THE TORCH OF REASON, SILVERTON, OREGON, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 1898.
4
phia, cocaine, etc., the habit of
using it often becomes so -trong
The Only P aper of Its Kind.
that the victim will resort to it ♦ ven
after he is convinced th a t it is
Published W eekly by th e Lil»eral I di
wrong. The world in its childhood
versity C om pany, in th e In terests'o f
C onstructive, Moral Secularism .
cried in agony and fell down on its
face, ^frightened by the naught}
J. E. H o sm e r,....................... E d ito r
,
,
P. W. Geer,
M an ag er l,nestf< stories; hut now, happy
Porch of Reason
(Iren have learned the lesson — have and it stand« ready and willing n,
learned the hiding place of their change, adopt, reject and amend in
enemies and will not rest until all order to be in perfect harm ony wi’h
are brought into the loving fold of tru th and right.
scientific wisdom and freed from
-
■ ■
fear and pain.
T h e S u rv iv a , of th e A tte s t.
Oh, C hristian friends, can you
.
.
.
not see th at there is not one fact t o , One, who has been convert, ,1
thought, p at last begins to stand prove the existence of a heaven or a I frnrn t ,
erect and shake off its fears.
hell lieyond tins life? Can you not
. . .
heathen
doctrines
•'
.
.
. ... ,
The world is like a m an who, see th at there is an awful hell of j
*
when lie wan a little bov, was fear and pain ail around us? Can
> '< uiaristn, knows very a
subscription r ates .
. >
1
th at there a re thousa nds of people
One year, in advance
<1 00 frightened by some larger hoys you not see th at to unite all the.
1 P ir >
who
would
‘‘leave
the
ooor
old
Six m onths in a d v a n c e ....................
5C threatening to throw him into the forces of intelligent men and women
T hree m onths, in a d v a n c e ................
2o
: stranded w recks” of creed ism and
river through a hole in the ice. against these evils means
In clubs of five or m ore, one year,
11 shore of l i - t -
in a d v an c e ..........................................
76 Ever since t h a t day, and he is a speedy establishm ent of a heaven ‘ " *,n
Money should be sent by registered m an grown now, he has had nerv- here? Oh, let us unite these forces! thought, il they <ould only once
le tte r or m oney order.
a
,,f , h
i s land.
ous tits, in which h e f r o th s a t the We can do it; we will do it if all
...........
..........................................
.. who now u n d erstan d the tru th will " - « r e very apt to cry hypocrite
m
outh, , pulls
his own h air and
Notice!
.
hruicca him self on the surrounding stand firm in the fight and force | and c" ndell,n people for clinging to
A pencil m ark here denotes th a t your
.
. ,
.
.
i th e o ld id e a s a n d f o r t r e t t h a t n-,a» .v
subscription will ex p ire with the next objects. So it is with the world, the banner of constructive, m o ral, . ,
,
g
‘ , '
of
them
have
never
seen
anything
num ber. 'Sou are earn estly requested
w a s frjahtened bv th e p r ie s ts , Secularism to the front,
to renew so th a t you m ay receive th e pa-1
•
1
else to cling to. The leaders of the
per w ithout in te rru p tio n . We have de- a n d a lt h o u g h s tr o n g a n d a id e in
■■■—■
orthodox fake, those that are as
cided th a t it is best h»i all concerned m a ,,y w a y s , its f e a rfu l r e lig io u s fits
F r e e t h o u g h t a n d F r e e th o u g h t.
th a t we do no t send p ipeis longer th a n )
“ wise as serpents” , know th at their
th e tim e paid for u n 'ess so ordered. : are sad sights to witness. T h e re a r e
It is a m u sin g to us to see th e cause is safe as long as they can
I his will prevent any Io
and we will 8Ome however, in our dav, who
know ju st where we sta n d .
’
•
prevent other and better ideas from
We request you to send u* the nam es have outgrown the fits, if not all desperate efforts made by some
working in opposition. They have
- * “ "•>
wt'"
* h ° claim to Iw F reethlnkers.trylng
the floor and intend to keep it, hut
----- —
fortunate enough never to have had to keep the patronage of both the
how can they do it if we Secular
THURSDAY, FEB. 3, E. M. 298 them . To these we appeal for aid moral and im moral factions of what
ists live up to our privileges? The
in trying to fortify the m inds of has heretofore been called the Free-
the youth against the wicked doc- thought cause. There are some, to I l<1?'
°f the fittest
T h e S e v e n th P s a lm .
in this matter,
trines of the naughty priest-hoys be sure, who system atize their im-
* ( F alH '
To tlio Freothinker« called ScculariHl».
who are everyw here telling their m orality and oiler their “ princi- and if we organize churches, Sun
In “ good in m a n ” »ve p u t our tru st
day schools, and Universities, and
. accursed lies to frighten the chil- pies” as an excuse for it, and we
I it building for th e r i g h t :
place them beside those which we
To it can save, if au g h t can save,
dren of men. M any who have been don’t know but these deserve more
From su p e rstitio n ’s b light.
claim are not as fit to exist as ours,
frightened can yet be saved and as- respect from decent people than
O h, bro th er, sister, are you good?
sist in the good work, and some those who by deception get much they will be crowded out provided
Then save th e world t o d a y :
we are right.
The wolves and lions snarl and b ite ;
tim e the world will he entirely tree patronage front those who, i’ they
O h, save it w hile you m ay!
Freethought organizations have
from 1 hese orthodox fits of fear.
were acquainted with the facts,
not alw ays succeeded. Can it he
Let w hat you do he for th e tru th :
Much of the pain th at the infant would fight against th a t kind of
I a ;1’ s work against all ev il;
that they have not been as fit to
L et’s save the world from every w rong— suffers could be prevented if the in- Freethought.
live as the orthodox churches? We
From every god and devil.
fant could tell the cause ol its troll-
There never was a fact more pat-
are of the opinion th a t many tiims
Uphold th e rig h t, the ju st, th e tru e ;
hle or the organ affected. So it has e nt to us than th at im m oral Free-
Arise in love, not auger,
this lias been the case.
Free-
been with hum anity.
During th e thought, like C hristianity, is a
And for th e sake of all m ankind
thought is certainly right. Other
To wrong no longer pander.
dark ages ol the past, man knew great evil. Ollering a remedy for , .
not the cause of disease nor the na- C hristian creeds and dogmas, the J H,,g8 1 ‘al are
a ‘ wrong— worse, or at
O h, help th e wicket! see th e ir w rong;
The tim e for work is Hying,
repulsive
to lovers of
ture of his body and its functions, im m oral F reeth in k ers(?) have giv-
H’0™ F
<
Ami all should tu rn from fear and sin :
He could only cry, infant -hat fie en th eir patients a th.se th a t some ," " g'''
th " " ‘ he e ' r,’r?
“ ** ° 'd
A blessing comes in trying.
was. and only 1« free when, ttnaid- ,,f them will never get over and
" a , " ' all8m - sw m Lh,,und
The god of David w hets his «word
ed, M other N at.,re healed the lhev have made others, who were Í C' ,n«
h " g“ 1™ « "* . b" ‘ JU!“ 119
( hi every provocation,
Entered at the postotfice at Silverton,
Oregon, a« second-class m ail m a tte r.
, .MSi.UIPTMI. L,ATi s
B ut gods of reason conquer foes
By wars of education.
wound or rocked h i............... .. long
slcen
e r oosoin.
b o so m
s o t p o on
u h ofi
n n # ; t
,,, • . ,
Belief in Jesus, the Christian’s
.
4
panacea, has not onlv proven a fail-
'
.. ,
ute, but a direc„ caust* of a large
f
. tl
,/
portion of the pain the race has
suffered. Instead of advancing the
.
,
”
sciences of anatom v, physiology a nd
hygiene, it has taught such dam ag-
ing ideas as m iraculous healing by
the laying on of hands, the casting
out of devils, washing in the
• uu.i ,,r y;i „
*
1 •
.1
pool or Siloam, the touching the
garm ents of those having “ v irtu e”
iti them, etc., etc. For years and
„nt'nrallv to., good anti pure
« t all
n medicines
r •
. , help
. ,
take
prescribed,
.1 < .
r
,
,
in m ixing the “ stuff” for the less
i
,
fortunate. It is certainly time th a t
.
4
,
honest, moral men and women
,......., ........ u .. . L _
r» ..
...
found out that there is Freethought
and Freethought; and thev should
.
.
not only find it out,hut they should
stop supporting that which their
best judgm ent teaches them is
evil. It is not necessary, nor is it
to he expected, th a t F reethinkers
1 u
*
i-
1
,•
should agree on everything, hut this
question of what m orality is is a
vital one and those having radical-
|
organ.zat.ona
child suffers from fear
cannot he understood excepting by
those who have the power of going
hack to their childhood days and
living over again the awful exper-
iences th at are still allowed to come
to the young of what are called civ-
ilized people.
C h ristian ity , the C h ristia n ’s pan-
acea, is like much of the medicine
more
,
. fit to , exist th an the , Christian
,
¡’ hutches they will supplant them.
«» « •
, .
, 1
I o this end let us hasten to make
,
,
,
,
,
them tin* very best, L e tu s ta k e a ll
..
,
,
, ,
Hie good parts of orthodoxy, and it
certainly has some good moral
tcachings even if it is taught from
a wrong standpoint, and placing
these and other principles of right
living on the grand foundation of
science and liberty of thought, we
" ill cause the less fit organizations
.
,
, ,
.
• ,* \
aWaJ as *
8 8 .°P‘ /
PPL1.. a<e a t t e urt 1 o a »rig it.
sunny m orning in our beautiful
4
• .
. . . - .
.,
years ( hi lstianity prevented phvsi- 1\ opposite ideas on this question ..
cia„8 (r„n, „slug the hut.iaii skele- .¡ever cat, affiliate, and failure will r"g""'
ton. It was an enemy * to the idea overtake us every time we trv.
*
If a man is on the road to “ see
of the circulation of the blood, to
The Oregon S tate Secular Union
the use ot anesthetics in surgery, stands for the only kind of Free- ing snakes” can he be said to be a
and today it is the greatest obstacle thought th at can win and the only F reethinker?
to the general dissem ination of sci- kind th a t can do the world any
___
entific knowledge. If Jesus Christ good when it does win. In fact, it
The C hristians th in k they are
had known as much as our modern stands for the only real Free-
like the wise m an who built his
physicians, how much fear and thougiit that there is, for it is nei-
pain or the past nineteen centuries ther bound to an orthodox creed house 0,1 rt rock. b’R we th in k such
given for bodily diseases; it is
h ard er to get rid of th an the dis-
ease, and, as is the case with mor-
wouid have been turned into love nor to the creeds of the other ex- et(>rie8 as o,‘e m ust believe in order
and happiness! But at last Mo- trerne, hut its guide is the highest t° be a C hristian, is verv soft rock,
tie r N ature’s most intelligent chil- scientific au th o rity of the world Science is the solid rock.
Ami those who sail the “ gospel s h ip ,”
W ith false and bloody rigging,
Are ju st th e ones w ho’ve run aground
In ditches th e y ’ve been digging.
T h eir m ischief tu rn s upon th e ir heads;
T h ey ’ve tried to scare “ th e h e a th e n ” ,
And now they re scared almost to death
ror tear the.v’h m iss th e ir heaven.
W e’ll “ prize th e good evolved in tim e ”
W e’ll sing its praises long;
The world is saved at last tor tru th !
Come join the victo rs’ song.
E n e m ie s .
Two of the worst enemies th a t
m ankind has are fear and pain.
H,.W much