«
T orch
VOL. 1.
of
R eason .
SILVERTON, OREGON, THURSDAY, MARCH 4, 189;
NO. 18.
ion all come from the filial relation; regarding which mankind are
1. For all the normal and hy-
and these natural instincts of the wholly in the dark are mystical, genic wants of humanity the sup­
‘Tis well to look along the past,
human mind are ahnorma lly because we do not know the laws ply is always at hand. All essen­
To mark the progress of the right;
crystallized into faith in mysticism by which they are evolved. Hence, tial is instinctive, anil no know­
To feel th> deep and earnest strife
All we know of they are not so much to science as ledge absolutely beyond our sphere
That shook the thrones of ancient and fanaticism.
virtue—goodness,justice, and truth the fall of a meteor from the heavens. can he necessary for man’s highest
might;
—comes from the relations of life, Christianity and modern medium- good.
To see each bold reformer’s fall,
And hear each burning word of truth, and is in no sense dependent upon ship are both alike based upon
2. The ‘learnings” referred to
Which fell like lightning from the skies, Christianity.
faith in this class of phenomena. by Carlyle are factitious, and they
To fire the heart of age and youth.
Science is classified ideas that This faith is defined in Heh. xi. i. are created by dogmatism, by
’Tis well to call again to mind
recognize all the factors. “Science It is the “evidence” that each superstitious appeals made to hu­
The names of those immortal few’
is trained and organized common mind creates for itself “of things man credulity, ignorance, and fear!
Who reared the banners of reform.
And fought with courage, strong and sense.”—Professor Huxley. “Sci- unseen.” And hence it is that uo And nothing more is required of
ence may l>e called an extension of Christian or spiritualist, under the physical science than to show, as it
true;
Who formed the vanguard of the race, the perceptions by the means of control of this self-induced faith, has done effectually, that all such
And led the armies of the blest,
reasoning.”—Herbert Spencer. It can believe in the law of self-induc­ fear and “yearnings” are unneces­
Though far behind they hear their tread, was of physical science that Professor tion. Always and everywhere, as sary, and result in no permanent
As still their columns onward pressed.
Tyndall was speaking when he the mind is more or less under the good.
‘Tis well to count each upward step
said that, “Inasmuch as evolution control of faith in the unknown, it
3. Modern spiritualism and
From Error s dark and fearful reign; is in its hypothetical stage, the ban ignores science and faith in hu­
Christianity heal no w'ounds which
To see the giant sweep of thoughts,
of seclusion ought to fall upon this manity; and this is the reason why, these isms of the unknown have
On Reason’s high, exalted plain;
theory.” Christianity would col­ as Professor Tyndall says, the not inflicted upon the human mind.
To feel the deep and tidal wave,
lapse and fall to the ground like “waves of science beat in vain“ I'he invisible nondescripts know
Which rolls along the human sea,
That bears upon its crested front
the rent balloon were its leading against the “spell” by which the nothing of us, except what they are
The hopes of nations yet to be.
theologians to assume and maintain faith, in exciting this law of self- able to learn by contact with hu­
a similiar position in regard to all induction, thus victimizes the hu­ man “mediums.” And what of a
To hear the music of the beat,
From out the ceaseless whirl of life,
that is merely hypothetical in that man mind. How powerful this nondescript deity that saves us from
Which tells a brother’s manly heart
theory of the unknown. Indeed, “spell,”—this same “christian faith” no evil that his omniscence 1 ^
Is battling on amid the strife;
take all that we know to be human, --often becomes is shown in the not already got us into?
It tires the crimsoned, rushing flood,
Jesus declared of himself, truly,
That sweeps through artery, heart and all human ideas, fron “modern cases of children who have been
Spiritualism” and Christianity, killed by Christian parents in when he told his followers that
vein;
It snaps the trembling links of fear,
and nothing whatever would he left! America: one by Freeman and his he had no power to work miracles
And makes a man himself again.
But since physical science made its wife, in Pocasset, Mass.; three by except that with which he was in­
—Selected.
“new departure,” a few years since, Hemmell, a German, in Chicopee, vested by their “faith.” And in
in substituting experiment for Mass.; and one by Mrs. E. Deering, Hebrew’s xi. 6, a similar statement
Science.
theory, no mere hypothetical law September 30, 1879, in Erie, Pa. is made of the Christian God.
in the order of nature can he ad­ These parents, whose hands are
“It is not true that “prayer be­
Aspiration iscommonto human­ mitted to the sum total of know­ now dripping with the blood of longs to the childhood of the race;”
ity, and is as old as the race, while ledge, till it has been proved by their murdered children, were not nor is it true that it belongs “more
the Christian idea of prayer is of actual experiment. A law thus insane; they were each of them good tomanhood.” To mature manhood
recent date. It may result in proved accounts for the phenom­ Christians, and as pious as the Pope, it appertains to understand more
prayer, but it is a misuse of terms ena, and thus it is that science be­ or any bishop, or any Christian of the laws of Nature and the con­
to use the words interchangeably, comes an authority from which now living. Yet these parents, stitution of things, and to find our
as if they meant one and the same there can be no appeal.
when lifting their weapons of death highest aspirations gratified in
And when the immortal Fara­ in the act of murder, had “faith,” their harmonious fulfillment, while
thing. The Christian definition of
prayer is a petition addressed to day declared that the conservation even “the faith of Abraham in God;” we understand how it is in respect
one’s idea of an infinite, invisible and the correlation of all forms of but, plainly enough, they had no to prayer.
personage. And the answer to force was the greatest discovery in faith in humanity’s religion! And
Psychological experiment has
such a prayer is only when the physical science which the human did not Jesus ignore faith in hu­ demonstrated that “saving faith” is
mind offering it can persuade itself mind had the capacity for making, manity when he
commanded no power beyond the human or­
to believe that an infinite personal it was not known to him that in his followers to hate husband, wife, ganism in which it is exercised;
intelligence has done an act that America one human inind had parent, child, brother, sister, and that, when sensational appeals are
it never would have done but for made a discovery in mental science, one’s own life, also? And do not made to credulity and wonder, it
the “prayer” thus made “in faith.” in regard to selfhood, self-control, spiritualists ignore science and hu­ excites the law of self-induction,
All this is a matter of faith; and, and self-involution and evolution, manity when they abandon their which is the greatest power, purely
in the mind of the Christian thus that should rank, perhaps, with own selfhood to the control of their mental, known to the human mind.
praying, there is no proof that any made in physical science. And, faith in a nondescript invisibility?
Relief comes to the human mind
mere faith is, or ever was, an as psychology should certainly Thus, minds under the supreme from hygiene and psychology that
executive power, outside ofthemind come within the range of theolog- control of faith in mystical phe­ physicial science may not be com­
by which it is exercised,—none ical studies, it may not be thought nomena withhold their assent to petent to secure. And “faith”
whatever. As faith is the motive- marvellous, perhaps, that a “revi- to the maxim of Descartes, who jn mystical phenomena and all
power of prayer, so it is the same val minister,” after having wit- says, “Give unqualified assent to forms of superstition will disappear
power that answers the prayers nessed all the nervous ami mental no propositions but those the truth just as soon as theologians find out
which are uttered by itself.
phenomena peculiar to “religious of which is so clear and distinct the scope of credulity and “faith.”
Aspire, aspiration, from as, or ad revivals,” should, in 1836, have hit that they cannot he doubted.”
And all isms of the unknown
(“to,” or “after”), and spiro, “to upon the truly scientific method
I have a word only in regard to would he wiped out from the face
breathe,” comprehends views, wishes of experiment, and determined this the statement of Carlyle, quoted by of our planet today, were a know­
and hopes that are common to law of self-induction as supreme in Professor Tyndall, “that the human ledge of psychology as common as
humanity, without the slightest the human mind.
soul has claims and yearnings the Sunday-school lessons taught
idea of Christianity.
Indeed,
All phenomena alleged to have! which physical science cannot to the children.—Dr, LaRoy Sun­
aspiration, hope, trust, and venerat- occurred by forms of force or laws satisfy.”
To this I reply: derland.
THE INSPIRATION OF THE PAST.