‘ I KL I n BEARS THE TORCH
VOL. 4.
Show Your Colors.
R eason
...a- aunK vn r u n iK u in . - Lucretius-
SILVERTON, OREGON, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 13, E. M. 300 (1900.)
NO. 49.
ted its coming until it has come, necessary occasionally for us to That is education. There is reason
and then has called itself the sun. state that aim lest we lose sight of to believe that in the past the re­
BY JOHN PRESCOTT GVILD.
It has bpen arrogant in its power it. confused by the multiplicity of sult of much of our educational
and servile in enforced submission. church fairs, festivals, bazaars, lec­ method has been to pervert the re­
W h erev er you m arch in th e conflict of
It has played in every role, posses­ tures, concerts, voting contests, lation that man sustained to the
life,
sed every advantage, and enjoyed dinners, suppers, and the other woild. There have been thous­
All alone or m arel/aled in band,
Be strong and courageous to sta n d in th e such opportunities as were never various ecclesiastical diversions. ands of so-called educated people
had by any other system.
strife,
The aim of the church, at least hy­ that have been lifted out of their
A nd carry y o u r flag in your hand.
Now, after nineteen centuries, pothetically, was to save souls old relations without having been
T h e flag of Reform has no dubious hue, the world is getting weary.
This from the wrath to come. That lilted into or adjusted to the new
I ts folds glow w ith lig h t for th e world,
religion was not new. Strictly wrath for the present is in abey­ ones. If the mechanic’s or the ar­
H u m a n ity is its blazonry tru e ,—
speaking it was composite; it was ance; it is slumbering, not extinct; tist’s son pursues a oourse of study
A broad be th e sta n d a rd unfurled.
a rearrangement of ancient mater­ by and by it will burst forth in and comes back home to look down
B u t one haloed sta r, th e b rig h t sta r of
ials. All of its essential features consuming flame, and the aim of upon his father’s position and his
H ope,
F rom th e g ran d Reform b a n n e r beam s; may be traced in much older sys­ the church is to persuade men of father’s work; if he comes back
W herever aloft th e fair beacon m ay float tems.
It derived its doctrine of the imminent danger and induce from college with a lofty disdain
A dvance to its beckoning gleam s.
God and devil from the dualistic them to insure their safety. With for what seems to him common and
T h en carry y o u r colors where foes may philosophy of the Persians; it de­ this end in view, and this alone, menial toil, and is not fitted for
assail,
rived its doctrine of the remission the church has had its existence. the performance of any higher or
T h o ’ tim id friends lag in th e re a r;
of sins by shedding blood from the In comparison to that all other nobler or better work, the man is
The arm ies of w rong all before it will
sacrifices of the ancient lews; Its things are trivial and inconsequen­ not educated, he is perverted. He
fail,
What is this world with its is not enlarged, he is contracted;
T r u th ’s flag shall in triu m p h appear. myth of a virgin-borr. messiah was tial.
a common myth among many of wants and its needs? How little his relation to the world has not
S ilv erton, Oregon. Dec. 9, 1900.
the earlier peoples; it derived its difference relatively there is be­ been benefited, it has been injured.
doctrine of infallibility from its tween the welfare of the prosper­ The aim of education is to fit a
School House and Church.'
unholy lust for power. Its doctrine ous and the fortunate, and the man into the position that he is
of a slain God originated in the misery and the suffering of tho dis­ beat qualified to fill. I f it simply
BY DR. J. E. ROBERTS.
imagination of men determined to tressed. All must end in a day, takes away his love or aptitude for
outdo their predecessors. Its doc­ and then will begin the eternal what is called common- work, it
OR nineteen hundred yearp trine of heaven came from its cu- weal or the eternal woe. So long has been to him a bane, not a
* a large part of this world pidity, and its doctrine of an end- as future was the chief concern of blessing. With better ideals with
has been experimenting less he 11 was the poisoness weed »»an t he church has had a mission a better conception of man’s’ mis-
wilh a new religion. In climes that
di­ grew out of its inveterate hat- to perform. So long as men be­ sion in the world, with less of the
verse as the map, under conditions red of its enemies. Although the lieved there was an angry God to conventional cant and snobbery,
as varied as the race, this religion church from the beginning claimed escape from, then to find a way of we shall come to look upon all life,
has been tried.
It has possessed to be the custodian of revealed escape was the supreme business of all toil as noble. There is no reas­
every advantage.
It has had ab­ knowledge, yet it has never added man, but now no reasonable person on in the world why the man or
solute control of the lives and prop­ anything to the sum of human believes in an infinite anger, no the woman that prepares the food
erty of countless millions.
It has knowledge. The Bible did not tell reasonable man believes in an for our table should be in a class to
had armies to enforce its demands how the world was made; its writ­ avenging God. An angry God he looked down upon.
We are a
and carry forward its conquests. ers did not know. It contains no has been reduced to a theologian’s long way yet from the point where
It has bestowed crowns and scep­ hint of the great theory of evolu­ dream, the devil to an allegory, and we can honestly honor and respect
But new issues the men and women who do the
ters, and compelled kings and tion; it says nothing about anaes­ hell to a jest.
princes to bow in suppliance to its thetics; for hundreds of years the arise, new prohlerhs press for solu­ work of the world. But if we can
will. It has controlled what intel­ church held that to prevent pain tion, new needs are to be met and see things as they are, we should
lectual life there was in the past. was infamous, since pain was one satisfied, and if there is any signifi­ see that it is the common things,
It forbade investigation and hurled of the means God used to discip- cance in the moral and intellectual the common toil, the common toil­
its flaming anathemas at thinkers. line his children; it said nothing impulses of man, if there is any ers, that bear up the superstructure
It burned books and put the auth­ about the uses of steam or electric- meaning in the age-old conception of society and government as the
ors in prison. It possessed and ex­ ity, or the printing press; it con- that man is something more than a common and undergirding rocks
ercised the right of search and tains accounts of miraculous heal- animal to live and die, then the bear up the surface of the globe.
seizure, and sent its spies far and ings and cures, but prescribes no energy, the thought, the intelli-
To fit a man into his relations to
wide to extinguish every sign of common sense means for the pre- gence of man, should he directed the world requires intelligent de­
mental awakening. It bribed men vention of disease. God drove Ad- upon the problems of this world, velopment.
Everything in the
with the promise of heaven and am out of Eden, and told him to This world is not as large as some world except man begins with a
terrorized them with the threat of support his family by farming, but
the others, but it is all we can necessary intelligence. The atom
hell.
never said a word to him about an attend to at one time.
does not go to school, it goes to
It replied to argument with the iron plow- or a mowing-machine or
The origin of the school-house work. The animal does not have
dungeou and demonstrated the fu­ a corn-planter.
was most human; it had no mir­ to be taught; he comes into con­
tility of human reason by burning
Sum up all the knowledge that aculous announcement or advent; scious being, knowing enough for
the philosopher at the slake. When has added to the well-being of it was not prophesied nor heralded; his needs. He follows that strange
it could no longer resist the in­ mankind; count the steps one by it never claimed to be divinely in- thing called instinct in building
creasing demand for knowledge it one by which the race has advanced stituted, ordained or inspired. It his home, gathering his food, and
assumed control o f education and from barbarism, tell all the won­ was content to stand upon its own ir. taking care of himself.
Man is
posed as its patron. It has resisted ders wrought by the hand and merits and be judged by its useful­ the only thing in the world that is
every step of progress until that brain of man, and civilization is ness. Its aim was, and is, to make born a fool; he is the only thing to
step has been accomplished, and indebted to the church for not a as near as possible a perfect ad­ which is given the choice to be­
then claimed the credit for taking single one.
justment between man and nature; come an intelligent being or re­
it. Fearing the light of knowledge
The church has had one distinct in other words, to fit a man into main a fool.
Hence the fitting of
discovery and reason, it has resis-! aim it existed for one thing—it is j his place in the order of things.
a man into his relations to the
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