Torch of Reason
T jie O nly S ecvlak P a per P u b l ish e d on
t h e P a c ific C oamt .
P u b lish ed W eekly by the Oregon State
Secular Union.
J. E. HOSMER,
P. W. GEER, -
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- E ditor
M anager
E ntered at th e postoftice at Silverton,
Oregon, as second class mail m atter.
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THURSDAY, MAY 6, E. M. 297
Help xNeeded.
On account of our adoption of
the ethical basis and on account ol
our being very particular,especially
in regard to our lecturers it might
be supposed by some that we have
no love or sympathy for our poor
brothers and sisters who are en­
gaged in practices and advocating
doctrines which we consider very
detrimental to mankind, but this
is not true and we hope that no
one will judge us as the orthodox
god judges people when they dis­
please him. But while we have
sympathy for all and while the
object of our organization is to
make it possible for all to get closer
to the truth and learn how to live,
it has become very apparent to
those who have the success of our
work most at heart that the very
existence of organized work de­
pended on whether we defined our
position on the most important moral
questions of the day or not,and this
made it absolutely necessary for us
to take a stand on high ground,
and, although sometime in the
future our ideas of morality may
change, yet today we could not reach
out a helping hand to the fallen
or help save the young and
virtuous from falling, if we were
ourselves in the gutter of corruption,
and before we had nothing to show
that we were not; so it is very im­
portant that we stand for what
the majority of the Secularists in
this state believe to be right and
our lecturers must he of the very
best timber obtainable.
Now if the people who have been
fighting for years against super­
stition and other great mistakes of
our race, have the good sense that
we.believe they possess they will all
join hands, and well may the or­
thodox ghost tremble in his boots.
Many are sending us word that
they approve the action of the con­
vention and we hope that all who
believe that we should “hew to the
line’’ will stand up and be counted.
At present we want several lecturers
hut none need apply unless they
are free from superstition and moral
corruption.
Neither do we wish aspirants to
think it is a very difficult thing to
become a worker for us. Young men
ami young women, here is a grand
chance if you are free, and if you
wish to help liberate the slaves you
see all around you. Come ami visit
us and we will help you. After
you have passed the examination
for a lecturer you will he required
to write a lecture which will he an
easy task, for you can weave into
your own best thoughts the best
thoughts of the noble philosophers
of the past and present, and, after-
having your work approved by the
hoard, you can start out, deliver
your lecture in the different cities
and towns of the state, help to or­
ganize churches and Sunday
schools and scatter our literature.
We can not promise you a large
salary at first, hut we will see to it
that you make a good living and if
you do right you will receive a
permanent position ami he doing
much good. Come and see us it
you can or write and tell us what
you can do for our great cause.
W h y Do You W a it, Dear B ro th er?
Secular friends, in order to send
you a good lecturer and wake up
your whole neighborhood ami or­
ganize a fine, progressive Secular
church ami Sunday school, much
work has to he done. We know
that much inonev and energy
have been practically thrown away
in the past, hut in tlm starting of
any great work it seems almost
necessarv for this to be tin* case
before the workers learn how to
work. We are now on the right
track and if every one takes hold
it will not be long before we will
have an army of active workers in
the field. The first thing to do is
to get our stronghold here at
Silverton firmly established and
well fortified. Now’ bring the best
shovel or pick at your com­
mand and “lend a hand.” If you
can’t give money, do something.
Don’t wait for others, for others
may be waiting for you and if you
do something it may induce others
to take hold and thus lead right up
to success.
There are a few who are doing
just all they can do, and the work
is sure to succeed, hut we want to
see as much done as we possibly
can before Mother Nature calls us
to rest, and so we should not wait
for one another.
Don’t be afraid of doing too much,
for,as soon as our University build­
ing is up and furnished, we must
immediately commence planing our
industrial department and sani­
tarium. Our library must be second
to none and our telescopes and
other apparatus for obtaining
knowledge must be the best.
You see the field is ready, the
workers coming, and, although it
may take years of work to do all
these things, it will be pleasant
work for us if we love the great and
grand principles of Secularism that
philosophers and sages of all ages
have toiled to unfold to the world.
One W orld a t a Tim e.
ization? Is belief in Jesus one?
Which came first, progress or the
doctrine of immortality? Ah!
many people who never heard of
Jesus aud many who would have
listened to the story of immortality
as we would listen to a ghost story
have lived and prospered—a happy,
contented, refined, moral people;
hut the doctrines of Secularism are
inseparable from progress and
happiness. Can any one point to
a happy progressive people either
of ancient or modern times and say
that they have not practiced the
religion of humanity? Just to the
extent that any people practice the
principles of fraternal love and are
free to think each one for himself—
free from the priest and prophet—
just to that extent are they happy
and progressive; but when priests
are given power, and their work of
scattering seeds of mysteries, and
mummeries, of falsehoods and
miracles hears fruit then fears and
persecutions and creeds and hate
spring up and degeneration sets in.
This life is all anyone knows any­
thing about and if we are true to
ourselves and our fellow’ men, we
will do what we can w’hile we have
the opportunity. Now is the time
to be happy! Now is the time to be
good! Now’ is the time to work!
If there is a place to which an
immortal part of men and women
go after they die and if they enjoy
indescribable
happiness
there
throughout eternity, we have no
objections whatever, hut, as there is
not one thing in all the sermons of
holy men and doctrines of holy
books that proves to our minds
that there is such a place, we would
be doing very wrong to say that we
believe in a future life. Some
think that their great desire for
heaven proves that there is some­
thing beyond; hut their desire does
not prove it, for, if what is taught in
our schools in regard to the
Brahmins is true, the majority of
the people of the world desire
eternal forgetfulness, and thus we
see the desire proves nothing. If
we had been taught that the height
of happiness is to have the desire
to make the world happier and
better now and after we are gone,
and that when we are dead we are
at rest, and, if these ideas had been
believed hv all as long as the eternal
life idea has by some, the feelings
of many who now look upon eternal
rest v\ith sueh horror would he
reversed and the idea of a future
life and especially the idea of a hell
for a large part of the human
Real A ngels.
family would he looked upon as
absurd and worthy only of un­
The little children whose eyes
developed minds. So we say if are so bright and eager to learn
there is a future state of existence j about the birds and flowers, whose
there is no proof of it, aud it would little feet are so willing to act as
be as foolish for us to spend our messengers for their friends, and
time teaching these things as it whose little minds so easily learn
would to teach that we were angels the lessons of friendship and love,
before we were horn or any other are the real angles, the honest true
unproven, improvable imagination. I cherubim of the only heaven w’orth
Our lime is too precious to waste having.
on these theories and as long as one
And how wre older ones ought to
human being is suffering for food, try to help these angels to enjoy
or clothing, or shelter, or mental their service and keep them from
training, men are committing a the filth that spoils and from
crime against society in teaching the slavish fear that degrades.
such absurdities and thus drawing
0, little innocent, happy child,
people’s attention from the real you are indeed the holiest, the
causes of happiness into channels purest of all creatures; we kneel at
which only retard our mental and thy feet and pledge ourselves to
moral growth. This then is the thy service. When wre are at rest,
work of Secularists: to teach what our work will live in you; our light
we do know, discarding all unprov- will be placed in the hands of
a’ole theories of a future existence others who will have profited by
and making the world happier and our combined influence and help,
better by studying and teaching all and thus w’ill our work, the product
the grand truths of our own lives of our minds—our real souls—be
and of our surroundings. We immortal.
believe “that the proper study
The good that w’e may do gives
of man is man” and not angles, aud us hope, and for this and the hap­
spirits and gods and devils and piness of these real angels do we
that in studying man we are press on and think and think, and
obliged to study nature in order to w’ork and work!
discover man’s place in nature and
that the speculative study of theo­ Applications for lecturer’s diplo­
logical nonsenseonly retards, dwarfs mas are coming in and we will soon
and hinders the mind from grasp­ have workers of the right sort in
ing the knowledge necessary for the field. The adoption of our
us to understand how to control ethical basis gives our lecturers a
the forces of nature so as to have recommendation that is worth hav­
them minister to our comfort and ing for now they are not only obliged
happiness.
to stand an examination for lectur­
What are the great factors ing but they must be of good moral
uecessarv to a high state of civil- character and free from bad habits.