RELIGIOUS INFLUENCE 



BY SAMUEL ATKINS ELIOT 



Samuel Atkins Eliot, President of the American Unitarian Association, Boston, 

 Massachusetts, b. Cambridge, Massachusetts, August 24, 1862. A.B. Har- 

 vard, 1884; A.M. Harvard, 1889; D.D. Bowdoin, 1900. Minister, Denver, 

 Colorado, 1889-93; Minister, First Unitarian Church, Brooklyn, New York, 

 1893-98.1 



I WISH, in this address, to consider what is the present attitude 

 of the normal man toward religion, what the wholesome nurture of 

 his religious sensibility involves, and what it may be expected to 

 produce. 



The common attitude of the average man toward religion in these 

 days is one of neutrality. In the lives of the great majority of 

 people, the interests of daily occupation, of home and school, busi- 

 ness and amusement, all precede the interests of what is commonly 

 understood as religion. We need not deny the obvious fact that there 

 . are, on the one hand, men and women who are sincerely religious, 

 and on the other hand there are people who indulge themselves in 

 open and conscious hostility to all religion. Nevertheless, the aver- 

 age man is in an attitude toward religion which can best be denned 

 as " mental reserve." I think it can be justly said that the majority 

 of intelligent Americans, whether connected with Christian institu- 

 tions or not, are " reverent agnostics." 



It does not concern me here to inquire into the causes of this 

 situation. In part it may be an outcome of the overwhelming inter- 

 est of our age in material affairs and the insatiable search for new 

 resources of luxury and power. In part it may be due to some 

 misinterpretation of the scientific discoveries of the last century. 

 We may only observe the fact that the present spiritual condition 

 of Christendom is not altogether unlike that of the old Athenians 

 in the time of the Apostle Paul, when all the outward observances 

 of religion went forward unobstructed, but when men were critically 

 dissatisfied and in their inmost hearts worshiped at the lonely altar 

 of an unknown God. 



I do not, indeed, perceive that our age is characterized by any 

 widespread atheism, but rather by restlessness and uncertainty. 

 The conclusions of materialistic atheism are as much of an affront 

 to reason as were the superstitions of childish credulity. Some 

 men through hard experience or temperamental gloom may come 

 to believe that the affairs of the universe are controlled by evil 

 powers; some may come to believe in a dualistic system wherein 

 the powers of good and evil contend for the mastery; but intelligent 



