Jasper County Democrat, Volume 12, Number 29, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 July 1909 — ELIOT PREDICTS A NEW RELIGION [ARTICLE]

ELIOT PREDICTS A NEW RELIGION

“It Will Not Be Bound by Dogma or Creed.” SUIHEB SCHOOL ADDRESS President Emeritus of Harvard Says In the New Religion "There Will Be No Deification of Remarkable Human Beings” and “That God Will Be So Imminent That No Intermediary Will Be Needed.”—“Skilled Surgeon One of Its Members.” Cambridge, Mass.. July 23—Charles W. Eliot, president emeritus of Harvard, in an address before the Harvard summer school of theology prophesied the advent of a new religion. “It will not be bound by dogma or creed,” he said. “Its workings will be simple, but its field of action limitless. Its discipline will be the training in the development of co-operative good will. It will attack all forms of evil. There will be no supernatural element? it will place no reliance on anything but the laws of nature. Prevention will be the watchword and a skilled surgeon one of its members.”

The coming religion, he thought, will be built on two great commandments, the love of God and the service of fellow men. “The new religion,” he said, “will not be based upon authority; the future generation is to be led, not driven. In the new religion there will be no personification of natural objects; there will be no deification of remarkable human beings. “The new religion will not teach that character can be changed quickly. It will not deal chiefly with sorrow and death, but with joy and life. “God will be so imminent that no intermediary will be needed. Its priests will strive to improve social and industrial conditions. The new religion will not attempt to reconcile people to' present ills by the promise of future compensation.” «