T orch VOL. 3. For th e Torch of Reaeon. “ Let Us Have Peace.”—A Secu lar Canticle. BY JOHN PRESCOTT G UILD. (D edicated to P resident M cKinley ) EA R nin eteen h u n d re d years ago, ’Tis said, a w ond’rous child was born, W ho cante to rid th e world of woe, Upon th e p rim al C h ristin a s m o rn ; T h at angels at his advent sang: “ Glory to God for m ercy’s p la n ,” W hilst h e a v e n ’s sta rry arches rang W ith “ I ’eace on e a rth , good will to m a n .” N In person, p ractice and precept, ’Tis ta u g h t, th is godkin was divine, If m en his gruesom e m andates k ep t, They should lik e lam ps in glory s h in e ; Y et, th a t belief in c u n n in g creeds Is needed by who m ay aspire, H ow ever grand m ig h t be th e ir deeds, T he d o u b te rs’ were a vain desire. I know not of th a t storied b irth , A legend false, to me it seem s ; Those angel songs of peace on e a rth M ust have l»een heard in lu n a r d ream s. The sain ts crow n Jesu s “ Lord of a ll,” And loud his choral g am u t swell, T hen load th e ir guns w ith bom b and ball To blow each o th e r into hell. of R eason . S IL V E R T O N , OREGON , TH U R SD A Y , F E B R U A R Y 2, 1899. I would have been no more w orship' baptized in a sin g led ay and nduc- in any C hristian tem ple today than . ed to spurn the Bible and burn it, there is am ong the S tanding Stones and pin their destinies for life and of Stennes. By declaring for j death to the Secular Review. As C hristianity C onstantine flung into it was it is and ever shall be, world the w avering balance the brute w ithout end. am en. The masses force of a ferocious, fanatical and • will ever he the masses, while the tru cu len t mob, and thus turned the hills continue to be the hills. All scale against his rival, Licinius, th e thinking they can afford to do who, in 324, was defeated and d e -j is to think how to exist. W ith the throned, and afterw ards basely man possessing no taste or oppor m urdered for the greater gl >ry of tu n ity for speculative and abstract God and of his C hrist. T h a t Chris- thought, one god is as good as a n tia n ity exists today is not owing t o 1 o ther; his business is not gods, hut any crucifixion on C alvary, but to j bread. the bloody ' and victorious swords of I Am I cruel to speak thus of the the M ilvian Bridge, which won the m asses? Bear witness everything p u rp le of the Csesars for the despic I love and revere th a t the m ass able C onstantine. es have no more sincere friend NO. 4. C hristian zeal. I appeal to m en’s brain and heart, and the process of w inning soldiers for anti-C hrist is consequently slow. I could enlist plenty of soldiers for a sh irt and a sovereign; hut I W’ould rath e r have one such ad h eren t as I have a t present th an wave my arm in oom- m and at the head of as many b rain less hirelings as could find sta n d ing room on Salisbury P lain . So much for C h ristia n ity ’s ta u n t th a t our overt adherents are few. Give m e funds to found a college to train and salary an anti-C hristian m in istry, and I will dism antle Cam bridge and shake Oxford to its foundations, in spite of all the ori sons in C hristendom and all the hosts of heaven. U nder the b an ner of an ti-C h ristian revolt by which I stand rank a hand of he roes who have brought to the cause their brain s, and, if need be, th eir lives; b u t no m an has, as yet, brought a purse and thrown it into thescale, like I he sword of E r e n n i is , to turn the balance in our favor, hut we patiently and heroically wait, and our children m ay live through the hour of triu m p h long after the grass is green upon the graves of those w’ho now, obscure and unknow n, toil and struggle and yearn in a thankless but glorious cause.— [God and H is Book. Give us an em peror on our side, th an I am ; but, unlike the kings e x u lta n t in the flush of m ilitary and priests, I will not flatter and conquest, and our m inority would, betray. U nlike the priest, I will in th e tw inkling of an eye, be j not prate to any m an about the transform ed, as if by an en c h an ter’s T rin ity , when I know th a t, by the wand, into an overw helm ing m a direst and most inexorable necessi jo rity . T he mere brute num bers ty, the m u n ’s spoon is the father, I ’d ra th e r give th a t tale th e lie, And th in k m en eq u al in th e ir b irth , th a t go to the support of any creed the fork the son, and rhe knife the T han sign assent to m onarchy, really count for nothing. Over the, holy ghost. K ings and priests he- H ow e’er e x alte d , o ’er th e e a rth . W e’re brothers all. On n a tu r e ’s b rea st, to them , intellectually barren w il ween them have fixed these wide In faithful frien d sh ip th e n u n ite ; derness of the world the uned u cat -u lfs between man and m an, have Among opinions his is best W hich onw ard moves him to ’rd th e ed m illions have ever drifted in tb - dug these unbridgeable chasm s,and right. direction of throne and m itre and over the abyss, to th eir forlorn and exchequer. I care nothing for tram pled fellow men, they shout mere num bers. The illiterate herd th eir heartless mockery. Lessen Power of Christianity. is accounted bv •/ the church as th e hours of the poor helot’s labor, C hristians; but why does the church give him bread to eat, arid at least BY S A L A D IN . not go to the Cheviot H ills, and some of the conditions of social and HAT progress your move throw its baptism al slush upon the moral decency, and then pester him W ar is favorable to religion. I m ent does m ake!” re heads or tails of 500,000 sheep, and if you dare, by the w hining about m arked an opponent claim them as C h ristian s every your Jehovah and the snivelling refer to religion as a form of em o tion, which it is, prim arily. The to me the other day, in w hat he in one? about vour Jesus. war spirit excited arouses th e relig- tended for effective irony. ‘‘W hat C anterbury, in the days of Aug ous feelings. They both belong to And, O Lord, since you are om influential nam es you have on vour niscient, you know full well th at ustine, presented no spectacle of the dom ain of em otion. They both side, how boundless is the opulence an intelligent and educated pagan “ revival” th a t u n th in k in g mobs exist in “ prim itive” m an, in the of your bequests, how strik in g the — take a H indoo, for in s ta n c e — is have not presented in all regions savage, and are restrained by reas architectural g ran d eu r of your tem nearly as rare an anim al as is a and in all times. After C onstantine on only as the m ind becomes more ples!” pig with horns. It costs about his had firmly in his hand the sceptre reflective and enlightened. These I suggested to this servant of the of em pire, the conversions to C hris own weight in gold to C hristianize em otions are also correlated with Lord th at, at no d ista n t date, we a respectable Jew. Y our incredi tia n ity were m ultitudinous. “ As the sexual instinct, which is power m ight vault as suddenly to im pe ble Son-and-G host story is received th e lower ranks of society,” rem arks fully affected by them . W ar, re rial sway as C h ristian ity had done. only by those who have been sk ill Gibbon, “ are governed by im itation, ligion and sensuality constitute a I rem inded him th a t his creed was fully prejudiced in its favor before the conversion of those who pos sort of trin ity . They all have their three hu n d red years old before it reason has been train» d to inspect sessed any em irence of b irth or basis in th a t p a rt of m a n ’s n atu re, was more influential and opulent the bigotries of prejudice. When power or riches was soon followed which, in the evolutionary process, than aggressive an ti-C h ristian ity is The preceded and m ade possible m a n ’s your priests and priest-ridden mo by dependent m ultitudes. at this hour. But there was one thers get hold of sucking infants, salvation of the common people intellectual and m oral nature. striking difference between the e a r was purchased at an easy rate if it D uring the late w ar between the | children lisping their A B C, and ly C hristians and the aggressive I n fidels of the present day: with the hoys and girls learning the Rule of be true th at, in one year, 12,000 United S tates and Spain, th e cler latter the m arsh a l’s baton is, as a Three, they can be m ade C hristians; men were baptized in Rome besides gy of the country has been h y ster rule, in the han d s of earnest, hon but Om nipotence itself can not a proportionable num ber of women ical as well as belligerant; the d a i of sane and children, and th a t a white gar ly press has had am using spasm s of est and educated m en; with the m ake C hristians out m ent, with tw enty pieces of gold piety; the people m ingle devotion former a num ber of w rangling, in adults. had been promised by the em peror and revenge, the m ost zealous wor com petent and unscrupulous schis W hen C h ristian ity was introduc to every convert.” shipper being ready to join in the matics, such as M arcion, Basilides, ed into E ngland, we have it on I hereby promise to obtain an cry, “ Rem em ber the M aine” ; the S aturninus, Blastes, T atian , Mon* C hrietiaiiity’s own a u th o rity th a t tanes, Manichseus, etc., etc., led an thousands ofconve» ts were baptized avowed anti-C hristian for every war people being generally ready exceptionally ig n o ran t and crim in at C anterbury in a single day. white n ig h t-sh irt and a sovereign to join in any form of religious ex There are tens of thousands in E ng th a t the C hristian church will give i ercise and to repeat religious p h ra s ally guilty rabble. If C onstantine had not had a b it land now who, were the “consider me, if it take up my challenge. So es in connection with sentim ents of ter feud against Licinius, there atio n ” satisfactory, could he un m uch for the depth and fervency w ar and revenge.—[U nderw ood. W