4
T H E TORCH OF REASON, SILV E R T O N , OREGON , D E C E M B E R , 1, 1898.
your whole weight on the side of them w ithout m oney and “ w ith­
tru th . H elp us save the world, not out price.” T heir bell is a curse,
while what we offer them will help
for Jesus, but for hum anity.
rid the world of its greatest evil
and save it for righteousness.
T o T h o s e W h o H a v e S u ffe r e d . Come on, thinkers, “ gird up your
There are m any m illions who have loins;” le t’s give it to 'em!
(You remember th a t the Apostles’
Creed states th a t “ he descended in-
The Only P aper of Its Kind.
to hell” and th a t “ the th ird day he
__ , rose frO B ) t h e dead ’, i \\ ell, it was
Published W eekly by th e Liberal U ni- j u s t after he “ got back" th a t h e a p -
versity C om pany, in the Interests oi
Deared unto the eleven (one, poor
C onstructive. M orsl Secularism .
*
,
. .
.
_
Peter, had trouble with his bowels
J E H osm er,
...E d i t o r »>■'! l“*‘l t» 1“
11 >''I'
l1" ’ sal""
P W. Qeer,
. . . . . M anager place) and scolded them because
____
they d id n ’t believe those
who
E n U w d ^ l - n u H e e at SHwrtoo, professed to have MM bim after he
Oregon, as second-class mail m atter.
“ gOt back”. But these unbelieving
eleven— these unfaithful (infidel)
SUBSCRIPTION RATES.
apostles w’ere all poor Jesus had,
$1 00 and so he m ade up his m ind to
One year, in ad vance....................
50 en tru st these skeptical fishermen
Six m onths, in ad v an ce....................
25
T h re e m o n th s , in a d v a n c e .................
with the great message o f salvation
In clubs of five or m ore, one year,
in ad vance..........................................
to the whole world. “ And he said
Money should lie sent by registered
unto them , (M att. xvi. 15.) Go ye
le tte r or money order.
into all the world and preach the
gospel to every creature.
Notice!
“ He th a t helicveth and is bap­
A pencil m ark here denotes th a t your tized shall be saved; but he th at
subscription will expire w ith th e next
n u m b er. You are earnestly requested believeth not shall be dam ned.
to renew so th a t you m ay receive the pa­
“ And these signs shall follow
per w ithout in te rru p tio n . We have de­
cided th a t it is best for all concerned them th a t believe; In my nam e
■ ▼ ▼ ▼ V T ▼ ▼ ▼
th a t we do not send papers longer than
Torch of Reason
th e tim e paid for unless so ordered.
This will prev en t any loss and we will
know ju st w here we stan d .
We request you to send us th e nam es
of Secularists who m ight become su b ­
scribers and we will m ail sam ple copies.
m ig h ty , M aker of H eaven an d
fHURSDAY, DEC. i, E. M. 298
E a rth :
And in Je su s C h rist, H is only
A S h o t a t th e B u rn in g B u s h .
Son our L ord; W ho was conceived
by th e H oly G h o st, born of th e
V irgin M ary ; suffered u n d e r P o n ­
suffered untold m ental and phys­
ical pain on account of the old lies
of orthodoxy. Are you one, dear
reader? If so, let us not forget th a t
there are m illions who are now
in the very m idst of the same, and
perhaps worse, suffering. Let us
not he so overjoyed a t our release,
nor so in h u m an as to forget our
duty to those who are going down
in the awful flood th a t we have es­
caped. L et us not forget the m any
m illions of future generations who
will go down the same “d ark val­
ley” unless we tu rn the tide into
the m urm uring stream s and crys­
tal fountains of Freethought.
We have escaped the m ad to r­
rent, and although we m ay be cold,
v -v -r t
I
T h e A p o s tle s ’ C r e e d .
I believe in God th e F a th e r Al­
Some C h ristian s’ excuse for not
tius P ilate, was crucified, dead
lebating with Inhdels is th a t an
and b u rie d ; H e descended into
Infidel will not take the Bible for ,
hell. T he th ird day H e rose
authority. This is as unfair as it ,
from th e d e ad ; H e ascended into
would be f o r Infidels to refuse to]
heaven, and s itte th on th e rig h t
debate unless C hristians would
hand of God th e F a th e r A lm ighty ;
‘ake the Infidel w riters as author-
from thence H e shall come to
ty, and this, of course, would be
judge th e quick an d th e dead.
.inreasonable and absurd.
The
I believe in th e H oly G h o st; th e
holy
C atholic c h u rc h ; th e com ­
fair way to debate the questions of
m union of s a in ts ; th e forgiveness
religion and freedom of thought is
of sin s; th e resu rrectio n of the
to “ search the scriptures” , histories,
body, and th e life ev erlastin g .
works of science and the great open
Am en.
book of nature itself, and by induc­
tion draw the conclusions of reason.
Taking this fair and honorable po- sh all they cast out devils; they
lition, the Liberal
U niversity shall speak with new tongues;
brows down the gauntlet to the
“ They shall take up serpents;
vhole orthodox world, the only and if they drink any deadly thing
lecessary qualification of the Chris- it shall not h u rt them ; they shall
¡an debater being th a t he or sh e lay hands on the sick and they
o u st be an ordained or representa- shall recover.”
,ive man or w om an, of good moral
Then the good(?) book goes
character. We would be very much On to say th a t this being th a t
pleased to hold a series of well reg- “spake as no m an ever spake”
ulated debates here at S ilverton on ascended upw ards and sat by God.
subjects calculated to lead us to the Now, E arnest C hristian, you con-
tru th which lies somewhere between tend th a t the Bible is your guide,
the two extrem es.
We have but L et us look a t this p art of the word
little hopes, however, of bringing a moment. Is it true? Cau those
the “ arm y of the L ord” to a fair, who believe cast out devils? Now,
open fight, and so if we wish to honor bright. D on’t dodge. Are
fight “ the good right against fa ith ” there any devils such as were be-
we will be obliged to fire at them as lieved in in those days? Can be-
they skulk in their “ burning bush” ; lievers d rin k strychnine and no
so here goes.
harm come to them ? Do you be-
Say, over there, you pious lieve the gospel, and can your lit-
son of Jehovah, take off your bel- tie bands heal the sick? If they
lows-tongued moccasins, for the c a „ heal either physical or spirit-
mud we are about to enter ie ual sickness, come and lay them on
hol(e)y ground! In other words, the sick am oug us, and we will pay
we are going to quote scripture. In yOU well for your trouble,
the last chapter of Mark it gives an
C an’t you see now th a t your su-
account of your Jesus after he “ got p ern atu ral religion is false? Come,
back' from his little trip to bell, give it up, as we have, and throw
A A
.A --A . ■
. -A .
A
A
A . A . A -A > .
■ A . A . A
A
A F e w P ie c e s o f S ilv e r .
We entered the work of building
the L iberal U niversity, believing
th a t if we would do our p art, other
F reethinkers would do theirs, and
th a t the institu tio n would prosper
and become a great power in free­
ing the world from ignorance and
superstition.
We have done our part, and our
friends all say th a t we have done
well, but we have reached a point
where others m ust do their p a rt or
our work can not be a success. We
are not idly w aiting; we are p u t­
ting forth every effort in our power,
but the work dem ands more th a n
we can give. We appreciate the
help we have had, and realize as
S e c u la r J o h n ’s C r e e d .
no one else can w hat it has been,
b u t tru e S ecularists are alw ays
I believe in T ru th , th e A lm ighty
“ taking th o u g h t for the m orrow .”
p rin cip le, M aker of H eaven on
It m atters not how hard we have
E a rth :
And in Science its offspring our
worked nor how m uch help we
S av io r; w hich has been conceived
have received unless we build on
by th e g reat m in d s of o u r race,
the foundation we have th u s se­
horn of vigin love; suffered u n d er
cured. We have a fine foundation
th e p riests of S u p e rstitio n , was
for a future school. I t is excellent
crucified, dead an d b u ried in th e
d a rk ag es; its absence m ade an
in every way. The students are
e a rth ly hell, h u t it finally rose
workers and are learning what ed­
again from th e dead ; it ascended
ucation really m eans. We have
to m ak e an e a rth ly heaven, an d
none of those little wars between
now' tak e s a high place in th e
teachers and p u p ils th a t exist in
m in d s of all good m en and wom en ;
by it sh all he judged th e living,
m ost schools. All is harm onious,
and not th e dead.
and this, too, w ithout any cast iron
I believe in lib erty of th o u g h t ;
th e e sta b lish m e n t of ch u rch es of
rules.
h u m a n ity ; th e bro th erh o o d of
O ur building is all ready to go
m an k in d ; u n iv ersal education th a t
will erad icate sin ; th e in d estru c t-
up. The lum ber is on the ground.
a h ility of m a tte r, and an e te rn al
S tu d en ts are com ing from far and
effect for good or evil of every life.
A m en.
near, and we ought not to be crow d­
ed and cram ped, b u t we are obliged
to w ait. E v ery th in g is all ready
alm ost exhausted and weary with
to go on, yet we do not move.
over-exertion, yet it is our d u ty — it
W hv? O ur lumber is not paid
is w hat our lives are worth to “ throw
FOR, AND WE DARE NOT USE IT UNTIL
out the life lin e” of the Religion of
it is. Today, if we had Five H u n ­
H u m an ity and rescue our perish ­
dred D ollars, the building would
ing brothers and sisters from the
be moving rig h t along.
dark w aters of Ignorance.
We do not w ant to cram p a n y ­
body, and if we th o u g h t th a t a n y ­
U p A n d A t It!
one, or anyone’s fam ily, was to be
One would alm ost th in k th a t robbed to build this in stitu tio n , we
some infidels are “ asleep in Jesu s,” would refuse to receive such help,
the sam e as the C hristians are, and our advice to those who are
judging from the am ount of work fighting hard to m ake both ends
they do for the cause. If everyone meet, is to keep their m oney, or so
will take hold now’, we can knock expend it th a t they will the sooner
the old rotten dogm as into a “cock­ be able to be independent, b u t F ree­
ed h a t.” We have the enem y scared th in k ers, you who are not cram ped,
already and will soon have them we w ant you to help us. The work
on the run if every one will do dem ands it, and we have no way of
something . Go to church.
T alk seeing you personally, so th e Torch
to the preacher. Ask questions. of Reason m ust do the work for us.
Help us build the U niversity. Do Now ca n ’t we raise the five h u iv
as L u th er did when he m ade a dr»d dollars right aw ay? W e had
bre«tk from the C atholic church. great hopes of the Five T housand
Come to Silverton if you can D ollar F und, but th a t is moving
and help us. They have given us too slowly for our present needs. It
hell for m any years, and the is all right and we hope our friends
bell they have given us has will keep it going. If it comes in
been unlike what we offer to ten years it will be needed, but ju st
A. A.