Having planted
his corn, he made his pregnant squaw walk round the seed-bed in hope of
receiving from the Source of life increased blessing and sustenance for
body and mind. Between such a truly religious act of the savage, and
that of the Christian sage, Joseph Henry, who uncovered his head while
investigating electro-magnetism to "ask God a question," or that of
Samuel F.B. Morse, who sent as his first telegraphic message "What hath
God wrought," I see no essential difference. All three were acts of
faith and acknowledgment of a power greater than man. Religion is one,
though religions are many. As Principal Fairbairn, my honored
predecessor in the Morse lectureship, says: "What we call superstition
of the savage is not superstition _in him_. Superstition is the
perpetuation of a low form of belief along with a higher knowledge....
Between fetichism and Christian faith there is a great distance, but a
great affinity--the recognition of a supra-sensible life."
"For the earnest expectation of the creation waiteth for the revealing
of the sons of God.... The creation itself shall be delivered from the
bondage of corruption into the liberty of the glory of the children of
God."
W.E.G.
ITHACA, N.Y., October 27, 1894.
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