 4 ,
Jesus of Nazareth.
1896.
quently en joys, viz., that of lying killed in the procès, of the awal-l«».
purchase m uch needed
Hlock aml m aterial. Fifty cents
*s uot much, but if a thousand per-
sons would pay th a t much apiece
would place the Oregon S tate
S ecular Union in a position to do
a ercat deal of good and it will
a h ard -h ip on anyone.
An organization worth belonging
t o entitled to financial support
Please think this over and send
your dues to Jo siah Kem p, Sec’y.
Room 10, C am bridge Bl’k. P o rtlan d
Oregon, and he will send you a cer
tificate of m em bership.
about a person to their face when lowiug and th a t he could not, any-
In giving the tim e o f th e birth of they ca n ’t talk back. A nd the how, have lived three days in such
Jesus. and the account of H erod conditiotis and surroundings are d o se quarters, but would have been
c a u s in g a ll the l it t le children to be such th a t the dead person’» friends sm othered hy poor ventilation. Now
killed on account of him, there is a cannot well «lefen.l him either. the gO(Ml C hristiana im m ediately
m arked discrepancy. Luke says he j I have seen very m uch of thia.
go to work, and try to explain th e
was lntro ’n t h e tim e of (>yrer»tus,
............
1 . h a v e i n y M
uiviai p r e p a r e d ¡01 whole thing by n atu ra l ,awa, ao as
when A ugustus C a sa r m ade the iu this resj»ect, if only a suitable t o p lease the R ationalists, and aay
order th a t all the people should lie person is called to execute it.
th a t the whale is an air breathing
taxed. Now C yrenius succeeded
F. S. M atteson .
flsp. th a t every little while it
Archelaus, who reigned 10 years
comes to the surface; and th a t the
From Vale.
after the death of Herod. Here is a
whale that swallowed Jo n ah did
contradition th a t cannot be ex
V ale , O k ., Dec. 14, E. M. 296.— the same thing, and th u s got a sup-
plained away. The alm ost exact day
To the Editor:
T hinking th a t a ply for itself and the prophet,
of H erod’s death is known as shown
Y o n r ’s T r u l y ,
letter from this p art of the country W hy not ra th e r say th a t God can
by .Josephus, who says on the night
P. W. G eer , President.
would be welcome, I thought I do an y th in g — and he could take
preceding the death of Herod there
S ecu lar N ew s.
would try and write one.
Jonah through the w hale’s throat,
was an eclipse of the moon. In cal
At a recent election ot the M. C. although the w hale’s th ro at would
O ur business m an ag er was in Salem
culating to the tim e of this eclipse,
S. U., the following < fficers were not have been h alf large enough, th is week.
it is found to have occured on the elected: M. Johnson, president; R. ordinarily t" let him pass, and
Do not forget th a t th e L iberal U n iv er
4th of M arch, 4 years before C hrist, O. V\ ieklund, vice-president; Edwin could have kept him alive in the sity opens J a n u a ry 6 th .
another perplexing discrepancy.
Miss Olds and our p rin te r M r. Coolidge
Johnson, secretary; Chas. G under- whale five years w ithout any air,
M atthew says C hrist was born in
son, treasurer, and Lillian Johnson, jf He had chosen to. W ho m ade will visit th e ir hom es a t M cM innville
C h ristm as.
the days of Herod, and John says
this whale? G<»d.
W ho m ade
librarian.
As o u r work liegins to p rosper th ere
it was in the days of Cyrenius, 14
Times are very hard here at pres- Jonah? God. Then he could do
are m any false sta te m e n ts m ade ab o u t
years afterw ard.
Again; Mark
e n i, and it is very hard to do any- an y th in g he pleased with either of us. D on’t beleive e v ery th in g you h ear,
an d Luke say Jesus began to be 30
tiling financially, but we will try them .
but investigate for yourself.
years of age in the 15th year of the
to keep our Union together and do
The al>ove is from T. D eW itt
Prof. C harles H . C h a p m a n , p resident
reign of Tiberius. • Now, the very
T
alm
ag
e’s
o
w
n
p
en
a
m
i
it
is
su
r-
of
tb s U n iv ersity of O regon, will deliver
what we can and perhaps tim es
d ay of T iberius’ accession is known,
p r is in g w h a t l i t t l e s e n s e a m a n of a lectu re on e d u c a tio n a l L ib eral H all
will brighten up after a while.
an d by counting back, we find
, .
..
,
.
,
i ....
som etim e d u rin g th e m o n th of Ja n u a ry ,
As the members of the union are his standing and n atural ability,
b
.
1 O ur devil, M r. F ra n k Forw ard, is
Jesus must have been born 4 years
.
.
.
living som ewhat scattered, we can exhibits when it comes to the re-1 .
I visiting friends in Salem an d vacinitv
before the C hristian era, and dis
uot meet as often as we would like ligious q u e stio n ,
le n
th o u s a m
weej< C o m eb a ck devil we c a n ’t
a g re e in g entirely with the statem ent
to, hut we have arranged to have souls to p e rd itio n indeed; d o e sn ’t ru n an infidel p ap er very long w ithout
of Mathew, a bad present m en', in
our regular union m e e tin g s in the
know th a t the old idea of per- y o u r help.
deed for divine historians. Can
A reverend divine visited o u r Sunday
eveuings of the first and ihird Sat- dition has been exploded long ago?
I»oth of these
statem ents
be
school
last Sunday an d he was so fav-
urday of each m onth. We have Yes, the poor victim s are trying to
true? Is not such history very also organized a Secular Sunday t>e Christians and si ill retain a little 1 o rab ly im pressed w ith o u r work th a t he
im m ed iately com m enced tellin g false
unreliable and incredible9 Is it not
school to meet at 10 o’clock on the common sense. There is hope; hoods ab o u t us.
an uncertain foundation upon which
second and fourth Sundays of each people are beginning to use their
On account of m uch work we will not
to base the salvation and eternal
m onth. Our Sunday school has reason a little.
be able to get th e new q u a rte rlies out
happiness of the world? In view of
on
tim e, b u t S unday schools will he
m et twice, and tlie members are all
‘‘W hy not ra th e r say that God
all the difficulties and discrepancies
well pleased with it, and very much can do anything?” I f there is a supplied w ith lesson leaves u n til th e
of the story, it can be appreciated
q u a rte rlie s are ready.
in earnest; hut of course we are all Qod th a t can do anything, it does
why the learned Mosheim, an em
Mrs H o sm e r’s work in th e public-
unexperienced and any inform a- |H,t prove th a t he did cause the school closes to day. She has been p a id
in en t C hristian writer, should de
tion or advice r< gui ding the con- whale to swallow Jo n a h . It does the h ig h est co m p lim en t a teach er can
clare th a t “ the Apostolic history is
ducting of it would he gratefully not prove th a t this is not ju st an receive and th a t is th e offer of h e r pos
loaded with doubts, fables, anddiffi-
old invth
received.
* and we believe th a t Mr ition n e x t term , b u t we can not get along
ulties,” and th at the num erous pre
E verybody th a t secs the T orch . . T.
knows ~ ----
th a t —
he is try in g to de- w ith o u t h er work in th e U niversity.
--
. ----
tended histories which were current
T he revivalist sang a very touching
seems well pleased with it, and as ceive the people^ “ \V ho m ade this
in the early centuries, were filled
little song in closing his C h ristia n e x
for myself, I was agreeably sur- ; W hale? G od.” D o \ ou think that e r c is e s a t th e “ C am el” ch u rch last Sat-
with “ pious frauds and fabulous
prised to see a paper of th at size a real honest m an would tell such urd ay evening. T he song will long l>e
wonders.” __
H. D. B urrows .
and price, and think the c o n te n ts a thing as a fact? Now D eW ittie tre a su red in th e h e a rts of th e people of
H arriages and Funerals.
are all th at could be wished, and yoU don’t know these things, do th is place. It was e n title d ; “ P u p p a ,
Iz ’e Lootin out for o o .”
T h e article on m arriages and you m ay lie sure th a t every word -you? A in’t you ju st trying to fool
T hese are very busy tim es in Silver-
us poor ignorant N antucket fisher-
funerals of last week suggests the is read and appreciated here.
to n . C h ristm as e n te rta in m e n ts ,—pres
T h a t the T orch of R ea ’ son may m en?
need of notaries public being au th o r
e n ts for c h ild re n ,—T orch ok R eason ,—
live
long
and
th
a
t
its
light
m
ay
ized to “ solem nize” (?) no, perforin
L ittle C an d le,—D esks, p a rtitio n s, b lack ;
Pay Your Dues!
help
to
dispel
the
m
yths
of
super
boards, book-case etc., for th e U n iv er
m arriage ceremonies. Notaries are
sity
. E verybody is an xious to do th e ir
At the 7th, an n u a l convention
usually persons of fair intelligence, stition is the wish of the M. C.
p a rt how ever and m any h an d s m ak e
ergo, not very religious and usually S. U. Yours for tru th and jus- of the Oregon S tate Secular Union, light w ork.
J. E. J ohnson .
at P ortland Oregon Sept. 20, 21,
have an eye out for business. And tice.
W e received a very encouraging letter
Sec’y. M. C. S. U. and 22, 1895, the by-law s were
they are as liable to tie around
from M r. B. F. U nderw ood th is week,
am ended to read as follows: “ All and a lth o u g h som e of us have not had
handy as preachers.
N otaries
The W hale /Again.
contributing m em bers of Secular th e plersu re of m eeting him , we are
don’t depend on the preachers for
Anew the old question is b e in g churches are by th a t m em bership sure th a t he is o u r friend and hope to
th eir positions nor continuance
...
• n ah . constituted
_
4...I . members
. . . of . the
. Z
k C
livt» to
-n hpjp
i« vnir*«>
n d «trust!
i«
h e ar L
his
voice a and
g rasp h his
Was Jo
O.
S. Q
S. live
th erein . Being appointed by the rigorously asked.
h an d . M r. U nderw ood will lx* a regu
Last V. All persons not m em bers of
governor, it is a m atter of business swallowed by a w hale?”
lar c o n trib u to r to th e T orch of R eason .
liecomes
only- T here being no politics, week a t the revival m eetings in Secular churches can
I t seem s to lie a disgrace for an infi
New
Y
ork
the
question
was
re-
m
em
bers
of
the
O.
S.
S.
U
.
upon
or religion in it, no “ pull ’ is re
del to die, b u t som e people enjoy a b u s
vived.
There
never
were
so
many
paym
ent
of
50
cents
a
year
in
ad-
ing dead m en so m uch th a t it would be
quired; only reasonable business
after one vance, beginning with J a n u a ry a sham e to d eprive th em of th e privil-
capacity. Hence they are very N antucket fishermen
edge. (io on beloved b re th re n . D on’t
su itable to do the m arrying b i i s i i n ss whale as there has been rational- 1»L 1896
By this it will lie seen th at we Ixither to find o u t th e facts in th e case
as well as to make deeds, m ort ists Hinging harpoons a t this Medi-
h u t ju st tell a n y th in g th a t h ap p en s to
terranean
from have
over a thousand members . of come in to y o u r b rain s. " T h e dead
w tx»u«n*i sea-m onster; - and
..............
-
gages etc.
As to th e funerals, F reethinkers th a t one whale they have got Die O re g o n State Secular I nion know n o t a n y th in g ” (E cles 9:5) and so
hy providing a little ahead tor enough oil to light ten thousand who owe dues am ounting to fifty you are safe and “ being crafty*” you
such events, may often cheat the souls to perdition. A sceptic tells cents each, which if paid, would en- can catch m any j>eople “ w ith g u ile.”
12 :lo.j
preacher out of a pleasure he fre- you th a t Jonah would have been able us to pay for our p rin tin g out-