T orch
of
R eason .
SILVERTON, OREGON, THURSDAY, MAY 20, 1897.
For the Torch of Reason.
In fact, it was alm ost com pulsory.
Never in the history of the country
Less of d iv in ity , and m ore of h u m a n ity , was there such a strong tem perance
sentim ent all over the land, from
The people are needing to d a y ;
Less a ssiu in ity , w hich som e call C h ris Maine to Texas. These influences
tia n ity ,
—religion, education, and te m p e r
Or godliness given by b ra y ;
ance— have alw ays been regarded
Less sovereignity, and m ore of u rb a n ity ,
And «{leakers w ith som ething to sa y ; as active factors in the supression
More of senseanitv, and less of in sa n ity , ! of crim e; but w hat are we to say in
W hich th in k s to move m o u n tain s by the face of these statistics?”
pray.
Religion, p rim arily , em otion, a
Don’t saddle y o u r evil upon th e poor feeling of dependence, is pow erless
to restrain crim e, except so far as
devil,
H e has enough sin of his own ;
it is enlightened, and is made to
D on’t glicke on a bevel, b u t keep y o u r conform to th e principles, and be
head level,
•
come suffused with the sp irit of
Be u p rig h t, though sta n d in g a lo n e;
Savages are religious.
It never will free us, believing in Je su s, m orality.
The most corrupt periods of history
A God to h im self c a n ’t a to n e ;
W alled heaven would squeeze us, and have been the most religious; th a t
spasm s would sieze us,
is, they have been periods in which
To m onkey a ro u n d a m ad th ro n e .
the religious feelings w’ere t h e most
Less of verbosity, and m ore of p h ilo s active, and religious observances
ophy,
the most intim ately associatod with
Let faith be c o n sisten t w ith facts;
public and private life. Speaking
Less of pom posity, and none of th e o s
of the period th a t ju st preceded the
ophy,
Q uit d ream ing an d do m ore good a c ts; advent of C h ristian ity , Mommsen
says, “ A wager m ight be laid th a t
Less of piosity, an d m ore g enerosity,
Potatoes e a t b e tte r th a n tra c ts ;
the more lax an y •r woman was, the
Less anim osity and godly m o n stro sity ,
more piously she worshipped Isis.”
The gospel of good-will exacts.
The m iddle ages, per-em inently
Less seers in d a rk ages, an d m ore religious, were ages of ignorance,
lighted sages,
vice, and crime. Often, the most
No blind m en co nducting th e b lin d ;
religious persons am ong us to d ay —
Less tru e m en in cages, and m uch b e tte r
those who revel in the excitem ent
wages
of religious revivals—are habitually
For w orkers w ith body or m in d ;
Less of D w ight Moody, Sam Jo n e s and im m oral, and even crim inal, as in
his boody,
the cases of G uiteau and the Jam es
Leave Sankey and M urp h y b e h in d ;
brothers. “ U niversal piety is, in
The city of Boston would not know it
the popular eye,” Lange observes,
lost one
“either genuine saint-ship or a
If up th e show w ent in th e w ind.
—JO H N P. G U IL D .
wicked cloak of all th a t is vile.
Tyngsboro, Mass.
For the psychological su b tlity of
the m ixture of genuine religious
Religion and Crime.
em otions with coarse selfishness and
The A tlan ta C onstitution quotes vicious habits, the o rdinary mind
from Gen. B riukerhoff of Ohio, who has no ap p reciatio n .” Schleier
is an a u th o rity on the subject of m acher says:
prison and prison reform, to the
“ Religion belongs neither to the
effect th a t in th is country crim e is dom ain of science nor m orals, is
rising like a Hood, and th a t, “ unless essentially neither knowledge nor
we check this flood, society as at conduct, but em otion only, specific
present organized must go under,” in its nature, and inherent in the
th at “<>ur penal system is a failure, im m ediate consciousness of each
and our society is on the down individual m an. H ence comes the
grade, rushing eith er to an arch y or vast variety of religious conception
Caesarism.”
and of religiou« system observed in
W hile our Southern contem porary the w orld—variety not only thus
is inclined to a practical and not to be accounted for, but apprehend
to the pessim istic view of the ed as a necessiiy of hum an nature.
subject, believing th a t this co u n try , Hence, also, the irrefragable plea
although young, has the wisdom for universal toleration, and the
and strength to protect itself, and sin against G od’s ordinance, com
that t h e first step to be taken is to m itted in every act of persecution
investigate our crim inal laws and of o p in io n .”
Upon this, Dr. W illis, Spinoza’s
penal system an d reform them , it
asks: “ W hy does this state of biographer, rem arks:
“ This view of Schleierm acher
things exist? Religion was never
more active, and money was never was an im m ense advance on all
more lil>erallv spent for C h ristian iz previously en tertain ed ideas of the
ing the heathen. E ducation was n atu re and true worth of the relig-
m ver more generally distributed. ions idea, and has not yet been gen-
H u m a n ity D isco u n ts D iv in ity .
erally appreciated in all its signif
icance. W hen we recognize it, how
ever, we readily understand how
religious em otion m ay be associ
ated with crim e and im m orality as
well as with the highest m oral ex
cellence; how a Jacques Clem ent
and B althasar G erard m ay confess
them selves to the priest, and take
the sacram ent of the body and
blood of the Saviour by way of
strengthening them in th eir p u r
pose to com m it the crimes th a t
have made their memories infam
ous; how punctilious atten tio n to
Bible reading and devout observ
ance am ong crim inals of a less ter
rible stam p do not necessarily im
ply hypocrisy and cunning, as so
commonly assum ed, when these
unhappily constituted beings are
found again engaged in their ob
jectionable courses. T he piety, the
religion, displayed is a perfectly
tru th fu l m anifestation of the emo
tional element in the nature of m an
which seeks and finds satisfaction
in acts im plying intercourse with
Deity, but neither seeks nor finds
satisfaction in acts of honesty and
virtuous life in the world. We
have here an explanation of how
it happens th a t our penitentiaries
are filled with the worst sort of
crim inals, whose lives, prior to the
detection of their crimes, wrere ch a r
acterized by em inent piety and a
strict regard for religious obser
vances. T h at religion, per se, has
no restrain in g influence upon the
conduct of men is a tru th con
firmed and attested by our daily
and hourly experience, and needs
no elaborate argum ent to substan
tiate it.”
Religion, since it is included in
hum an th o u g h t and feeling, cer
ta in ly belongs to the dom ain ot
science; and this Schleierm acher,
had he been less a theologian ami
more a m an of science, would never
have questioned. Religion is a fact
of hum an nature, and can lie stu
died in the individual and in the
race. I t m ust therefore belong to
the province of science. T he ques
tion w hether religion has a “ scien
tific basis” is a proper question
only when it is asked in regard to
any p articu lar theories or concep
tions of religion. The above quo
tations are m ade only to sustairi
the view th a t religion is not neces
sarily m oral, and th a t it contributes
to the restraint, of crim e only so
far as it is purified and dom inated
by ethics. W hat is especially
needed then at th is time, indeed at
all tim es, is th a t em phasis be put
upon m oral teachings and m oral
influences.
NO. 29.
No education is w orthy of the
nam e th a t is not dom inated by the
principles and the spirit of ethics.
E ducation as a mere accom plish
m ent will not secure exem ption
from vice and crim e. If proof of
this were needed, we should have
only to refer to the corruption of
fem ale children in London by men
of w’ealth and social position,
educated in the highest schools of
learning.
Tem perance, or w hat is com
monly so called, is most im p o rtan t;
but som ething more is needed to
prevent crime. Spain is a tem perate
n ation; yet her people delight in
b ru tal sports, crim es of violence
are com m on,
and im m orality
prevails am ong the nobility, the
clergy, and the masses.
W hat is needed is not a religious
revival, b u t a m oral m ovem ent
that shall elevate religion and m ake
all intellectual acquisition con
trib u te to th e advancem ent of the
liest interests of society.
B. F. UNDERW OOD.
True Teachers of Mankind.
The men who felled th e forests,
cultivated the earth , spanned tlm
rivers with bridges of steel, built
railw ays and canals, the great ships,
invented the locomotives and en
gines, supplying the countless w ants
of m an; the men who invented the
telegraphs and cables, and freighted
the electric spark with thought
and love; the men who invented
the looms and spindles th a t clothe
the world, the inventors of p rin tin g
and the great presses th a t fill the
earth with poetry, fiction, an d fact,
th a t save and keep all knowledge
for children yet to be; the inventors
of all the wonderful m achines whose
wheels and levers seem to th in k
and deftly mould from wood and
steel the things we use; the men
who have explored the heavens
and traced the orbits of the stars,
who have read the story of the
world in m ountain range and
billowed
sea;
the
men who
have lengthened life and con
quered pain;
the great philo
sophers and n atu ralists, who have
filled th e world with light; the
great ¡>oets, whose thoughts have
charm ed the souls; the great p ain t
ers and sculptors, who have m ade
the canvas speak, the m arble live;
the great orators, who have swayed
th e world; the composers, who
have given th eir souls to sound,
the cap tain s of in d u stry , the p ro
ducers, the soldiers who have b a t
tled for the right, the vast host of
useful m eu—these are our Christe,
our apostles, and our saints. The
triu m p h s of science are o u r m ira
cles. The books filled with the
facts of n atu re are our sacred scrip
tures, and the force th a t is in every
atom and in every sta r— in every
thing th a t lives and grows and
th in k s, th a t hopes and suffers—is
the only possible god.— R. G. In
gersoll.