TUE TORCH OF REASON, SILVERTON, OREGON, THURSDAY, MARCH 25, 1897.
F or the Torch of Reason.
Instantly the good Campbellite uality. Faith in the Mohammedan Doe. any aane human being believe
'ell upon his knees, and he besought bible ha. been the cause of many that Elijah was carried up to
the Lord to pluck up the sycamore millions of poor deluded men and heaven in a chariot of fire? Where
[ rev . old m o r t a l it y ]
tree and cast tt into the lake. No women to forsake all that should is heaven? How far or how high
My Little Ones:
While it pleases me very greatly
Up the
We'“ i* ab°Ve °ther ble88in«8: Freedom! did Elijah go? Does any sane man
" '■ 7 l u U ’ ,
. n " A 11 . came
" * uPon
T " f'° tiner or better word was ever believed,
believe that a river was divided be-
to see so many of you assembled
here at the tabernacle this beauti-
Methodist minister’s boat, coined by the intelligent mind of cause it had been struck with a
.
.
T
. swamping it in far less time than man. Faith in the so-called bibles cloak? Can anything be more
ful spring morning, I am sorry to j can teR jt
and sacred books has reddened the childish?
sav to you that 1 am sad: very
ti „ n , ’
*, And
» j judging
• j • v by . the
i signs
•
Die . fisherman
to the shore earth with the warm blood of count-
“Does Dr. Hall believe that rhe
sad.
on *
, , , swam
,
,
. ... dnd "hen he had learned the cause less millions.
,jay watJ leilgthene<i by stopping
’
u •
of *',s misfortune he, in turn fell
And now at this late date Rev. the rotary motion of the earth for
. , .
.
,
upon his knees, and besought the James Buckley, editor of the Christ- the purpose of giving Joshua more
destined to cause such a revolutiou T ~
.Lord to cause the tree to emerge lan Advocate, says publicly, that time to kill his enemies? What a
among us sky pilots that the writers
from the lake and descend upon the holy bible is not infallible, waste of force!
of the inspired Jew bible will turn
‘«Does he believe that the earth
in their sepulchres and gnash their the jealous and wicked Campbellite Brother Buckley you certainly have
preacher. Up came the tree, and been a long time in discovering
teeth in horror.
was not only stopped, but made to
after it had sailed around above what nearly every educated and in­
Skepticism and infidelity will
turn the other way, until the
the head of the Campbellite for a telligent person that read this book
soon spread its direful influence to
moment or two it swooped down on of ancient myths has long ago as­ shadow went hack ten degrees on
every part of this country. This
«he dial, to convince a little Jewish
him, and felled him to the earth.
certained.
The
millennium
will
direful calamity we can charge to
kihg that he would recover from a
Crawling out from under the tree not sail into port until us sky pilots
the account of the school teacher
the two men fell to and smote each stop Being about God. When edu­ boil? ( an any sensible man be­
lieve such a story?
and the newspapers, who, of late
other hip and jole, and no doubt cation and the printing press has
years, have become so independent
“ Does any minister believe that
would have killed each other if they weeded out the last vestage of ig­
and viscious that they have lost
had not been separated by a norant faith, then this old world David raised five thousand million
faith, not alone in us pulpiteers,
couple of tramps who had had their will be worth holding on to. Then dollars in gold and silver to build
the temple?
but they •f have lost all faith in our
eyes upon the Campbellite’s lunch will I, and my dear brothers, he
divinely inspired bible.
“Is it necessary to believe such a
basket, which contained a jug of compelled to vacate our pulpits,
story to he saved?
The things that I will say to you Jersey lightning.
roll
up
our
sleeves,
and
scratch
this morning I wish you would try
“Is it necessary to lielieve the
My little ones, we learn from this gravel or go to the poorhouse—or to
hard to remember, so you will be
story of Jonah in order that you
story that faith will accomplish • he devil.
able to repeat them to your good
may become an angel?
wonders; in fact it will remove a
Oh!
what
a
trial
this
will
be
for
parents. It will soon become nec­
A LIST OF “ MISTAKES.”
mountain without the assistance of many or us, for we know compari-
essary for us divines to raise a vast
“Most of the ministers, who have
either pick or spade. So the bible tively nothing about the practical
sum of money in order to buy Col.
informs us, and there is no one business of this world, as our work been interviewed, admit that there
R. G. Ingersoll and some of these
doubts this declaration but skep­ has been in telling foolish old men, are mistakes—at least, in the trans­
vile newspaper editors that are
tics, infidels, and a few other peo­ and silly old women, how to die; lation. What are these mistakes?
brave enough to tell what they call
ple who have not faith enough to when perhaps we should have told I should say that the unreasonable,
the truth. It was once thought
remove a red wart off of the end of them how to live happily in this the impossible, the absurd, the
that faith and truth were a kind of
cruel, and all the miracles should
their fool noses.
matter
of
fact
world.
By
faith
we
Siamese twins, but it appears now
I once heard a worldly woman have given this world a pretty long be called mistakes. Throw away
that this idea has been somewhat
say that one pound of investigation squeeze and in consequence it has your Eden, your dust man, your
s h a tte re d .
was worth five tons of faith and fed and clothed us most liberally, rib woman, your apple, your talk­
ing snakes, your flood, your Babel,
ABOUNDING IN FA ITH .
credulity. That very evening while and I thank it heartily for its be-
Speaking of faith reminds me of she was milking her cows one of nevolent simplicity. Sometimes your plagues, your quails, manna
a story I once heard told about a them kicked her and broke her left faith is a good thing to have, e.g : and fiery serpents, your horns that
level the walls of cities, your witches
Methodist minister and a Camp-
- 1' g as a punishmeot for her want ihe married ladies of this congrega-
helhte preacher that happened to of faith. How this cow had learned tion would do well to have faith in that raise the dead, your suns that
meet on the hanks of a beautiful what this woman said about faith their husbands: they are so good pause, your moons that rest, your
lake for the purpose of whiling has always remained a mystery to ,rUe and noble. A woman who has bears that destroy children, your
aw-ay a few hours at fishing.
me. This story should stand as a
faith in her husband is most prophets that kill innocent men by
calling the lightnings from heaven,
It appears that the Methodist warning to all women who are lack- miserable.
your soothsayers who interpret
had provided himself with a small ing in faith.
FRIGHTFUL IMPUDENCE.
dreams, the people who walk in fire
canvas boat, which he set up, and
baith is a mysterious something
Now, along comes Col. R. G. In­ without getting warm, your wan­
was soon anchored in the deepest that lias kept the various religions
part of the lake, and hauling in the of the world intact. The want of gersoll, and with his usual impu­ dering jugglers who raise the dead
fish at an astonishing rate.
faith has been the death of not a dence he assails the good book from and cause pots to exude oil, your
The Campbellite preacher fished few styles of religion. In these which we gain our livelihood, in a ravens that keep hotels and feed
_ .
, „ your axes that
. . _____
float in
from the bank, but not a bite re-, days of free schools and newspapers, most inhuman manner. In order, prophets,
warded his efforts. At length, be- faith is now l o s i n g its old time h o ld my little ones, to show you the vain water, your bushes that burn with
coming tired of the monotony of upon the educated and intelligent conceit of this P°°r nii^ uided »»an, out bein£ consumed, your clothes
the sport, he retired to the shade of classes.
I will read for youi l»enefit a few that refuse to wear out. Throw
a sycamore tree, where he could
The 113 000 p u l p i t e e r s w h o n o w e x , r a c t r t f r o m a r e c e n t epistle which all these falsehoods away. Throw
see the Methodist steadily hauling fill their churches by the power of
1*““1' pUl^ h®'1 in a *»,e
CHng '°
in the scaly denizens of the lake, faith, are trembling in their pulpits
h® NeW Y"rk JouruaL
My little ones, thus has this so-
Ihis sight made the good Camp- at the increasing lack of faith shown
“ when MOSES WROTE after ,”
called silver-tongued
Ingersoll
bellite green with envy. In order by a truly intelligent American
"All these ministers ought to ’P° ken
l.he wo.rld through the
to drown his envious feelings he congregation. Faith is a something know that the books aecribed to P,Tbv holding uo'the trn.hm U “ t
took from his breast-pocket a small that was brewed on foreign soil, Moses were not written until hund- beautiful miracles of the bible to&he
«’! >le. Opening it at random his and will not mix well with Ameri- reds of years after his death, and ridicule of an over-skeptical world,
eyes rested upon the following pas- can investigation. The well bal- they ought to know that Deuter- that has long been noted for its
anced American will try to prove onomy contradicts Leviticus and la<k of faith. What will the har-
faiihn; ‘ : he, I; o rd ? id: I f r hadd a " ‘" in g sa n d h,,1<1 ,,u t o t h a t ? mber9- T h e y °ught ,o kn,,w
as a grain of mustard seed, which is proven to lie good and that these books were being pro- Surely our churches will be trans-
might s a y unto this sycamore t r u e .
duced during several centuries and formed into temples of learning;
i' , be thou plucked up by the root
laith in the Monnan bible has
by many authors. .veH> learning: and this so-called
and be thou planted in the sea, brought a following of 100,000 poor “ It does not seem possible that learni,,K wi,i compel us sky pilots
and it should obey you.’”-L u k e , unfortunate, ignorant people to intelligent men believe all that i. u ^ o h h . ' v ' h e a r t " C r v
‘
sacrifice their freedom and individ- recorded in the Old Testament, sad. Amen. '
•
J
The Licensed P reach er.