New-York tribune., 1907-08-05
COOPERSTOWN'S DAY.
RisboD Potter GiUes address at
Opening of Centennial.
[By Telegraph to The Tribune ]

-: :. ,-,o,ars,oun as a municipal corporation.
He smoke on The Religious Outlook OF INC
/ Future" The exercises were held IN the spa
cious Cooper Grounds. restored. enlarged ana
beautified by gifts from Mrs Potter ana He'
.
Main street from the public hbrar! anu Al
fred Corning Clark gymnasium to the rem
moro is q perstyle ot fiuttering color H1N
tboussnd dollars has been subscribed Tor 'he
centennial A large portion of this sum Is SET
aside for decorations and music A J. lie ]ti'S''
of New York. organist OF Christ thurch' ""ei'
T2sbon Potter breaches occasionally in summer
conducted a chorus of fifty voices. Mrs Juiid
Ward Howe has sent ode for The OCCASION
Admiral Dewey. who is spending the summer at
RichfeId Springs has contributed paper ap-
preciative of Cooper. which will be puollshed IN
the historical centennial volume later IN 'he
summer.
Professor Brander Matthews Of Columbia. is
expected on Thursday and q will lecture on
Cooper as a Novelist One of the hishIF
priced gifts received by John Worthngton. ior
uer American Minister to Siam, and now CHAIR
man of the centennial literary committee ls
portrait of Queen Elizabeth OF Kumania On
the margin Carmen Sylvia" has inscribed:
"Our hearts are full of love for the great poet
our childhood's dearest friend. We can never
thank him enough for all the JOY ne gave US.
Bishop Potter said, in part:
There are as | look toward religious
future three notes of menace. The first or these
love OF pleasure. The life of our forefathers was
compared with modern habits. fndulgences
and demands austere life. There was little TO
and little to spend: and the conditions OF NE
in the homes that first covered these hills ana III
the lives that lived in them were fun OF wha'
we should call hardship and privaton. | am not
saying that hardship and privation necessarily
make and devout and God fearing. but
il must be cu,ned thar where life had little to give
of pleasure or self Indulgence men learned 10 look
beyond. with equal confidence and eagerness f"r
a realization of lonsings and hungers that thcy az
least believed to he somehow shadows and Proph-
ecies of better things t" come am no, SAVING t
q either. that modern conditions of life "hich-
/ all know. are even In the hunblest nome
incomparahly moro easy and convenient 'lah ''i'7
of our fathers. necessarily enervating not
only but goddess. Bn il must he plain To even
the least rejecting person among MS that II We
go making the world CONVENIENT ana
! comfortahl" not only. but more luxurious We are
not Ukely-dc | say BE- willing to stay here;
No but | do say tha; we are not likely to possess
that 'purged vision of which John Milton speaks
and which makes competent to see the hlsheF
| things.
Again. another portent Of alarm in our time as
looks toward the future. ts in the grown
Of what some men-and some churches-to-day caii
goddess knowledge. The whcle realm OF that VIM ~
/ may be known by has in the last hundF'd
years been Transformed and many cherished 6~"leI9 ~
which with most Of us have been intert"lhed WI W.,
our earliest conceptions Of material. inteiectuaI
and spiritual truth have been ruthIessy shatlcred
| utterly swept away.
In word in the realm OF what may he called
dogmatic truth is idle To deny that there have
heer tremendous changes. and the endeavors Of
/ honest men square their convictions with IN
horted formularies hav" produced mental con-
tortion which would often be comic Il 1t w"r" not
for its moral aspects. That passion for ascrlblng
infaubility. first To human person or 'ounci' or
/ decree. and then to , formula. has provoked in
many earnest minds that vehement reiterauon or
inherited symbols of our beliefs which mas brought
about In them it's inevitable reaction OF doubt or
or downright denial.
We are not a reverent people and often
willing to fnd food 1nirth in themes and words
that must have for many OF US the most sacred
associations. But would this be possible unless
{ ..far ,sfuri ions
with these things had been somehow loosened and
most significant OF alI-our substantial faith in
what they stood for largely destroyed?
may we'll be thankful for the coming OF an
[ when departure from accepted religious tradi-
tions longer punished with the dungeon or
the stake. But In exulting in our freedom let Us
take care that We are not boastlng VainIy OF
goddess indifference
/ For alas. with ali Naunted Emancipation from
earlier intolerance there is one ncte in our modern
life which ought 10 make Christian people pro
foundly ashamed. And that is our bondage to the
spirit caste. We compare ourselves complaCently
here in America with races and lands In which. as
China and India such civza tion as they possess
is imperiously dominated by the spirit Of caste In
some cities In India not a great while ago the
Pariah caste was driven from the town at o'clock
in the afternoon and the gates OF the city closed
lest the shadow Of Parah might faH upon
Brahman. 'Monstrous and GrotcsGue custom we
cry. with It's inhuman dishonor Of some OF Gods
children Yes, my hrother-Dut VIII YOU tel me
how il differs in essence from that mental attitude
or that wonted manner with which most Of us bea-
ourselves toward negro or Chinaman?
! our shame in this land consists I'm this-that.
| while we profess to have no castes nor class dis
tnctions to tyrannize over us "" are too often IN
| boud,p. TO a CoWardice which worshps coarse
power-or. baser still. l think, crnges 10 mere
wealth.
You will own now that. in what have said thus
far have not ignored those dangers which most
gravey menace the Republic In the century that is
before us their intimate relations 10 our re-
ligious life and progress. But the who!e horizon
Is not a bank Of dark and menacing clouds; and
looking forward there is much to inspire Chris
tan disciple with renewed courage and hope.
And first OF all, IS the wide emancipation OF re-
igious con1nunons and devout and earnest minds
! from the demon Of theological intolerance. The
| Reformation communions too often passed under
the rule formuiaries. confessions. standards OF
! belief and practice. which each one claimed for
! itself be unerrtng interpretation or the In
spred words which it claimed 10 rest
| Nothing In this connection has been more in
sprins than the gradual weakening of the hold of
| these formularies the minds which they had
once terrorized and inundated. Is IT said that
| am here apostrophzing as pralseworthy that de-
| cay Of faith which has been the dark stain upon
the religion Of time? am doing nothing of the
sort There is indeed decay of faith which is
the sad distinction, In some of It's aspects OF much
| of the religion OF time and one may we'll be
wall it. But no exaggeration OF great mental
and snirtIlal reaction. even though II may run out
into the extravagances Of actual disbelief, need be
! oonfounded with that happy recon from the I'M,
perious exactions of credenda, both monstrous and
| cruel from which, thank God. our age has happily
shaken itself free
tho religion of the New Testament there has
broken 1pon muttudes of minds, thank God. a
conception of religion something inevitably
larger and nober than any fhefeiy sec'aIlah poui-
daries contain
! We who are living today witnesses of spec
| tacle which on this globe of ours has never been
| matched before For centuries nations and conn-
nents have been marked off from one another by
customs sceptres and most OF all. by religions
which (some of them taught men not love. but
| hate and distrust and separation from their fell
| low men To our times 1t is given TO these
| f.HJ Jnry and m Ind ay-pr