Image provided by: Silverton Country Historical Society; Silverton, OR
About Torch of reason. (Silverton, Oregon) 1896-1903 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 28, 1897)
THE TORCH OE REASON, SILVERTON, OREGON, H I I'RSI) AY, JAN CARY 28, 1887. Torch of Reason U N I V E R S A L M E N T A L L IB ERTY, • 4 ' ’***•>.*• J*» *•*.•*-' 4M -.«e □ N E W ORLD A T A 7 1 o / t , ■ if' The Only Secular Paper Published on the Pacific Coast. Published Weekly by the Oregon State Secular Union. J . E. H 0 8 M E R ....................... E d ito r. P. W . G E E R - - - B u sin e ss M a n a g e r. E ntered at the postoffiee at Silverton, Oregon, as second class m ail m atter. 8 U B 8 C R IP I1 O N H A TES. One Year, in advance.......... «) Hix Month«, in advance...................................... 50 T hree M onths, in a d v a n c e ..... ................. 25 (n Clubs of 5 or m ore one year, in «dvance. . 75 Money should he sent by registered le tte r or m oney order. Please send us the nam es and ad tresses of Sec u larists who are n ot regular m b sc rib e rs. THURSDAY . . JANUARY 28, E. M. 297 Our W orst Enem ies. The cause of h u m an ity has al ways had a great deal to combat and in our work of establishing the Liberal U niversity we do not ex pect to he an exception. The worst enemies however will not be from the r a n k s of orthodoxy, hut will come from those profess ing to love our cause, who will en deavor to use us for th eir own per sonal schemes. Enem ies ofthis kind who are skilled in deceit, having practiced it for years, are the worst enemies of all, for the very n atu re of our work requires friends in whom we must trust, and workers being few’, we are alw ays ready to accept help from one who professes to love our work, and then wliat a shock it is to find th a t we have again been deceived; but w’e will not lose faith in hum anit y for we know th a t under the conditions th at we are trying to bring about, ‘‘M an’s in h u m anity to m a n ” will not exist and so we’ll push for ward and h«»pe th at others m ay see our light ami come to our assist ance. Help us to hold the T orch oe R eason aloft now while w’e need your help and when our work is fully established it can easily with- stan d the attacks of traito rs from w ithin and the enemies from w ith out. W hat Is ’Your M otive. It is said th a t Joseph S m ith ’s reason for introducing polygam y into the Mormon church was th a t he had several wives and by so doing h e would justify his own actions. Now’, whether this is true or not, we know th a t m any have very poor motives for their work, and th at in our ranks as well in Christian churches some people work v ery hard but with motives not to l»e com m ended, for if ones motives are poor his work is sure to he de fective ami sooner or later it will fall for want of a tru e and lasting incentive. Our idea is th a t the motive which should inspire every VS ■ «.J.' 5 ji his fellow’ men. We should not endeavor to tear down the works of others just because their ideas differ from ours n<>r because they eail us had names hut because we w ant to do good and because in order to get our brothers ami sis ters on the right track we m ust show them the folly of treading the old trodden p ath s of error. Secularists let us see to it th a t our motives are pure and reason able 'and our work will prosper as it never has before. S alvation . The theories of im m ortality are not worth wasting our tim e on and they sink into insignificance when we think that there is so much to be done to help along the grand work of solving th e great problems of our present condition which is so im portant and essential to the ad vancem ent of our race. W hy, this story of im m ortality, is like telling a child a fairy tale when t he poor little creature is starving for the want of a crust. When we look around us and see the m iserable condition of thousands who lack nourishm ent for their bodies and m inds we feel like preaching a sal vation for this e a rth —a salvation th at w’ill not he lim ited to individ uals hut will save the whole hum an family. Can theology do this? No, a thousand tim es no. W hat can save us then? A developm ent to a higher appreciation of our pow ers and privileges through the teachings of secularism . Concentrate. It is a well known fact th a t in order to accom plish any reform, it m ust he done by organized work, and the reason th at Secular ists have not accom plished nm ie is th at we have not been well organ ized. O ur real earnest workers are scattered and it is very much to the interest of onr enemies to keep us scattered; but now we have a good opportunity to concentrate our forces and build up such an organi zation as will be the m eans of com pletely putting to route the hosts of superstition. Let us decide at once to concen trate. W here shall we m uster our forces? At Silverton, for we have a goodly num ber here who have enlisted for life, and no better place can he found in the world. Old veterans and young recruits come on, and we’ll build up an arm y th at will conquer the whole world and issue the greatest em an cipation proclam ation that m an kind has ever known. Let Abuse Cease. All our lives we have heard infi dels called had nam es, and infidels and skeptic« both dead and living are the subjects of ridicule and of all Christian lite ratu re is in m any parts perfectly filthy and scarcely fit for people to read. No we will not burn your books dear eh ristian friends hut you have nit r i g h t to horn. ni,r< . pud when you do, you are as bad as the Jew s w hocrucified your Messiah, and the wretched mob that burned Bruno for teaching th at the earth moves. We believe that it is best for p* ople to exam ine both sides of every im p o rtan t question and Christian literatu re is welcome in our free reading room at Silver- ton; in fact we not only have the bil>le in our library, hut ehristian papers m ay he found o n our tables. No one but a coward is afraid to exam ine both sides. pulpits and religious papers today. Now isn ’t this true? And isn’t it true th a t secular lecturers and p a p e rs have just as much right to call orthodox preachers fools and liars and make tun o f them as they have of us; hut my b ro th er, does this kind of work pay? How wouhl it do to stop calling nam es and see wno can produce the best reason for his m odus o p ira n d i? ()urreason fo rdiseardingthe worship of yourgods, and for w orking for one world at a tim e is v eiy easy V to •* com prehend. We th in k th a t our Our B est Friends. valuable time is all needed in working for h u m an ity and th a t we There have b‘*en, in all ages, a can best do th is by bringing about few men who have not been afraid a union of all good men in the sec to step out alone and advocate their ular w’ork. Now’ this can only be views and it seems th a t the higher done by showing that creeds are these men could hold the banner of very u n im p o rtan t com pared with their principles, the better it suited the earth ly salvation of our race. them. No m atter w hether kings or “ One world at a tim e” is our motto. priests approved, no m atter if they Now’ friends, who still cling to some w’ere im prisoned, scouraged or old m usty creed, we believe it is burned a t the stake; they could not your d u ty to let go, and put in be silenced u n til death took away your tim e w orking W illi us to m ake th eir power of thought and speech. this world what it ought to he. O, how the world applauds such Can you give any good reason for men after th ey are dead, hut this not leaving the gods, if there are age has its share of heroes and th e y any, to take care of their own busi- are today the friends of liberty who ness and for n< t p u ttin g in w hat boldly stand alone, if need be, and lime you can spare from your in contem pt of the sneers of hypo struggle for existence, in bringing crites and hirelings dare to lift a b o u t a union of all liberty-loving, aloft, for all to read, th eir declara hum anity-loving w orshippers of tion of independence. good, and help to save the world Only a, few m en a to n e tim e ad- for the sake of poor, suffering, vocated the principles now u n i down-trodden hum anity? versally accepted, and so it is in Now, if our ideas are wrong don’t this age; only] a few dare boldly, abuse us, hut show us where we are ! and on all occasions, proudly show at fault and if you th in k we are their colors. These are the ones right, come w’ith us. We need w’ho will make the pattern for com help and your help m ay he just ing generations however, and while what is needed to turn the scales in the silent, two-faced hum an hyenas fav«»r of justice an d right. are stealthily and "craftily picking at dead m en 's bom s, they, the best, Fire and Dead L aw s. the only true friends of h u m an ity , We see from one of our exchanges are tearing away the rubbish of de th at the m anagem ent of a free cayed dogm as and building a foun reading-room in Snom ish, Wash., dation on which com ing genera burns all Free!bought literatu re tions m av erect a ’ more beautiful th at is brought in, and from the civilization—a civilization in which Oregonian we learn th a t the mem the real and im ag in ary hell will bers of a large audience in one of have vanished and a real heaven the cities of M aryland were ordered enjoyed here, which w ill fit men to arrested for holding a m eeting on enjoy an y good th a t m ay come Sunday, because it is against the hereafter. law in th at sta te to hold meetings Rev. H astings R andall, Hertford on Sundays th at are not religious; and yet some people think there is college, Oxford, says in th e In te r national Jo u rn a l of E thics th a t ‘‘it no <1 anger. is quite easy to show th a t at the If our ideas are to he burned and present day there are few’ clergy we are to lx' arrested for meeting men whose p riv ate belief corres on S unday in these U nited States ponds with the letter of the formula* where is our liberty? Suppose we to which they profess adhesion.’’ He says th a t there is a wide differ should take a notion to burn all ence between the belief of men and ehristian hooks and papers. We the creeds they profess, h e claim s have ju*-t as m uch right to as th a t ‘ if anybody supposes th a t the C hristians have to burn ours and articles of the church of E n g lan d perhaps more for our literatu re is really express the actual views of the clergy, he m ust he singularly clean an d m oral while the l»ook inobservant of th eir pulpit and which is considered the foundation other utterances.”