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