*
THE TORCH OF REASON, SILVERTON, OREGON, THURSDAY, JULY 8, 1897.
Coming
to The Light.
ordinary; through a day and a
sleepless night it raged with un­
abated virulence.”
It seems strange that full grown
men can believe that such intem­
perate, and repulsive men as the
priests often are, can become in­
fallible through such a disgraceful
performance.
If our work was ouly for the pur­
pose of correcting the blunders of
orthodoxy, we would not be so en­
thusiastic, for people will think in
spite of the priest’s endeavors to do
all the thinking for them, and they
will gradually become more and
more liberal without our help; but
there is another and better in­ Deacon Brown, Please
Pass
centive for us to work, and that
the Hat.
is the prevention of the ruin of
those, especially the young, who are
We have sent out a little holder
having the artificial prop of Chris­ containing a hat into which each
tianity taken away from them. Liberal is asked to drop 26 cents.
Our young people must have soci­ If each one to whom the hat comes
ety and if we organize and furnish carefully follows the directions it
them and each other with ennobling will mean thousands of dollars for
surroundings that will lead us all our work and only 25 cents from
to high and philanthropic endeav­ each Liberal. Each one who re­
ors, how much happier will we be ceives a hat is to enclose 25 cents
and how much better will the world and forward to* us and then make
become for our having lived.
two other similar hats and send
When we left the old stranded them to two <»f their Liberal friends,
wreck of orthodoxy, there was no enclosing a letter requesting them
place for us to go. Our former to do likewise. These friends are
companions, whom we still loved, to do the same, and if no one al­
looked upon us with horror; at lows the work to stop in their hands
leaet we felt that they did for we it will soon amount to a large
remember how we once looked upon sum; for it will double every time.
those who denied the “blessed sav­ \V hen it has been through twelve
changes, it no one breaks the
ior” even when they were enjoying chain,
i. e., fails to send us 25
blessings that we supposed all came cents and the two letters and two
trom his hand. Being married, hats to their two friends, it will
however we had our own society amount to 4*1024 and the next
and after a number of years we change will make it $2048 and the
next $4096.
found many other friends who had
Now friends, if you are prompt
also had their eyes opened to the and no one fails to do ids part and
terrible follies of the old myths; is careful to select staunch Liberals,
but every one is not married, and we can soon place the T orch of
many that are, would be better off if R eason and Liberal University on
solid footing. Liberals do not
they were not, and we believe that in a pass
the hat very often and we
a majority of cases when the band­ hope now that we have, all will
age of the medicine man is taken take pleasure in helping a little.
off of one’s eyes, he needs friends,
At the Soldiers’ Home.
for the light is to strong and the
poor lonesome one is often driven E ditor T orch of R eason :
into other depths of darkness.
Every week we have one or more
Yes, for the sake of those who funerals at this home. I was high­
are coming to the glorious light of ly entertained at one last week,
which causes queer reflections. The
liberty and truth, let us organize corpse
was lowered into the grave
societies that they may be instruct-! all right. A man with a long rone
ed and sustained in the right chan­ on stood at one end of the grave.
nel in the religion of human­ Another man with an ordinary
ity —in helping others and build-1 barn shovel stood as attendant.
After the corpse was fixed in po­
i»g for themselves brave and noble sition,
the attendant scooped up
characters.
some ashes on the shovel and
handed it to the man who wore
Infallible.
the robe, who sprinkled them on
the coffin. H e then received from
Lius the Second in his auto­ the attendant a squirt gun on the
biography, has left the following end of which was a nick le or silver
account of how a man may be made plated garden-sprinkler nozzle; he
then flirted some liquid on the
infallible and placed at the head of coffin. There were undoubtedly
the Church:
men present who believed (didn’t
“W e adjourned to luncheon, and know) that the water was holy;
from that moment, wnat cabals! that the man with the robe on was
I he more powerful members of the holy, and that the squirt gun and
shovel were sacred implements. Of
' ■'ilege, whether their strength lay course the man with the shovel be­
II imputation or wealth, beckoned lieved enough glory reflected on
others to their side.
They prom- him to make him sacred at least.
I his belief is caused by the
'■= d, they threatened. There were
of men being perverted and
v<‘n some who without a blush, it minds
has become a curse to humanity.
without a Rhred of modesty, plead- W hy does man believe? Because
their own merits, and demanded he is too indolent to learn the
the supreme pontificate qualifica­ truth concerning the thing he says
be lielieves. Belief is simply a
tions.
an orthodox excuse to
Each man baosted of his quali­ scape-goat,
screen absolute imbecility under
fications. The bickering of these pretense of saving souls.
r aimants was something »*xtra-
A. R. T.
dorch of Ift'easen
S o n g Book
R© i.
“ Keep the Torch of Reason Burning.”
*
Price,- Ten cents.
The above shows the exact size of the little song book we
have just completed. It contains thirty-two pages. The songs
are set to familiar tunes and should be in every Freethought
home and Sunday school. Send us an order. Price, 10 cts.
-- «3>o
The
Liberal
University
The O n ly School of the K inJ
In the W orld
STRICTLY
NON-SECTARIAN
S ilv erto n , Oregon.
Tor te rm s an d p a rticu lars address
J. E. HOSMER, President, Silverton, Ore.
A n nouncem ents will lie out th e first of A ugust.
T h e 'P o r c h o f R e a s o n
Issued every week. T he only S ecular p ap er p ublished on th e P a ­
cific Coast. A fearless advocate of C o n stru ctiv e, E d u catio n al, Moral
Secularism . S u b scrip tio n price, $1.00 per year.
T h e U ittle C a n d le
A weekly pap er for th e young people. E n tirely free from su p erstb
tion. Devoted to Secular Sunday-school work, and c o n tain in g les­
sons for each Snndav. P er year, 25 cents.