Article March 14, 1914 Issue

As reported by the newspapers within the last few days,...

William S. Campbell

Washington (D. C.) Post

As reported by the newspapers within the last few days, considerable interest has been aroused over the utterances of the venerable president emeritus of Harvard University regarding religious subjects. It is stated that he would abandon the use of the term "God." It appears from the despatches, however, that Dr. Eliot's dissatisfaction is not so much with the word itself as with the meaning that is so commonly attached to it. The Post quotes him as saying that he would take away the term "God" and use in its place "our Father." This he considers the right name in approaching the Almighty.

Perhaps no harm would come if this recommendation were adopted, and yet it is a proposition that will hardly meet with approval. It would seem wiser to retain the word and give to it its generally accepted meaning, good.

The roots of our twentieth century civilization have been fed by the literature of the Greeks and Romans. These people recognized a power beyond mortal ken, but they had not the insight to perceive the full meaning of the word "divine." Hence we have in the classics mention of the gods of those times,—gods with human attributes, gods of war, and gods of pestilence; gods who could be placated and who needed to be appeased; gods both good and bad. A practical result of this teaching was the giving of scant attention to the good gods and of paying special attention to appeasing the whims of the gods of wrath.

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