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