Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1883-10-05
Sunday.School Lessons.
A FREETHINKERS' GATHERING.

Dec. 30-Review.
AFREETHINKERS' GATHERING.
The sixth annual gathering of the
Frcethinkers' Association was held last
week in the goodly city of Rochester,
in the midst of numerous Christian tenn
|. pies whose HeaveD-ward pointing spires
are standing rebuke of the principles
which this fraternity seem anxious to
disseminate. The city in which it met
is vocal with the hum OF many-sided in
dustries, where order and regard for
law, enterprise, growth and prosperity
speak eloqucntly of the benign effects
of Christian institutions and of Chris
tian civilization All this the Free
thinkers must see, but they are sure not
to give credit where it is due. The
strange spectacle was witnessed of a
body of men and women (for women,
alas, are of the membership, regardless
of what the condition of woman would
| and must be without Christianity gath
! cred to pour obloquy upon faith which
cmancipates and blesseS, and upon in
stitutjons but for which the light that
is about us would be darkness, and all
that eXalts and adOrns society be
changed into what debases and deforms
it.
One may wonder why a convention
of this sort is held mt the present day!
1t is quite pertinent to ask, what good
end of any kind can such motley
gathering possibly subserve? What ur-
gent social or other need prompts eight
hundred people to come together from
different parts of the country to pro-
claim sentiments and views which are
/ opposed to the understanding and the
moral sense of the community? Does
any great evil, wrong or injustice af-
! flict society, and call for relief and re-
dress? Is the mind or conscience so fet-
! tered that thought and speech are not
| free, and the aid of such doughty
| champions is invoked to bring liberty?
Are the religious and moral beliefs of
/ Christian men, and the fruits they bear,
/ destructive of the welfare and happi-
ness of the community? Does the pros
perity of the land under Christian in
/ stitutions rest on a false foundation, the
/ subverSiOn of which, with the substitu-
ton of one after the Freethinkers'
own heart, will increase this prosperi-
ty, and make it more abidingp No
sensible man can need an answer to
such inquiries.
Among the grievances of which these
Freethinkers complain, as set forth in
the articles of their association, are the
following:
I'VE demand that al religious service now
/ sustained by the Government shall be abol-
ished, and especially that the use of the Bible
In the public schools whether Ostensibly rs a
. Textbook or nNOwGuIN n book of religious
worship, shall be prohibited.
! We demand that the appointment by the
! President of the United States or 10y the Gov
ernors or the various states OF all religious
festivals and fasts shall wholly cease.
we demand that the judicial oath I'm the
courts and in all other departments of the
Government shall be abolished, and that SIM
pie affirmation, under the penalties and pains
of perjury, shall be established in its stead.
We demand that all laws directly or indi-
! rcctly enforcing the observance of Sunday as
| the Sabbath shall bc repealed.
We demand that all laws looking TO the en-
forcement of Christian morality shall be
abrogated, and that all laws shall be con-
formed to the requirements of natural mo-
raliiy, equal rights and impartial liberty"
Hatred to religion, and especially 70
Christianity, which has always awak-
ened the most bitter opposition of in
fidels, is the animating spirit of the con-
vention. Among the notices that were
prepared to adorn the walls of the
building in which the convention met
was the following:
1.-The Government of the United States 1.
not in any sense, founded on the Christian
religion.'-G GORGE WASHINGTON.
No man, woman or child in this
country believes that this bold state.
ment expresses the real sentiment OF
George Washington in regard 10 the
basis of our national institutions, or the
foundation of our national prosperity
What Washington did say and believe
in regard to the influence of religion or
society is fully set forth in his Farewell
Address, in which he SAYS:
"Of all the dispositions and habits which
lead to political prosperity, re igion anC
morality are Indispensable supports. In vaiI
would that man claim the tribute of patriotism
who should labor To subyert these great pill
lars of human happiness, these firmest hope
of the duties of men and citizens. The micro
| politician. equally with the pious man, ough
to respect and TO cherish them. volume
could not trace all their connexions with pri
waite and public felicity. Let IL simply b'
asked where is the security for property, TO
reputation, for life, n the sense of religiou
: obligation desert The Ouths which arc the I'm
, struments of investigation in courts of jus
ticey And let us with caution indulge the sup
position that morality can be maintaine
without religion. Whatever may be comedies
to the influence of refined education Of
minds of peculiar structure. reason and OK
e perience both forbid us to expect that ma
2 tional morality can prevail in exclusion o
religious principles"
! The above placed on the walls or rea'
. from the platform of Freethinkers
Convention would be salutary anti
dote to the dishonest statement of tn
opinions of the Father of his Country.
From Washington to Paine and In
gersoll the descent is very far. Tn
! last two are in their Gown place." an
their names fifty point the ''strikin
! notices" that adorn the walls of
Freethinkers' Convention. Such
convention, indeed, without Pain
prominent, would be an anomaly, a.
though the disciple Ingersoll goes ia
beyond his teacher in invcctive agains
the Christian faith, and in ribald, bias
phemous treatment of sacred things
The motto from Paine reads thus! ''Thi
: world is my country-tO do good is m
, religion Measuring his religion b
the moral good he accomplished, it wa
= a low minus quantity-while the evil, i
!; the realm of morals and religious belief
which his infidel writings have wrought
marks him as a master architect Q
mischief and ruin. Had he taken tn
advice of Franklin and burnt the Ms
Of his book instead of giving it to til
world, his name would have bee
!; spared the odium with which it mus
be regarded through the ages. VIVA
! : that advice was will appear by an ex
!, tract from the letter containing it a
published in Bigelow's Life of Frank
s lin," vol. 8, p 364. The whole lette
|. Of the sage and philosopher is one tina
I a Freeihinkers' Convention might d
2 well to reproduce in connection wit
: fhe striking motto" from their favor
: lite apostle. Franklin wrote: