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STIA ERTÖN, OREGON, THURSDAY, MARCH 30, 1899.
VOL. 3.
For the Torch of Reason.
Nature.
BY GRACE E. GRUBER.
W
HEN dusky shakes are g a th e rin g ,
And th e sky is streak ed w ith
gray»
Then the pink and p u rp le tinges
Proclaim th e fading day.
Then the w inds come slowly w hispering
To a little stre a m le t near,
It is then we stop and listen —
Ah ! w hat is th a t sound we h ear?
It is just a sad, sad m oaning
Of the wind in plain tiv e sigh ;
Eor, like life, w ith day declining,
It would ra th e r live th a n die.
Then its m oan grew faint and fain ter.
And ’twas th en a gentle breeze
Fondly kissed a tiny rip p le—
Then ’twas calm and seem ed a t ease.
And th u s n a tu re has o rdained it,
Yet the blind can never see
N ature’s sun go b rig h tly dancing
O’er the ripples of th e sea.
N ature binds th e birds and flowers
In com panionship, and they
Know no grief nor care like ours,
For here n a tu re holds full sw ay.
Yet we m ortals feel d istra c te d ,
And we som etim es close our eyes—
And not alw ays in th e evening,
B ut w here b rig h te r lig h ts arise.
W hen th e evening shades are falling,
N a tu re ’s hand will here adorn
Ju s t th e sam e b rig h t, tru th fu l gleam ing
At th e com ing of th e m orn.
Ah ! ’tis then I love to ponder,
For in n a tu ra l laws I see
Many thin g s could l>e m ade clearer
W hich we now call m ystery.
From the Old to the New.
BY B. F . UNDERWOOD.
H E present is rem arkable as
a period of transition from
old to new ideas and meth?
ods.
In religious th ought the
change is very m arked. D uring
the last tw enty years the decay of
faith has been the subject of a vast
am ount of com m ent and discussion
from every point of view. H ercu
lean efforts have been m ade to turn
the tide, but these efforts have ap
parently served only to strengthen
and extend doubt and disbelief.
The ra p id ity with which doc
trines, once firmly fixed in the pop
ular m ind, have, d u rin g the last
two decades especiclly, lost th eir
hold upon the masses is, on so large
a scale, w ithout precedent either in
the ancient or modern world. The
spread of skepticism in regard to
the Pagan faith when C hristianity
was m aking its early conquests and
preparing to assum e im perial con
trol, affords no p arallel to the pres
ent rapid diffusion of skepticism as
to the essential theological dogm as
of C hristianity.
I'he facility with which ideas can
now l>e widely and quickly spread,
puts into the possession of m illions
T
NO. 12.
at once, argum ents and utterances old faith ami to adopt as little of men who are w ithout belief in “ the
I
which, if published a few years ago, the new tru th as the dem ands <>f fall of m an ,” or “ salvation through
supposing even that they had not his intellect, influenced by his feel-' C h rist,” w ithout faith even in the
been suppressed by (he authorities, ing, w ill p erm it; and such incon more general doctrines held as in
would have reached but a com par sistencies and stultifications as are dubitable in Pagan nations, such
atively few. Now, not'sim ply bus seen, for instance, in the views of as the im m ortality of the soul. On
iness and news dispatches, hut th e those who are trying to satisfy the other h an d , am ong the ad v o
opinions of em inent th in k ers, ser them selves with ‘‘progressive o rth o cates of F reethought are ex-preach
mons hv famous preachers, speech doxy”, are the result.
ers of orthodox sects, men who have
The
hideousness
of
the
doctrine
es, lectures and essays by men who
broken loose from the churches,hut
are a ttra c tin g atten tio n , chapters of eternal torm ent, with no chance who i rj m any cases are satu ra te d
from, or the leading thought of, for repentance and reform after with bigotry and prejudice, and
the latest im p o rtan t books are tele death, is seen and a progressive with whom declam ation takes the
graphed from one com m unity, from step is taken by ad m ittin g first place of argum ent, and ignorant
one country, to another. In pro th at there m ay he, and then th at assertion the place of proof; who
portion to the intelligence of the there is, according to the scripture, have neither the intellectual free
people or th eir capacity to u n d er “ probation after d e a th ” . Joseph j dom and flexibility necessary to
stand or assim ilate the thought Cook is not up to this point, hut he enable them to rise above the n a r
which is ‘‘in the a ir ” , do they profit says the §oul rem ains in the body rowing influences of th eir old faith ,
by this rapid transm ission of ideas a short tim e after b reath in g has nor the education and knowledge
and th is diffusion of literatu re ceased, and between th a t tim e ami to com prehend the best m odern
actual death there is a chance for thought.
throughout the civilized world.
It is only a question of time repentance and salvation! So while
The term s F reethought, L ib eral
th at the agitation of thought induc there is no probation after death,
ism, M atérialisai), Infidelity, Secu
ed by m odern agencies and the j t ere is probation after breath!
larism , e tc , are indefinite labels
habit of m aking facts the d ata ofi S i. George M ivart recently con
which denote opposition to theolog
belief, and proofs the teat of their j tributed to a leading English m ag
ical beliefs, together with a m ass of
validity, will cause the mass of peo- 1 azine an article en titled , “ H appi
in d iscrim in atin g
or undigested
pie to become discrim inating, as ness in H ell,” in which he a d v a n c
thought on philosophical, social
the few are now, and m ake reason er! ■ H'- idea (consistently with his
and moral questions. D uring tra n
prevail over au th o rity and science faith as a good C atholic, he b e sitional periods, like the present,
lieves) th a t m any if not most of the
triu m p h over superstition.
there is much incidental to progress
D uring the tran sitio n from the people who go to hell will he in a which is offensive to the thin k er
old to the new thought, there is state of happiness, and th a t men and to the man of practical views;
sure to he a great deal th a t is in mav be there dam ned and not know but it is inevitable and will drive
consistent and anom alous. The de it! The C atholic Review, while not no wise reform er from his purpose.
sire to accept the new and yet re wholly approving Mr. M ivart’s
We should never lose sight of the
tain the old, results in some very views, thinks his article will have a
fact that in the old system s of p h i
grotesque com binations of thought. good effect upon those who have
losophy and faith there are im port
H um an nature does not take on an been repelled from the church By
ant tru th s. He who while reject
entirely new mood at once. It does its a lle g e d teachings in regard 1o
ing the errors of these system s, can
not break with the past suddenly the fate of the m ajority of m an
hold fast the tru th s they teach and
and forever, but gradually. An kind.
add to them the best thought of
The absurdity • of the doctrine I
extensive stroke of m ental and
the day, is the man who will find
m oral evolution will have to he u n that all who, having heard o f ,
the least difficulty in adju stin g
dergone even by the most en lig h t C hrist, die w ithout belief in his
him self to the changes of this t r a n
ened m inds before they can assum e saviorship, will he forever dam ned,
sitional period.
the P hrygian cap of perfect moral is conceded unw ittingly and unw il
and intellectual freedom. If this lingly by those who say th a t the
The belief in a dem onic world is
is true of the most advanced class actual condition of sa1 vat ion is be
of think» rs, how difficult it m ust he lief in the “ essential C h rist’’, the inculcated throughout the Gospels
for the average m ind, with its more “ C hrist principles” , which need not and the rest of the booksof the New
lim ited knowledge and with its in include belief in the “ historic T estam ent; it pervades the whole
herited predispositions, to discard C h rist”. It was in this way th at pat ristic lite ratu re; it, colors the th e
old beliefs and adopt new ones. the Independent, a few years ago, ory and the practice of every C h rist
Reverence for ancestral faith and assured the world th a t Montefiore ian church down to m odern times. .
practices, and attach m en t to relig and V ictor Hugo, though unbeliev . . More especially is th is concep
ious associations, olc observances, ers in C hristian dogmas, were tion fundam ental for the au th o rs
together with the difficulty of find am ong the redeemed. W ith m any of the Gospels. W ithout the belief
ing an y th in g to tak e the place of the fallibility of the Bible was first that the present worbl, and p artic
the dogm atism of the promises, of conceded by adm itting, as Dean ularly th a t part of it which is con
the prayers and the hym ns which S tanley did, th a t science co n tra stituted by hum an society, has been
have afforded to m illions consola dicts Genesis and th a t the Mosaic given over, since the F all, to the in
tion through life and in the solemn cosm ogony,so-called, is mere legend fluence of wicked and m alig n an t
spiritual beings, governed and d i
hour of death, blur his perception and superstition.
In this period of transition there rected by a suprem e devil— the m or
of the absurdities of theology and
m ake him slow to accept any th in g are occupants of C h ristia n pulpits, al an tith esis and enem y of the su
thought to he in conflict with long men educated for the m inistry, who preme god— their theory of ealva
cherished beliefs. He will n a tu r have outgrown all the essential tion by the Messiah falls to pieces.
ally try to retain a i much of the theological elem entsof C h ristian ity , — [T. H. H uxley.
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