Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1884-01-30
THE AGE OF REASON,
Major FsIsy's Lecture on Pains's
:: Great Work.
The Only Celebration Wheeling Bestowed
Upon the Birthday Of the Great
Skeptic.

Yesterday was the anniversary of the
birth of Thomas Paine, and while, m
many cities, societies of free-thinkers
marked the day by celebrations OF various
kinds, the only notice taken OF il in Wheel
ing was in lecture by Major J. ]. Foley,
at Maennerchor Hall. There are number
of free.thinkers, or liberals, about this city,
but they are not organized and took no
notice of the anniversary. Major Foley,
who is himself liberal, began his lecture
with a tribute to Paine, and proceeded as
follows:
81 believe in one God and no more, and
7 hope for happiness beyond this life.
believe in the equality of man, and be-
lieye that religious duties consist in doing
Justice, loving mercy and endeayoring ID
make our fellow-creatures happy
"Do we contemplate Gods power? We
see it in the immensely OF creation. Do we
went 10 contemplate His wisdom? we see
incomprehensible whole is governed. DO
we want to contemplate His munificence?
We see it in the abundance with which He
fills the earth. Do we want to contemplate
His mercy2 We see it in His not with
holding the abundance from the unthank
full =,
Who do my hearers suppose was the
author of these beautiful sentiments? Are
they to be found in Paley's Evidences OF
ObrisiIanity, or are they some OF the sub.
lime utterauces of Jeremy Taylor, or
Hooker, or Tillotson? They are neither.
They are not to DO found in the writings OF
any ecclesisstic or divine. Nor are they
the sentims nts OF q person who is recon-
mended to the christian world. There are
very few who will not learn with astonish.
ment that they are the production OF the
author CT the age of Reason" Thomas
Msior Foley read the letter of Thomas
Jefferson 10 Major John Cartright, showing
how "they stole the law upon us" which
made Christianity part OF the common
law. The sheer of contempt with which
Gibbon treated Christianity in the 10th and
10Th chapters of the Decline and Fall OF
the Roman Empire" the prosecutions
which were imposed on the publishers OF
Paine's age of Reason" That Christian.
ity, though not of Jewish origin, yet found
it convenient to throw a bridge BACK 70
that system so as to adopt the tithes and
toll gates. Through the aid OF diagram
he Illustrated tie Greek and Roman idea
OF the regions of Pluto according to
Homer and Virgil. The Christian
evolution as 10 the abode of the dead, Illus
trsting it by the visions OF Dante. The
further evolution of professionalism which
eliminated pnrgatory, referring copiously
10 Paradise Lost to Millions description of
tie warm heaven, comparing toe shout OF
the MeseInh TO that Of Achilles. Milton
Ut chsracI cried as a plagiarist, VINO re.
hasb.d he p1pan mytholo yieS. The deduc.
ton Le,ng that religion was the tabled
Prcttns when cornered and exploded in
ole Il ape assumed another. And con
clC,,u thus:
Shall tell this audience the sCho1lmas.
ter is abroad. That every nook is open to
lie glare OF day. That superstition and
pl.tStcieit no longer rear their horrible
M i've in the human mind. That he who
will not reason is bigot, and he who can.
not reason is fool. That he who dares
not reason is a slave. That thought, no
longer an infant, scared and whipped, has
risen up like strong man from slumber,
a giant refreshed from wine, and has
warred and is still warning with old abuses
and effete systems, and have outliTed their
uses The folios of ounces, the fires of in
quisitors, the dungeons OF kings and the
long dull system of imposture and mis-
rule which for centuries have sat like
gloatIng incubus on the fair neck OF hui
mainly? Shall l tell this audience that
hundred years now does the work of
thousand when time was young? That it
is the fifty years of Europe against the
cycle of Cathay?