T
OBOI I OF
S eason .
“TRUTH HOLDS THE TORCH IN THB SEARCH FOR TRUTH.” —
SILVERTON, OREGON, THURSDAY, AUGUST 31, 1899.
VOL. 3.
He is lost to the church, they have made
him insane;
But the gold of the madman they finally
gain;
BY I8AAC A . POOL.
While he shouted aloud, as his noddle
they shaved,
model young man was Theophilus By God and by Jesus I mean to be
Brown,
saved!
Not given to “Theos,” the pride
Escanoba, Mich., March 5, 1885.
of the town;
Sd modest and manly, so gently behaved,
Only lacking in one thing—he hadn’t No “ W hy” Concerning Nature.
been saved.
With “ Phileo” plenty for all of his race.
BY W. H. MAPLE.
The church sought to get at his “ducats”
thro’ grace,
But all their advances he steadily braved,
T is common with theological
Concluding from them it was best to be
writers of an advanced type to
saved.
speak of the “how” and the
So they got a new preacher; the choir a
new song;
“why” of natural things. They say
They got up revivals, and blew it in
that science has the “how” to deal
strong;
They told how good morals and man­ with, and religion the “why”—
hood enslaved;
That only bv Christ, and his blood, we that science has for its object the
are saved.
explanation of the immediate causes
Through the merciful Savior, the anger of phenomena but that it is left,
of Heaven
largely at least, to supernatural
At last is appeased, and our errors for­
revelations to account for the pur­
given.
The banner of mercy high over them pose of things. They insist, by in­
waved,
Proclaiming that sinners by God would ference, that nothing exists except
be saved.
by reason of a pre-existing purpose
He told them that sinners forever would of som ething else.
dwell,
Now, it seems much more ration­
’Mid fire and brimstone, with devils in
al to admit the existence of things,
hell!
Then women and children IIis provi­ absolutely, unqualified.
dence craved,
And prayed from the torments of he'd to
Existence itself is before purpose,
be saved.
and requires no apology for its
A8 the men from the “ anxious seat” being. Hence there can not have
still staid away,
He told about Christ’s pyrotechnic dis­ been purposes before a being (a
play !
something).
Only those with his mark on their fore­
Things are, and with the excep­
heads engraved,
On the great final day would by Jesus tion of some of the works of man
be saved.
and other finite intelligences, if
He told of the devils’ sea-trip in the such exist, there is no reason why
shoats;
Of the sheep on the right, on the left- for their being.
hand the goats;
The writer’s position is, therefore,
How hell with the skulls of small in­
that the “how”, the modus operan-
fants was paved,
Whose parents, impenitent, wouldn’t be di, of things being knowable with­
saved.
out limitation, and there being no
No need in “ the kingdom” of treasure
“why” for natural things (with the
or pelf;
That God cannot save, you must do it above exception), there is no fact
yourself.
Theophilus shuddered, and finally caved, in nature but what the intellett of
Then prayed from his former good deeds man is competent (the opportunity
to be saved!
being given) to know.
He has left the broad road of good rea­
If it is claimed that simple exist­
son and sense,
And passed thro’ the wicket, behind the ence or being is a fact and an un­
board fence.
t
I knowable fact, it is perhaps a suffi­
No staggering now’, for “ the kingdom
cient reply to say that substance or
he staved:
Through a passage so narrow he ought essence however conceived of is
to be saved 1
known by its properties — its char­
The revival is ended; the gossips in
acteristics, and that simple being,
town
Declare this carousal was got up for in the sense of substance without
Brown,
!
While he got a notion, that one so de­ character, is probably not a fact.
This seems so, for how better can we
praved
Would never by God nor by Jesus lx* arrive at the idea of complete non­
saved.
entity than by eliminating from
So the preacher was ordered to come and
matter all its known properties? It
baptize
This fruit of excitement, religion, and is most evident that to take from
lies;
i
Then down to the water he went to be matter the one quality of exten­
laved,
sion is to destroy it; and to take
To wash out the stains of the ransomed
from force the idea of influence ex­
and saved.
erted is to annihilate force; so that
He rose from the water with teeth and
it muHt be illogical to speak of a
eyes set.
Overcome with excitement, religion, and supposed thing that is reduced to
wet
non-entity in the very effort to con­
And ever thereafter he foolishly raved
How the devil and he would together l>e ceive of it as an actuality.
saved.
Theophilus Brown.
A
I
ENO. 34.
Perversion of the Laws of
The mind is adapted to know
Health.
realities, and realities have proper­
ties making them objects of knowl­
BY F. L. OSWALD.
edge—making them knowable; and
hence a thing supposed to be a real­
ity, but found to have no knowable
abitual siu
against the
nature, is necessarily discarded by
health-laws of Nature was
the mind (if the mind is not under
originally chiefly a conse­
duress) as a false conception and as quence of untoward circumstances.
not existing at all as a verity.
Slaves, paupers, immigrants to the
The “unknowable” is possibly inhospitable climes of the higher
only another name for the unreal. altitudes, were forced to adopt ab­
Knowledge is of or concerning normal modes of life which, in the
nature’s methods, and nature’s course of time, hardened into hab­
methods are all knowable. To go its. Man, like all the varieties of
further than this and to say that his four-handed relatives, is a na­
back of and anterior to nature there tive of the tropics, and the diet of
existed an infinitude of purposes in our earliest man-like ancestors was,
the mind of an infinite personal in­ in all probability,frugal: tree-fruits,
telligence, is without reason and berries, nuts, roots, and edible herbs
without results. It is simply an and gums. But the first colonists
attempted explanation for what of the winter lands were obliged to
needs no explanation, in that it re­ eke out an existence by eating the
solves itself into seeking a reason flesh of their fellow-creatures, and a
for existence, an excuse for being, carnivorous diet thus became the
when being must necessarily be habitual and, in many countries,
(and is, even in this attempt to ac­ almost the exclusive diet of the no­
count for being) accepted as a first madic inhabitants.
Alcohol is a product of fermenta­
truth. Existence, in some sense
of the word, cannot, it is clear, tion, and the averice of a cruel mas­
be thought of as contingent. It ter may have forced his slaves to
necessarily is, and needs no reason quench their thirst with fermented
for being. To seek to get hack of it must or hydrornel till habit begot a
for the purpose of ascertaining a baneful secoud nature, and the at
why for it is to doubt its necessity first reluctant victims of intoxica­
and to make of all existence some­ tion learned to prefer spoiled to
fresh grape-juice. Sedeutary oc­
thing that need not have been.
As to the forms of matter or the cupations, however distasteful at
modes of force, or however the idea first, are apt to engender a sluggish
of character in necessary being may aversion to physical exercise, and
be expressed, it seems equally clear even habitual confinement in a
that character, or quality, is insep­ vitiated atmosphere may at last be­
arable from being and no more come a second nature, characterized
needs explanation than does exist­ by a morbid dread of fresh air.
ence itself. No thing, whether it The slaves of the Roman landown­
be named matter, force, or simply ers had to pass their nights in
essence, without properties can he prison-like dungeons, and may have
determined by the intellectual contracted the first germ of that
powers of man to exist, for the rea­ mental disease known as the night-
son that all our knowledge of the air superstition, the idea, namely,
existence of any thing comes from that after dark the vitiated atmos­
the character of such thing. It is phere of a stifling dormitory is pre­
only through its qualities that a ferable to the balm of the cooling
thing is recognized by the mind at night wind.
In modern times an unprecedent­
all. A characterless thing is no
ed concurrence of circumstances
thing.
Being is, being is something, is has stimulated a feverish haste in
some way—has characteristics, at­ the pursuit of wealth, and thus in­
tributes, properties; but cannot be directly led to the neglect of per­
the result of an anterior purpose, sonal hygiene. The abolition of
because purpose itself is a charac­ the public festivals by which the
teristic of something. Modes of na­ potentates of the pagan empires
ture, therefore, no more need or de­ compensated their subjects for the
mand a prior purpose than “God”, loss of political freedom, the heart­
in the popular sense of the term, less egotism of our wealthy Phari­
requires a creator or a reason for sees, venal justice, and the dire
his attributes. Nature’s movements, bondage of city life all help to stim­
nature’s acts are her attributes, and ulate a headlong race toward the
there can be no “ why” concerning goal of the promised land of ease
Continued on 6th page.
them.—[No Beginning.
H
X
*