Image provided by: Silverton Country Historical Society; Silverton, OR
About Torch of reason. (Silverton, Oregon) 1896-1903 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 10, 1898)
2 ward to the time when it will revo which should have been the firm lutionize public opinion at least on friend of the people, seeking to give th at people the light for which they religious questions. An address delivered by Rev. W. E. Copeland, at U nity C hurch, Salem . In the la-t p art of the eighteenth were agonizing, instead the firm Oregon, Sunday, Ja n u a ry 30, in .honor century there was a ferm ent in the allies of ty ran n y , taking away all of th e 162d anniversary of th e birth of th e g reat “ A postle of Religious and civil and religious world. Doubts light and assisting to rivet their Political L ib e rty ” . Paine h picture, of the divine right of kings th re a t chains. We have seen liberty h u n t w reathed w ith ’ivy, hung behind the ened destruction to European ed from C hristian Africa, Asia, and HpeaKCi & defile. m onarchies. Doubts of pope, council Europe, welcomed by Moslem Again we have come to the b irth bishops, or even a book to dictate Africa and Asia, taken by Moslems day of Thom as Paine, and in ac belief and practice threatened the to Spain and there m ade to shed cordance with a custom , which I destruction of the churches. such light as to draw all men to adopted early in my m inistry, I de Doubts of vested rights became the southw estern corner of Europe. vote the evening of the Sunday belief in property for all the people, We have seen the scholars of the nearest his b irth d ay to a mem orial and we have the French Revolution world basking in the light of truth service, m ainly as a protest against confiscating all property to the shed abroad in Infidel Moslem orthodoxy; which never learns an y state. D oubts of church and creed schools. We have seen the light thing, and which, despite all the culm inated the belief in reason,and shining brighter, as though the sun books published d ir e c tly proving in F rance the churches were closed, had risen, and then we have wit the contrary, still repeats the same a i d all over Christendom a long nessed the church in the name of old falsehoods about Paine, which step was taken tow ards entire re religion, in the name of C hrist, de have not the slightest foundation in stroying those schools, driving And let me in the beginning say, ligious freedom. C enturies of op fact. I t has been s a il th a t lies,' pression, in which both state and those learned teachers away from spoken in the pulpit, and covered th a t so far as we can learn from the church, priests and nobles bad S pain; we have seen the inquisition with glittering rhetoric are made to writings of Paine, even from the joined, at last bore bitter fruit and rear its dread walls, and priests of pass for tru th . Never has there much condemned “ Age of Reason” , the meek and lowly Jesus standing been a statem ent m ade which the never read b y th o s e loudest in its in one common ruin down went all in dungeons by the side of men, established instutions. There was speaker did not believe to he true. condem nation, he was not nearly whose only crim e was th a t they Above all else, I value truth, and I so radical in his religious ideas as to he a clean state, in which new dared think for them selves, and in have never given any adherence to m any nowadays quite respected custom s and new beliefs were to be This destruction of the name of religion, to rtu re their th a t church doctrine th a t a lie for even in the church. The position, w ritten. captives with m alignity and cruel- the glory of God or upbuilding of which he assum ed toward the bible, church and state was not due to I fcy not surpassed by the most the church is justifiable. P ut it is is that taken today by the higher the Infidels of the eighteenth savage nations. We have witness a common occurance every year to criticism. He used blunt language century, but to the bishops and ed b ru tal gladiatorial shows in hear preachers in orthodox church-, and came to his c inclusions by the priests, the k irn s and nobles of the which Christians were killed for the cs repeat the old stories about - use of plain common sense, while fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, delight of heathen, more brutal auto Paine, which have again and again th e modern critics, some of them who had denied to the common da fe’s in which Christian was killed been proved to he false. In this teachers in evangelical colleges, people either privileges or rights, preachers in evangelical treating them like mere beasts of for the delight of brother Christians. age, when a most careful study ofl some We have seen the fighters, who had his life, made by com petent churches, use more polished lan the field. At last the people rose no tim e or desire to study, taken students, shows him to have been guage and base th eir conclusions and in a sea of blood washed out from their homes in the various one of the great men of h is time, j on a very careful study of the book, the strifes and barbarism s of the stales of Europe and banded into when it has been conclusively prov and of the tim es in whi°h the book past. Once roused, the canaille, the crusades, th a t th u s they too ed th a t he was a man of tem perate was w ritten. T h at higher c riti as the nobles had called them , let m ight see some of the light still habits and good m orals, when com cism, which has found its way into ting loose all the anim al ferocity, burning in B yzantinne, and might petent witnesses declare th a t he the studies of so m any clergymen so long sm ouldering, involved in one common ruin, castle and j meet with em ancipated infidels. died calm ly and with no fear, we esteemed orthodox and has effected From which crusade, started by are still pointed to that “ blasphem their sermons, comes to precisely church, and forever ended the dark papacy to rivet the chains of ortho ing, drunken Tom Paine, whose the same conclusions at which ages, when blind obedience bad N either Paine been dem anded and given. In doxy upon the people, the crusaders deathbed of horror should warn all P aine arrived. came home in large m easure freed sinners to repent.’’ I recently read nor those accepting the higher c rit those dark ages, noble and priest from the old superstitions and big an interesting story of how a man icism reject the bible; but they do bad vied with each other in cru sh otry, and the first blow was struck under hypnotic influence saw, in assert their liberty; neither by ing into a common desolation the at the tyranny of the old church. stead of a gloomy ruin, a beautiful pope, council, or book will they per people, so when th e opportunity home peopled by interesting ten m it their freedom of conscience to came, the people overthrew’ their Infidel dogs were found to he fai an ts; in this case the reverse is true be abridged. P aine lias been fol oppressors and revenged themselves superior in knowledge; in chivalric courtesy, in m ilitary prowess, in all and a noble, honorable, reverential, lowed by many others, am ong them for centuries of ty ran y . Paine and others like him, not which m eant true knighthood, it patriot, u n d er the hypnotic in some of the most devout and pious fluence of orthodoxy, which still re of m odern tim es in their protest lu'ing mere anim als but men, well was found th at men could be good places the real with the im aginary against slavery to the letter of any aware of n atu re’s great law of re tri fighters, well versed in m ilitary and compels m ultitudes to believe book. The bible is made to stand bution, counselled care in doing m ethods and •r yet be scholars and It was found th a t In lies to be the tru th , is made to seem on its own m erits and is no longer away with the ol<l isms, of w hich gentlem en. the most loathsom e of hum an kind. bolstered up by the doctrines of some were precious and deserved fidel Moslems wore more Christian Because Thom as Paine, more than verbal inspiration; when becoming careful treatm ent. We have w atch than Greek C hristians and the cru an y other one man in the last two the friend and not tin* m aster, it ed the course of the river of civil saders returned to Europe with new centuries, is the incarnation of civil does more for hum an progress than and religious liberty and seen ideas about religion, which worked and religious liberty, we honor ever before. barbarism succeeded by jinpereal- m ightily in the coming centuries to his b irth d ay as we do no other re It is a noticeable result of the long isnj, im perealism by feudalism, arouse th a t civil and religious lib form er and moreover, because we continued efforts in favor of Free- feudalism by m ilitarism , m ilitarism erty which was to do so much would register a protest against the thought, th a t now the bible can be by industrialism , each step a gain for the civilization of the world. in g ratitu d e which forgets his in freely discussed, and that the dis though taken in blood and terrible We have watched the renaissance, estim able services to the American cussions are read bv scholarly suffering for hum anity. We have the revival of learning, when once become allied more the power of the heathep pre people. clergymen in all denom inations. seen C hristianity vailed over the pow-er of the Chris A service in honor of Paine is a As I have already indicated, the with the church and made a teach tian , when Greek literatu re was fitting conclusion to my course of higher criticism finds its way into er of separation or caste, dividing more eagerly sought th an monkish lectures on the “ Course of the River m ultitudes of evangelical studies; men from men. We have seen legends or even the bible itself, and of Civil and Religious Freedom ,” the poison, as it is called by the those, who should have lieen faith wc have noted how in every Euro for Paine and those who agree with bigoted, has infected a great m ul ful shepherds, guarding the flocks pean nation arose men who^e chain- him , are the full outcome of the titude of religious teachers and is en tru sted to their care, changed to had been struck off by those giant work of centuries, exerted to secure continually gaining new converts, ravening wolves devouring the for hum anity entire liberty. AU, so th at we can confidently look for sheen. We have seen the church, intellects of ancient Greece, wh< - T hom as P aine. the battling» and contests frequent ly involving death to m any, have been made, th a t Free!bought m ight trium ph. Paine, V oltaire, Inger soll and a great host of others hear the honorable title of Freethinkers or Infidels. An Infidel is alw ays brainy and intelligent; som tim es they may be harsh in their words, peculiar in their acts, hut as a class you will find them honest, good citizens, good husbands and fathers. You can tru st their in tegrity; they will not cheat: they will not take advantage of their neighbors distress; depending on their own m erits and not the m erits of another for salvation. T heir characters are pretty sure to have much in them which compels adm iration and call for im itation.