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THE TORCH OF REASON, SILVERTON OREGON, JANUARY 11, 1900.
o f R C H S O n cause» our countr-v and °ur race
will progress at a wonderful rate that is big with the impulse of in
will we each take?
and the old, weaker, degenerate tellectual liberty rebels against this
The Only Paper of Its Kind.
J he same great laws of nature forms will become extinct. This presumptuous ownership of brain.
! will govern the universe. The fit- battle is the great battle of the uni-
“Again, I do not go to church be-
th: . str,,n? .iu veree- and we are iu “ wha,her ** < * » " 1 '<“* » 8 ° " ^ o fh e .ring
truth will keep driving the weak in want to be or not.
faith proclaimed the guide of rea-
C onstructive, Moral Secularism .
error to the wall, until at last our
The Torch has not been perfect, son. If a man be not guided by
J. E. H osm er,......................Editor earth will indeed l»e a fit dwelling In our struggles we have at times his reason, what more is he than a
’
*
‘ horse or any other animal that does
P. W. G eer,...................... M anager ¡»lace for man. To act in harmony 1
been short
of proper fuel;
ugly
with nature means our success. errors, typographical, etc., have not reason? Faith is only an a t-
E n tered a t th e postoffice at Silverton, The Christians in civilized coun crept in. In many ways it can be tribute of reason, the same as. hope,
O regon, as second-class m ail m atter.
tries have succeeded in the past in made better, but if we can keep it love, friendship, memory, etc. It
their organizations, their power aglow and help it to grow in the is even subordinate to memory,
SUBSCRIPTION RATES.
and influence, because their meth right direction, the influence of for were it not for memory, there
ods, their beliefs, their energies \ olume IV can not be over-estim could be no such emotion as faith,
One year, in ad v an ce..........................$1 00
Six m o n th s in ad v an ce....................
50 have as a whole been the fittest to ated.
Schoolboys know this. It is an in
T hree m onths, in ad v an ce................
25 succeed. The equilibrium of the
sult to my intelligence to be told,
In clubs of five or m ore, one year,
in ad v an ce..........................................
75 different forces in the moral and T H E REA SO N S FOR C H R IS T IA N
‘Yrou must have faith.’ I ‘must
Money should l»e sent by registered social world follows the same law'
DECAY-
have’ nothing before I submit it to
le tte r or m oney order.
as does the equilibrium of the for
my reason. Faith in anything is
ces in all nature, and if we wish
In reviewing the reasons given by j dangerous when not directed by
Notice!
our Torch to continue to shine, in non-church goers in answer to the I caution. How often has faith in
crease in brilliancy, and grow in inquiries of a prominent news-1 love, friendship and business woe-
A h a n d pointing to th is notice denotes
th a t your su b scrip tio n has ex p ired . its power of dispelling the ghouls of paper we find the following to be ¡fully miscarried in nearly every
You are earn estly requested to r e - , superstition, if we
„ v wish
n io u VUI
iu e ia i
our ju
Liberal
the main ones given for the degen- j person’s experience. But of all
new so th a t you m ay receive th e pa- rT .
..
.
,
per w ith o u t in te rru p tio n . W e have de-
continuously gradu- eracy and destruction of the Christ- faiths, there are none so flexible,
cided th a t it is best for all concernedateanever-increasingarmyofmin-
inconstant and uncertain as reli-
th a t we do n o t send papers longer th a n ; .
r .t
, , ..
.
.. ian play-houses:
th e tim e paid for unless so ordered. 8^erH °* H ie gospel of H u m a n i t y , if
1 he lack of faith in right-living gous faith. This becomes plain
This will p revent any loss and we will we wish our cause to be respectable,
while much stress is placed on the when we consider the many brands
know ju st w here we sta n d .
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We request you to send us th e nam es resPected a n d to succeed, if we wish faith iu an over-ruling and punish- which the clergy offer to the public,
of Secularists who m ight become sub- our beloved country to arise from
ing providence; Sunday news- and each ‘the only true faith.’
scribers and we will m ail sam ple copies. L .
j ,
. ..
. n
. ,,, .
1
the dominating influence of Chnst- papers, bicycles, and other amuse-
“Again, I do not go to church be-
— ian popes of high and low degree, ments; too long sermons; too much cause there is no hell. The clergy
THURSDAY, JAN. n , E. M. 300. ¡f we wish the world to become a
music; social exclusiveness; the themselves are saying it. Of late
— decent place, in which decent peo- poor feeling themselves out of place; the best minds within the church
ANOTH ER VOLUME.
pie can live and be prosperous and
lack of faith; not enough preaching have renounced ‘the monstrous
j happy, we must be the strongest, of the old-time gospel, etc., etc.; | doctrine,’ as Beecher called it. If
This issue of the Torch of Reas- the uohlest, the best,
but one article written by some one I there be no hell, then there is no
on is No. 1 of Y olume IY , and al-, All animals and plants that have
signing himself \\ , seems to hit use for the church, aud no use for
though our “ little one” can not be become extinct had many strong the nail squarely on the head. He | Christianity, which is founded on
called precocious, we believe it has points. The great dinosaurs, whose
says in part that “the principal I hell; and to discard hell, is to dis-
grown in many ways and will con- enormous bodies exhibited such reason is, and the clergy know it, card Christ, whose sole mission was
tinuc to develop until it will wield strength of muscle as can scarcely be
a mighty influence for good over the conceived, and whose masticating that men aud women no longer be- to save sinners from hell. This is
lieve either the clergy or the Bible, the Christian doctrine pure and
minds of men and rid the world of and digestive organs enabled them
nor fear their threatening maledic- «simple. Christianity, then, with-
much of the evil influences of to secure and assimilate almost
the gods. We wish to thank everything in the vegetable world tioris. When men and women out hell, is a false religion, and
those who have so kindly assisted around them, nevertheless became cease believing and fearing the with hell monstrously cruel and
in maintaining and building up the extinct and gave room for their clergy, they cease dancing attend-1 unjust. Hell being a myth, Christ-
Torch, i hree years is a short time muscular inferiors—the birds and ance upon them. This is the whole j ianity ceases to be a necessity, and
in which to accomplish what our smaller animals—because the con- matter in a nutshell, lhe more. the mission of Christ a grotesque
little paper has done, and it would ditions of the ever-changing world important question still remains, anomaly. Intelligent men and wo-
have been impossible for it to have made them unfit to survive. Thev ‘Why do men cease to believe and j men instinctively drop it. They
wielded such an influence if it had «•broke down at their weakest to fear?’ It is not natural that | won’t go to hear that which they
not been for our brave, priceless | point,” and the old forms of govern- men should shrink from the tru th .' do not believe. When they cease
friends in the various parts of the ments, social systems and religions The fact is that the non-churchgoer to believe, they no longer fear; and
world, who have stuck to us always do the same, and the new intuitively and instinctively feelsonce learning that they havebeen
through thick and thin. There has forms that take their places do so and knows that miracles, angels, deceived by the Christ of an imag-
not been the enlargement in the because they are better fitted for spirits, hells and devils are all bosh, inary hell, they include every other
way of illustrations and number of the uew conditions. If our cause aud just silently drops out. Some supernatural bug-a-boo, in their
pages that we had hoped for, nor survives it will be because it can are ashamed to ridicule the belief contempt for the whole.
“Again, I do not go to church be-
has there been as large a gain in successfully withstand its enemies; they so long aud publicly professed,
our number of subscribers as there therefore let us make it as strong and others do not wish to offend cause I do not believe the intelli-
members of their families who still gent clergy preach their honest
should have been, but the outlook at every point as possible.
believe it, and others keep still for
is excellent, and as the Torch has
The Torch during the coming business reasons, and so, while they thought. J he preacher, generally,
lightened many a dark corner, aud year should have a much larger
is the paid attorney of his flock,
cease to affiliate, they do not open- and reflects their thought instead
as all our best friends are very en
circulation; it should be illustrated ly antagonize; but they are out, of giving his own honest convic-
thusiastic over the prospects of the and it should be improved in many
and, they are out for good. Nature tions and investigations. A well-
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made men to differ, so shaped and established scientific fact may be
gained very much indeed.
■shed next summer, and to this end diversified brain matter that they
shoved into their faces day after
Me now have entered a new era we should begin to work at once
would
differ
and
could
not
help
but
day, and if it antagonizes the Bible,
the Era of Man (E. M.); we have Our debt« sh o u ld 11 k
ltered
ft
now
no........
„
k
.
•
dtbt8
1
’houl<
J
“H
be
paid
at
suffer.
The
church
proclaims
an
entered a new century (the 4th)- we L
j
r
5 Q at sutter- lhe church proclaims an or a church doctrine, they will not
have entered a new year (300), and t e n d ^ o so
to T ^
T ' T * 1 pUnishment to every man mention
mention it.
it. If,
If, by
by public
public discus-
discus-
our Torch has entered its new vol-1 next vear in th. w, ,
help and wonian who dlffers with and sion, they are forced to speak of it,
ume (the 4th). W hat will this vol- G«,d l e c t u r e r « k m *!’ 9tnf ° r9 W
8 U- .
This censor- they
'
either denounce it as an error,
ume, this year, this century, this ¡„ th . fi h
" ’° U ' *>6. p aced 8biP of °P‘n>on, this audacious ego- or cunningly attempt to show how
era bring forth? And what p a rt1 autkor: 6 i
800n as possible and tism of self-proclaimed and unsup- 1C 1 an antagonistic principle
of the great changes for the up- pulirni
jo o,^an’ze Secular ported authority—drove me from harmonizes with Scripture; and,
building of our University, our if
a we can be th u s afro 8ch°°l8-
' church
‘
<k - N
--oWjtbe
when a child. It is further, to maintain and prove
eng ened, we. driving millions now. Every soul (their position, they invariably tell
T orch