Image provided by: Silverton Country Historical Society; Silverton, OR
About Torch of reason. (Silverton, Oregon) 1896-1903 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 6, 1898)
T H E TORCH OF REASON, SIL V E R T O N , OREGON, T H U R S D A Y , JA N U A R Y 6, 1898. principles it will double discount all form er reforms in its rapid inarch. Nor will it stop as P rotest The O n ly Paper of Its K in d . antism has. It never will stop its Published W eekly by th e Liberal U n i rapid, onw ard m arch till Catholics, versity C om pany, in the Interest« of P rotestants, .Jews and all are g ath C onstructive, Moral Secularism . ered into its loving fold. J. E. H o s m e r,.......................E d ito r P rotestantism was som ething of P. W . G e er,....................... M anager a reform, but it is cnly «me round E ntered a t th e postoince at Silverton, in the ladder th at leads to perfect O regon, as second-class m ail m atter. freedom of thought. ... Our school will succeed, for SUBSCRIPTION RA TES. C hristians have lost their old time One year, in a d v an c e .......................... $1 00 i Six m onths in a d v a n c e .................... 5G 1 power to persecute, excepting in a, T hree m onths, in a d v a n c e ................ 25 com paratively-speaking, m ild wav, In clubs of live or m ore, one year, in a d v a n c e .......................................... 75 and today, th an k s to the liberality M oney should be sen t by registered 1 of honest Liberals, we can say th a t letter or m oney order. we have succeeded; we are succeed ing, and we have every prospect of N otice! future success. A pencil m ark here denotes th a t your And while C h ristian s are tru s t subscription will e x p ire w ith the next nu m b er. You are earnestly requested ing in their god to sm ite us for our to renew so th a t you m ay receive th e pa wickedness, we are building an in per w ithout in te rru p tio n . We have de cided th a t it is best for all concerned stitution that will play no sm all th a t we do not send papers longer th an pari in giving the world a salva th e tim e paid for miles« so ordered. T his will p revent any loss and we will tion th at saves. Torch of Reason know ju st w here we stan d . We request you to send us the nam es of Secularists who m ight bei ome sub- scril«*rs and we will m ail sam ple copies. T H U R S D A Y , JA N . 6, E. M. 298 T h e T h ir d P s a lm . O h, th in k in g friends, lmw th ey increase W ho tro u b le honest w orkers. “ T here is no h e lp : they have no w e a lth ,” Cry greedy, lawless sh irk e rs. B ut thou, oh, friem ls of honest thought, Will shield us in th is battle, Ami w hen we call, will save our fall, W here p riestly m uskets rattle. We cried for help to help the young, And m any heard witli p leasu re; A nd now am ong the old and young We sc a tte r w isdom ’s treasu re. T his m akes us hold to work away, Nor fear ten th o u sa n d croakers, Nor pious frauds, nor m an-m ade gods, T he Devil, nor his brokers. And now, oh, th in k e rs, rise and save, F o r thou hast often broken The priest, and king, and ev ery th in g ! Oh, let th e word he spoken ! Thou a rt th e only source of stre n g th , The healing of th e n a tio n ; Not from th e spook of D avid’s book — From thee, comes tru e salvation. T r u s t O n , B r o th e r A good old C hristian, to whom we give credit for believing in the doctrines of Ids bible, said the other day th a t there are no institutions th a t am ount to an ything, and that there never can be one, th a t openly opposes religion. Of course we widely differ with from venerable friend, and, we lielieve, with good reasons. He, as a P rotestant, should re m em ber th a t the Catholics claim ed the sam e of his kind of religion when it was first started , and surely h e will ad m it th a t Protestantism am ounts to very m uch. H e should rem em ber th at the Catholics did all in their power to suppress Protest an tism , killing m illions and com pelling other m illions to play the hypocrite. H istory is repeating it self, with the difference that Free- thought has a much better chance to advance than Protestantism did, and when it is organized on right R e m o v e th e C a u s e . which they are m ostly responsi ble, am i the teaching of one who understands th»* child m ind and re* moves causes of wrong im pressions and produces right conditions for good results. One is forever p atch ing old clothes, while the other is continually producing m aterial for beautiful new ones Then th ir e are the m oral rem e dies, and the sam e blunder has been m ade here. Good people who really wish to do all the good they can while they live, spend their whole lives try in g to save the fal len while the fallen are co n tin u al ly falling on account of the want of people who know’ enough to remove the cause. Acccording to the C hristian religion all are fallen and it is the sad, sad work of its devo tees to save the fallen th at th eir religion has caused to fall. They are w orking on the re su lts—p atch ing, patching, co n tin u ally . But how rapidly will things change when enough of us learn that the real rem edy for moral depravity is to remove th e cause. The great work of teaching th a t the proper remedy for the evils in the world, 1 physical, m ental and m oral, is to remove tl»e causes of these evils m ust he done by those who are not fanatically wedded to the old doc trin e of “ patching results.” Secu larists, with their freedom of thought, th e ir love of science and their spirit of pr< >gress, a re the ones the only ones who can and will J redeem the world from its errors and lift h u m an ity to the heavenly state of physical, m ental and m oral perfectability. In every d ep artm en t of life there has been a great blunder made. This great blunder has been m ade on account of the ignorance of the world, and it still clings to us in m any ways, especially in our rem edies for evils. This great blunder is the application of remedies to results , instead of the removal of the cause . Physicians have made th is blunder, an d a very serious thing it has been for us all. The first thing most physicians do after exam ining a patient carefully to find out what derangem ents there are, is to give him medicine, not to remove the cau se, but to remove T h e N in e t y a n d N in e . the effect of the cause. For exam On an o th er page of this issue will ple, one m ay he suffering from trou ble caused by lack of ventila ion he found an offer from Mr.Mosier,of and the only remedv necessarv Illinois. He propeses to be one of would he good ventilation, n atu re one hundred to pay in fifty dollars w orking a cure as s«»on as had air each to put the U niversity on its Now th is is ju st w hat we (the cause) is rem oved. But in feet. stead of this sim ple application of want and w h at we need. W here coinmo sense, the physician, often are the ninety and nine? Each week we will publish the against his better judgm ent, is a l most obliged to give pow deis, pills num ber th a t is wanted before the and poisons, or his rival would get money will he paid in, and the the patronage. Oh, how ignorant nam es of those do n atin g will he we have been to m ake slaves of our published, unless we are requested physicians! We presume th at in a not to do so. If some pay in more few years the present m ethods of than fifty dollars, of course we will treating diseases will be looked up he ready th a t much sooner, and the on as we Secularists now look upon announcem ent will he given ac the ‘‘laying on of h an d s” and pray cordingly. We feel confident, now th a t we er for the restoration of health. Then there are the m ental reme have a definite plan, th at the new dies. Pupils who nave appeared building will lie com pleted very Mr. Mosier deserves the dull have been scolded, threatened, soon. frightened and flogged. The teach th an k s of every true Secularist for er w orking on the effect, you see, not w aiting for others, hut stepping instead of rem oving the cause of forw ard with his generous plan just when it is so much needed. Now the m ental weakness. T his work let us see if we c a n ’t fi id the nine- is still kept up by am ateu rs and and nine right away. Please don’t quacks in th is the highest of all lef it drag, but send in your nam e if possible and be one of the one professions. W hat a vast diffenence in the hundred who are brave enough to show the world th a t Infidels today, “ keeping school” of one w ho is con as in the past, can back their p rin tin u ally correcting the bad results ciples with th eir lives, th eir for — results of wrong conditions fo r, tunes and th eir sacred honor. S c ie n tific W isd o m . T H E LECTURE B U R EA U . In revising the Plan, I saw no way to bring about the lectures for scientific S unday m eetings, unless some publishing house would agree to p rin t them , and som e able scholar would judge w hich of those offered were satisfactory etc. Now. J. E. H osm er, our able editor of the T orch , and P resident of the Liberal U niversity, has consented to edit the lectures for scientific S unday m eetings, provided a sub scription list of 1000 can be obtain ed, w ho will each pay $2.60 for the 52 lectures(i. e. 5 cents each)so the expenses will h e provided for. The Plan proposes th at a lecture each week be printed in a 20 page pam p h let with one page of song, one page for hygienic lesson, and one page for a m orality lesson These lessons m ust not contain over 400 wor Is each. The former is to teach the people how to take care of them selves, in place of praying God to take care of them , and the latter m ust teach how virtues bene fit and vices harm . These are to take the place of bible readings. To secure the best lectures and lessons we can afford the first year, the Liberal U niversity Company say they can print and mail 1000 copies of a lecture for $25. One thousand copies a t five cents each would give $50. They can pay $1 for the new song, $1 for the m oral ity lesson, $1 for the hygienic les son, $2 for the ed ito r’s work, and $20 for th e lecture itself. Two thousand subscribers would double all these prices. To start this, we w ant a list of fifty-two subjects for a y ear’s lec tures (one for each S u n d ay ), em bracing a w’ide variety, whatever the people especially need to be taught. T his list will he printed in the T orch , to win th e thousand subscribers, to win the w riting of the lectures, and to furnish our scientific Sunday m eetings right away with their subject each Sun day for readings, discussions and addresses, to take the place of lec tures until those are obtained. Every one who reads the T orch is invited to send J . E. Hosmer a list of ten or more subjects, and get lists from other people also; the more the m errier. It will awaken interest and direct th o u g h t to the needs of the people, and help Mr. H osm er to m ake a satisfactory list. These discussions and readings will increase the people’s th irst for the lectures them selves. Short articles on these subjects can be printed in the T orch and used for readings and to direct discussion. As hygiene and m orality must ever be the foundation for all other wisdom, a short lesson every w • ek will he better th an a lecture once a year; so the lecture list can exclude these two classes of subjects. All