562 RELIGIOUS DEVELOPMENT -IV 



less and less upon the creeds, forms, and observances in 

 which these gems are set ; more and more on what draws 

 men together, less and less on that which keeps them 

 apart. 



I became convinced that what the world needed was 

 more religion rather than less ; more devotion to human 

 ity and less preaching of dogmas. Whenever I spoke 

 of religion, it was not to say a word against any exist 

 ing form; but I especially referred, as my ideals of re 

 ligious conduct, to the declaration of Micah, beginning 

 with the words, &quot;What doth the Lord require of thee?&quot;; 

 to the Sermon on the Mount; to the definition of &quot;pure re 

 ligion and undefiled&quot; given by St. James; and to some 

 of the wonderful utterances of St. Paul. But even this 

 alarmed two or three very good men; they were much 

 exercised over what they called my &quot;indifferentism&quot;; 

 and when I was chosen, somewhat later, to the presidency 

 of Cornell University, I found that they had thought it 

 their duty to write letters urging various trustees to pre 

 vent the election of so dangerous a heretic. 



Scattered through the Michigan university town were 

 a number of people who had broken from the old faith 

 and were groping about to find a new one, but, as a rule, 

 with such insufficient knowledge of the real basis of be 

 lief or skepticism that the religion they found seemed less 

 valuable to them than the one they had left. Thiers, 

 Voltairian though he was, has well said, * The only altars 

 which are not ridiculous are the old altars. 



Some of the best of these people, having lost very dear 

 children, had taken refuge in what was called 1 1 spiritual 

 ism ; and I was invited to witness some of the &quot;mani 

 festations from the spirit-land/ and assured that they 

 would leave no doubt in my mind as to their tremendous 

 reality. Among those who thus invited me were a county 

 judge of high standing, and his wife, one of the most 

 lovely and accomplished of women. They had lost their 

 only daughter, a beautiful creature just budding into 

 womanhood, and they thought that &quot; spiritualism &quot; had 



