T orch
R eason .
of
• TRUTH BEARS THE TORCH IN THE SEARCH FOR TRUTH.” —L u c r e t i u s
VOL. 4.
SILVERTON, OREGON, THURSDAY, OCTOBER 11, E. H. 800 (1900.)
Joy to the World.
NO. 40.
dangerous experim ent, and depends
In which case my Chicago friend be superior to reason, w hy have the
wholly upon ignorance for its sue- would have asked, “ If you destroy religious nations of the world a l
OY to the world! the light is come! cess. A firm basis of reason in this a belief in Orm uzd, and th a t he ways worshiped deities which cor
The only lawful king:
world is the only solid foundation gave the only su p ern a tu ral moral respond exactly in ch aracter to the
Let every heart prepare it room,
of m oral training.
j law to Zoroaster, how will children peculiar intellectual statu s of th eir
And moral hature sing.
My Chicago questioner proceeded ever be taught what is right and votaries? T h a t V eneration m ust
Joy to the earth ! now Reason reigns;
on the hypothesis th at what of val what is wrong, and how can they be directed through the intellect to
Let men their songs employ ;
uable m orals are contained in the ever know th a t it is not rig h t to its objects, is too self-evident to re
While fields and floods, rocks, hills, and
quire any extended illu stra tio n .
Bible were a “ revelation” to the lie and kill and ste a l? ”
plains,
people, and th a t th eir value was
Repeat the sounding joy.
The faculty of W onder, miscalled
dependent upon this origin.
For
“ S p iritu a lity ,” has been regarded
No more let superstition grow,
The Pilot of the Passions.
the
benefit
of
those
who
have
been
by m any as properly the faculty of
Nor thorns infest the ground;
sim ilarly imposed upon, I will cite
This light will make its blessings flow
faith in the su p ern atu ral, and p a r
To earth’s remotest bound.
a few facts in as short a space as
BY EDGAR C. BEALL.
ticularly in the C hristian Bible.
possible.
But if it has the power to select its
Oh then display its truth and peace,
And make the nations prove
B rahm anism , with its two h u n
objects, why is it stim u lated by
N
surveying
the
m
ental
consti
The glories of its tenderness,
dred m illions of believers, and its
cognitions and beliefs which v try
The wonders of its love.
tution
we
are
struck
by
the
fact
Rig-Veda (Bible) composed two
as interm inably as the intellectual
—Selected.
th
at
the
different
faculties
are
thousand four hundred years before
train in g and biases of its possessors?
not
all
of
the
sam
e
rank
or
im
port
Christ, has its rigid code of m orals;
As, for instance, am ong M oham
ance,
and
th
a
t
some
of
them
are
Morals.
its theory of creation; its teachings
m edans we find it excited and g ra t
adapted
to
be
leaders
and
directors
about sin; its revelations; its belief
ified by th e K oran, although u n af
of
the
others.
BY HELEN H .G A RD N ER.
th a t its bible came from God; and
fected by the tra d itio n s of B uddh
A bundant experience shows th at ism. Among the Jews we find it
its devotees who believe th a t an in
m ankind are happiest when ac t m arveling at the fables of the P en
F T E R m y lecture on Men, finite God is pleased with the toys
ing under the suprem e control o tateuch, although indifferent to the
W om an, an d Gods, in Chi of worship, praise, and adulation
It has its prayers and the moral sentim ents and enlight alleged m iracles of Christ; while
cago, I was asked how it of m an.
would be possible to train children hym ns, its offerings and sacrifices. ened intellect. T h at is, allowing to am ong Roman Catholics an d P ro t
estant C hristians its phases of m an
to be good w ithout a belief in the Corresponding with our “ T r ir ity ” each of the lower propensities
sphere of activity which shall be ifestation present still different pe
d iv in ity of the Bible; how they idea the Bram in has three great
could be m ade to know it is wrong gods; and in the place of our “ a r - pronounced by the intellect to be culiarities, which, in some respects,
gels” he has his infinite Dumber of legitimate, and which can give no are diam etrically opposed to each
to lie and steal and kill.
offense to the moral sentim ents. other and to those of all other
The belief th a t the Bible is the little ones.
N ext, Zoroastrianism , certain ly The propensities are en tirely blind, creeds. The cold intellectual act
originator of these and like m oral
sim ply desiring gratification, w ith of l>elief, combined with the influ
ideas, or th a t C hrist was their first twelve hundred years older than
out the least power to determ ine ence of this faculty, co n stitu tes
teacher, is far from the tru th ; and C hrist, has its legends (quite as
their proper objects. T hus, for ex- “ faith ,” but alone, W onder produ
it is only a n o th er evidence of the authentic as our own) of miracles
d u p licity or ignorance of thechurch performed by its founder and his am ple, Alim entiveness sim ply de ces sim ply a pleasurable emotion
th a t such a belief obtains or that followers; its Zend-Avesta (B ible); sires food; but the assistance of the when any rem arkable circum stance
such a falsehood is system atically its “ Supreme S pirit;” its belief in intellect is necessary to decide as is com m unicated to th e m ind. A s
gods and dem ons who interfere to what is wholesome. A cquisitive its gratification depends solely upon
ta u g h t.
It is too easily forgotten th a t with affairs in this world and who ness, if indulged w ithout any refer the novel or e x tra v a g a n t ch aracter
ence to the decisions of the in tel of certain objects contem plated by
m orals are universal, th a t C hris are ever at war with each other; its
lect, would be as much gratified by the intellect, it may he said to
tian ity is local.
P ractical moral sacred fires; its Lord; its praise;
the accum ulation of stolen p ro p e r stim ulate or produce belief in those
ideas grow up very early, and de- and its pretence to direct com m uni
velopc with the developm ent of a cation in the past with spirits and ty, as by the proceeds of a legiti objects, from the fact th a t it r e
m ate business.
Benevolence is pels EVERY ACT OK TH E INTELLECT
race. They are the response to gods who gave their Prophet “com
the needs of th e people, and when m andm ents.” It lacks none of the quite as blind as Alimenti veness. WHICH WOULD DIVEST THEM OK TH E IR
It sim ply prom pts to deeds of marvelous qualities . T hus, when
form ulated have in several cases paraphernalia of a “divine institu-
taken the shape of “ com m and- tion” ready for business, and we kindness, and, unless controlled by an individual has been tau g h t to
m en ts” from some unseen power, are unable to discount it in either intellect and Conscientiousness, lelieve the reputed C hristian m ir
it also has its would be delighted to steal from acles, a large developm ent of W o n
These necessary practical laws are loaves or fishes.
by degrees attach ed to those of im- heaven and hell; its Messiah or the rich in order to help the poor. der, bv filling th e mind with agree
.m aginary value, and all alike are Prophet; its arch fiend or devil; its In fact this m anifestation is by no able sensations awakened in conse
m eans infrequent. C onscientious quence of th a t belief, in its tu rn ,
held in esteem as of equal moral rites and ceremonies.
Professor Max Muller rem arks: ness, although itself such a power biases the judgm ent in favor of the
worth. By this m eans a ficticious
ful elem ent for good, and so neces reality and legitim acy of the m ir
sta n d a rd of rig h t and wrong be ur There were periods in the history
sary for the control of the other acles. It is thus clearly impossible
comes established, and a w eaken of the world when the worship of
faculties, rs also entirely depend* th a t this sentim ent can possess any
ing of confidence in the valuless
Ormuzd threatened to rise t r i - : ent upon the intellect for guidance, superiority over the intellect as a
p a rt resu lts in dam age to th a t por
um phant on the ruins of the tern- Indeed nothing can be more obvi- guide to tru th , when from its very
tion which was originally the re-
sult of wise an d necessary legisla- pics of all other gods.
If the bat* O,,B than th a t in every age and n atu re it m ust antagonize all a t
lion.
tie of M arathon and Salami» b a d ' clim e, people have been educated tem pts to destroy the p h an to m s
W hen children (of w hatever age) been lost and Greece had succumbed *o d o wrong in t e firm belief th a t upon which it feeds. In d e p e n d e n t
do thia or th a t “ because God
P e rs ii, the fltate religion of the
‘he,r hi8 ,1P9' ly of intellectual cognition, it is no
more able to solve the problem s of
said so, ’ th e precepts taught on em pjre of (Jyrus, which was the
.
i.
«v
th is basis, even though they are
.
,
,
Now, the faculty of \ en e ratio n , the W hence and W hither, or to
good, will have uo hold upon the
like the appetite for food, cannot teach us the duties of life, th an the
m an who discovers th a t their ori- come the religion of the whole civ- of itnelf suggest an object which avarice of a miser, or the eg«»tism
gin was purely hum an. It is a ilized world.”
shall deserve its homage. If it can of a ty ra n t.
J
I
A