R eason . VOL. 3. Stand Up For Freedom. TAND up! Stand up for freedom, Ye soldiers of Freethought; Raise high the noble banner, Neath which our fathers fought. From victory unto victory— The people we will lead, Till every wrong is righted And Justice reigns indeed. S <tand up! Stand up for freedom Against the tierce array Of Ignorance and Bigotry, Which strive the truth to slay. No frowning gods fill us with awe, Our minds are free as air; The terrors of the Christian law For freedom’s cause we dare. Stand up! Stand up for freedom, Till we remove the stain Of the blood of noble martyrs, Whom Bigotry has slain; Till kings and priests shall lose the power Our leaders to consign To scaffold or to dungeon tower, Or dark Siberian mine. Stand up! Stami up for freedom, Tis the noblest cause to serve; The music of our onward march Ourarts and arms shall nerve! To raise Truth’s spotless banner, And keep it still unfurled— Emblazoned with the hallowed names Of the saviours of the world. Stand up! Stand up for freedom, We know our cause is just ; And clothed in Reason’s armor, We smile at every thrust Which Falsehood aims against the life Of our humanity ; And onward press thro’ all the strife, Till all mankind are free. [Secular Songs. For the Torch of Reason. What Shall the Verdict Be? RY CH A R LES K E N T T E N N E Y . IS head and his hairs were white, like wool, and white as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire; and his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and his voice as of the sound of m any waters; and he held in his right hand seven stars; and out of his mouth went a sharp, two-edged sword; and his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength.” Rev. 1:12-16. This is God’s description of his personal appearance as revealed through John. Of such a strange personal appearance, is it su rp ris ing th at he should feel em b ar rassed, and to prevent criticism by unfeeling infidels have issued his second com m andm ent: “ Thou sh alt not make unto thee any graven image, of any likeness of an y th in g that is in heaven” ; and for viola tion of this injunction, “ I, thy Lord God, visit the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, even unto the third and fourth genera tions of those th at hate me, and showing mercy unto thousands of them th at love me and keep my com m andm ents.” This is the word picture of the ( hristian God as revealed by h im H S IL V E R T O N , OREGON , T H U R SD A Y , MAY 18, 1899. self; the God who m ade the heav ens and earth , and all th a t is ab »ve and beneath it, in six days, and rested on the seventh. T his is the C hristian ruler of the universe; the personal director of all things which happen therein; the great, good and beneficent father who keeps an accurate account of all our thoughts and actions in the most m inute detail, and which is to be brought out for inspection or. the last day. “ This m ay or inay not be true," says the agnostic. “ I do not know. “ N othing else would seem sufficient upon which to base a code of ethic.-, or m o rality .” “ The logical conse quence of disbelief would be sui cide.” “ I have no faith, what ever, in the C hristian God. The claim is absurd, repugnant t< reason, impossible, yet there may be such a supernatural person; ’ don’t know .” As well said by B rother W ett- stein, in your issue of April 6th, there is no m iddle ground between the personal God and m aterialism , between spooks and n atu ral order, uo purgatory or tw enty-m inuU a- for-refreshm ents stop between the su p ern a tu ral and the n atu ral. E ith er the universe is ruled and governed in a perfectly n atural way, or by legerdemain. There m ay be, as suggested by B rother VVettstein, some devil, or God, hid den behind the moon, or Neptune, or some other remote star, who is directing all the work of an ever- active and lim itless universe, or m ay be concealed in heaven, which is divinely described in Revela tions as a city “ whose foundations are garnished with all m anner of precious stones”; a perfect cube, 1658 miles in every direction, “ with a jasper wall around it 262 feet high.” (T his is the first in stance where a wall was ever built around all sides of a cube, and it is really too bad our astronom ers have not yet located this rem ark ably-shaped heavenly body.) But is there any rational reason for be lieving any such thing when it is certain th a t m atter acting on m at ter will produce the exact result which exists? W hy sh u t our eyes to facts and accept an irrational and childish theory? The m aterialist contends th at he knows with certainty th a t con ditions are the result of natural order. He knows it from the facts which are within his knowledge, and which are within the knowl edge of every one who will seek and exam ine them with unprejudiced care. He knows it, because every NO. 19. other theory is foolish. He will > ur-j u i j u m en origin in the care not find them , however, if there re of the parent for its young. T heir m ains within him a lingering fear advances are slow, but upw ard; th a t there m ay be a gentlem an and th eir highest state of develop with cloven feet and a three-tined m ent is found in our highest civili fork to forever torture him if he in zation. O ur stan d ard of m orality vestigates and thinks. today is a thousand per cent higher Man was not m ade in the garden th an d uring the dark ages, a l of Eden, but is the slow7, gradual though our belief in the super result of m atter acting on m atter, n atu ral is a thousand per cent less. an evolution from the original pro No one has yet com m itted su i toplasm ; and it, too, was the re cide because he could not swallow sult of m atter acting on m atter enough superstition. O ur insane under the then existing conditions. asylum s are full of those who have He knows the earth , sun, moon and taken too large a dose. F ear of stars were not m ade in six days, the su p ern atu ral m ust go; it has but were born and have gone controlled m an ’s actions far too through their infancy and youth, long. Unprejudiced th o u g h t will and will go through their middle prevail. and old age and will at last cease Madison, W isconsin. to be as such. The telescope re veals these objects in all stages of developm ent. W hy, then, should Opinions. there be a m an with white, woolen, sheep-like head and h airs and RY H O RA CE S E A V E R . brass feet, or any other kind of a m ake-up, to do th a t in an u n N no case can m an be ju stly re natural way which can he done in warded or punished for his a perfectly n a tu ra l and orderly opinions; they originate not way? M an’s egotism and conceit has in the will, but in the u n d e rsta n d ever stood in the way of his a d ing. They are in v o lu n tary , and vancem ent. The universe was not not crim inal. W hen the m ind p er m ade for him; he is but an inci ceives a sufficient reason nr cause dent of creation and conditions, a for believing a proposition, it is m ere parasite upon the e a rth ’s s u r evident it m ust believe it; it would face. H e has no more to do with be absurd to say one bad seen a it th an so much m atter belonging sufficient reason for believing a to it. It is a very long tim e since statem ent and could not believe it. he existed as a m onkey, but the On the other hand, when the m ind tim e is as yesterday to the time perceives a reason or cause for be which elapsed between the monkey lieving a proposition untrue, the and the protoplasm . Man was not m ind m ust believe it u n tru e be created by the slight-of-hand per cause it has seen a sufficient reason form ance of a mar. with a sharp, I [ for it. The tru th of these observations is two-edged sword in his m outh, but is the result of m atter acting on evident from the absurdity th a t m atter through infinite tim e. I t is would follow the contrary suppo m any m illions of years from the sition, which would he to ad m it gill-breathing anim al with a tail to th a t the m ind was capable of p er the fully developed man and beau ceiving a proposition to be false, tiful woman. Man and woman and while at the same tim e it concluded all life were not created by magic, it to be tru e; or of disbelieving n eith er was the earth or planets, w hat it had reason to believe. or lim itless num bers of p lanetary Here it is evident th a t belief of any system s. All are orderly and kind, or unbelief of any kind, does n a tu ra l creations. Magic has no not imply m oral guilt. We m ust place in nature. In view of a d believe what our judgm ent tells us vanced knowledge, it alm ost seems is true, disbelieve w’hat our ju d g childless to adhere, in any degree, m ent tells us is untJue, and doubt to the su p ern atu ral theory. The w hat our judgm ent has not per S an ta Claus superstition is, per ceived sufficient reason for believ haps, well enough for children, but ing to be either true or false. not for grown people. T here is no crim e w ithout a T h a t ethics and m orality rest breach of some m oral law. B ut upon the foundation of any p a r here there is no breach of any ticu lar belief, and especially a be m oral law, but th e fulfilm ent of an lief in the su p e rn a tu ra l, is mere im perious law of n atu re, which im nonsense. They are th e product of pels us to disbelieve what we do evolution; they exist, in a greater not see reason for believing.—[Oc or Lss degree, in ail anim al life. casional Thoughts. I