R eason . torch of • TRUTH BEARS THE TORCH IN THE SEARCH FOR TRUTH.” — L u c r e t i u s VOL. 4. Revised for the Torch of Reason. SILVERTON, OREGON, TH I RSHAY, SEPT EM B ER 87, E. M. 300 (1900.) through beautiful and unbounded fields of nature, ignorance has been overthrown, and truth and reason have raised their alters upon the ruins of the fallen fabric.—Secu lar Science and Common Sense. NO. 38. her first came sin into the world, is Church prescribed. The very first indisputable; and I do not see how step he took from this position was such teachings, believed to be di to conclude that his difficulties H IS life nieane a c tio n ,—from th e rect from God, can be accepted about a leading doctrine arose from early daw n Till d eath rem iryls us th a t th e day without retarding woman’s prog personal sinfulness, and must be is gone, ress. Mr. Lecky and others have resolutely put down. I found then Till all th e su n b eam s sh im m e r from th e sky, shown historically that these Ori how clear and strong had become Woman and the Bible. T his life m eans a ctio n , or we fain t and ental conceptions have distinctly my vision and grasp of the truth die. degraded woman wherever they that the holding of error is an in BY SARAH A. UNDERWOOD. T his life m eans a c tio n ,—d eath is Holy have prevailed. calm , capacitating condition—an evil A period of rest, th e so u l’s sw eet balm , What we should naturally ex infinitely worse than merely HE Bible— both the books A resp ite in th e grave th a t D eath doth pect to have resulted from these being occupied with what is untrue, give, of the Old Testament and of This life m eans a ctio n , or we can n o t bad as that is. I saw clearly the New, express the views conceptions is shown by experience live. actually to have been the result of how enervating and depraving is T his life m eans a c tio n ,—th ro u g h a p a th in regard to woman which prevailed such teachings, enforced by the the practice of harboring, through when those books were written. less space T he p lan ets m ove upon an endless race, authority of Moses and of St. Paul. timidity or indolence, what is sus E ach k eep eth on its own ap p o in ted The conception in regard to woman w ay, was that she was naturally man’6 The idea of woman’s equality pected to be untrue. The mere ex T his life m eans a ctio n , or we soon inferior, that her position should with man in all natural rights and clusion of the truth, by presence of decay be one of subordination, that she opportunities finds no support in the error, is a prodigious evil; but T his life m eans a c tio n ,—riv ers onw ard should have no will of her own, the Bible. The doctrine that there far greater is the misfortune of the flow’, T he ocean billow s ever forw ard go, except as it was in accord with her is neither male nor female, neither deterioration of all the powers,— T he w inds are soon beyond th e h o u r’s bond nor free, in Christ Jesus, had from the lowest faculties of percep father, husband, or master. recall, T his life m eans a ctio n , or no life i t all. The enlightened portions of the no practical application to social tion up to the highest of conscien conditions. It left the slave in tiousness, reverence and benevol T his life m eans a ctio n , action everm ore, world have gradually been out And at its best its flittin g days are o ’er growing these ideas. This progress chains, and the woman in fetters. ence,—which ensues upon all And gone long, long before we realize Where the old theological dogmas tampering with our own best na- T h a t life m eans action, or it quickly has constantly been opposed by the dies. influence of Bible teachings on the respecting woman are least im ture. And what a feeling it is,_ subject. The influence of the Bi paired, woman’s condition is the that which grows up and pervades One Thing Certain. ble against the elevation of woman least hopeful. Where the author us when we have fairly returned to like its influence in faror of slav- ity of reason is in the ascendant, our obedience to Nature! What a F, as iB most probably the ease, , has been great because of the or where it is superseding the au healthful glow animates the facul man’s belief in a supreme be infallibility and the Divine author thority of book revelations, of ties! YY'hat a serenety settles down ing originated in his ignorance ity with which the teachings of the creeds and churches, woman’s posi upon the temper! One seems to of nature and nature’s works, to Bible have been invested. If the tion is the most advanced, her have even a new set of nerves, what else can we attribute that be Bible had, like other books, been rights are the most completely when one has planted one’s foot on lief,at the present day, than to his judged by its actual merits, in the recognized, her opportunities for the broad common of Nature, and early impressions, his credulity progress the most fully allowed, and his prejudices? He has as light of reason and common sense, and her character the most fully clear daylight, and bracing breezes are about one, and there are no sayed the deep recesses of nature’s its teachings about woman would developed.—The Woman’s Bible. more pitfalls and rolling vapors—no works—he has discovered the invis- have had no authoritative weight; able laws by which those works but when millions have for centu raptures and agonies of selfish hope are governed—he has traced to ries been brought up to believe Position and Privilege of Truth- and fear—but sober certainty of their true sources those wonders of seekers. reliance on the immutability of that the Bible is an inspired and nature which weae the astonish By Harriet Martinean Nature’s laws, and the lofty liber ment and terror of the ancients, infallible revelation from God, its hat an emancipation it is ty that is found in obedience to and, to them, the precursor of influence has been mischievous in some dire calamity from their vin a thousand ways. to have escaped fiura the them. YVearestil!, and our kind dictive deities. He has also, by little enclosure of dogma, must long continue to be, injured A collection of books which indefatigable researches, developed and to staud,—far indeed from be in power and in peace by the oper those beautiful systems in the gov teaches, as from God, that man ernment of the material world was made first for the glory of ing wise,—but free to learn! How ation of past ignorance, which has [whose symetry has led many to God, and woman for man simply; I wonder at myself now for having mournfully impaired the condi attribute their origin to some intel that woman was first to sin, and held (and very confidently held tions of human life; but the eman ligent and mighty power], and has therefore should be in submission forth upon it, I am ashamed to pay) cipation which may be obtained is proved them to be operated upon already precious beyond all esti by natural causes and effects. But, to manjthat motherhood implies that at all events it was safe to be still, he is blinded; still he is the moral impurity and requires a sin lieve dogma; that for instance, mate. Ignorant as we yet are_ slave of superstition; the slave of offering (twice as much in the case whether there was a future « state or hardly able yet [even the wisest of prejudice; in an age of learning, in of a female as a male child), must not, it was safe and comfortable to men] to snatch a glimpse of the opposition to the elucidations of have continued to keep woman in believe it;—that if, even, there was workings of Nature, or to form a his own mind, and the facts devel conception of the existence of Law, oped by his own researches. So a degraded condition just in pro no God, serving as a model to man, obvious as it is that our condition long as man continues to believe in portion as such ideas have been be —the original of the image,—it is merely that of infant-waking up probabilities; to permit his mind to lieved to be true and inspired by was safe and tranquillizing to take on the world of existence, the priv be directed by others than himself; God. for granted that there was. The ilege of freedom, as far as we are to take affirmations for truths, and The advancement of woman enormity of thia mistake was not abie to go, is quite inestimable— suppositions or probabilities for perhaps indeed as great as it can facts; and that which is unnatural, through Christendom has been go fully apparent to me till last year, ever be. It is hard to conceive for natural; and so long as he takes ing on only where these doctrines when a young man destined for the that it can do more for individuals things unseen for things that are have been outgrown or modified church, but not satisfied about all at any time than animate their in 9een, so long will he be a slave of through the influence of science, of its doctrines, and in a state of tellects, renovate their consciences, hia own infirmaties. But one thing skepticism, and of liberal thought fluctuation about his duty alto elevate and refine their moral con is certain—not only reason teaches generally. That the Bible does gether, laid down as the one cer ceptions and conduct, and lift them it, but experience proves it—that teach that woman’s position should tain thing in his own and every out of the condition of passionate where these mental fetters have children into one of serene maturi been broken, and the mind permit be one of subordination and sub other case, that at all events it was ty of faculty, though not of knowl ted to take its natural range mission to man, and that through safe to take for granted what the edge. This Life Means Action. T T I W