X
T H F TORCH OF REASON, SLIVERTON. OREGON, NOVEMBER 16, 1899.
than the Infidel’s contempt for the say9 that there are two kinds of
golden city in the sky and its people in this country who do not
belong to our great movement. One
brainless (“spiritual”) mayor.
The Only Paper of Its Kind.
Those Christians who have had class looks through a little hole and
sees nothing hut a dollar, and the
P u b lish ed W eekly by th e Liberal U ni no opportunities to learn on what
versity Com pany, in the Interest« of
we Secularists base our “faith” and other looks through a little hole
C onstructive, Moral Secularism .
works, imagine that we have no and sees nothing but Jesus Christ;
foundation at all, but, the truth is, and so it is. The great universe
J. E. Hosmer......................... Editor
we are the only people that have a and our world, with its millions of
P. W. G eer,....................... Manager
foundation at all. We build on human beings with their troubles
and joys, are all hidden by the
E n te red a t th e postoffice a t Silverton, what we do know — on scientific
facts— on a sure and everlasting desire to get rich or to serve a
Oregon, as second-class m ail m atter.
foundation. This makes us happy. myth.
SUBSCRIPTION RATES.
But here we are, dear Secularists,
We are the only truly happy peo­
ple, for we are not trying to believe on the top wave of human pro­
One year, in ad v an ce..........................$1 hO
Six m onths, in ad v an ce....................
50 anything and are not worried for gress and we can declare the truest
T hree m onths, in ad v an ce................
26 fear that a doubt will creep in and prophecies that were ever prophe­
In clubs of five or m ore, one year,
_|
in ad v ance..........................................
76: destroy our eternal prospects. We sied. The old sun, moon and stars
.Money should be sent by registered do not fear gods, death noi the de­ will forever disappear, and the
le tte r or m oney order.
vil. Why should we when we ful­ clouds of myth and religious hate
ly understand them all? It is on­ will roll up like a scroll. The fires
Notice!
ly ignorance that makes people of patriotism and love will burn
out the evil in the world like stub­
A h a n d pointing to th is notice denotes afraid, and we find that those who
th a t your su b scrip tio n has e x p ire d . base their conduct on faith are gen­ ble, and in the twinkling of an eye
You are e arn estly req u ested to re ­
we shall be caught up to meet
new so th a t you m ay receive th e p a­ erally the greatest cowards.
We do not believe in war and Science, the sun of righteousness,
per w ith o u t in te rru p tio n . W e have de­
cided th a t it is b est for all concerned contention only as a defense. An as it comes with a flood of glorious
th a t we do no t send p ap ers longer th a n
th e tim e paid for unless so ordered. honest contest to help discover the light. And verily, verily, we say
T his will p rev en t any loss and we will truth we encourage, but it is always unto you, this generation shall not
know just w here we sta n d .
We request you to send us th e nam es for the betterment of the weak as pass until these things begin to
of Secularists who m ig h t becom e su b ­ well as the strong, and not to crush come to pass, and we must do all
scribers and we will m ail sam ple copies.
them or to force them into a slav­ we can “while it is yet day”, “that
the prophesy may he fulfilled.”
ish submission.
THURSDAY, NOV. 16, E. M. 2 9 9 .1
We are in harmony with the Amen!
great, eternal laws af the Universe.
ON T H E TOP W A V E OF PRO­
We see our little island home as it
A N E W SP E C IE S.
G RESS.
spins in the ethereal ocean around
It is the Rame with the species of
Many things that all Christians the sun; and we see the sun with
believe today would have been con­ us and the other members of his religion as it is with the species of
sidered rank infidelity a few years family rapidly gliding along in his the fauna and flora of a country.
ago. The Infidels of the olden great gulf stream. We see the There are branchings and rebranch­
time have thus gained a great vic­ other suns and systems and we see ings, and, as a rule, the later spe­
tory, and history still goes on re­ that beyond the reach of our great cies, on account of natural selec­
peating itself. The despised here­ eye, the telescope, (Christianity did tion, are of a higher order than any
tic of today will leave his mark not encourage the study of astron­ preceding ones. Thus we have
and pass into the great general omy), that vast worlds and suns good reason to think that Secular­
ocean of matter and force, and oth­ and systems undoubtedly exist. ism, the latest product of the
ers of other times will take up the But what meanwhile are the faith­ world’s thought is superior to all
burden until a majority have found ful Christians seeing? They look preceding schools. Of course there
the truth, and then no longer will through a little hole in the dark are always off-shoots of the main
background of history and there branch which do not have charac­
it be despised.
“We do not absolutely know that they see Jesus on »he cross. They teristics which fit them to live long
there is a god and a heaven,” says see Moses and the lamb. They see and they soon die out, and are
a Methodist of the latter days of the golden city, or some indescrib­ only found in the great fossil beds
the 19th century. “ We believe able something—a reward of merit of the lower stratum of humanity.
there is and hope to meet our sav­ that the God of heathen Israel has In the field of thought there are
ior and enjoy the mansions not promised to present to his people. new species being horn, others be­
Science, our savior, has given us coming extinct, many only known
made with hands, prepared for the
faithful.” But are those who own the microscope and we pry into the by digging deep into the old rocks
that they “do not know” faithful? secrets of the Most High God of the of history or by searching the re­
How can one he faithful to somq- Infidels—Truth. We learn what volutionary mountains, and wit­
thing of which they have no proof? the great life-giving elements are; nessing still on the surface the re­
There is not an Infidel who would that water can not be changed to mains of lower orders of ancient
not gladly he faithful to a god if wine. We learn of the microbes times still represented by a rem­
one exists, hut as there is nothing that cause diseases, and leap for nant as it were of the weaker days.
left to hang our faith on since the joy when we think of the human
The influences which have been
revelations of science, it is verv suffering that will give way to at work during these latter days
foolish to go on believing and being health and happiness. We care have developed a subsidiary species
not for money, only as it is neces­ that, as far as our knowledge goes,
faithful without evidence.
We have no gods, and this gives sary to promote our researches. is comparatively new. It seems to
us a chance to turn our attention But what, meanwhile, are those he a cross between the Infidel and
to Humanity and serve it better who have been made selfish by the the Christian, and, for the want of
lhan ever before. Christians who selfish teachings of the-heaven-for- a better name, we might call this
Money new species Infidel - Christian.
still cling to the old theories the-faithful idea doing?
place themselves in the same posi­ here and heaven hereafter. Gold They are a very peculiar set of hu­
tion that the old persecutors and on earth and golden harps and mans, and their peculiar manner of
conservatives of the past did. They crowns in the sweet bve-and-bye is navigation is beginning to attract
do not want to know the truth if it what each little individual is most­ much attention among the socio­
is against their religion, and their ly thinking about.
logical biologists of our time.
fear of progress is far worse heresy j An old German friend of ours, W h e n se v e r a l o th e r k in d s o f
Torch of Reason
human species are present the In-
fidel-Christian either plays ’possum
or travels in the same direction
that the majority is going, and if it
so happens that the minority gets
a heavy reinforcement it is per­
fectly laughable to see the funny
creature “craw-fish.”
There are quite a number of these
peculiar people in the West, and
Dr. Chapin, who has been travel­
ing in some of our eastern cities,
reports that they are quite plenti­
ful east of the Rocky Mountains.
The individuals of this species
differ somewhat as others do, but
they have the same general char­
acteristics, which are very destruct­
ive to the progress of truth and
right. They put one in mind of
the hybrid called the mule. They
have long ears and long heads.
They look meek enough and are all
right if you keep on the right side
of them, but it won’t do to trust
them too far, and often, just as you
think they are very friendly you
get lifted off your feet completely.
There is one great consolation,
however, and that is that their
immediate ancestors are so differ­
ent that like the mule they can not
propagate their kind. Nature goes
only so far and then quits, and we
feel confident that with the Inridel-
Christian she can go no further.
Moral: Men should be men.
They should be honest and not
afraid to express their honest
thought at all times. They should
not claim to be Christian while be­
ing Infidels, or talk like Infidels
when it serves their purpose, and
then “crawfish”- when the fear of
losing a dollar or their popularity
comes upon them. Why not be
men, and neither murder the inno­
cent minds that are growing u p
around us by the poison of hy­
pocrisy or by stealing the atmos­
phere of thought by our silence
when our voice should be heard.
“ Be a man o ra mouse,” but don’t,
like the Infidel-Christian, be a
mule.
“ P R E T T Y IS T H A T P R E T T Y
DO ES.”
One of the Liberal University’s
best friends, Mr. D. Priestley, writes
to us after seeing the photograph
of the faculty, that we look as if we
would make the University a suc­
cess and that he believes we will.
We are making it the grandest
success Freethought has ever seen.
Now don’t think for a moment
that this is an exaggeration, dear
Secular reader, for it is not. Of
course there is much to do to get
things as they ought to be. W e
need most everything yet, and we
are teaching at a very great disad­
vantage on account of our lack of
apparatus, the unfinished state of
our building and the eternal vigi­
lance necessary to make “both
ends meet.” But in spite of all
this we are indeed succeeding. New
influential and talented students
entered our school this week; every­
thing is perfectly harmonious and
our whole great search for truth
seems like a great, beautiful poem.
Well, if we look well, well; but we
are doing well, and that is very
well indeed.