4
THE TORCH OF REASON, SILVERTON OREGON, JANUARY 4, 1899.
many of the emancipated might
come and work together. And what
could be more appropriate or. more
T he O nly P ap er of Its Kind.
beneficial as a start toward freeing
P u b lish ed W eekly by th e Liberal U n i­ the world than a Liberal Universi-
versity C om pany, in the In terests of
ty? Science is our life. On it we
C onstructive, Moral Secularism .
_ must build or our work will be in
J. E. H o sm e r,....................... E ditor vain. We have started right; and
P W G eer
M an ag er now are there enough who will help
us follow up our success and com­
E n te re d a t th e postoffice at Silverton, plete the school and the wonderful
work for liberty that it already por­
Oregon, as second-class m ail m atter.
tends? Now is the time when our
SUBSCRIPTION RATES.
work needs friends and the help
which friends alone can give.
One year, in ad v an ce..........................$1 00
Six m onths, in a d v an c e ....................
50 “ Why do you wait, dear brother?”
jty at its birth. Humanity was
then not possible.
----- - —
Continued from 3rd page,
But now , since these things are
istent of and by themselves. They so, what results? Why, we have
were the realities and wild iraagin- not only the death of a lot of ugly
ings that set off a jewel made ipore myths, which is a pleasant funeral,
precious by the contrast, and which especially when we find all of the
was thought to be unreal or invis- beneficent Ideal they covered in-
ible without them. The dark, wild carnated in a reality; but also we
sea of agony made more precious have the proper time, season and
one little island of the blessed. Sun in which, and whereby, to re-
Such island must have been seen or cognize and celebrate the birth and
divined, or those horrors never incoming of this higher reality.
could have left life sustainable.
H umanity , the real C hrist , has
As Shelley says it:—
now reached its majority and be­
come of age. And this fact is the
“ Some green isle needs m u st be
In th e d a rk , wide sea of m isery ;
T hree m onths, in ad v an ce................
26
proper substance of the new Fes­
Or th e m arin er, worn an d wan,
In clubs of five or m ore, one year,
tival of human joy, adumbrated not
5
Never th u s could voyage on
ST A Y ON T H E TR A C K .
in ad v an ce..........................................
Day and n ig h t, n ig h t an d day,
only by the Christ-child myth, but
Money should be sent by registered
D rifting on his d reary way,
le tte r or m oney order.
by Bis, Osiris and Ilorus, and
The idea that to be a Liberal
W ith solid d ark n ess, black
Closing
round
his
vessel’s
tr
a
c
k
!
”
many myths of mother and child
means only to “believe as one
Notice!
chooses and let every one elee do
That green isle was social love , away back in the depths of the
the same” is an absurd and injur­ and the two main festivals it adap­ ages. Of course, as the individual
A h a n d pointing to th is notice denotes
is the epitome, or in embriology
th a t your su bscription has expired. ious mistake. To he a Liberal is to ted to make it beautiful were the
You are earn estly requested to re ­ be one who is free, as the Latin “Yule-tide;” and Easter, the Saxon the microcosm of the race, so the
new so th a t you m ay receive th e pa­ word from which liberal was taken
goddess of Spring. If you search great Humanity is the unfoldment
per w ithout in te rru p tio n . We have de­
cided th a t it is best for all concerned signifies. Free from what? Why, through the New Testament you of the individual, and both begin
th a t we do not send papers longer th a n
with the birth of the child as an
th e tim e paid for unless so ordered. the thing that holds the people in find, as in no other religion, that
And “green isle,” that living motive of individual fact, and also the con­
This will prevent any loss and we will slavery today—superstition.
know just w here we sta n d .
when a wise and good man is free social love , which it made a new tinuous and real race-symbol. The
We request you to send us th e nam es
of Secularists who m ight becom e su b ­ it is natural and right that he element in Sociology, and which human mother-instinct had divined
scribers and we will m ail sam ple copies. should try to help his brothers and
became the invincible soul of Christ­ that before Science came to prove
sisters to escape the slavery which, ianity, and which because it (by it. Hear how prettily Rev. 0. B.
THURSDAY, JAN. 4, E. M. 300. in his free state, he can see is so natural selection) is immortal, Frothingham, who not long ago
stultifying. Now the main trouble Christianity has now bequeathed in joined “the Choir Invisible,” opens
with many so-called. Liberal at­ an enlarged form to Humanity, up this Christmas child-myth in
W H Y W A IT?
tempts have been that the promoters her successor!
his sermon on this “Festival of
It is always well to be cheerful, have had no definite plan by which
Two passages where this higher Joy,” as follows:—
“It is a circumstance to be no­
and even a little optimism may be to be guided. They switch off on motive is manifested are notable:
allowed, but we must always try to to this side track and then on to
“A newr commandment I give ticed that the advent of the sun has
know the truth, for the truth alone another, until their “backers,” and unto you: That ye love one an­ been from the earliest times
can make us free; and, as the twen­ ever, themselves, don’t know “where other.”—John 13:34.
represented by the supernat­
tieth century dawns upon us, we they are at,” as our Oregon senator
“And now abideth Faith, Hope, ural birth of a little child. It is
are forced to believe that this is in­ said. As individuals we all have L ove (Greek, agape), these three; Devaki with the child Krishna,
deed a very superstitious age. It different ideas on the various ques­ but the greatest of these is Love.”— Maya with the babe Buddha, Juno
is not as superstitious as the past tions of the hour, but as promoters 1 Cor. 13:13.
with the iufant Mars. The Sun-
perhaps in many respects, and yet of a great cause we should be care­
This social or communal (origin­ god was depicted as a hero, a deliv­
it is very, very superstitious. Wher­ ful not to get side-tracked, and run ally Jewish tribal) love, is the germ erer from the bondage of nature
ever we look we may find people by into a jungle as dark with the moss of the great H umanity of the new [and now of superstitionj. He was
the thousands and millions who be­ of ancient ignorance, and as dan­ heaven and earth on this planet; Hercules, Apollo, Mithras. Paint­
lieve in gods, spook3 and spirits of gerous from the reptiles of mysti­ and S cience , as evolution, snatches ings of great antiquity, found on
all kinds and descriptions and who cism, as the very one from which this jewel out of the “surging of the the walls of Indian temples, repre­
will leave no stone unturned to de­ we are trying to pilot our Christian ages” (Brandung der Zeiten), and sent the mother and child in the
feat our plans. We who are truly friends. Liberalism does not mean makes it the treasure of not a limit­ very spirit and design of Perugino
free are scattered about in this to go and do as you please whether ed religion or sect, but of the whole and Raphael. In particular one
slave-pen of contentious religious it is right or wrong. It means free- race. This was the meaning of given in Creutzer’s Svmbolik rep­
fanaticism and are thus enslaved dom from error, and those who are Goethe, that this Love conception resents the incarnation of Vishna in
ourselves, with not even the com­ really free will do all they can to having been inherited and extend­ a way that might have served as
fort of each other’s society. When help free others.
ed to the race, its decadence has the original for the great Catholic
we see the political powers coming
We who are building the Liberal become impossible. “The [racial] masters: The mother sits under a
before the slave-drivers, the clergy, University have a definite plan . Christ that is to be” is one of the canopy with the divine child on her
and so many who, after being freed We are not drifting, but rowing, evolutional outgrowth of the tribal knees. Their heads are surround­
from superstition, yet kneel to pub- and now that we are incorporated, Jewish, sectarian, Christian, limit­ ed by the nimbus of glory, the aur­
lie opinion and greed, we feel that our plan definitely outlined, and ed Christ that was; but the God- eole. A worshipping female brings
those who are truly free ought to our stock divided in such a way man will be soon recognized as the offerings of fruits. A group of ani­
g‘ t together in some place on the that no one can by his or her mis- myth Science proves it to have been, mals is near. A table with lamps
earth’s surface, enjoy each other’s ’ takes interfere with the general Christianity is a sect and cannot and sacred vessels js hard by. A
society, each other’s work and the workings of the institution, we can make this expansion of itself to charming bit of landscape appears,
great benefits which would come not be side-tracked as was Girard Humanity. Its “angels” did not seen through an open window. The
from our united efforts. Why can’t College, of Philadelphia, but will say, “Pace on earth and good will virgin’s emblematical veil falls
this be done? Are we as free as we now do one of the grandest pieces to men!” The original Greek is down over her shoulders. An ex­
might be, and are we really doing of work for the coming civilization “Peace on earth to men of good pression of complete peacefulness,
as much good for our cause as we that was ever done. Let us “stick will!” i. e., the Christian believers— serenity and heavenly elation is vis­
can while it is yet day? We must to our text,” fellow ministers of the rest were damned. If all men ible on all the forms and counte­
remember that for the individual the gospel of Humanity; Jet us had been meant, Christianity and nances. A lovelier picture never
the night will soon come, when no “hew to the line”; let us not be its “scheme of vicarious salvation” proceeded from the hand of artist,
man can work. We of the Liberal “side-tracked” ; let us “lay aside the would have been needless then as The picture of the Christ with his
University have started our work weight of sin which doth so easilv now. Such a conception was then virgiu mother takes its place in thi-
here with the hope that we might beset us, and run with patience the i evolutional!}' impossible,and would large mythological gallery. Tbert
soon furnish a place where at least race which is set before us”.
have been the suicide of Christian- lit rightfully belongs. It was cor*-
Torch of Reason
J
C hildhood’s F estiv al ot Joy.