A NEW RELIGION.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume II, Issue 205, 13 August 1912, Page 5

A NEW RELIGION.

(By Elbert Hubbard, in the ‘■Cosmopolitan.’’)

This new religion deals with but one world at a time. The object of its adoration is humanity.

There is a new religion. It Ims come without blare of brass, without fanfare of words, without shoutings, without argument, agitation, ■ r violence. This new religion is slowly and surely conquering the world. It is being preached from every pulpit in Christendom, and is being advocated by all rabbis, priests, preachers, and teachers. It is so reasonable, so gentle, so simple, so obvious, that it is being accept- 1 '! without opposition—aye, without the realization that it exists. In form the old creeds still remain, but their soul has been honeycombed by doubt. The old is being construed in the light of the now. The ruin of the past is a quarry to which we go for material to build the temple of the new. The new religion assumes that what is good in this life is good in another. It deals with but one world at a time. The object of its adoration is humanity. It does not try to make peace with the skies ; it teaches man that his success lies in making peace with his neighbour. It is a religion of self-preservation, and thus has it engaged as counsel the strongest passion of the human heart.

Curiously enough the men who have done most to bring this religion about are not aware that they are religious in their tendencies, actions, or mode of thought. The new religion is not a “revealed” religion, in the sense that it has been whispered by rhe Infinite to one or two. It has been born to the multitude'; and the business men of the world are its chief proinulgators. It requires no interpretation, explanation, or defence. It came in with the i.nc-price system : it was accepted when honesty was discovered to be an asset. It recognises the Brotherhood of Man, and is built on the solid bedrock of the solidarity of the race.

Lies lead straight to limbo. Nothing pays but truth. In all transactions, of every kind and nature, both sides must profit. The new religion tends to eliminate fear, doubt, hate, prejudice. It has spiypathy. imagination, hope, faith, and love. It has the power to put itself in the place of the other person. In it there is no tyranny, no force, no threat. It wins only by the virtue that it possesses. Those who practise it thrive. Though it the world is being redeemed. Sickness, distress , regrets, misunderstanding, sorrows, before it flee away. The chief, characteristic of tliis’ new religion is its antiquity. It has always been known by the elect few. But now the masses, the many, are accepting and practising it in their lives. It is taught in all public schools, in business colleges, in shops, stores, factories, banks and in the market places of the world, it is taught on railroad trains, in sleeping cars, day coaches, in the caboose, on the farm, by chauffeurs, by the men who sow and reap. It is the Religion of Common Sense. Its tenets are industry, economy, efficiency, expediency, reciprocity. appreciation, good cheer, mutuality, co operation, all illumined bv love.