Torch of reason., May 29, 1902, Image 1

T orch
R eason .
of
• TRUTH BEARS THE TORCH IN THE SEARCH FOR TRUTH.” — Lucretius
VOL. 6.
SILVERTON, OREGON. THURSDAY, MAY 29, E. M. 302 Î19O2.1
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pi
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heroes’ Highest Honors.
shall be brass, and the ea rth th a t is 1 he people hated him, and preferred THE TRAGEDY OF PROGRESS.*
uuder thee shall be iron.”
the slavery of E gypt to the freedom
BY JOHN PRESCOTT GUILD.
“ Cursed shalt thou be in the city, of Jehovah. So he kept them w an­
Need It Always Be ?
(O de fo r D e c o ra tio n D ay.)
and cursed sh alt thou be in the dering until nearly all who cam e
T 'H E I R g rav es who bled fo r L ib e rty , field.”
BY W IL L IA M TH U RSTO N BROW N.
from Egypt had died.
* Go d e c k w ith b lo sso m s b rig h t;
“ I will m ake my arrow s drunk
Then he tried again— took them
T o w hom s h o u ld h ig h e r h o n o rs be,
T h a n th o se who d ie d fo r r ig h t ?
with blood.”
BOUT half a century ago the
into Palestine and had them gov­
“ I will laugh a t their ca la m ity .” erned by judges. This, too, was a
facts of a sad tragedy came
T o free th e slave, to w eld anew
A N a tio n free a n d g re a t,
Did these curses, these threats, failure—no schools, no Bible. Then
to light in G erm any. A
W as w ork fo r h e ro es brave a n d tr u e ,
come from the heart of love or the he tried kings, and the kings were child by the nam e of Casper H au s­
T he S a v io rs of th e S ta te .
m outh of savagery. W as Jehovah mostly idolaters. Then the chosen er, heir to considerable property,
Ye have a T r u s t, as liv in g so n s
Of F re e d o m ’s fav o red la n d ,
god or devil? W hy should we place people were conquered and carried had suddenly disappeared about 40
B e q u e a th e d to y o u by fa ith f u l odos ,—
Jehovah above all the gods? H as into captivity by the B abylonians. years before. No trace of him could
To h u m a n weal e x p a n d .
man in his ignorance and fear ever A nother failure.
be found, and it was supposed th a t
S ta n d firm , u p o n o u r blo o d -sealed soil,
im agined a greater m onster? H ave
A nd w ard off w rong a n d h a rm ;
Then they re tu rn ed ,an d Jehovah he had been m urdered. B ut after
L e t no se lf-see k in g c la n d e sp o il
the b arb arian s of any land, in any tried prophets—howlers and wail- the lapse of nearly half a cen tu ry
C o lu m b ia ’s g lo rio u s c h arm .
time, worshipped a more heartless
— but the people grew worse and it was discovered th a t he was alive.
L e t T e m p e ra n c e sa fe g u a rd th e b ra in ,
god? B rahm a was a thousand tim es worse. No schools, no sciences, no He had been confined during all
A nd V irtu e h o ld o u r hom e;
F re e P re ss a n d V oice a n d M ind re ta in , nobler, and so was Osiris and Zeus arts, no commerce. Then Jehovah those years in a sort of hovel in an
B e n e a th o u r C o u n tr y ’s dom e.
and Ju p iter. So was the suprem e took upon him self flesh, was born unfrequented part of the co u n try ,
W h e re ’e r th e sp a n g le d b a n n e r w aves,
god of the Aztecs, to whom they of a woman, and lived among the and all contact with hum an beings
L e t H o n o r o n ly bide;
offered only the perfume of flo w e r s people th at he had been trying to had been denied him. W hen he
F ro m h e ro e s ’ d e c o ra te d graves
B id F a lse h o o d s ta n d a sid e .
The worst god of the H indus, with civilize for several thousand years. was found his m ind was a com plete
his necklace of skulls and his brace­ Then these people, following the law blank. He had become practically
lets of living snakes, was kind and that Jehovah had given them in the an idiot. He had no language. He
ABOUT THE HOLY BIBLE*
merciful com pared with Jehovah.
wilderness, charged this Jehovah- was dehum anized. A lthough born
And the Foundations of Faith.
Com pared with Marcus Aurelius, m an— this C hrist— with blasphem y; into a world of hum ans and having
how sm all Jehovah seems. Com­ tried, convicted and killed him . a hum an father and m other, he was
BY R O B E R T G. IN G E R SO L L .
as com pletely cut off from all com­
pared with A braham Lincoln, how Jehovah had failed again.
cruel how contem ptible, is this god.
Then he deserted the Jews and m union with m ankind as if he had
V II.
turned his attention to the rest of been a wolf or a bear.
jehovah ’ s administration .
WAS JE H O V A H A GOD OF L O V E ?
The sadness of the tragedy did
the world. And now the Jews, de­
H e created the world, the hosts o
ID these words come from the
serted by Jeh o v ah , persecuted by not lie altogether in the greed and
heaven, a man and w om an—placed
h eart of love?—
C hristians, are the most prosperous cruelty of bis abductors, but in the
them in a garden. Then the ser
“ W hen the Lord th y God pent deceived them , and they were people on the earth. Again has fact th at no restitution was possi­
shall drive them before, thou shalt cast out and m ade to earn their Jehovah failed. \\ hat an a d m in ­ ble. There was no possibility of
righting the wrong done him .
sm ite them and utterly destroy bread. Jehovah had been thw arted. istration!
(To be C o n tin u e d .)
N othing could be restored to him .
them ; thou sh alt m ake no cove­
Then he tried again. He went
Casper H auser did not exist. The
n a n t with them , or show mercy on for about sixteen hundred years
D ecoration D ay.
poor creature who had been discov­
u nto th em .”
trying to civilize the people. No
ered after all those years had ceased
“ I will heap mischief upon them.
schools, no churches, no Bible, no
HIS day is sacred to our
to be hum an. The world had gone
I will send m ine arrow s upon them ;
tracts— nobody tau g h t to read or
heroes dead.
Upon their o n an d lefthim . Itc o n ta in e d n o th in g
they shall be burned with hunger
write.
No Ten Com m andm ents.
tom bs we have lovingly laid th a t could interest him.
W hat
and devoured with b u rn in g heat
The people grew worse and worse, the wealth of Spring. T his is a day
could he know of worth or beauty
and with b itter d e stru c tio n .”
until the merciful Jehovah sent the for memory and tears. A m ighty
or aspiration ? His very soul had
“ I will send the tooth of beasts
flood and drowned all the people nation bends above its honored
atrophied. And the whole wide
upon them , with the poison of ser­
except Noah and his fam ily, eight graves, and pays to noble d ust the
world had no place for him, had
pents of the d u st.”
in all.
trib u te of its love. Today we tell nothing th at he could do, no ser­
“ The sword w ithout, and terror
Then he started again, and chang­ the history of our c o u n try ’s life. . .
vice th a t he could render.
w ithin, shall destroy both the young
ed their diet. At first Adam and 1 his day is sacred to the great heroic
m an and the virgin; the suckling
It does not require a very in ti­
Eve were vegetarians.
After the host who kept this flag above our
also with the man of gray h airs.”
flood Jehovah said: “ Every moving heads— sacred to the living and the m ate knowledge of history to know
“ Let his children be fatherless
thing th a t liveth shall be meat for dead—sacred to the scarred and th a t a tragedy som ewhat like this
and his wife a widow; let his ch ild ­
| has m any tim es been acted. T h at
y o u ”—snakes and buzzards. Then m aim ed—sacred to the wives who
ren be con tin u ally vagabonds and
was the real tragedy of Palestine in
he failed again, and at the Tower of gave their husbands, to the m others 1
.
.
.
I the time of Jesus, It is a m istake
beg; let them seek th eir bread also
Babel he dispersed and scattered who gave their sons.
out of th eir desolate places; let the the people.
to suppose th a t the tragedy of th a t
Here in this peaceful land of ours
age had Jesus and his followers as
extortioner catch all th a t he h a th ,
F inding th a t he could not succeed — here where the sun shines, where
its victims. The crucifixion of Jesu s
and let the stran g er spoil his labor;
with all the people, he thought he lowers grow, where children play,
let there be none to extend mercy
and the m artyrdom of his apostles
would try a few, so he selected m illions of arm ed men battled for
did not constitute the real tragedy
unto him , n eith er let there be any
A braham and his descendants. the right and breasted on a th o u ­
of th a t time. It was the represen­
to favor his fatherless ch ild ren .”
Again he failed, and his chosen sand fields the iron storm s of war.
tatives of the established religion
“ A nd thou sh alt eat the fruit of
people were captured by the Egypt­ I hese brave, these incom parable
th at furnished the elem ent of u n ­
thine own body— the flesh of thy
ians and enslaved for four hundred men, founded the first Republic, i
...
,
• »u
•
sons and d a u g h te rs.”
.
i .u
i •
i speakable sadness in the picture
years. Then he tried again—rescued T 1 hey
fulfilled the prophecies; they whjch thftt
“ And the heaven th a t is over thee
age reveals.
And a
them from P haraoh and started for brought to pass the dream s; they
♦T hese w o nderful discourses of Ingersoll are
,
.single sentence from the lips of
Then he changed their realized
n o t to be had ex cept in the T h ird and Fourth Palestine.
&ed tl
the hopes th a t all the great — ------------------------- ------ ---
volum es of the D resden I d itio n . We w ill p rin t
w is e f in d ìiia t h a u p
*
Ty ’This s d d ra ss o f Rev. W. r. Brown is
them in p a ’ts —each part reads as a whole. We diet, allowing them to eat only the and good and
" ‘
' U Sl n a v e one of the last m ■
ade by < - him
before
—
—
■ ■ - —
■ —
— • — his
—
— reeigna-
11
do th is because u n til th e people are em ancipated
beasts
th
a
t
parted
the
hoof
and
from th e C atholic C hurch, th e P ro te s ta n t Bible,
made i and
an.l had since man „ a s m an.
a n d th e belief in “ th e s u p e rn a tu ra l,” th e re is no
statoM
the grounds of th e change from the c h u rc h
----------------------lange
chewed th e cud. Again he failed. —[Ingersoll.
hope for th is w orld.—E d . T o r c h .
of the o t h r k to th e church o f t h i s w orld.- E d .
A
D
T
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