Torch of reason., May 15, 1902, Image 1

R eason .
T orch of
“ TRUTH BEARS THE TORCH IN THE SEARCH FOR TRUTH.” — Lucretius.
VOL. 6.
SILVERTON, O R E G O N , THURSDAY, MAY 15.
Strive, Work and Hope.
God, chose the three days of p esti­
lence; and, thereupon, God, the
BT ADELAIDE A. PBOCTEB.
com passionate, on account of the
sin of David, killed seventy th o u ­
T R IV E : y e t I do n o t p rom ise
T h e p rize you d rea m of to d a y
sand innocent m en!
U nder the
W ill n o t fade w hen you th in k to g ra sp it,
same circum stances, what would a
A nd m elt in y o u r h a n d aw ay;
devil have done?
B u t a n o th e r a n d h o lie r tre a s u re ,
S
You w ould now p erc h an c e d isd a in ,
W ill com e w hen y o u r to il is over,
A nd pay fo r all y o u r pain.
W o rk: y e t I do n o t te ll you
T he h o u r y o u long fo r now
W ill n o t com e w ith ra d ia n c e v an ish ed ,
A nd 3 shadow u p o n its brow ;
Yet, fa r th ro u g h th e m isty fu tu re ,
W ith a crow n of s ta r ry lig h t,
A n h o u r of joy you know n o t
Is w inging h e r s ile n t flight.
H ope: th o u g h th e th in g you striv e fo r
M ay n ev er c o m fo rt y o u r fe a rs—
M ay n ev er rep a y y o u r to ilin g —
Yet hope, th o u g h w ith tr u s tf u l te a rs;
An answ er, n o t th a t you long for,
B u t g ra n d e r, w ill com e one d ay ;
Y o u r eyes are to o dim to see it,
L e t w ork a n d hope lead y o u r way.
—A d a p ted to th e New E ra.
ABOUT THE HOLY BIBLE*
And the Foundations of Faith.
BY R O B ER T G. IN G ERSO LL.
V.
adm it th a t the history of R uth
is in some respects a beautiful
and touching story; th a t it is
n a tu ra lly told, and th at her love for
N aom i was deep and pure. But in
the m atter of courtship we would
h ard ly advise our daughters to fol­
low the exam ple of R uth. Still, we
m ust rem em ber th a t R uth was a
widow.
Is there an y thing worth reading
in the first and second books of
Sam uel? Ought a prophet of God
to hew a captured king in pieces?
Is the story of the ark, its capture
and return, of im portance to us? Is
it possible th a t it was right, ju st
and merciful to kill fifty thousand
men because they had looked into a
box? Of what use to us are the
wars of Saul and David, the stories
of G oliath and the Witch of E ndor?
W hy should Jehovah have killed
Uzzah for putting forth his hand
to steady the ark, and forgiven
David for m urdering U riah and
stealing his wife?
According to “Sam uel,” David
took a census of the people. This
excited the w rath of Jehovah, and
as a punishm ent he allowed David
to choose seven years of fam ine, a
flight of three m onths from p u rsu ­
ing enemies, or three days of pesti­
lence. David, having confidence in
* These w onderful discourses of Ingersoll are
n o t to be bad except in the T h ird and F ourth
volum es of the D resden E dition. We w ill p rin t
them in p a rt— each part reads as a whole. We
d o th is because u n til the people are em ancipated
fro m th e C atholic C hurch, the P ro te sta n t Bible,
a n d the belief in “ th e su p e rn a tu ra l,’’ there is no
hope for th is w orld.—E d . T o r c h .
V 302 (1902.)
Then comes the hook of E sther:
In this we are told th at King Ahas-
ueras was intoxicated; th a t he sent
for his queen, V ashti, to come and
show herself to him and his guests.
Vashti refused to appear.
This
m addened the king, and he ordered
that from every province the most
beautiful girls should be brought
before-him th at he m ight choose
one in place of V ashti. Among
others was brought E sther, a Jew ­
ess. She was chosen and became
the wife of the King. Then a gen­
tlem an, by the nam e of H ainan,
wanted to have all the Jews killed,
and the king, not knowing that
E sther was of th at race, signed a
decree th at all the Jew s should be
killed.
Through the efforts of
Mordecai and E sther the decree was
annulled and the Jews were saved.
H ainan prepared a gallows on which
to have Mordecai hanged, but the
good E sther so managed m atters
th at H ainan and his ten sons were
hanged on the gallows th at H am an
had built, and the Jews were a l­
lowed to m urder more than seventy
five thousand of the king’s subjects.
This is the inspired story of Esther.
In the book of Jo b we find some
elevated sentim ents, some sublim e
and foolish thoughts, som ething of
the wonder and sublim ity of nature,
the joys and sorrows of life; but the
story is infamous.
Is there anything in First and
Second Kings th a t suggests the idea
of inspiration?
When David is
dying he tells his son Solomon *o
m urder J o a b —not to let his hoar
head go down to the grave in peace.
W ith his last breath he com m ands
his son to bring down the hoar head
of Shimei to the grave with blood.
H aving uttered these merciful
words, the good David, the man
after God’s heart, slept with his
fathers.
Was it necessary to inspire the
man who wrote the history of the
building of the temple, the story of
the visit of the Queen of Sheba, or
to tell the num ber of Solom on’s
wives? W hat care we for the w ith­
ering of Jeroboam ’s hand, the pro­
phecy of Jehu, or the story of
E lijah and the ravens? Can we be­
lieve th a t E lijah brought flames
from heaven, or th a t he went at last
to P aradise in a chariot of fire?
Can we believe in the m ultiplication
of the willow’s oil by Elisha, th at
an.arm y w as^m itten with blindness,
or th at an axe floated on the water?
Does it civilize us to read about the
beheading of the seventy sons of
Some of tlie Psalm s are good,
Ahab, the puttin g out of the eyes of m any are indifferent, and a few are
Zedekiah and the m urder of his infamous. In them are mingled the
sons? Is there one word in First vices and virtues. There are verses
and Second Kings calculated to th a t elevate; verses th a t degrade.
m ake men better?
There are prayers for forgiveness
F irst and Second Chronicles is and revenge. In the literature of
hut a re-telling of what is told in the world there is nothing more
First and Second Kings. The same heartless, more infam ous, than the
old stories— a little left out, a little 109th Psalm .
added, but in no respect made bet­
In the Proverbs there is much
ter or worse.
shrew dness, m any pithy and p ru ­
The book of Ezra is of no im port­ dent m axim s, m any wise sayings.
ance. He tells us th at Cyrus, King The sam e ideas are expressed in
of Persia, issued a proclam ation for m any ways—the wisdom of econ­
building a tem ple at Jerusalem , and omy and silence, the dangers of
th at he declared Jehovah to be the vanity and idleness. Some are triv ­
real and only God. N othing could ial, some are foolish and m any are
be more absurd.
Ezra tells us wise. These proverbs are not gen­
about the retu rn from captivity, the erous— not altruistic. Sayings to
building of the tem ple, the dedica­ the same effect are found am ong all
tion, a few prayers, and this is all. nations.
This book is of no importance, of
Ecclesiastes is the most th o u g h t­
no use.
ful book in the Bible. It was w rit­
Nehem iah is about the same, ten by an unbeliever—a philoso­
only it tells of the building of the pher— an agnostic. Take out the
w allr the com plaints of the people interpolations, and it is in accord­
about taxes, a list of those who re­ ance with the thought of the n in e­
turned from Babylon, a catalogue' teenth century. In this book are
of those who dw elt at Jerusalem , found the most philosophic and po­
and the dedication of the walls. etic passages in the Bible.
Not a word in Nehemiah worth
(T o be C o n tin u e d .)
reading.
NO. 19.
CAMILLO HANKS, EX-TRAIN
ROBBER.
A Study in Sociology for the Benefit of
“ Beginner” and Others.
F ro m R eed s Iso n o m y , of M ay, 1902.
H E passing of Camillo H anks,
ex - trainrobber,
allround
crook and desperado, who
was recently shot in this city
(San Antonio, Tex.), by officers
while resisting arrest, again strik ­
ingly calls to m ind the ever-
shifting phases of ch aracter and
civilization.
The m arau d er a n d .
freebooter is as old as the race.
There was a tim e when the robber
won and held the adm iration of his
fellows.* The songs of H om er are
largely panegyrics of robbery. It is
natural th at m ankind should have
at first been the w orshippers of mere
brawn and courage. The arts and
sciences had not yet been cultivated.
A griculture, the earliest civilizer of
men, had not won them from a
wild and nom adic life. And for
thousands of years after the great
nations of an tiq u ity had arisen, the
tribe of the robber was num erous
and widely extended. Cicero praised
Porapey for having ridded the spas
of pirates no less than for being an
ornam ent of the Roman state. The
chief business of Rome was the con­
quest of robber nations. As corrupt
as she was, she stood for social
stability, for the prevalence of order,
the reign of law and the security of
life and property. The barbarian
hordes th a t overran her were in
reality freebooters. Alaric, A ttila
and Genseric were sim ply im perial
thieves. They were av a ta rs of r a ­
pacity and as fearless as resistless.
The sword and fire of the Goth and
V andal swept the Seven-hilled
Queen o( the W orld away, but the
spirit of robbery was not destined
to trium ph over the genius of c iv il­
ization.
It is Gibbon who says
th a t ‘‘out of the woods of G erm any
came the most civilized nations of
m odern E urope.”
The pirate and buccaneer have
been the heroes of song and story.
The genius of Byron is alm ost at
its best when he sings of the C orsair.
It is the tribute th a t men pay to
courage, to daring adventure, to the
mere gam bler for fortune whose life
is his stake. Romance is filled with
the exploits of Robert M acairesand
Dick T urpins. It is doubtful if
Hoisa and H engist, P haram ond
and Fenacute, were little better
than bold, bad bandits.
The
K nights of the Round Table have
T
•R e ad “ B e g in n e r’s” a rtic le on “ S o ci­
o lo g y ,” on 1st page, la s t T orch .