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