The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1909-07-26
PLAYS DIR. ELIOT'S
 FUTURE RELIGION
New York Minister Declares It Is Creedless, Christless,
 Crossless and Purely Hu-

IC Us CTooOIoSS, CnT1S UloSS,
 Crossless and Purely Hu-
 man.
 New York, July 26.-"Creedless, Christless, crossless,'' is the way the Rev. Dr. John S. Allen. pastor. for strangers at the Marble Collegiate Church. Fifth avenue and Twenty ninth street, last night characterized the Religion of the Future" recently enunciated by Dr. Charles W. Eloit, presid ent emeritus of Harvard Uni had been repeated by the pastor and congregation Dr. Allen said, in part:
 We have joined in repeating the confession of our faith-the Apostles Christian religion. You have said, T believe.' Did you mean it? If so. I am sorry for you, for Dr. Eliot, of Bos- ton, says yoU belong to inferior socie- ty,' and your creed will have no place in the religion of the future.'
 ''Dr. Eliot, as president of Harvard, was a man whose opinion on many subjects was highly valued. As presi- dent emeritus he has lately gained wide notoriety that has not added to his reputation. He has assumed a new role as adviser general to the people of the United States, and his absurd pro- position Of a five foot shelf of books taking the place of college course has called down o1i his venerable head a lot of good natured ridicule.
 Now he has condescended to tell us what the religion of the future must be. It will be purely human affair. without Bible authority or church sanction. If the Christian pulpit makes nc reply to Dr. Eloit it will be said that science gives consent. I for one do not care to give even the quasi indorsement of silence to teaching so utterly at varance with all that we hold to be Christian.
 Tn the religion of the future every man will make his own God according to Dr. Eliot, and the new idea of God will be gotten at by the multiplication of infinitfes.' A strange task, this, for finite minds! When you pray it will be multiplication of ininities,' when your hungry heart cries out for the Ii Itng God you will just have to try to love a multiplication of infinities.'
 1 am aweary of the superior way in which Dr. Eliot and others under take to tell us what we ought to be. They fill the openings of eternity with the puppets of their own imagination. They take their oracular importance too seriously.
 Bishop McFaul, of Trenton, says the religion of the future will be the re- ligfon of Rome. Let me offer a few humble suggestions: The religion of lHe Will D0 SdInO1C put not Roman. Nor will the church of the future be Unitarian, as pr. Eloit thinks.
 The church of the future will be the United Christian Church of Amer ica; it will be the Christian church growing better all the time, as it has in the past, and the divine Christ will have the leadership. There will be the old teachings as to sin and salvation It will be the religion of the old Bible that has stood unharmed the test of eenturies.'
 Preaching on 'The New Religion" the Rev. pr. J. B. Price, pastor of the Washington Heights Methodist Epis- copa1 Church, said last night:
 ''In Harvard's prophecy of a new evangel we miss the vital note. Some thing more than high moral teaching is essential. Motive power is indis- pensable.
 Religion is not an idea1istic phiIo- sophy. not a scheme of ethics. but life. No moral teaching, however lofty, begets life. The new religion will not be emasculation,l but an evolution of the dominant creed of to-day. No prophet has any warrant for elininat- ing the divinity of Christ from the coming creed of Christendom"