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
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W