The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1909-08-04

20 At Closing Session of the
Harvard Summer School.
oocTON, Mass.-It seemed fitting
president Eliot, who has always
GREAT interest in the Harvard
- NOR school of theology, should
the concluding address today of
roar's session. His subject was
d. New Religion" and, with APP
nc .io+e metaphor and other exam
lOp be described what might be ex-
" Bod ID as the coming religion, one
v va on the two great command
asea the love of God and the SER
peu' If fpllow-man. 1t was much in
~ nature of a prophecy.
US won have been studying this
..S said President Eliot, "about
hanged SaI' views of religion and in
s D'ased knowledge, new ideas of God
. y cen along many lines; you have
,..rrod that social progress has been
rs"difpd, and that energy is being
.osaryed. From these and other in
a.otions you must believe that re-
s eyr is not fixed, but fluent, and
Sst it changes from century to cen
,uTv Such, indeed, has been the
so as The progress in the nineteenth
ssntnrv far outstripped that of SINH
q Nv npriods and it is fair to assume
hat the progress of the twentieth
century, will bring about what / call
the new religion.
First, ! shall tell you what this
nav religion will not be;'and, second,
What it will be. The new religion
3 viii not be based upon authority,
other spiritual or temporal; the
9rpsent generation is ready to be led,
Inf not driven. AS a rule the older
christian churches have relied on au-
tbGritv. and there is noW a tendency
toward liberty and progress, and
among educated men this feeling is
irresistible. In the new religion
there will be no persOnification of
natural objects; there will be no de-
fcation of remarkable human be-
ings, and the faith will not be ra-
cial or tribal.
Nov, let US consider the positive
elements of this coming religion. A
new thought of God will be it's char
acterstic The twentieth century
religion accepts literally St. Paul's
statement: In Him we live and
move and have our being This new
religion will be Thoroughly monoth-
estic God will be so imminent that
no intermediary Will he needed. For
every man God will be a multiplica-
ton of ininities. A humane and
worthy idea of God then will be the
central thought of the new religion.
This religion rejects the idea that
man is an alien or a fallen being
who is hopelessly wicked. 1t finds
such beliefs inconsistent with
worthy idea of God.
Man has always attributed to
man a spirit associated with but in
dependent of the body This spirit is
shown in NAME habits, in his ap-
pearance and aetions-in short, it is
his personality lit is the most eff
fectiye part of every human being.
in the crisis of a battle it is a SUI
periOr soul that rallies the troops,
and it appeals to souls-not to bod
les
SO the new religion will take ac-
count of all righteous persons-it
will be religion of all saints; it
Will reverence the teachers of liber-
ty and righteousness and will re-
Spect all great and lovely human be-
mgs. 1t will have mo place for OBJ
Scure dogmas or mystery. 1t will
comprehend only lessons of good
Will, for, after all, Trey alone are
civilized. In past times to the sick
ana downtrodden death has been
led out as compensation. Will the
new religion make such promises?
believe that in the new religion
'nere will be no supernatural ele-
ment; it will place no reliance on
ANYTHING but the laws of nature.
PrelentiOn will be the watch
WORD OF the new religion and a skill
IuI surgeon will be one of it's minis
ters'