T H E TORCH <>F REASON, SILV E R T O N , OREGON, T H U R SD A Y , JA N U A R Y 27, 1898. 2 his place in the church, has some tim es occupied the pulpit, and has Sebastian C. Adams, who died a t published m any theological articles his home in Salem, Oregon, a short » ' »'■* Oregonian, try in g to enlight- , en those who he considered were time ago, was well known as an . . . . .. , 1 ’ in the darkness. He was always Oregon pioneer, and as a writer f(> digcllfig religious questions and hietorian. IDs writings on ^ ith anyone who would argue. Ereethought topics have graced the All the new hooks he read; with colum ns of the T orch of R eason , all the new thought, he was lamil- F reetl,ought M agazine an.l m any ¡ ^ - J o s t before he was compelled hv illness to leave h is beloved o th er periodicals. His picture hooks, he was reading H udson’s and ail article on R< ligion and j aw of p KyChie Phenom ena, and R ighteousness” , appeared in the a lm(>8t bis b,8t words to me were Ju n e number of the Freethongbt about the r. onstroQs doctrines of Magazine. O rthodoxy. One other ch aracter Rev. W. E . C o p elan d , of th e istic of Mr. Adams needs to he re- „ . . , , , e membered and th a t is his courage. U n itarian church of Salem, says of e H e was a brave m an; for it requires him t (the very highest species of courage W hatever he undertook, he did for a man to come out from a with his whole m ight, w hether it church, where for m any years, he w is carpentering, teaching, preach- had been an honored m inister, and ing, or m aking maps. He was one to reject those doctrines which he who did the work o f several men. had taught. His old friends looked In early life was obliged to support coldly upon him, and some would his m other and her fam ily, and he have nothing to do with him. Yet worked at the carpenter’s trade, he persevered and cham pioned the finding tim e meanwhile to secure unpopular side till the day of his an education. He served his con- death. The test of his religion was stitu en ts as County Clerk and State his character, w hich was pure and Legislator, and prea< bed good, exalted; he was ever full of merri- strong serm ons at the same time, m ent and on the lookout for oppor- Most men would have been worn tunities to enliven others. Illness out long ago; but work seemed to and m isfortune never roused him, agree with him. In h i, last years hut to the end he was bright ami he had been at work in the way of cheery. B itter against orthodox v theological discussion, and articles he was ever gentle to the orthodox, from his pen frequently appeared Jo his theological debates he was in the Oregonian, bringing him in keen, audalde, unsparing in his a t to connection with advanced think- tacks on what he believed to be the eus even as far as India, several let- great enem y of hum an progress, ters coming to him from H indoo R ightly he thought it his duty, interested in a 1 ariiam ent of Re- whenever opportunity offered, to ligions to he held in llin d u stan d . denounce those m onstrous doctrines Next to his untiring energy, Mr. taught and believed by m any; of Adams was noted for his anxiety eternal misery, the atonem ent by to learn the tru th — to explore. This tbe blood of J e8Ut)> and the ¡nfa„ j. led hi in in 1850 to come overland bility of the Bible. He ever in to California, where, after alm ost sisted on the great U nitarian af incredible hardship, he arrived, re- firm ation of the divinity of m an, duced to a skeleton and not con-1 salvation by ch aracter individual scions of bis own identity. W hen ; rw p o n sjb j|ityi c0, „ inllal illgpiratioll recovered fro,,, tl.e effect of his ter- jn all ages. • As to the future he l-ible trip across the plains, b ecam e wa8 in doubt, hut he ever affirmed to Oregon, landing am ong the t h a t if a man m ade the most of this stum ps in w hat is now P ortland. li(e whi(,h now is lhe fulure He settled in Y am hill county llave llo ,error i|( g|()re f((r hh)) am ong the Indians, with whom he My friend had no fears of the fu was a good friend. ture; he wanted to live; he enjoy- OBITUARY. H aving explored the new country he began to explore regions of thought with which he was un- fam iliar. For many years he was clergym an of the C hristian denoini- nation preaching ami baptising and working with intense dilligence in various parts of Oregon, startin g m any churches, putting the Chris- tian church in Salem out of debt and in good, healthy condition, He was alw ays reading and study- ing, and at last thought his way out of the old theology the worst p arts of which he had never be- lieved or taught. \\ hen U nity church was form, d in Salem , he became a member Since I have been here he has always been in , ed life; I doubt if there was a hap pier home in Salem than his; but he was not afraid to go. No fear of hell torm ented him ; no belief in the anger and hatred of God tor- tured him . He knew th a t the only hell w hich ex isted for him he had in his own heart. He knew th a t if he loved his neighbor and lived at peace with all men he was in heav- en. W hatever men m ay say of Mr. A dam s’ theology, of his lack of faith, of his denials of what m any believe, no one will deny that he was a good m an. Thoroughly honest and incorruptible, harm ing no m an, gentle and loving, he was a citizen who knew his d u ty and did it, a friend alw ays faithful, a . tender husband and father, I do dom , we sh all better than in any not believe he had an enem y in the world except those who were enrag- ed by his theological argum ents. We have lost from our m idst -one whose exam ple was a shining light to the young. The friends of religious liberty in Oregon, w hether U nitarian, Bap- list or Secularist, have lost an a r dent advocate of freedom. He ever insisted on entire religious freedom and rebelled at any a t tem pt to curb freedom of speech or freedom of thought. His pen was active in advocating religious libe- ert v, H e took advanced ground, to which some could not follow 1dm, hut on which, before the next other way keep his mem ory green, Like him , w hatever we find to do, may we do it with all our might. A good m an has gone from am ong us, and it is hut right that we should recall his goodness and regret his departure. A fter all, friends, the only th in g which en- du"es is righteousness; though the m an he gone, th e m em ory of his righteousness rem ains. M o w th e Q u a k e rs E d u c a te . At th e yearly m eeting of the p ,ie ,,ds’ church, which convened here in Newberg, last Ju n e, the fol- ¡owing resolutions were passed: c e n tu rv closes, a ll will sta n d . 1 ~ i i I 1 hat R ,K know well th a t he could not >e bet- ¡()g no ter pleased than through me today to again protest against th a t ortho- doxy which he so cordially detest- i, ed. i * le W i hen t I h i ad spoken w ith ....... m ore 1 . than usual vigor against that limn- -ter, he lias often said to me, ‘‘You did not put it half strong enough.” To orthodoxy, with its artificial plan of* salvation, which permits nine-tenths of hum anity to he lost, with its travesty of God, who is represented as hating his own in- nocent children, with its sacred hook which in the letter commends injustice and even crim e; to o rth o doxy which has in tin* past caused rivers af blood to flow, which has calm ly watched the fires slowly consum e men and women whose only crim e was th at they could not accept certain unreasonable doc trines; to orthodoxy which lias a r rayed father against m other, c h il dren against parents and nation against nation; to orthodoxy, the fertile source of hypocrisy and per- seculion, be was never weary of try in g by the most powerful argu- m ents he could prepare and in the strongest words he could find, to convince the C hristian world th a t orthodoxy was the most cruel devil which the world has ever known. 1 hat a custom or a belief was ac- counted orthodox was enough to a t once secure its rejection. T hat an idea was heterodox, that an opinion was accounted heretical, th a t a th in k er was accounted dan- gerous bv the orthodox C hristian church, rendered him hospitable to the idea or opinion and friendly to the th in k er denounced as danger- ows. Now that our b ro th er’s voice is silent, and his pen can no longer expose the errors and superstitions of those accounted orthodox, who prize above the sp irit the letter, who dread too much light, who value the sect more than C hristian- itv, and C h ristian ity more than universal religion, we must he on the alert and with more enthusi- asm than ever enter on th a t eter- nal battle between tru th and error, light and darkness. By devotion to th^ cause our brother loved, by enthusiastic work for religious free- . sense of th is meet- te a c h in g , e ith e r by teacher or text book, should he per- initted in Pacific College th a t in ‘ any way discredits the authenticity ! of . any • 1 portion , of , the , bible. . , It , is f u rth e r ex p re ssly d e c la re d to he the Hense <>f this m eeting, th a t in all bible teaching its tru th is to be ad m itted w ithout question. To call th a t process of stuffing, “edu catio n ” , is a libel on the word. An in stitu tio n conducted in that wav should not be called Pacific College, hut Pacific Asylum — a dum b asvlum , a t th a t, where a stu dent does not am ount to as much as an interrogation point. He not only m ust not have an opinion, but he must not ask questions. A pro fessor in such an asvlum does not need brains. He should he fur nished with a bellows, o ra syringe. Are these people honest? If they believed the a u th en ticity of the ho ly hook could be proved, would they fear investigation even under their own professors? In th eir in ner consciousness they know it is a holy V sham th a t will not hear to be enquired into. They have seperat- ed th eir religion from th eir intel- lects and based it upon stupidity, They depend now upon scaring each other into the kingdom , L ast w inter I was passing by P orter’s store in Newberg and I saw in the window an inscription which read, “ Chew Navy Plug”. The next thing I cam e to was a bulletin hoard on which was scrawled “ Pre- parfc to meet thy God” . They were having a big scare and this was th e result as recorded in the report in the yearly m eeting. “ At Newberg a series of m eetings of seven weeks, 72 sessions, was held un d er the care of A. T. Ware, which resulted in much good to the church as a whole and many were definitely blessed.” Seven weeks w ithout a cor vert. But they had better luck elsewhere, The report says th a t “ at P ortland a series of m eetings of eight sessions was conducted by F .’M. George, re- suiting in tbe conversion of twenty or more c h ild re n .” If they believ- ed Jesus they would understand that those ch ild ren were in the kingdom of heaven already, W here were they after they were