The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1901-03-02
Fredrfc Harrison Performs Init
al POsitfvist Rite.
TWO YEAR OLD BOY.
Object of g First Sacrament -
Ceremony at Auditorium.
Future Punishment and Para
disc Are Eliminated.

Humanity William Sahld, the z-y ear
old son OF DIR. Sanud, 1917 Milwaukee
avenue The ceremony corresponds 70
that OF baptism in Christian churches
1t Is called by Positivists The First
Sacrament" 1t was performed at the
Auditorium Annex. and was the first OF
the kind ever conducted in Chicago
Mr.. Harrison. himself a patriarch in
years was ready for the Sahud party
when it arris ed at the hotel In the
party were:
DR.. and Mrs. sahud. parents of the
child
Mr.. and Mrs. ]. Livingston. 500 Bur
ling street. sponsors
Mile. Slovensl1y Dolkart. Mile. Vein
-schenker, I. Sissmsn. p Sissrnan. H J.
Fornnan and II. Svhwatt. witnesses.
Mr.. Harrison first arose and explained
informally that he was not a priest at
ALL but was simply about to do for DR..
Sahud's child what any other brother"
would be equally willing and qualified
to DO.
Then he read the presentation hymn,
composed by Judge Vernon Washington,
of London The hymn is practically
summarized in the last stanza, as fol-
lows:
No gods will hclD thee to thy goal;
But comrades in the race
Parents and friends shall train thy soul
In human faith and grace
We witness and we bless nigh claim
HeEcefOrth on thee we hold;
And here, in the great human name,
Receive thee in the fold.
After this Mr.. Harrison read a brief
PRAYER addressed to humanity and pro-
nounced his discourse on the Presenta-
ton of Infants He said in part:
There is nothing in our gathering
here today OF a special and peculiar
kind; we are introducing no novelty; we
are MT Initiating the rites of any kind
of theology. or even Of any purely re-
ligious community Our simple act IS
as old as human society, as common ana
universal as the sense Of brotherhood IN
human nature.
..rrhe christening Of the infant, as was
natural and inevitable in purely trans
candertal religion, has come 10 De r.
garded in the churches as Inlng "a
some special may Of mystlca) Nalue ~
the infant itself. 1T has been surround
ed with fantastic symbolism and mas us-
generated at last into an ignoble leger-
demain and badgG of exclusion anu MAJ
rowness- In our simple rte w nav 80, ~
syrnbu. for We symbolic nothing thdt
we do not do And what we GO we say
plainly and openly-we present the ehlto
to the community. and We accept II IA
hone
its dutv in the world. We pretend not
to wash the little angel OF IS SINS, loL
we know of no sins of which its innocent
spirit IS capable -,
from which the ceremony of christening
is thought to rescue it and the fantast1c
nara disc for which the water and the
cross are held to make It fit. To the
child we think no special grace is inn
parted. no particular gain is obtained
The presentation of the infant IN our
Positive faith is wholly an act winch
concerns the parents and the cotnInn5s
nitv. it concerns but indirectly the good
OF the child"
CHILD THECREATION OF SOCIETY
For good or for evil, the cnlld owes
all to u.s. We can fashion IL as the poi
ter fashions the clay. The infant is the
child of its parents after the f1eSn, OUT
after the spirit it IS the creation OF so.
ciety the child OF us ALL of the humanl-
ty that was always before US, ana VIII
continue to be after us forever.
"A wise training is the making OF a
sound mind can imagine no fapled
hell hereafter to be so powerful IN M
pressing the imagination as the actual
and present remorse of the parent VINO
sees his own vices reproduced in his or
spring or tainting forever the promise OF
that Young wife And so can suppose
no heaven more real in its intensity than
the happiness Of the parent VINO sees
that he is shaping that wonderful crea-
ton of humanity loving, wise, ana
useful man or woman
And let US remember that 1t is 20
petty communion or sect into which the
new child IS adopted and within which
its life is to pass It is no Positiv1st
group, no little Newton Hall sect which
receives these children, which will watch
over them and which win summon
them In time to duty. Tt is the great
public. it is society, mankind. or, rather,
in full, it is humanity itself"
PLEDGE OF PARENTS AND SPON-
SORS-
rT-f,ov, Mr. TTa r.1isrsra aeIxn7 the r,arar1+a
to rise and each to hold the child by
hand
You he solemnly said to them, "wno
present this child, William. today, re-
string to dedicate him to a worthy life.
do acknowledge your duty to train him
SO that he may hereafter become a ser
want of humanity in thought. heart, ami
deed2"
I'VE do" they answered Then tile
/ sponsors, vice god parents, rose
You" said Mr.. Harrison, who come
forward as the sponsors of this child, do
acknowledge your willingness to assist
its parents in all reasonable ways and
TO the best OF your means IN the due
/ fulhument OF that duty2H
I'VE do thy answered.
Then Mr.. Harrison read the final hymn
composed by Mr.. f. w. Beckett
The parents then signed their names
upon an 1mprovised register, which will
be Incorporated In the formal register of
the Positivist community in Newton
Hall, London. The SPONSORS and the
Witnesses also signed Mr.. Harrison then
K presented the parents Of the child with
his signed photograph.
when he comes to understand, after
I am departed. tell him that this man
presented him to humanity" said Mr..
Harrison, and kissing the young POSI-
twist he dismissed the little party.
DR.. Sahud was for eight years in Lon
don, and is to this day a member OF the
| Postivist community at Newton Hall,
1 founded about % years ago
WHAT POSITTVISM IS.
Postivisin is the religion Of humanity.
That is to say, since according to the