THE TORCH OF REASON, SILVERTON, OREGON, THURSDAY, A PRIL 29, 1897.
lated about Jonah and the whale;
the doctrine of endless punishment,
Editor Torch of Reason:
and a hundred others we could re­
I have read Paine’s “Age of Rea­ fer to. The ministry has been
son” and a few numbers of the forced to select subjects to discourse
Torch of Reason and I find them to upon more in accord with reason
be two of the most reasonable pro­ and good sense. It don’t take one-
tenth part the lire and brimstone to
ductions that I have ever read.
satisfy the people now'-a-days that
“Come, now, and let us reason to­ it did fifty years ago; they are
gether,” is what Isaiah says the ashamed of such silly talk as that.
Lord told him; but what little When we read the fathers of the
reasoning we will have to do, will church and see upon what argu­
be of a little different kind from ments they have built the edifice of
religion, we are inexpressibly as­
that which the Lord had with Isa­
tonished with their credulity or
iah—that is, there will be a little their knavery. But allegory was
more truth and reason in it. The the rage of that period. The pa­
Lord tells him, “though your sins gans employed it to explain the ac­
be as scarlet, they shall be as white tions of their gods, and the Chris­
as snow; though they be red like tians acted in the same spirit w’hen
they employed it after their fash­
crimson, they shall be as wool.”
ion.
In the first periods of
There is about as much truth and the Christian church not only
reason in that statement, we sup­ the most learned of those who
pose, as there is in the one that he have since been denominated
makes to Ahaz, who was then king heretics, but many of the orthodox
of Judah, telling him that the kings conceived Moses to have w’ritten
of Israel and Syria, who were then neither the law7 nor the pentateuch,
but that the work was a compilation
besieging him, should not be suc­
made by the elders of the people
cessful, and to assure Ahaz that he and the seventy, who after the death
was telling him the truth, he gives of Moses collected his scattered
him a sign. He says, “ Behold a ordinances, and mixed with them
virgin shall conceive and bear a things that were extraneous similar
son, and before the child shall be to what happened to the Koran of
old enough to refuse the evil and Mahomet. Then in the assembly
choose the good, the land that thou at Mecca, giving in their confessions
abhorrest shall be forsaken of both of faith, Volney says: “Then came
her kings.” Christians and Bible- forward with a look of confidence
believers try to make this a pro­ an Iman of the law of Mahomet,
phecy foretelling the miraculous ‘Praise be to God, said he, the light
birth of Jesus. This all took place shines with full evidence and the
about 740 years before Christ’s truth has no need of examination.’
time, and it has no more reference ‘Be it so,’ replied the lawgivers.
to Christ than it has to the high­ But if your statements as to what
lands of Honolulu; because if it was constitutes the truth disagree, w ho
a sign to /Vhaz that he should come shall reconcile them? If error has
out victorious in the war then going its martyrs; what is the certain
on, it w’as a mockery, a lie, for it m ark of truth? If the evil spirit
will be seen that Ahaz was desper­ works miracles, what is the
ately beaten and taken captive, and distinctive character of God? And
delivered into the hands of the king what is this luminous doctrine
of Israel, who smote him with a th at fears the light? Who is this
great slaughter, W’ho slew7 one hun­ man, cried all the groups, who thus
dred and twenty thousand in one insults us w’ithout a cause? Has
day. And the children of Israel not God endowed us, as well as him,
carried awray captive of their breth­ w’ith understanding and reason;
ren two hundred thousand women, and have we not an equal right to
sons and daughters. See II Chron­ use them in choosing what to be­
lieve and what to neglect? If vio­
icles, 28:1-8.
There is no fact more patent at lence and persecution are the argu­
the present day thau that w ithin the ments of truth, are gentleness and
last half century there has come charity the signs of falsehood?
JOEL M. BERRY.
over the spirit of the Christian
church and is still coming, a great
The Confidence of Youth.
change, w’ith reference to its beliefs
—
and its tolerance of the opinions of
The young men of some of the
others.
Christian associations are tryiug to
The Rev. Dr. Briggs says: “I re­ snub Dr. Abbott and passing reso­
joice at this age of rationalism, in­ lutions reading him into outer
vestigation must go on. It matters darkness. There is a smack of old-
little how many oppose it; it is im­ fashioned orthodoxy in that, includ­
possible to stay the tide.” The ing a good deal of its brimstone;
church is beginning to have its and if the doctor doesn’t immedi­
doubts about some, at least, of the ately declare th a t he believes that
unreasonable statements made in which he doesn’t believe he will
the Bible, such, for instance, as a find himself surrounded by some
finite creature giving birth to an very dangerous theological ex­
infinite one; the silly story as re­ plosives.—J udge.
Notes and Comments.
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