F.VIEW 
 
 Worlds 
 
 Religious (onoresses 
 
• TH F - 
 
 -JOHN -FRYER- 
 CHINESE- LIBRARY 
 
 MAIN LIBRA8Y 
 
 r 
 
WORLD'S RELIGIOUS CONGRESSES. 
 
M 
 
 KEY. L. P. MEKCEll, 
 New-Church Temple, Chicago. 
 
REVIEW 
 
 WORLD'S Religious Congresses 
 
 The World's Congress Auxiliary of the 
 
 World's Columbiain^ Expositiois^. 
 
 Chicago, 1893. 
 
 By EEV. L. P. MERCER, 
 Member op the General Committee. 
 
 CHICAGO AND NEW YORK : 
 
 RAND, McNALLY & COMPANY. 
 

 Main Lib. 
 JOHN FRYER 
 CHINESE LIBRARY 
 
 Copyright, 1893, by Rand, McNally & Co. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER. . PAGE. 
 
 I. Ij^itiamei^t and Preparation^, - - 7 
 
 II. Openik^g Spectacle and Speeches, - - 17 
 
 President Bonney, - - - - - 20 
 
 Eev. John Henry Barrows, D. D./ - - 24 
 
 Cardinal Gibbons, ----- 30 
 
 Archbishop Latus, - - - - - 31 
 
 P. C. Mozoomdar, - - - - - 32 
 
 Pung Quang Yu, ------ 35 
 
 Kt.-Rev. Reuchi Shibata, - - - - 36 
 
 H. Dharmapala, - - - - • - - 37 
 
 Virchand Gandhi, ----- 39 
 
 C. N. Chakravarti, - - - - - 40 
 
 Swami Vivekananda, - - - - 44 
 
 Miss Jeanne Sorabji, - - - - - 46 
 
 Prince Wolkonsky, ----- 49 
 
 III. A Religious Symposium, - - - - 53 
 
 The Hindu, ------ 54 
 
 Orthodox Christianity, - - - - - 64 
 
 Liberal Christianity, - - - - - 82 
 
 Buddhism, ------- 86 
 
 Judaism, - - - - - - - 104 
 
 Mohammedanism, - - - - - - 112 
 
 Roman Catholic Church, - - - - 117 
 
 The Greek Church, 125 
 
 Japanese Criticism and Appeal, - - 130 
 
 The Brahmo-Somaj, . . . - - 137 
 
 The New Christianity, - - - - 147 
 
 (5) 
 
 747756 
 
6 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER. PAGE. 
 
 IV. A Eeligious Symposium — Continued, -156 
 
 God, 156 
 
 Incarnation, ------- 187 
 
 Sin and Keconciliation, - - - - 199 
 
 • Eevelation and the Scriptures, - - - 222 
 
 Immortality, - 246 
 
 Sociology, 261 
 
 Woman, - - 282 
 
 V. The Denominational Congresses, - - 289 
 VI. Farewell Meetings in Columbus and 
 
 Washington Halls, - - - - - 293 
 VII. What Will Be the Result? - - - 325 
 
THE,,/; . ...,,..^..,, ., : ,. 
 
 WORLD'S RELiGioils 'Congresses 
 
 OF 1893. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 IJSriTIAMET^T AIS^D PREPAEATION. 
 
 "TTTHEN the record of the achievements of the 
 VV World's Columbian Exposition shall have 
 been fully written and considered by those 
 far enough removed from the event to form impar- 
 tial judgments, it will be found that the most 
 remarkable and unique in kind and substantial in 
 results are those of the Auxiliary Congresses, cover- 
 ing more than twenty departments of thought, and 
 embracing over two hundred distinct congresses, 
 participated in by distinguished specialists. As the 
 accomplished and efficient secretary of the World's 
 Congress Auxiliary said in summing up the work: 
 ' ' Never before in the history of the world has 
 there been a programme of subjects and speakers 
 prepared, the i^roper execution of which required 
 the term of six months. Never has there been 
 created an organization with 210 working commit- 
 tees, a local membership of 1,600, and a non-resi- 
 
 (7) 
 
8 world's religious conghesses. 
 
 dent membership of 15,000. Never until the year 
 1893, which marks a new epoch in the intellectual 
 progress of mankind, has any individual gone so 
 far as to outline ev^en the prospectus of a course of 
 lGct;ir3s that covered the great departments of 
 thought, as outlined by the president of these con- 
 gresses in his general programme. These con- 
 grosses have held 1,245 sessions; we have had 
 5,974 speakers, and the total attendance at all the 
 congresses is over three-quarters of a million. It 
 was a gigantic undertaking, but it has been success- 
 fully accomplished." 
 
 The original idea of the world's congresses was 
 first published by Hon. C. C. Bonney in the Slates- 
 man magazine for October, 1889, in these words: 
 
 "The crowning glory of the World's Fair of 1893 
 should not be the exhibit there to be made of the 
 material triumphs, industrial achievements, and 
 mechanical victories of man, however magnificent 
 that display may be. Something higher and nobler 
 is demanded by the progressive spirit of the jd resent 
 age. In connection with that imi3ortant event of 
 the world all government, jurisprudence, finance, 
 science, literature, education, and religion should 
 be represented in a congress of statesmen, jurists, 
 financiers, scientists, literati, teachers, and theolo- 
 gians, greater in numbers and more widely repre- 
 sentative of all peoples and nations and tongues 
 than any assemblage which has ever yet been con- 
 vened." 
 
 The idea was extensively discussed, and received 
 with much public favor. Subsequently the matter 
 
INITIAMENT AND PKEPARATION. 9 
 
 was taken up by the Directory of the Columbian 
 Exposition, and under its authority the World's 
 Congress Auxiliary was organized, with C. C. 
 Bonney as president, T. B. Bryan, vice-president, 
 Lyman J. Gage as treasurer, and received the 
 indorsement of the United States Government. 
 The work of organization commenced in October, 
 1889, was completed and the first of the congresses 
 opened in May, 1893. The last congress embraced 
 in the great scheme was held during the last week 
 in October ; and the president in summing up 
 results could say: "That these congresses have 
 been successful far beyond anticipation, that they 
 have transformed into enduring reality the hopes 
 of those who organized and conducted them, and 
 that they will exercise a benign and potent influ- 
 ence on the welfare of mankind through the coming 
 centuries has been so often, so emphatically, and 
 so eloquently declared by eminent representatives 
 of the different countries and peoples that these 
 statements may be accepted as established facts. 
 That the material exhibit of the World' s Columbian 
 Exposition in Jackson Park is the most complete 
 and magnificent ever presented to human view is 
 generally agreed, but a multitude of eminent wit- 
 nesses have declared, after attendance on both, that 
 the intellectual and moral exposition of the prog- 
 ress of mankind presented in the world's con- 
 gresses of 1893 is greater and more imposing still. 
 Thus the work of the World's Congress Auxiliary 
 takes its enduring place in human history, an 
 imperishable part of the progress of mankind." 
 
10 
 
 In the whole series of congresses the *' Parlia- 
 ment of Religions" has taken preeminence, and 
 justly so, not only because of the importance and 
 universal interest of the subject, but because it was 
 central in the original concej)tion and its success 
 the constant care of the president of the Auxiliary. 
 In his closing address to the Parliament of Religions 
 Mr. Bonney said: " The wonderful success of this 
 first actual congress of the religions of the w^orld is 
 the realization of a conviction which has held my 
 heart for many years. I became acquainted with 
 the great religious systems of the world in my youth, 
 and have enjoyed an intimate association with 
 leaders of many churches during my maturer years. 
 I was thus led to believe that if the great religious 
 faiths could be brought into relations of friendly 
 intercourse many points of symi)athy and union 
 would be found, and the coming unity of mankind 
 in the love of God and the service of man be greatly 
 facilitated and advanced. Hence, when the occasion 
 arose it was gladly welcomed, and the effort more 
 than willingly made." 
 
 It was in this faith, and in the hope of realizing 
 this result, that the ' ' fraternity of learning and 
 virtue ' ' was conceived, and the idea of the congresses 
 proposed. In conversations with the writer, in the 
 spiritual intimacy of years, the desirability and 
 feasibility of such a universal conference was often 
 dwelt upon, on the ground of our common faith, 
 that a universal medium of salvation has been pro- 
 vided by the Lord with every nation that has a 
 religion, and that to bring into friendly conference 
 
INITIAMENT AND PREPARATION. 11 
 
 the representatives of all the great historic faiths 
 and of the denominations of Christendom would 
 develop the fact that to acknowledge the divine and 
 live well is the supreme and universal condition of 
 religion, and would lead td the recognition of a 
 universal bond of brotherhood in faithfulness to 
 what one understands to he from the divine and 
 to lead, to the divine. 
 
 When a meeting of ministers, representing all the 
 denominations in Chicago, was called in September, 
 1889, to aid in the creation of an interest in the 
 great Exposition and its location in Chicago, this 
 idea of a great religious congress and of other 
 international conventions was communicated by 
 myself and others, to whom it had become familiar; 
 and in a sub-committee, consisting of Bishop Fal- 
 lows, Dr. George C. Lorimer, Dr. Hiram W. Thomas, 
 Rev. Jenkin L. Jones, and the writer of this review, 
 the subject was fully discussed, adopted, and 
 embodied in an address, which was signed by the 
 whole committee of ministers, and gvvQU to the 
 press October 1, 1889. In these meetings of the 
 representatives of the Chicago churches, while the 
 general plan of "international conventions com- 
 posed of the scholars and thinkers and workers of 
 all countries" was adopted, the dream of a friendly 
 conference of all religions was perhaps by most 
 regarded as Utopian, and except for the earnest and 
 sanguine advocacy of a few bold spirits would 
 scarcely have received the indorsement of that 
 body. It was said that religions had never met but 
 in conflict, and that a different result could not be 
 
12 world's religious congresses. 
 
 expected now. It may be assuredly said that but 
 for the high faith, catholicity of spirit, great tact 
 and patience, and the sublime persistence of the 
 president of the Auxiliary, who dreamed only of 
 success, under the guidance of Providence, the 
 result which has now become history could never 
 have been realized; and his "patient and titanic 
 labors," as Doctor Barrows said at the opening of 
 the parliament, " will one day be appreciated at 
 their full value." 
 
 Immediately upon the organization of the Auxili- 
 ary the president appointed as General Committee 
 on Religious Congresses Rev. John Henry Barrows, 
 D. D., chairman; Rt.-Rev. Bishop William E. 
 McLaren, D. D., D. C. L., Rev. Prof. David Swing, 
 vice-chairmen; His Grace Archbishop P. A. Feehan, 
 Rev. F. A. Noble, D. D., Rev. William M. Law- 
 rence, D. D., Rev. F. M. Bristol, D. D., Rabbi E.G. 
 Hirsch, Rev. A. J. Canfield, D. D., Rev. M. Ranseen, 
 Rev. J. Berger, Mr. J. W. Plummer, Rev. J. Z. 
 Torgersen, Rev. L. P. Mercer, Rev. Jenkin Lloyd 
 Jones, Rt -Rev. Bishop C. E. Cheney, D. D. The 
 result is an imperishable monument to the zeal and 
 efficiency of the chairman and cooperating members 
 of this committee. Doctor Barrows entered with 
 enthusiasm into the scheme, and brought his great 
 abilities to the support of a faith in the world's 
 response. The preliminary address of the commit- 
 tee, prepared by him and sent throughout the world, 
 elicited the most gratifying responses, and proved 
 that the proposed congress was not only practicable, 
 but also that it was most earnestly demanded by the 
 
INITIAMENT AND PREPARATION. 13 
 
 needs of the present age. The religious leaders of 
 many lands, hungering and thirsting for a larger 
 righteousness, gave the proposal their benedictions, 
 and promised the congress their active cooperation 
 and support. 
 
 Opposition was encountered in many quarters, 
 and not a few well-known Christian writers con- 
 demned what they called an attemjit to congregate 
 "the exponents and propagandists of all false and 
 corrupt religions, on equal terms with the advocates 
 of the Christian religion, for a competitive compari- 
 son of the merits of these beliefs." It was manifest 
 from the outset, however, that the great popular sym- 
 pathy of Christendom was with the movement, and 
 that these narrow misconceptions were confined to a 
 small, if zealous, minority. The position of Dr. 
 John Henry Barrows as chairman of the General 
 Committee, through the long period of strenuous toil 
 which brought the preparations to completion, was 
 not an enviable one. While his committee worked 
 together in unbroken harmony, the burden of 
 responsibility, and the corresx)ondence necessary to 
 any promise of success, and the executive energy 
 and tact inevitable to the arrangement of so vast 
 and varied a programme, fell upon him. At the 
 same time, standing as the representative of an 
 orthodox churcli which withheld its support from 
 the movement, he became the target of bigoted 
 criticism which must have often strained friendships 
 and sometimes made his position little less than 
 heroic. On the other hand, he received the benedic- 
 tions and the generous cooperation of some of the 
 
14 world's religious congresses. 
 
 foremost minds of Christendom, and the loyal assist- 
 ance of the Woman's Committee and of the many- 
 local denominational committees, with their advis- 
 ory councils, advanced the interest throughout the 
 world. 
 
 The plan extended- as the preparations advanced, 
 and the programme itself of the religious congresses 
 of 1893 constitutes what was with perfect propriety 
 designated as one of the most remarkable publica- 
 tions of the century. The programme of this gen- 
 eral parliament of religions directly represented 
 England, Scotland, Sweden, Switzerland, France, 
 Germany, Russia, Turkey, Greece, Egypt, Syria, 
 India, Japan, China, Ceylon, New Zealand, Brazil, 
 Canada, and the American States, and indirectly 
 included many other countries. It presented , among 
 other great themes to be considered in this congress, 
 Theism, Judaism, Mohammedanism, Hinduism, 
 Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism, Shintoism, Zoro- 
 astrianism, Catholicism, the Greek church. Protest- 
 antism in many forms, and other religious systems. 
 
 This programme also announced for presentation 
 the great subjects of revelation, immortality, the 
 incarnation of God, the universal elements in 
 religion, the ethical unity of different religious sys- 
 tems, the relations of religion to morals, marriage, 
 education, science, philosophy, evolution, music, 
 labor, government, peace and Avar, and many other 
 themes of absorbing interest. The distinguished 
 leaders of human progress by whom these great 
 topics were presented constitute an uitparalleled 
 galaxy of eminent names. For the execution of this 
 
INITIAMENT AND PREPARATION. 15 
 
 part of the general programme seventeen days were 
 assigned. During substantially the same period 
 the second part of the programme was executed in 
 the adjoining Hall of Washington. This consisted 
 of what are termed presentations of their distinctive 
 faith and achievements by the different churches. 
 These presentations were made to the world, as rep- 
 resented in the world's religious congresses of 1893. 
 
 The third j)art of the general programme for the 
 congresses of this dejDartment consisted of separate 
 and independent congresses of the different religious 
 aenomi nations, for the purpose of more fully setting 
 forth their doctrines and the service they have ren- 
 dered to mankind. These special congresses were 
 held, for the most part, in the smaller halls of the 
 memorial building. The denominational congresses 
 were each held during the week in which the presen- 
 tation of the denomination occurred. 
 
 The fourth and final part of the programme of the 
 department of religion consisted of congresses of 
 various kindred organizations, held between the 
 close of the Parliament of Religions and October 15th, 
 including Missions, Ethics, Sunday rest, the Evan- 
 gelical Alliance, and similar associations. 
 
 Well might President Bonney in opening the par- 
 liament, contemplating with satisfaction and pride 
 the event he had conceived with such daring, devel- 
 oped with so much labor to such elaborate complete- 
 ness by the committees which he had called to his 
 aid and intrusted with the responsibility, exclaim: 
 ''To this more than imperial feast I bid you wel- 
 
16 ' world's religious congresses. 
 
 The great assembly has been held, the possibility 
 of conference and fraternal respect demonstrated, 
 the great deliverances made; and now the work of 
 study, comparison, and honest criticism may begin. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE OPENING SPECTACLE AND SPEECHES. 
 
 AN unfinished art palace converted into recep- 
 tion chambers and assembly halls for a 
 world's congress; eager and hospitable ladies 
 offering cordial greetings and words of direction to 
 the crowds who inquire for the Hall of Columbus, 
 or seek to register as members of the Parliament of 
 Religions; distinguished committeemen greeting 
 and guiding, uow a Roman Catholic cardinal, and 
 now a stately Hindu in orange robe and turban, 
 and again a group of Japanese Buddhist monks, to 
 the ^president's reception-room, where they are wel- 
 comed by a Christian layman as the recognized 
 official of a Christian nation, and by a Presbyterian 
 clergyman as chairman of the occasion, and intro- 
 duced to an archbishop of the Greek church in his 
 high black cap, the black gown and jeweled orna- 
 ments of his order; everywhere Christians of many 
 denominations are acting as hosts, w^elcoming distin- 
 guished visitors from China, Japan, India, Russia, 
 Sweden, Germany, England, Australia, New 
 Zealand, and introducing them to one another as 
 brothers, worshiping the one only God, having a com- 
 mon goal ! Surely the Avorld moves. We have been 
 boasting of a new age, an age of inquiry, expecta- 
 tion, and experiment. It is evident we have 
 
 2 (17) 
 
18 world's religious cois^gresses. 
 
 reached, also, a new era of fraternity and good-will, 
 and that the ' ' Fatherhood of God and the brother- 
 hood of man" is to have henceforth a real interpre- 
 tation among men 
 
 Gorgeous and imposing spectacles have been wit- 
 nessed in every land, but nothing which inspires 
 the heart and fires the imagination like this doable 
 file of the representatives of all religions headed by 
 a Christian layman and a Presbyterian minister. 
 The audience which filled Columbus Hall to its 
 utmost capacity is deeply moved, and many who 
 walk in the procession, who have had their hours of 
 hope and hours of grave misgiving, are almost 
 overpowered with a sense of the possible significance 
 of the occasion. All know that at the hour of 10, 
 on this 11th day of September, the new Liberty 
 Bell struck ten strokes in honor of the ten great 
 religions of the world, and many believed the bell 
 proclaimed ''a new liberty of thought and wider 
 tolerance of opinion," and some devoutly pray 
 as the procession moves to the platform for the 
 Spirit that shall make them worthy links in a uni- 
 versal bond of brotherhood in God. But how shall 
 these differences harmonize ? If there is a common 
 sj)irit of worship, how shall it find a common 
 expression ? 
 
 This is the first revelation of the memorable 
 morning. Calling the assembly to its feet. Presi- 
 dent Bonney announces a brief moment of silent 
 prayer, each offering the aspiration of his heart in 
 the language of his thought; after Avhich the whole 
 multitude, Christian, Jew, and Gentile, led by Car- 
 
• OPENING ADDRESSES. 19 
 
 dinal Grbbons, joined in the universal prayer 
 "Our Father," and burst forth, with the organ's 
 lead, into the doxology, "Praise God, from whom 
 all blessings flow." In impressiveness and preg- 
 nant promise the occasion could not well be sur- 
 passed. 
 
 But how is this beginning to end ? We know it 
 ended well. "The Fatherhood of God and 
 brotherhood of man" proved not only a watch- 
 word, but a sentiment impressive, respectful, and 
 genuine. Yague and various the ideas of the sig- 
 nificance of the phrase may have been with many, 
 I am disposed to say with most, yet almost every 
 speaker at the opening session expressed in some 
 form what alone could give it reality of meaning. 
 I asked myself, Why are these my brothers? 
 Because they are scholars? Not that. Scholars 
 there are from Christendom, and their peers in 
 scholarship from the far-off East, on this platform, 
 and the recognition of a common bond in knowl- 
 edge of the history of opinion and in trained 
 methods of study. But this alone would lead to 
 debate and contest of opinion among intellectual 
 peers. Something must hold this in check, and 
 overshadow it in the recognition of a spiritual 
 relationship, if our hopes are to be realized. Are 
 these brothers because they are men? I asked. 
 That fact will not bring the result hoped for unless 
 there is a common sense of true manhood. And 
 what should that be except the recognition of true 
 humanity in a man's faithfulness to what he 
 helieves to he divine in the hope of union with the 
 
20 world's religious congresses. 
 
 All Good. Just tliat, I thought, expresses the 
 universal bond of brotherhood in God. This man 
 is my brother because he loves and lives up to what 
 he believes to be from the divine, and in the hope 
 of union with the divine. That in him is brother 
 to that in me which seeks obedience to the divine. 
 Diverse our readings of the divine may be, but 
 faithfulness to what I read I know to be my highest 
 and truly human quality, and because I recognize 
 this faithfulness in another, also, I know him to be 
 my brother. So I thought, and felt assured that if 
 this sense of brotherhood were in the assembly, 
 uttered or unexpressed, it would make itself felt. 
 
 Looking back now over the speeches of welcome 
 and response on that opening day, I am profoundly 
 impressed with the fact that this very recognition 
 made the Parliament of Religions the inauguration 
 of a new impulse among men. 
 
 "Worshipers of God and lovers of men," were 
 the felicitous words in which President Bonney 
 opened his inaugural. 
 
 "Let us rejoice," he continued, "that we have 
 lived to see this glorious day; let us give thanks to 
 the Eternal God, whose mercy endureth forever, that 
 we are permitted to take part in the solemn and 
 majestic event of a world's congress of religions. 
 The importance of this event can not be overes- 
 timated. Its influence on the future relations of 
 the various races of men can not be too highly 
 esteemed. 
 
 ' ' If this congress shall faithfully execute the duties 
 with which it has been charged it will become a joy 
 
OPENING ADDRESSES. 21 
 
 of the whole earth and stand in human history like 
 a new Mount Zion, crowned with glory and mark- 
 ing the actual beginning of the new epoch of 
 brotherhood and peace. 
 
 "For when the religious faiths of the world rec- 
 ognize each other as brothers, children of one 
 Father, whom all profess to love and serve, then, 
 and not till then, will the nations of the earth yield 
 to the spirit of concord and learn war no more. 
 
 " It is inspiring to think that in every part of the 
 world many of the worthiest of mankind, who would 
 gladly join us here if that were in their power, this 
 day lift their hearts to the Supreme Being in earnest 
 prayer for the harmony and success of this congress. 
 To them our own hearts speak in love and sym- 
 pathy in this impressive and prophetic scene. 
 
 "In this congress the word 'religion' means the 
 love and worshij) of God and the love and service of 
 man. We believe the Scripture, that ' of a truth God 
 is no respecter of persons, but in every nation he that 
 feareth God and worketh righteousness is accepted 
 of him.' We come together in mutual conhdence 
 and respect, without the least surrender or compro- 
 mise of anything which we respectively believe to be 
 truth or duty, with the hope that mutual acquaint- 
 ance and a free and sincere interchange of views on 
 the great questions of eternal life and human con- 
 duct will be mutually beneficial. 
 
 "As the finite can never fully comprehend the 
 infinite, nor perfectly express its own view of the 
 divine, it necessarily follows that individual opin- 
 ions of the divine nature and attributes will differ. 
 
22 woeld's religious congresses. 
 
 But, properly understood, these varieties of view 
 are not causes of discord and strife, but rather in- 
 centives to deeper interest and examination. Nec- 
 essarily God reveals himself differently to a child 
 than to a man; to a philosopher than to one who 
 can not read. Each must see God with the eyes of 
 his own soul; each must behold him through the 
 colored glass of his own nature; each one must 
 receive him according to his own capacity of recep- 
 tion. The fraternal union of the religions of the 
 world will come when each seeks truly to know how 
 God has revealed himself in the other, and remem- 
 bers the inexorable law that with what judgment it 
 judges it shall itself be judged. 
 
 ^'The religious faiths of the world have most 
 seriously misunderstood and misjudged each other 
 from the use of words in meanings radically differ- 
 ent from those which they were intended to bear, 
 and from a disregard of the distinctions between 
 appearances and facts; between signs and symbols 
 and the things signified and represented. Such 
 errors it is hoped that this congress will do much to 
 correct and to render hereafter impossible. 
 
 " He who believes that God has revealed himself 
 more fully in his religion than in any other can not 
 do otherwise than desire to bring that religion to 
 the knowledge of all men, with an abiding con- 
 viction that the God who gave it will preserve, pro- 
 tect, and advance it in every expedient way ; and 
 hence he will welcome every just opportunity to 
 come into fraternal relations with men of other 
 creeds, that they may see in his upright life the 
 
OPENING ADDRESSES. 23 
 
 evidence of tlie truth and beauty of his faith, and 
 be thereby led to learn it, and be helped heavenward 
 by it. When it pleased God to give me the idea of 
 the world's congresses of 1893, there came with that 
 idea a profound • conviction that their crowding 
 glory should be a fraternal conference of the world's 
 religions. Accordingly, the original announcement 
 of the world's congress scheme, which was sent by 
 the Government of the United States to all other 
 nations, contained, among other great themes to be 
 considered, ' The grounds for fraternal union in the 
 religions of different people.' " 
 
 Concluding, Mr. Bonney said: "This day the sun 
 of a new era of religious peace an.d progress rises 
 over the world, dispelling the dark clouds of secta- 
 rian strife. This day a new flower blooms in the 
 gardens of religious thought, filling the air with its 
 exquisite perfume. This day a new fraternity is 
 born into the world of human progress, to aid in 
 the upbuilding of the kingdom of God in the hearts 
 of men. Era and flower and fraternity bear one 
 name. It is a name which will gladden the hearts 
 of those who worship God and love man in every 
 clime. Those who hear its music joyfully echo it 
 back to sun and flower. 
 
 '' It is the brotherhood of religions. 
 
 ' ' In this name I welcome the first parliament of the 
 religions of the world." 
 
 This auspicious opening was received with an 
 enthusiasm which was augmented and deepened 
 when Doctor Barrows followed with his eloquent 
 and catholic address. If the full significance of the 
 
24 wokld's religious congresses. 
 
 occasion is to be measured, the circumstances must 
 be frankly considered. Doctor Barrows was not 
 merely the chairman of the Parliament of Religions; 
 he was such as the representative of one of the 
 denominations of Christendom. »While his utter- 
 ances were, of course, in no w^ay intended to com- 
 mit his denomination, they are to be considered as 
 showing what a man in his position is free to say on 
 an occasion in which not so very long ago he would 
 not have been free to participate. While for con- 
 scientious boldness, as the utterance of a man who 
 had been subjected to annoying sectarian criticism 
 from many quarters, his words are admirable, they 
 set a model of dignity and devout reliance upon the 
 justifying providence of God that must silence 
 opposition, quiet distrust, and stimulate generous 
 impulses. 
 
 '^If my heart did not overflow," he said, ^'with 
 cordial welcome at this hour, which promises to be 
 a great moment in history, it would be because I 
 had lost the spirit of manhood and had been for- 
 saken by the Spirit of God. The whitest snow on 
 the sacred mount of Japan, the clearest water 
 springing from the sacred fountains of India, are 
 not more pure and bright than the joy of my heart 
 and of many hearts here that this day has dawned 
 in the annals of time, and that, from the farthest 
 isles of Asia; from India, mother of religions; from 
 Europe, the great teacher of civilization; from the 
 shores on which breaks the 'long wash of Austral- 
 asian seas'; that from neighboring lands and from 
 all i^arts of this republic, which we love to contem- 
 
OPENING ADDRESSES. 26 
 
 plate as the land of earth's brightest future, you 
 have come here at our invitation in the expectation 
 that the world's first parliament of religions must 
 prove an event of race-wide and perpetual signifi- 
 cance. 
 
 "For more than two years the General Committee, 
 which I have the honor to represent, working 
 together in unbroken harmony, and presenting the 
 picture of prophecy of a united Christendom, have 
 carried their arduous and sometimes appalling task 
 in happy anticipation of this golden hour. Your 
 coming has constantly been in our thoughts, and 
 holies, and fervent prayers. I rejoice that your 
 long voyages and journeys are over, and that here, 
 in this young capital of our Western civilization, 
 you find men eager for truth, sympathetic with the 
 spirit of universal human brotherhood, and loyal, I 
 believe, to the highest they know, glad and grate- 
 ful to Almighty God that they see your faces and 
 are to hear your words. 
 
 ' ' Welcome, most welcome, O wise men of the East 
 and of the West! May the star which has led you 
 hither be like unto that luminary which guided the 
 men of old, and may this meeting by the inland 
 sea of a new continent be blessed of heaven to the 
 redemption of men from error and from sin and 
 despair. I wish you to understand that this great 
 undertaking, which has aimed to house under one 
 friendly roof in brotherly counsel the representa- 
 tives of God's aspiring and believing children every- 
 where, has been conceived and carried on through 
 strenuous and patient toil, with an unfaltering 
 
26 woeld's religious congresses. 
 
 heart, with a devout faith in God, and with most 
 signal and special evidences of his divine guidance 
 and favor. • 
 
 "Long ago I should have surrendered the task 
 intrusted to me before the colossal difficulties loom- 
 ing ever in the way, had I not committed my work 
 to the gracious care of that God who loves all his 
 children, whose thoughts are long, long thoughts, 
 who is patient and merciful as well as just, and 
 who cares infinitely more for the souls of his erring 
 children than for any creed or philosophy of human 
 devising. If anything great and worthy is to be 
 the outcome of this parliament, the glory is wholly 
 due to him who inspired it, and who in the Script- 
 ures, whicli most of us cherish as the word of God, 
 has taught the blessed truths of divine fatherhood 
 and human brotherhood. 
 
 * ' I should not use the word 'if in speaking of 
 the outcome of this congress of religions, since, were 
 it decreed that our sessions should end this day, the 
 truthful historian would say that the idea which 
 has inspired and led this movement, the idea whose 
 beauty and force have drawn you through these 
 many thousand miles of travel, that this idea has 
 been so flashed before the eyes of men that tliey 
 will not forget it, and that our meeting this morn- 
 ing has become a new, great fact in the historic evo- 
 lution of the race which will not be obliterated. 
 
 "What, it seems to me, should have blunted 
 some of the arrows of criticism shot at the pro- 
 moters of this movement is this other fact, that it 
 is the representatives of that Christian faith which 
 
OPENING ADDRESSES. 27 
 
 we believe lias in it such elements and divine forces 
 that it is fitted to the needs of all men who have 
 planned and provided this first school of compara- 
 tive religions, wherein devout men of all faiths may 
 speak for themselves without hindrance, without 
 criticism, and without compromise, and tell what 
 they believe and why they believe it. I appeal to 
 the representatives of the non-Christian faiths, and 
 ask you if Christianity suffers in your eyes from 
 having called this Parliament of Religions? Do you 
 believe that its beneficent work in the world will 
 be one whit lessened?" 
 
 "We are met together to-day," he continued, 
 "as men, children of one God, sharers with all men 
 in weakness, and guilt, and need, sharers with de- 
 vout souls everywhere in aspiration, and hope, and 
 longing. We are met as religious men, believing, 
 even here in this capital of material wonders^ in the 
 presence of an exposition which displays the un- 
 paralleled marvels of steam and electricity, that 
 there is a spiritual root to all human progress. We 
 are met in a school of comparative theology, which 
 I hope will x)rove more spiritual and ethical than 
 theological. We are met, I believe, in the temper 
 of love, determined to bury, at least for the time, 
 our sharp hostilities, anxious to find out wherein we 
 agree, eager to learn what constitutes the strength of 
 other faiths and the weakness of our own; and we 
 are met as conscientious and truth-seeking men in a 
 council where no one is asked to surrender or abate 
 his individual convictions, and where, I will add, no 
 one would be worthy of a place if he did. 
 
28 world's religious congresses. 
 
 * * We are met in a great conference, men and women 
 of different minds, where tlie speaker will not be 
 ambitious for short-lived verbal victories over 
 others; where gentleness, courtesy, wisdom, and 
 moderation will prevail far more than heated argu- 
 mentation. I am confident that you appreciate the 
 peculiar limitations which constitute the peculiar 
 glory of this assembly. We are not here as Baptists 
 and Buddhists, Catholics and Confucians, Parsees 
 and Presbyterians, Methodists and Moslems. We 
 are here as members of a parliament of religions, 
 over which flies no sectarian flag, which is to be 
 stampeded by no sectarian w^ar-cries, but where for 
 the first time in a large council is lifted up the ban- 
 ner of love, fellowship, brotherhood. We all feel 
 that there is a spirit which should always pervade 
 these meetings, and if any one should offend against 
 this spirit let him not be rebuked publicly or per- 
 sonally. Your silence will be a graver and severer 
 rebuke. 
 
 "We are not here to criticise one another, but each 
 to speak out positively and frankly his own con- 
 victions regarding his own faith. The great world 
 outside will review our work; the next century will 
 review it. It is our high and noble business to make 
 that work the best possible." 
 
 With earnest acknowledgment of the coopera- 
 tion of men and women at home and abroad who 
 had rendered assistance, with words of welcome to 
 the representatives in their several orders, and with 
 recognition of spiritual conditions and causes in the 
 spirits of just and good men passed from earth, and 
 
OPENING ADDRESSES, 29 
 
 forming "a great company of witnesses," Doctor 
 Barrows concluded in these words: 
 
 " When, a few days ago, I met for the first time 
 the delegates who have come to ns from Japan, and 
 shortly after the delegates who have come to us from 
 India, I felt that the arms of human brotherhood 
 had reached almost around the globe. But there is 
 something stronger than human love and fellowship, 
 and w^hat gives us the most hope and happiness 
 to-day is our confidence that — 
 
 The whole round world is every way 
 
 Bound by gold chains about the feet of God." 
 
 The key-note Lad been sounded, and the audience 
 recognized it with sympathetic enthusiasm when- 
 ever it was approached in the varied addresses of 
 the day. Whether it was the generosity of good- 
 will, or appreciation of the novelty of high official 
 representatives of the Eoman church pleading 
 for '^religious liberty," Archbishop Feehan and 
 Cardinal Gibbons were received with especial 
 interest. Perhaps it was not yet known to most 
 that Bishop Keane, the eminent rector of the Cath- 
 olic University at Washington, had taken a cor- 
 dial and active part in the preliminary work, 
 and that Catholics had shown from the outset a 
 worthy interest in the parliament; but, whether from 
 surprise or from expectation, the audience was 
 eager to welcome the cardinal and arc ii bishop. 
 Their speeches were scarcely . equal in dignity and 
 catholicity to the addresses contributed by repre- 
 sentatives of the Catholic church later in the ses- 
 
30 world's religious congresses. 
 
 sions, and betrayed some restraint, as if unwilling 
 too far to commit themselves. Archbishop Feehan 
 noted ''great diversities of opinion, but in all a 
 great, high motive." Cardinal Gibbons that, not- 
 withstanding diversities of belief, there is a ^ ^ plat- 
 form of charity, of humanity, and of benevolence" 
 on which all. may stand. Later in the day. Arch- 
 bishop Redwood of New Zealand raised the open- 
 ing voice of the Catholic church to a higher strain 
 of faith, saying: "In her teaching there is an 
 event which the human race shall never forget — = 
 that the Godhead took up our human nature to ele- 
 vate and unite it with the divine nature, whence 
 began a brotherhood of man never dreamed of by 
 merely human beings." And pointing out that in 
 all religions there must be an element of truth to 
 account for their persistence, he recalled the saying 
 of Christ, "I am the truth," and exclaimed, 
 ' ' Wherever there is truth there is something worthy 
 the respect, not only of man, but of God, the God- 
 man, the incarnate God." 
 
 When the Archbishop of Zante, Greece, the Most 
 Reverend Dionysios Latus,* was introduced, and 
 arose with the dignity of manly strength, of great 
 learning, of ripened age, and the bearing of official 
 responsibility, curiosity gave place to profound re- 
 spect before he had uttered a word. It was an object 
 lesson — not so much in the power of presence as in 
 the sphere of power. Through a certain labored 
 ceremonial of manner there breathed a directness of 
 purpose and intensity of feeling that made itself 
 appreciated before he had articulated his thought: 
 

C. C. BONNEY. 
 
 President of the World's Congress Auxiliar, 
 
OPENING ADDRESSES. 31 
 
 ''Reverend ministers, most honorable gentle- 
 men, the superiors of this congress, and hon- 
 orable ladies and gentlemen: I consider myself 
 very happy in having set my feet on this plat- 
 form to take part in the congress of the different 
 nations and peoples. I thank the great American 
 nation, and especially the superiors of this congress, 
 for the high manner in which they have honored me 
 by inviting me to take part, and I thank the minis- 
 ters of divinity of the different nations and peoples 
 which, for the first time, will write their faiths 
 together in the books of the history of the world." 
 
 Then, referring to the realization of his long-cher- 
 ished hope to visit this country, and to the impor- 
 tance of the history and influence of the Greek 
 church, which it was his privilege to represent, he 
 turned to the dignitaries on the platform, and lift- 
 ing his hands, he said: 
 
 ''Eeverend ministers of the eloquent name of 
 God, the Creator of your earth and mine, I salute 
 you on the one hand as my brothers in Jesus Christ, 
 from whom, according to our faith, all good has 
 originated in this world. I salute you in the name 
 of the divinely inspired gospel, which, according to 
 our faith, is the salvation of the soul of man and 
 the happiness of man in this world. 
 
 ' ' All men have a common Creator, without any 
 distinction between the rich and the poor, the ruler 
 and the ruled; all men have a common Creator with- 
 out any distinction of clime or race, without distinc- 
 tion of nationality or ancestry, of name or nobility; 
 all men have a common Creator, and consequently a 
 common Father in God. 
 
32 world's religious congresses. 
 
 " I raise up my hands and I bless with heart; ^"^ 
 love the great country and the happy, glorious peo- 
 ple of the United States." 
 
 The observer could not but notice that the eyes of 
 the audience were fixed on the Orient, and as they 
 listened to the salutations of evangelical Christianity, 
 and Roman Christianity, and Eastern Christianity, 
 in succession, expectation was raised to the point 
 where relief seemed necessary; and when President 
 Bonney presented P. C. Mozoomdar of India, author 
 of the ''Oriental Christ," and representative of the 
 Bralimo Somaj, the audience greeted him with the 
 wildest applause. Mozoomdar had been in this coun- 
 try ten years ago; many had heard him then, and 
 added to their welcome to India greeting to a friend: 
 
 "Leaders of the Parliament of Religions, men 
 and women of America: The recognition, sympa- 
 thy, and welcome you have given to India 
 to day are gratifying to thousands of liberal Hindu 
 religious thinkers, whose representatives I see 
 around me, and, on behalf of my countrymen, I cor- 
 dially thank you. India claims her place in the 
 brotherhood of mankind, not only because of her 
 great antiquity, but equally for what has taken place 
 there in recent times. Modern India has sprung fro m 
 ancient India by a law of evolution, a process of 
 continuity which explains some of the most difficult 
 problems of our national life. In prehistoric times 
 our forefathers worshiped the great living Sjurit 
 God, and, after many strange vicissitudes, we Indian 
 theists, led by the light of ages, worship the same 
 living Spirit God, and none other. 
 
, ( • • » • • 1 
 
REV. JOHN HENRY BARROWS, D. D , 
 
 Chairman of the Committee on Religious Congresses. 
 
OPENING ADDRESSES. 83 
 
 "Perhaps in other ancient lands this law of con- 
 tinuity has not been so well kept. Egypt aspired 
 to build up the vast eternal in her elaborate symbol- 
 ism and mighty architecture. Where is Egypt 
 to-day? Passed away as a mystic dream in her pyr- 
 amids, catacombs, and Sphinx of the desert. 
 
 "Greece tried to embody her genius of wisdom 
 and beauty in her wonderful creations of marble, in 
 her all-embracing philosophy; but where is ancient 
 Greece to-day'^ She lies buried under her exquisite 
 monuments and sleeps the sleep from which there is 
 no waking. 
 
 ' ' The Roman cohorts under whose victorious tramp 
 the earth shook to its center, the Roman theaters, 
 laws, and institutions — w^here are they? Hidden 
 behind the oblivious centuries, or, if they flit across 
 the mind, only point a moral or adorn a tale. 
 
 "The Hebrews, the chosen of Jehovah, with their 
 long line of law and i)rophets, how are they? 
 Wanderers on the face of the globe, driven by king 
 and kaiser, the objects of j)ersecution to tlje cruel 
 or objects of symi)athy to the kind. Mount Moria 
 is in the hands of the Mussulman, Zion is silent, and 
 over the ruins of Solomon's Temple a few men beat 
 their breasts and wet their white beards with their 
 tears. 
 
 "But India, the ancient among ancients, the 
 elder of the elders, lives to-day with her old civili- 
 zation, her old laws and her profound religion. 
 The old mother of the nations and religions is still a 
 power in the world; she has often risen from apparent 
 death, and in the future will arise again. When the 
 
 3 
 
34 woeld's religious congresses. 
 
 Vedic faith declined in India the esoteric religion of 
 the Vedantas arose; then the everlasting philosophy 
 of the Darasanas. When these declined again the 
 light of Asia arose and established a standard of 
 moral perfection which will yet teach the world a long 
 time. When Buddhism had its downfall the Shaiva 
 and Yaish Rava revived and continued in the land 
 down to the invasion of the Mohammedans. The 
 Greeks and Scythians, the Turks and Tartars, the 
 Monguls and Mussulman rolled over her country 
 like torrents of destruction. Our independence, our 
 greatness, our prestige — all had gone, but nothing 
 could take away our religious vitality. 
 
 ''We are Hindus still, and shall always be. Now 
 sits Christianity on the throne of India, .with the 
 gospel of peace on one hand and the scepter of civ- 
 ilization on the other. Now it is not the time 
 to despair and die. Behold the aspirations of 
 modern India — intellectual, social, political — all 
 awakened; our religious instincts stirred to the 
 roots. If that had not been the case do you think 
 Hindus, Jains, Buddhists, and others would have 
 traversed these 14,000 miles to pay the tribute of 
 their sympathy before this august Parliament of 
 Religions ? 
 
 ''No individual, no denomination can more fully 
 sympathize or more heartily join your conferences 
 than we men of the Brahmo Somaj, whose religion is 
 the harmony of all religions, and whose congrega- 
 tion is the brotherhood of all nations. 
 
 "Such, as our aspirations and sympathies, dear 
 brethren, accept them. Let me thank you again for 
 
OPET^INa ADDRESSES. 35 
 
 this welcome in the name of my countrymen, and 
 wish every prosperity and success to your labors." 
 
 Perhaps the most remarkable scene of the day 
 occurred when President Bonney introduced the 
 representative of the Chinese government and of 
 Confucianism. ''We have not treated China very 
 well in this country," remarked Mr. Bonney. "We 
 have sometimes been severe toward her, and some- 
 times have persecuted her children, but the Em- 
 peror of China has responded in a Christian spirit to 
 our call, and sent a delegate to this congress. This 
 delegate is the Hon. Pung Quang Yu, secretary of 
 the Chinese legation in Washington." 
 
 When Pung Quang Yu came forward he was 
 greeted with a furor of applause: Men and 
 women rose to their feet in the audience, and there 
 was a wild waving of hats and handkerchiefs. The 
 delegate' s speech, translated by his 'secretary, was 
 read in ringing tones by Doctor Barrows: 
 
 ' ' On behalf of the imperial government of China I 
 take great plea,sure in res^Donding to the cordial 
 words which the chairman of the general committee 
 and others have spoken to-day. This is a great 
 moment in the history of nations and religions. For 
 the first time men of various faiths meet in one great 
 hall to report what they believe and the grounds for 
 their belief. The great sage of China, who is hon- 
 ored not only by the millions of our own land, but 
 throughout the world, believed that duty was 
 summed up in reciprocity, and I think the word 
 reciprocity finds a new meaning and glory in the 
 proceedings of this historic parliament. I am glad 
 
36 
 
 that the great empire of China has accepted the 
 invitation of those who have called this parliament 
 and is to be represented in this great school of com- 
 parative religion. Only the happiest results will 
 come, I am sure, from our meeting together in the 
 spirit of friendliness. Each may learn from the 
 other some lessons, I trust, of charity and good-will, 
 and discover what is excellent in other faiths than 
 his own. In behalf of my government and people I 
 extend to the representatives gathered in this great 
 hall the friendliest salutations, and to those who 
 have spoken I give my most cordial thanks." 
 
 A representative of the Shinto faith, the state 
 religion of Japan, Rt.-Rev. Reuchi Shibata, was 
 next introduced. The bishop appeared in his full 
 pontificals, and salaamed profoundly toward the 
 audience and to the right and left when he came 
 forward. Mr. Bonney, in his words of introduction, 
 alluded in appropriate language to the rapidity with 
 which Japan had advanced in the path of modern 
 civilization and the peculiar kindness felt by the 
 people of this country toward the people of the 
 empire of the mikado. The Shinto bishop's address 
 was read by Doctor Barrows. It was in these 
 words: 
 
 ' ' I can not help doing honor to the congress of 
 religions held here in Chicago, as the result of the 
 partial effort of those philanthropic brothers who 
 have undertaken this, the greatest meeting ever 
 held. It was fourteen years ago that I expressed, 
 in my own country, the hope that there should be a 
 friendly meeting between the world's religionists, 
 
OPENING ADDRESSES. 37 
 
 and now I realize my hope with great joy in being 
 able to attend these phenomenal meetings. 
 
 ''In the history of the past we read of repeated 
 and fierce confiicts between different religious creeds 
 which sometimes ended in war. But that time has 
 passed away and things have changed with advanc- 
 ing civilization. It is a great blessing, not only to 
 the religions themselves, but also to human affairs, 
 that the different religionists can thus gather in a 
 friendly way and exchange their thoughts and opin- 
 ions on the important problems of the age. 
 
 " I trust that these repeated meetings will gradu- 
 ally increase the fraternal relations between the dif- 
 ferent religionists in investigating the truths of the 
 universe, and be instrumental in uniting all relig- 
 ions of the world, and in bringing all hostile nations 
 into peaceful relations by leading them to the way 
 of perfect j ustice. ' ' 
 
 When he had finished reading, Doctor Barrows 
 introduced the delegation of Buddhist priests, who 
 remained standing while Z. Noguchi, their inter 
 preter, said: "I thank you on behalf of the Jap- 
 anese Buddhist priests for the welcome you have 
 given us and for the kind invitation to participate 
 in the proceedings of this congress." 
 
 The Orient has been reached, and Buddhism has 
 acknowledged its welcome, and all eyes turn to one 
 of the most winning figures on the platform, tall, 
 clad in white, soft and closely clinging robes, ideal- 
 istic face, gentle eyes, waving black hair and scanty 
 beard — the gentle and lovable Dharmapala of 
 Ceylon. 
 
38 wokld's religious congresses. 
 
 ''Friends: I bring to you the good wishes of 
 475,000,000 of Buddhists, the blessings and peace of 
 the religious founder of that system which has pre- 
 vailed so many centuries in Asia, which has made 
 Asia mild, and which is to-day in its twenty-fourth 
 century of existence, the prevailing religion of the 
 country. I have sacrificed the greatest of all work 
 to attend this parliament. I have left the work of 
 consolidation — an important work which we have 
 begun after YOO years — the work of consolidating 
 the different Buddhist countries, which is the most 
 important work in the history of modern Buddhism. 
 When I read the programme of this Parliament of 
 Religions I saw it was simply the reecho of a great 
 consummation which the Indian Buddhists accom- 
 plished twenty-one centuries ago. 
 
 ' ' At that time Asoka, the great emperor, held a 
 council in the city of Patna, of 1,000 scholars, which 
 was in session for seven months. The proceedings 
 were epitomized and carved on rock and scattered 
 all over the Indian peninsula and the then known 
 globe. After the consummation of that programme 
 the great emperor sent the gentle teachers, the mild 
 disciples of Buddha in the garb that you see on this 
 platform, to instruct the world. In that plain garb 
 they went across the deep rivers, the Himalayas, 
 to the plains of Mongolia and the Chinese plains, 
 and to the far-ofl" beautiful isles, the empire of the 
 rising sun; and the influence of that congress held 
 twenty-one centuries ago is to-day a living power, 
 because you everywhere see mildness in Asia. 
 
 "Go to any Buddhist country, and where do you 
 
OPENING ADDRESSES. 39 
 
 find such healthy compassion and tolerance as you 
 find there ^ Go to Japan, and what do you see? 
 The noblest lessons of tolerance and gentleness. Go 
 to any of the Buddhist countries and you will see 
 the carrying out of the programme adopted at the 
 congress called by the Emperor Asoka. 
 
 '' Why do I come here to day ? Because I find 
 in this new city, in this land of freedom, the very 
 place where that programme can also be carried 
 out. For one year I meditated whether this par- 
 liament would be a success. Then I wrote to Doctor 
 Barrows that this would be the proudest occasion of 
 modern history and the crowning work of nineteen 
 centuries. Yes, friends, if you are serious, if you 
 are unselfish, if you are altruistic, this programme 
 can be carried out and the twentieth century will see 
 the teachings of the meek and lowly Jesus accom- 
 plished. 
 
 "I hope in this great city, the youngest of all 
 cities, but the greatest of all cities, this programme 
 will be carried out, and that the name of Doctor Bar- 
 rows will shine forth as the American Asoka. And 
 I hope that the noble lessons of tolerance learned in 
 this majestic assembly will result in the dawning of 
 universal peace which will last for twenty centuries 
 
 A short but most pleasing address was made by 
 Virchand A. Gandhi, a lawyer of Bombay, and one 
 of the chief exponents of Jain religion of that 
 oriental country. Mr. Gandhi spoke as follows: 
 
 "Mr. President, ladies and gentlemen: I will 
 
40 world's relighous congresses. 
 
 not trouble you with a long speech. I, like my 
 respected friends, Mr, Mozoomdar and others, come 
 from India, the mother of religions. I represent 
 Jainism, a faith older than Buddhism, similar to 
 it in its ethics, but different from it in its psy- 
 chology, and professed by 1,500,000 of India's 
 most XDeaceful and law-abiding citizens. You have 
 heard so many speeches from eloquent members, 
 and as I shall si3eak later on at some length, I will 
 therefore, at present, only offer on behalf of my 
 community and their high priest, Moni Atma 
 Ranji, whom I especially represent here, our sincere 
 thanks for the kind welcome you have given us. 
 This spectacle of the learned leaders of thought and 
 religion meeting together on a common platform, 
 and throwing light on religious problems, has been 
 the dream of Atma Ranji' s life. He has commis- 
 sioned me to say to you that he offers his most 
 cordial congratulations on his own behalf, and on 
 behalf of the Jain community, for your having 
 achieved the consummation of that grand idea of 
 convening a parliament of religions." 
 
 Professor C. N. Chakravarti, a Theosophist, 
 from Allahabad, India, responded, in these words: 
 
 '' I came here to represent a religion the dawn of 
 which appeared in a misty antiquity which the 
 powerful microscope of modern research has not yet 
 been able to discover; the depth of whose begin- 
 nings the plummet of history has not been able to 
 sound. From time immemorial spirit has been 
 represented by white and matter has been repre- 
 
OPENING ADDRESSES. 41 
 
 sented by black, and the two sister streams which 
 join at the town from which I came, Allahabad, 
 represent two sources of spirit and matter, accord- 
 ing to the philosophy of my people. And when I 
 think that here, in this city of Chicago, this vortex 
 of physicality, this center of material civilization, 
 you hold a parliament of religions; when I think 
 that, in the heart of the World' s Fair, where abound 
 all the excellencies of the physical world, you have 
 provided also a hall for the feast of reason and the 
 flow of soul, I am once more reminded of my native 
 land. 
 
 "Why? Because here, even here, I find the same 
 two sister streams of spirit and matter, of the intel- 
 lect and physicality, joining hand and hand, repre- 
 senting the symbolical evolution of the universe. I 
 need hardly tell you that, in holding this Parlia- 
 ment of Religions, where all the religions of the 
 world are to be represented, you have acted worth- 
 ily of the race that is in the vanguard of civili- 
 zation — a civilization the chief characteristic of 
 which, to my mind, is widening toleration, breadth 
 of heart, and liberality toward all the difl:'erent 
 religions of the world. In allowing men of different 
 shades of religious opinion, and holding different 
 views as to philosophical and metaphysical prob- 
 lems, to speak from the same platform — aye, even 
 allowing me, who, I confess, am a heathen, as you 
 call me, to speak from the same platform with 
 them — you have acted in a manner worthy of the 
 motherland of the society which I have come to 
 represent to-day. The fundamental principle' of 
 
42 woeld's religious congresses. 
 
 that society is universal tolerance; its cardinal 
 belief that ixnderneath the superficial strata runs 
 the living water of truth. 
 
 "I have always felt that between India and 
 America there was a closer bond of union in the 
 times gone by, and I do think it is probable that 
 there may be a subtler reason for the identity of 
 our names than either the theory of Johnson or the 
 mistake of Columbus can account for. It is true 
 that I belong to a religion which is now decrepit 
 with age, and that you belong to a race in the first 
 flutter of life, bristling with energy. And yet you 
 can not be surprised at the sympathy between us, 
 because you must have observed the secret union 
 that sometimes exists between age and childhood. 
 
 "It is true that in the East we have been accus- 
 tomed to look toward something which is beyond 
 matter. We have been taught for ages after ages 
 and centuries after centuries to turn our gaze 
 inward toward realms that are not those which are 
 reached by the help of the physical senses. This 
 fact has given rise to the various schools of philos- 
 ophy that exist to-day in India, exciting the 
 wonder and admiration, not only of the dead East, 
 but of the living and rising West. We have in 
 India, even to this day, thousands of people who 
 give up as trash, as nothing, all the material com- 
 forts and luxuries of life with the hope, with the 
 realization that, great as the physical body may be, 
 there is something greater within man, underneath 
 the universe, that is to be longed for and striven 
 after. 
 
OPENING ADDRESSES. 43 
 
 '*In the West you have evolved such a stupen- 
 dous energy on the physical plane, such unparalleled 
 vigor on the intellectual plane, that ifc strikes any 
 stranger landing on your shores vrith a strange 
 amazement. And yet I can read, even in this 
 atmosphere of material progress, I can discern 
 beneath this thickness of material luxury a secret 
 and mystic aspiration to something spiritual. 
 
 *' I can see that even you are getting tired of your 
 steam, of your electricity, and the thousand different 
 material comforts that follow these two great powers. 
 I can see that there is a feeling of despondency 
 coming even here — that matter pursued, however 
 vigorously, can be only to the death of all, and it is 
 only through the clear atmosphere of spirituality 
 that you can mount up to the regions of peace and 
 harmony. In the West, therefore, you have devel- 
 oped this material tendency. In the East we have 
 developed a great deal of the spiritual tendency; 
 but even in this West, as I travel from place to 
 place, from New York to Cincinnati, and from Cin- 
 cinnati to Chicago, I have observed an ever-increas- 
 ing readiness of people to assimilate spiritual ideas, 
 regardless of the source from which they emanate. 
 This, ladies and gentlemen, I consider a most 
 significant sign of the future, because through this 
 and through the mists of prejudice that still hang 
 on the horizon will be consummated the great event 
 of the future, the union of the East and of the 
 West. 
 
 ' ' The East enjoys the sacred satisfaction of hav- 
 ing given birth to all the great religions of the 
 
44 world's religious congresses. 
 
 world, and even as the jjliysical sun rises ever from 
 the east, the sun of spirituality has always dawned 
 in the East. To the West belongs the proud privi- 
 lege of having advanced on the intellectual and on 
 the moral plane and of having supplied to the world 
 all the various contrivances of material luxuries and 
 of physical comfort. I look, therefore, upon a 
 union of the East and West as a most significant 
 event, and I look with great hope upon the day 
 when the East and the West will be like brothers 
 helloing each other, each suj)plying to the other 
 what it wants — the West supplying tlie vigor, the 
 youth, the power of organization, and the East 
 opening up its inestimable treasures of a spiritual 
 law, and which are now locked up in the treasure 
 boxes grown rusty with age. 
 
 ' ' And I think that this day, with the sitting of 
 the Parliament of Religions, we begin the work of 
 building up a perennial fountain from which will 
 flow for the next century waters of life and light 
 and of peace, slaking the thirst of the thousands of 
 millions that are to come after us." 
 
 Swami Vivekananda of Bombay, India, arose, a 
 magnificent figure of manly beauty, in his orange 
 robe and turban, with striking, strong, and repose- 
 ful countenance, and said: "Sisters and brothers of 
 America," whereupon there arose a peal of applause 
 in acknowledgment of the originality of the saluta- 
 tion, and perhaps not less as testifying interest in 
 the personality of the speaker. 
 
 "It fills my heart with joy unspeakable," he 
 
OPENING ADDRESSES. 45 
 
 said, " to rise in response to the warm and cordial 
 welcome which you have given us. I thank you in 
 the name of the most ancient order of monks in the 
 world; I thank you in the name of the mother of 
 religions, and I thank you in the name of the millions 
 and millions of Hindu people of all classes and 
 sects. 
 
 "My thanks, also, to some of the speakers on this 
 platform who have told you that these men from 
 far-off nations may well claim the honor of bearing 
 to the different lands the idea of toleration. I am 
 proud to belong to a religion which has taught the 
 world both tolerance and universal acceptance. We 
 believe not only in universal toleration, but we 
 accept all religions to be true. I am proud to tell 
 you that I belong to a religion into whose sacred 
 language, the Sanscrit, the word seclusion is untrans- 
 latable. I am proud to belong to a nation which has 
 sheltered the persecuted and the refugees of all 
 religions and all nations of the earth. I am proud 
 to tell you that we have gathered in our bosom the 
 purest remnant of the Israelites, a remnant which 
 came to Southern India and took refuge with us in 
 the very year in which their holy temple was shat- 
 tered to pieces by Roman tyranny. I am proud to 
 belong to the religion which has sheltered and is 
 still fostering the remnant of the grand Zoroastrian 
 nation. I will quote to you, brethren, a few lines 
 from a hymn which I remember to have repeated 
 from my earliest boyhood, which is every day 
 repeated by millions of human beings: 'As the 
 different streams having their sources in different 
 
46 world's religious congresses. 
 
 places all mingle their waters in the sea, O Lord, 
 so the different paths which men take through 
 different tendencies, various though they appear, 
 crooked or straight, all lead to thee.' 
 
 "The present convention, which is one of the 
 most august assemblies ever held, is in itself a vin- 
 dication, a declaration to the world of the wonderful 
 doctrine preached in Gita, 'Whosoever comes to 
 me, through whatsoever form I reach him, they are 
 all struggling through paths that in the end always 
 lead to me.' Sectarianism, bigotry, and its horrible 
 descendant, fanaticism, have possessed long this 
 beautiful earth. It has filled the earth with vio- 
 lence, drenched it often and often with human 
 blood, destroyed civilization, and sent whole nations 
 to despair. Had it not been for this horrible demon 
 human society would be far more advanced than it 
 is now. But its time has come, and I fervently hope 
 that the bell that tolled this morning in honor of 
 this convention will be the death-knell to all fanat- 
 icism, to all persecutions with the sword or the pen, 
 and to all uncharitable feelings between persons 
 wending their way to the same goal." 
 
 Many eyes have rested upon a sweet -faced woman 
 in oriental dress, and when Doctor Barrow^s intro- 
 duced Miss Jeanne Sorabji, from far-off India, many 
 were surprised to learn that she was an earnest 
 Christian convert with a sweet and simple faith to 
 testify. 
 
 " Doctor Barrows just told you that I belonged to 
 the order of Parsee. He is correct in one way and not 
 
OPE]S^ING ADDRESSES. 47 
 
 in another. My people were fire-worshipers, but I 
 am not now. Before I go on further I wish to thank 
 all those who have extended their welcome to us. 
 This morning as I looked around and saw the many- 
 faces that greeted a welcome I felt indeed that it 
 was the best day I have seen in Chicago. I have 
 been here for some time, and I have asked the ques- 
 tion over and over again: ' Where is religious 
 America to be found — Christian America ? ' To-day 
 I see it all around me. You have given me a wel- 
 come. I will give you a greeting from my country. 
 When we meet one another in our land the first 
 thing we say to each other is ' Peace be with you.' 
 I say it to you to-day in all sincerity, in all love. I 
 feel to-day that the great banner over us is the ban- 
 ner of love. I feel to-day more than ever that it is 
 beautiful to belong to the family of Grod, to acknowl- 
 edge the Lord Christ. 
 
 •' My father, at the age of eighteen, was brought to 
 the knowledge of Christ by the light of an English 
 missionary. He gave up friends and countrymen, 
 rank, and wealth, and money, to be a disciple of the 
 Lord Jesus Christ; and I tell you, friends, that it is 
 a great privilege and a great honor to be able to 
 stand here and say to you that I love that Lord 
 Christ, and I will stand by him and under his ban- 
 ner until the end of my life. 
 
 ' ' I would close with one little message from my 
 countrywomen. When I was leaving the shores of 
 Bombay the women of my country wanted to know 
 where I was going, and I told them I was going to 
 America on a visit. They asked me whether T would 
 
48 world's keligious congresses. 
 
 be at this congress. I thought then I would only 
 come in as one of the audience, but I have the great 
 privilege and honor given to me to stand here and 
 speak to you, and I give you the message as it was 
 given to me. The Christian women of my land 
 said: ' Give the women of America our love and 
 tell them that we love Jesus, and that we shall 
 always pray that our countrywomen may do the 
 same. Tell the women of America that we are fast 
 being educated. We shall one day be able to stand 
 by them and converse with them and be able to 
 delight in all they delight in.' 
 
 "And so I have a message from each one of my 
 countrywomen, and once more I will just say that I 
 haven't words enough in which to thank you for the 
 welcome you have given to all those who have come 
 here from the East. When I came here this morn- 
 ing and saw my countrymen my heart was warmed, 
 and I thought I would never feel homesick again, 
 and I feel to-day as if I were at home. Seeing your 
 kindly faces has turned away the heartache. 
 
 " We are all under the one banner, love. In the 
 name of the Lord Jesus Christ, I thank you. You 
 will hear possibly the words in his own voice saying 
 unto you, * Inasmuch as ye have done it unto the 
 least of these, my brethren, ye have done it unto 
 me.' " 
 
 Salutations and responses from many Christians 
 I have omitted. They contained nothing new, and 
 little that was strong in promise, beyond the fact 
 of interest in what was to follow, except one, which 
 
OPENINU ADDRESSES. 49 
 
 I bave saved to conclude tlie review of the opening 
 day because of its originality. When Prince Serge 
 Wolkonsky of Russia v^as introduced he expressed 
 thanks for the honor of the invitation, the more 
 because he was not an ecclesiastic, nor a representa- 
 tive of his government at the parliament, and could 
 only respond as a man — a true prince among men, 
 many said of him. 
 
 "Those who during the last week have had the 
 opportunity of attending not only the congresses of 
 one single church, but who could witness different 
 congresses of different churches and congregations, 
 must have been struck with a noticeable fact. They 
 went to the Catholic congress and heard beautiful 
 words of charity and love. Splendid orators invoked 
 the blessings of heaven ui)oii the children of the Cath- 
 olic church, and in eloquent terms the listeners were 
 entreated to love their human brothers, in the name 
 of the Catholic church. They went to the Lutheran 
 congress and heard splendid wordb of humanity and 
 brotherhood, orators inspired with love, and the 
 blessing of God invoked on the children of the 
 Lutheran church. Those who were present were 
 taught to love their human brothers, in the name of 
 the Lutheran church. They went to other more 
 limited congresses, and everywhere they heard these 
 same great words, proclaiming these same great 
 ideas and inspiring these same great feelings. They 
 saw a Catholic archbishop who went to a Jewish 
 congress and with fiery eloquence brought feelings 
 of brotherhood to his Hebraic sisters. Not in one 
 of these congresses did a speaker forget that he 
 
50 
 
 belonged to humanity, and that his own church or 
 congregation was but a starting-point, a center, for 
 a further radiation. 
 
 " This is the noticeable fact that must have struck 
 everybody, and everybody must have asked himself 
 at the end of the week: ' Why don' t they come 
 together, all these people who all speak the same 
 language? Why do not all these splendid orators 
 unite their voices in one single chorus, and, if they 
 preach the same ideas, why don't they proclaim 
 them in the name of the same and single truth that 
 inspires them all?' This seems to have been the 
 idea of those who, in composing the programmes of 
 the religious congresses, decided that the general 
 religious congress should follow the minor ones. 
 To-night, in fact, we see the representatives of dif- 
 ferent churches gathered together and actuated with 
 one common desire of union. 
 
 "Being called to welcome it on the day of its open- 
 ing, I will take the liberty of relating to you a pop- 
 ular legend of my country. The story may appear 
 rather too humorous for the occasion, but one of 
 our national writers says: 'Humor is an invisible 
 tear through a visible smile,' and we think that 
 human tears, human sorrow and pain are sacred 
 enough to be brought even before a religious con- 
 gress. 
 
 "There was an old woman who for many cent- 
 uries suffered tortures in the flames of hell, for she 
 had been a great sinner during her earthly life. 
 One day she saw far away in the distance an angel 
 taking his flight through the blue skies; and with 
 
OPENING ADDRESSES. 61 
 
 the whole strength of her voice she called to him. 
 The call must have been desperate, for the angel 
 stopped in his flight, and coming down to her asked 
 her what she wanted. 
 
 " ' When you reach the throne of God,' she said, 
 'tell him that a miserable creature has suffered 
 more than she can bear, and that she asks the Lord 
 to be delivered from these tortures.' 
 
 "The angel promised to do so, and flew away. 
 When he had transmitted the message, God said: 
 
 '' 'Ask her whether she has done any good to any 
 one during her life.' 
 
 "The old woman strained her memory in search of. 
 a good action during her sinful past, and all at 
 once: 'I've got one,' she Joyfully exclaimed; 
 ' one day I gave a carrot to a hungry beggar.' 
 
 ' ' The angel reported the answer. 
 
 " 'Take a carrot,' said God to the angel, 'and 
 stretch it out to her. Let her grasp it, and if the 
 plant is strong enough to draw her out from hell 
 she shall be saved.' 
 
 " This the angel did. The poor old woman clung 
 to the carrot. The angel began to pull, and, lo! she 
 began to rise. But when her body was half out of 
 the flames she felt a weight at her feet. Another 
 sinner was clinging to her. She kicked, but it did 
 not help. The sinner would not let go his hold, 
 and the angel, continuing to pull, was lifting them 
 both. But, oh! another sinner clung to them, and 
 then a third, and more, and always more — a chain 
 of miserable creatures hung at the old woman's 
 feet. The angel never ceased pulling. It did not 
 
52 
 
 seem to be any heavier than a small carrot could 
 support, and they all were lifted in the air. But 
 the old woman suddenly took fright. Too many 
 people were availing themselves of her last chance 
 of salvation, and, kicking and pushing those who 
 were clinging to her, she exclaimed: ' Leave me 
 alone! hands off ! the carrot is mine.' 
 
 * ' 1^0 sooner had she pronounced this word ' mine ' 
 than the tiny stem broke, and they all fell back to 
 hell, and forever. 
 
 " In its poetical artlessness and popular simplicity 
 this legend is too eloquent to need interpretation. 
 If any individual, any community, any congrega- 
 tion, any church, possesses a portion of truth and 
 of good, let that truth shine for everybody; let that 
 good become the property of everyone. The substi- 
 tution of the word ' mine ' by the word ' ours ' and 
 that of 'ours' by the word 'everyone's' — this is 
 what will secure a fruitful result to our collective 
 efforts as well as to our individual activities. 
 
 " This is why we welcome and greet the opening of 
 this congress, where, in a combined effort of the 
 representatives of all churches, all that is great and 
 good and true in each of them is brought together 
 in the name of the same God and for the sake of the 
 same man. 
 
 " We congratulate the president, the members, and 
 all the listeners of this congress upon the tendency 
 of union that has gathered them on the soil of the 
 country whose allegorical eagle, spreading her 
 mighty wings over the stars and stripes, holds in her 
 talons those splendid words, ' E Pluribus Unum.' " 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 A RELIGIOUS SYMPOSIUM. 
 
 THOSE who kept files of the full reports in the 
 daily press of the addresses before the parlia- 
 ment, or who look forward to the official pub- 
 lication of the proceedings with the intention of 
 reviewing these deliverances, are likely to be appalled 
 at the magnitude of the undertaking when they shall 
 seriously approach it. A lack of classification in 
 the programme makes the systematic arrangement 
 of opinion on the great subjects of religion a work 
 of toil, even for an expert. Each man speaks as if 
 he had the whole field before liim, and therefore of 
 many things which throw no light upon the specific 
 system of thought which he represents. The popu- 
 lar interest in seeing and hearing many rei^resenta- 
 tive men doubtless determined the idea of the 
 programme, but the permanent value of the result 
 is greatly diminished by the excessive amount of 
 redundant and indeterminate discourse. 
 
 My own idea of the most useful order of pro- 
 gramme, proposed at the outset and urged through- 
 out, was an arrangement of great subjects: God, 
 Revelation, Sin and Reconciliation, Conduct of 
 Life, Immortality, etc. "What have you to say of 
 Ood?" Let the Hindu answer, the Buddhist, the 
 Parsee, the Mohammedan, the Jew, the Greek 
 
 (53) 
 
54 
 
 Christian, the Catholic, and so on, in brief, specific, 
 and inclusive statements. Then propound the next 
 subject and follow in the same order. If this dream 
 of a religious symposium had been practicable, the 
 result would have been a most complete cyclopedia 
 of religious thought, showing at a glance what is 
 common and what is distinctive in existing faiths 
 on any subject. The interest centered, however, in 
 great men rather than in great subjects; and the 
 addresses, not having as an aim definite statements 
 on specific questions, present a collection of ideas 
 so vast as to almost defy the classification necessary 
 to helpful comparison. 
 
 Whatever of permanent value is to result from the 
 congress of religions, apart from coming together 
 in friendly interchange and tlie breaking of preju- 
 dice, must come from comparison of views; and 
 before there can be such comparison there must be 
 some arrangement. I propose, therefore, in this 
 chapter to attempt to bring into contrast some of 
 the more important deliverances, first in general, and 
 then more briefly under specific subjects. 
 
 We may for the purpose of a general comparison 
 set over against each other some extended passages 
 from representatives of Hinduism, orthodox and 
 liberal Christianity, Buddhism, Judaism, Moham- 
 medanism, and the Roman Catholic and Greek 
 churches, together with some foreign criticism and 
 appeal. 
 
 THE HINDU. 
 
 Swami Yivekananda may probably be considered 
 as a fair exponent of what Hinduism is with the 
 liberally educated men of India: 
 
A RELIGIOUS SYMPOSIUM. 55 
 
 ''Three religions now stand in the world which 
 have come down to us from time prehistoric — Hin- 
 duism , Zoroa strianism, and Jud aism. These all have 
 received tremendous shocks, and all of them prove 
 by their revival their internal strength; but Judaism 
 failed to absorb Christianity, and was driven out of 
 its place of birth by its all-conquering daughter. 
 Sect after sect has arisen in India, and seemed to 
 shake the religion of the Yedas to its very founda- 
 tions, but, like the waters of the seashore in a tre- 
 mendous earthquake, it has receded for awhile, only 
 to return in an all-absorbing flood; and when the 
 tumult of the rush was over these sects had been all 
 sucked in, absorbed, and assimilated in the immense 
 body of another faith. 
 
 " From the high spiritual flights of philosophy, 
 of which the latest discoveries of science seem like 
 echoes, from the atheism of the Jains to the low 
 ideas of idolatry and the multifarious mythologies, 
 each and all have a place in the Hindu's religion. 
 
 "Where then, the question arises, v/here then the 
 common center to which all these widely diverging 
 radii converge ? Where is the common basis upon 
 which all these seemingly hopeless contradictions 
 rest? And this is the question which I shall at- 
 tempt to answer. 
 
 "The Hindus have received their religion through 
 the revelation of the Yedas. They hold that the 
 Vedas are without beginning and without end. It 
 may sound ludicrous to this audience how a book 
 can be without beginning or end. But by the Vedas 
 no books are meant. They mean the accumulated 
 
56 world's eeligious congresses. 
 
 treasury of spiritual laws discovered by different 
 persons in different times. Just as the law of gravi- 
 tation existed before its discovery, and would exist 
 if all humanity forgot it, so with the laws that gov- 
 ern the spiritual world; the moral, ethical, and spir- 
 itual relations between soul and soul, and between 
 individual spirits and the Father of all spirits, were 
 there before their discovery, and would remain even 
 if we forgot them. 
 
 "The discoverers of these laws are called Rishis, 
 and we honor them as perfected beings, and I am 
 glad to tell this audience that some of the very best 
 of them were women. 
 
 "Here it may be said that the laws, as laws, may 
 be without end, but they must have had a begin- 
 ning. The Vedas teach us that creation is without 
 beginning or end. Science has proved to us that the 
 sum total of the cosmic energy is the same through- 
 out all time. Then, if there was a time when noth- 
 ing existed, where was all tliis manifested energy ? 
 Some say it was in a potential form in God. But 
 then God is sometimes potential and sometimes 
 kinetic, which would make him mutable, and every- 
 thing mutable is a compound, and everything com- 
 pound must undergo that change which is called 
 destruction. Therefore, God would die. There- 
 fore, there never was a time when there was no crea- 
 tion. 
 
 " Well, then, the human soul is eternal and im- 
 mortal, perfect and infinite, and death means only a 
 change of center from one body to another. The 
 present is determined by our past actions, and the f ut- 
 
A RELIGIOUS SYMPOSIUM. 67 
 
 ure will be by the present. The soul will go on evolv- 
 ing up or reverting back from birth to birth and 
 death to death, like a tiny boat in a tempest, raised 
 one moment on the foaming crest of a billow and 
 dashed down into a yawning chasm the next, rollings 
 to and fro at the mercy of good and bad actions, a 
 powerless, helpless wreck in an ever-raging, ever- 
 rushing, uncompromising current of cause and 
 effect; a little moth placed under the wheel of caus- 
 ation, which rolls on crushing everything in its way, 
 and waits not for the widow's tears or the orphan's 
 cry. 
 
 "The heart sinks at the idea, yet this is the law 
 of nature. Is there no hope ? Is there no escape 1 
 The cry that went up from the bottom of the heart 
 of despair reached the throne of mercy, and words 
 of hope and consolation came dowm and inspired a 
 Vedic sage, and he stood up before the world and in 
 trumx)et voice proclaimed the glad tidings to the 
 world: ' Hear, ye children of immortal bliss, even 
 ye that resisted in higher spheres; I have found the 
 ancient one, who is beyond all darkness, all delu- 
 sion, and knowing him alone you shall be saved 
 from death again.' 'Children of immortal bliss!' 
 What a sweet, what a hopeful name! Allow me to 
 call you, brethren, by that sweet name, 'heirs of 
 immortal bliss ' ; yea, the Hindu refuses to call you 
 sinners. 
 
 "Thus it is the Vedas proclaim, not a dreadful 
 combination of unforgiving laws, not an endless 
 prison of cause and effect, but that, at the head of 
 all these laws, in and through every particle of mat- 
 
68 woeld's religious congresses. 
 
 ter and force, stands one ' through whose command 
 the wind blows, the fire burns, the clouds rain, and 
 death stalks upon the earth.' And what is his 
 nature? 
 
 "He is everywhere, the pure and formless one, 
 the almighty, and the all- merciful. ' Thou art our 
 father, thou art our mother, thou art our beloved 
 friend, thou art the source of all strength. Thou 
 art he that bearest the burdens of the universe; help 
 me bear the little burden of this life.' Thus sang 
 the E-ishis of the Veda. And how to worship him? 
 Through love.' ' He is to be worshiped as the one 
 beloved dearer than everything in this and the next 
 life.' 
 
 "This is the doctrine of love preached in the 
 Vedas, and let us see how it is fully developed and 
 preached by Krishna, whom the Hindus believe to 
 have been God incarnate on earth. 
 
 ' ' He taught that a man ought to live in this world 
 like a lotus leaf, which grows in water but is never 
 moistened by water; so a man ought to live in this 
 world — his heart for God and his hands for work. 
 
 " It is good to love God for hope of reward in this 
 or the next world, but it is better to love God for 
 love's sake; and the prayer goes, 'Lord, I do not 
 want wealth, nor children, nor learning. If it be 
 thy will I will go to a hundred hells, but grant me 
 this, that I may love thee without the hope of reward 
 — unselfishly love for love' s sake. ' One of the disci- 
 ples of Krishna, the then Emperor of India, was 
 driven from his throne by his enemies and had to 
 take shelter in a forest in the Himalayas with his 
 
A RELIGIOUS SYMPOSIUM. 09 
 
 queen, and there one day the queen was asking him 
 how it was that he, the most virtuous of men, 
 should suffer so much misery, and Yuchistera 
 answered: 'Behold, my queen, the Himalayas, 
 how grand and beautiful they are! I love them. 
 They do not give me anything, but my nature is to 
 love the grand, the beautiful, therefore I love them; 
 similarly, I love the Lord. He is the source of all 
 beauty, of all sublimity. He is the only object to 
 be loved. My nature is to love him, and therefore 
 I love. I do not pray for anything. I do not ask 
 for anything. Let him place me wherever he likes. 
 I must live for love's sake. I can not trade in love.' 
 
 ''The Yedas teach that the soul is divine, only 
 held under bondage of matter, and perfection will 
 be reached when the bond shall burst, and the word 
 they use is, therefore, Mukto — freedom — freedom 
 from the bonds of imperfection; freedom frona death 
 and misery. 
 
 "And they teach that this bondage can only fall 
 off through the mercy of God, and this mercy comes 
 to the pure. So purity is the condition of his 
 mercy. How that mercy acts! He reveals himself 
 to the i)ure heart, and the pure and stainless man 
 sees God, yea, even in this life; and then, and then 
 only, all the crookedness of the heart is made 
 straight. Then all doubt ceases. Man is no more 
 the freak of a terrible law of causation. So this is 
 the very center, the very vital conception, of Hin- 
 duism. The Hindu does not want to live upon 
 words and theories — if there are existences beyond 
 the ordinary sensual existence, he wants to come 
 
60 world's religious congresses. 
 
 face to face with them. If there is a soul in him 
 which is not matter, if there is an all-merciful 
 universal soul, he will go to him direct. He must 
 see him, and that alone can destroy all doubts. So 
 the best proof a Hindu sage gives about the soul, 
 about God, is, ' I have seen the soul, I have seen 
 God: 
 
 "And that is the only condition of perfection. 
 The Hindu religion does not consist in struggles and 
 attempts to believe a certain doctrine and dogma, 
 but in realizing — not in believing, but in being and 
 becoming. So the whole struggle in their system 
 is a constant struggle to become perfect, to become 
 divine, to reach God and see God; and in this reach- 
 ing God, seeing God, becoming perfect, even as the 
 Father in heaven is perfect, consists the religion of 
 the Hindus. And what becomes of man when he 
 becomes perfect? He lives a life of bliss, infinite. 
 He enjoys infinite and perfect bliss, having obtained 
 the only thing in which man ought to have pleas- 
 ure — God — and enjoys the bliss with God. 
 
 " So far all the Hindus are agreed — this is the 
 common religion of all the sects of India; but then 
 the question comes — perfection is absolute, and the 
 absolute can not be two or three. It can not have 
 any qualities; it can not be an individual ; and so when 
 a soul becomes perfect and absolute it must become 
 one with the Brahma, and he would only realize the 
 Lord as the perfection, the reality, of his own 
 nature and existence — existence absolute; knowl- 
 edge absolute, and life absolute. We have often 
 and often read about this being called the losing of 
 
A RELIGIOUS SYMPOSIUM. 61 
 
 individuality, as in becoming a stock or a stone. 
 'He jests at scars that never felt a wound ' 
 
 "I tell you it is nothing of the kind. If it is 
 happiness to enjoy the consciousness of this small 
 body, it must be more happiness to enjoy the con- 
 sciousness of two bodies, or three, four, five — 
 and the ultimate of happiness would be reached 
 when it would become a universal consciousness. 
 
 "Therefore, to gain this infinite universal individ- 
 uality, this miserable little individuality must go. 
 Then alone can death cease, wlien I am one with 
 life. Then alone can misery cease, when I am with 
 happiness itself. Then alone can all errors cease, 
 when I am one with knowledge itself." 
 
 Speaking later of the religion of the simple- 
 minded he said, "There is no polytheism in India," 
 and the use of images "is not idolatry." Continu- 
 ing, he said: 
 
 " SuiDerstition is the enemy of man, but bigotry is 
 worse. Why does a Christian go to church ? Why 
 is the cross holy ? Why is the face turned toward 
 the sky in prayer ? Why are there so many images 
 in the Catholic church? Why are there so many 
 images in the minds of Protestants when they pray? 
 My brethren, we can no more think about anything 
 without a material image than we can live without 
 breathing. And by the law of association the mate- 
 rial image calls the mental idea up, and vice versa. 
 Omnipresence, to almost the whole world, means 
 nothing. Has God superficial area? If not, when 
 we repeat the word we think of the extended earth, 
 that is all. 
 
62 world's religious congresses. 
 
 "As we find that somehow or other, by the laws 
 of our constitution, we have got to associate our 
 ideas of infinity with the image of a blue sky or a 
 sea, some cover the idea of holiness with an image 
 of a church or a mosque, or a cross. The Hindus 
 have associated the ideas of holiness, purity, truth, 
 omnipresence, and all other ideas with different 
 images and forms ; but with this difference: Some 
 devote their whole lives to their idol of a church and 
 never rise higher, because with them religion means 
 an intellectual assent to certain doctrines and doing 
 good to their fellows. The whole religion of the 
 Hindu is centered in realization. Man is to become 
 divine, realizing the divine, and therefore idol or 
 temple, or church or books, are only the supports, 
 the helps, of his spiritual childhood; but on and on 
 man must progress. 
 
 "He must not stop anywhere. 'External wor- 
 ship, material worship,' says the Vedas, 'is the low- 
 est stage; struggling to rise high, mental prayer is 
 the next stage; but the highest stage is when the 
 Lord has been realized.' Mark the same earnest 
 man who was kneeling before the idol tell you, 
 ' Him the sun can not express, nor the moon, nor the 
 stars; the lightning can not express him, nor the 
 fire; throughhim they all shine.' He does not abuse 
 the image or call it sinful. He recognizes in it a 
 necessary stage of his life. ' The child is father of 
 the man.' Would it be right for the old man to say 
 that childhood is a sin, or youth a sin 1 Nor is it 
 compulsory in Hinduism. 
 
 " If a man can realize his divine nature with the 
 
A RELIGIOUS SYMPOSIUM. 63 
 
 help of an image, would it be right to call it a sin ? 
 Nor, even when he has passed that stage, should he 
 call it an error. To the Hindu, man is not travel- 
 ing from error to truth, but from truth to truth, 
 from lower to higher truth. To him all the religions, 
 from the lowest fetishism to the highest absolutism, 
 mean so many attempts of the human soul to grasp 
 and realize the infinite, each determined by the con- 
 ditions of its birth and association, and each of these 
 mark a stage of progress, and every soul is a young 
 eagle soaring higher and higher, gathering more and 
 more strength till it reaches the glorious sun." 
 
 Concluding, he said : "If there is ever to be a uni- 
 versal religion it must be one which will hold no 
 location in place or time; which will be infinite, like 
 the God it will preach; whose sun shines upon the 
 followers of Krishna or Christ, saints or sinners, 
 alike; which will not be the Brahmin or Buddhist, 
 Christian or Mohammedan, but the sum total of all 
 these, and still have infinite space for development; 
 which in its catholicity will embrace in its infinite 
 arms and find a place for every human being, from 
 the lowest groveling man, from the brute, to tbe 
 highest mind towering almost above humanity and 
 making society stand in awe and doubt his human 
 nature. 
 
 '' It will be a religion which will have no place for 
 persecution or intolerance in its polity, which will 
 recognize a divinity in every man or woman, and 
 whose whole scope, whose whole force, will be cen- 
 tered in aiding humanity to realize its divine nature. 
 
64 world's religious congresses. 
 
 "Asoka's council was a council of the Buddhist 
 faith. Akbar's, though more to the purpose, was 
 only a parlor meeting. It was reserved for America 
 to proclaim to all quarters of the globe that the Lord 
 is in every religion. 
 
 " May he who is the Brahma of the Hindus, the 
 Ahura Mazda of the Zoroastrians, the Buddha of 
 the Buddhists, the Jehovah of the Jews, the Father 
 in heaven of the Christians, give strength to you to 
 carry out your noble idea. 
 
 "The star arose in the east; it traveled steadily 
 toward the west, sometimes dimmed and sometimes 
 effulgent, till it made a circuit of the world, and 
 now it is again rising on the very horizon of the east, 
 the borders of the Tasifu, a thousand-fold more 
 effulgent than it ever was before. Hail, Columbia, 
 motherland of liberty! It has been given to thee, 
 who never dipped hand ia neighbor's blood, who 
 never found out that shortest way of becoming rich 
 by robbing one's neighbors — it has been given to 
 thee to march on in the vanguard of civilization with 
 the flag of harmony." 
 
 ORTHODOX CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 The chairman in introducing Joseph Cook re- 
 ferred to the undoubted quality of his orthodoxy; 
 and on this ground his statement of ' ' the certainties 
 of religion ' ' may be introduced into this comparison. 
 His address has been very generally remarked upon, 
 and often severely criticised; but the fact remains 
 to the credit of Joseph Cook that, in its main 
 statements, it stands out as a frank and manly dec- 
 
RT.-REV. REUCHI SHIBATA, 
 High Priest of Zhikko Sect of Shintoism, Japan. 
 
A RELIGIOUS SYMrOSIUM. 65 
 
 laration of what Protestant orthodoxy is committed 
 to by creed and sermon; unnecessarily dramatic, it 
 may be, and too much in the nature of cliallenge to 
 suit the spirit of the occasion, but honest and clear: 
 
 "It is no more wonderful that we should live 
 again than that we should live at all. It is less 
 wonderful that we should continue to live than that 
 we have begun to live; and even the most deter- 
 mined and superficial skeptic knows that w^e have 
 begun. On the faces of this polyglot international 
 audience I seem to see written, as I once saw 
 chiseled on the marble above the tomb of the great 
 Emperor Akbar in the land of the Ganges, the 
 hundred names of God. 
 
 "Let us beware how we lightly assert that we are 
 glad that those names are one. How many of us 
 are ready for immediate, total, irreversible self-sur- 
 render to God as both Saviour and Lord? Only such 
 of us as are thus ready can call ourselves in any 
 deep sense religious. I care not what name you 
 give to God if you mean by him a spirit omnipres- 
 ent, eternal, omnipotent, infinite in holiness and 
 every other operation. Who is ready for coopera- 
 tion with such a God in life and death and beyond 
 death? Only he who is thus ready is religious. 
 William Shakespeare is supposed to have known 
 something of human nature, and certainly was not 
 a theological partisan. Now Shakespeare, you will 
 remember, in ' The Tempest, ' tells you of two char- 
 acters who conceived for each other supreme affec- 
 tion as soon as they met. ' At the first glance they 
 have changed eyes,' he says. The truly religious 
 
bb WOKLD S EELIGIOUS CONGRESSES. 
 
 man is one who has 'changed eyes' with God under 
 some one or another of his hundred names. It follows 
 from this definition of religion, and as a certainty 
 dependent on the unalterable nature of things, that 
 only he wlu) has changed eyes with God can look into 
 his face in xoeace. A religion of delight in God, not 
 merely as Saviour, but as Lord also, is scientifically 
 known to be a necessity to the peace of the soul, 
 whether we call God by this name or the other, 
 whether we speak of him in the dialect of this or 
 that of the four continents, or this or that of the 
 10,000 isles of the sea. 
 
 "What is the distinction between morality and 
 religion, and how can the latter be shown by the 
 scientific method to be a necessity to the peace of 
 the soul ? And noAv, though I do not understand 
 morality and the philanthropies, I purpose to speak 
 of the strategic certainties of religion from the 
 point of view of comparative religion. First, from 
 the very center of the human heart and in the pres- 
 ence of all the hundred names of God, conscience 
 demands that what ought to be, be chosen by the 
 will, and it demands this universally. Conscience is 
 that faculty within us which tastes intentions. A 
 man does unquestionably know whether he means 
 to be mean, and he inevitably feels mean when he 
 knows that he means to be mean. If we say to that 
 still, small voice we call conscience, that proclaims 
 'thou oughtest,' 'I will not,' there is lack of 
 peace in us, and until only we say 'I will,' and do 
 like to say it, there is no harmony within our souls. 
 The delight in saying ' I will ' to the still, small 
 
A RELIGIOUS SYMPOSIUM. 67 
 
 voice 'thou oughtest' is religion. Merely calcu- 
 lating, selfish obedience to that still, small voice 
 saves no man. 
 
 "This is the first commandment of absolute sci- 
 ence: ' Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all 
 thy mind, and might, and heart, and strength.' 
 When Shakespeare's two characters met, curiosity 
 as to each other's qualities did not constitute the 
 changing of eyes. That mighty capacity which 
 exists in human nature to give forth a supreme 
 affection was not the changing of eyes. Let us not 
 mistake a capacity of religion which every man has 
 for religion itself. We must not only have a capac- 
 ity to love God, we must have adoration of God; 
 and half the loose, limp, unscientific liberalisms of 
 the world mistake mere admiration for adoration. 
 It is narrowness to refuse mental hospitality for 
 any single truth; but we, assembled in the name of 
 science, in the name of every grave purpose, have 
 an international breadth, and what we purpose to 
 promote is such a self-surrender to God as shall 
 amount to delight in all known duty and make us 
 affectionately and irreversibly choose God under 
 some one of his names — I care not what the name 
 is if you mean by it all the Bible means by the word 
 ' God' — choose him not as Saviour only but as God 
 also, not as Lord only but as Saviour also. 
 
 "But choice in relation to persons means love. 
 What we choose we love; but conscience reveals a 
 holy person, the author of the moral law, and con- 
 science demands that this law should not only be 
 obeyed but loved, and that the holy person should 
 
68 world's religious congresses. 
 
 be not only obeyed but loved. This is the unalter- 
 able demand of an imalterable portion of our nature. 
 As personalities, therefore, must keep company 
 with this part of our nature and with its demands 
 while we exist in this world and in the next, the 
 love of God by man is inflexibly required by the 
 very nature of things. Conscience draws an unal- 
 terable distinction between loyalty and disloyalty 
 to the ineffable, holy person whom the moral law 
 reveals, and between the obedience of slavishness 
 and that of delight. Only the latter is obedience to 
 conscience. 
 
 "Religion is the obedience of affectionate glad- 
 ness. Morality is the obedience of selfish slavish- 
 ness. Only religion, therefore, and not mere 
 morality, can harmonize the soul with the nature of 
 things. A delight in obedience is not only a part 
 of religion, but is necessary to peace in God's pres- 
 ence. A religion consisting in the obedience of 
 gladness is, therefore, scientifically known to be 
 according to the nature of things. It will not be 
 to-morrow^ or the day after that these propositions 
 will cease to be scientifically certain. Out of them 
 multitudinous inferences flow as Niagaras from the 
 brink of God's palm. Demosthenes once made the 
 remark that every address should begin with an 
 incontrovertible proposition. Now it is a certainty, 
 and my topic makes my key-note a word of cer- 
 tainty, that a little while ago we were not in the 
 world and a little while hence we shall be here no 
 longer. Lincoln, Garfield, Seward, Grant, Beecher, 
 Gough, Emerson, Longfellow, Tennyson, Lord 
 
A RELIGIOUS SYMPOSIUM. 69 
 
 Beaconsfield, George Eliot, Caiiyle — I know not 
 how many Mahomets — are gone, and we are going. 
 These are certainties that will endure in the four 
 continents and on the isles of the sea — 
 
 Till the heavens are old, and the stars are cold, 
 And the leaves of the judgment book unfold. 
 
 " The world expects to hear from us this afternoon 
 no drivel, but something fit to be professed face to 
 face with the crackling artillery of the science of 
 our time. I know I am going hence, and I know I 
 wish to go in peace. Now, I hold that it is a cer- 
 tainty, and a certainty founded on truth absolutely 
 self-evident, that there are three things from which 
 I can never escape — my conscience, my God, and 
 my record of sin in an irreversible past. How am I 
 to be harmonized with that unescapable environ- 
 ment? Here is Lady Macbeth. See how she rubs 
 her hands — 
 
 Out, damned spot! Will these hands ne'er be clean? 
 
 All the perfumes of Arabia could not sweeten this little hand. 
 
 And her husband, in a similar mood, says: 
 
 This red right hand, it would the multitudinous seas incarnadine, 
 making the green one red. 
 
 "What religion can wash Lady Macbeth' s red 
 right hand ? That is a question I propose to the 
 four continents and all the isles of the sea. 
 Unless you can answer that, you have not come 
 here with a serious purpose to a parliament of 
 religions. 
 
 " I speak now to that branch of skeptics which is 
 not represented here, and I ask who can wash Lady 
 
70 
 
 Macbeth' s red right hand, and their silence or their 
 responses are as inefficient as a fishing-rod would be 
 to span this vast lake or the Atlantic. 
 
 '* I turn to Mohammedanism. Can you wash our 
 red right hands ^ I turn to Confucianism and 
 Buddhism. Can you wash our red right hands? 
 So help me God, I mean to ask a question this after- 
 noon that shall go in some hearts across the seas 
 and to the antipodes, and I ask it in the name of 
 what I hold to be absolutely self-evident truth, 
 that unless a man is washed from the old sin and the 
 guilt of mankind he can not be at peace in the pres- 
 ence of infinite holiness. 
 
 *'01d and blind Michael Angelo in the Vatican 
 used to go to the torso, so called — a fragment of the 
 art of antiquity — and he would feel along the mar- 
 velous lines chiseled in bygone ages, and tell his 
 pupils that thus and thus the study should be com- 
 pleted. I turn to every faith on earth except Chris- 
 tianity and I find every such faith a torso. I beg par- 
 don. The occasion is too grave for mere courtesy and 
 nothing else. Some of the faiths of the world are 
 marvelous as far as they go, but if they were com- 
 pleted along the lines of the certainties of the re- 
 ligions themselves they would go up and up and 
 up to an assertion of the necessity of the new purpose 
 to deliver the soul from a life of sin, and of atone- 
 ment made of God's grace, to deliver the soul from 
 guilt. 
 
 " Take the ideas which have produced the torsos 
 of the earthly faiths and you will have a universal 
 religion, under some of the names of God, and it 
 
A RELIGIOUS SYMPOSIUM. • 71 
 
 will be a liarmonious outline with Christianity. 
 There is no peace anywhere in the universe for a 
 soul with bad intentions, ancV there ought not to be. 
 Ours is a transitional age, and we are told we 
 are all sons of God; and so we are, in a natural 
 sense, but not in a moral sense. We are all capa- 
 ble of changing eyes with God, and until we do 
 change eyes with him it is impossible for us to face 
 him in peace. No transition in life or death or 
 beyond death will ever deliver us from the necessity 
 of good intentions to the peace of the soul with its 
 environments, nor from exposure to penalty for 
 deliberately bad intentions. I hold that we not 
 only can not escape from conscience and God and 
 our records of sins, but that it is a certainty, and a 
 strategic certainty, that except Christianity there 
 is no religion under heaven or among men that 
 effectively provides for the peace of the soul by its 
 harmonization with this environment." 
 
 Here also should be cited the equally plain and 
 emphatic declaration of Prof. W. C. Wilkinson of 
 Chicago University, who concluded an extended 
 discussion of the ' ' Attitude of Christianity tow^ard 
 Other Eeligions" as follows: 
 
 "It is much if a religion, such as the Bible thus 
 teaches Christianity to be, leaves us any chance at 
 all for entertaining hope concerning those remaining 
 to the last involved in the prevalence of false 
 religion surrounding them. But chance there 
 seems indeed to be of hope justified by Christianity, 
 for some among these unfortunate men. Peter, the 
 
72 . world's religious congresses. 
 
 straightened Peter, the one apostle perhaps most 
 inclined to be unalterably Jewish, he it was who, 
 having been hitherto specially instructed, said: 
 
 '' ' Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of 
 persons, but in every nation he that feareth him 
 and worketh righteousness is acceptable to him.' 
 
 ' ' To fear God first, and then also to work right- 
 eousness, these are the traits characterizing ever and 
 everywhere the man acceptable to God. But evi- 
 dently to fear God is not, in the idea of Christianity, 
 to worship another than he. It will accordingly 
 be in degree as a man escapes the ethnic religion 
 dominant about him, and rises — not by means of 
 it, but in spite of it — into the transcending element 
 of the true divine worship, that the man will be 
 acceptable to God. 
 
 " Of any ethnic religion, therefore, can it be said 
 that it is a true religion, only not perfect ? Chris- 
 tianity says no. Christianity speaks words of unde- 
 fined, unlimited hope concerning those, some of 
 those, who shall never have heard of Christ. These 
 words Christians, of course, will hold and cherish 
 according to their inestimable value. But let us 
 not mistake them as intended to bear any relation 
 whatever to the erring religions of mankind. Those 
 religions the Bible nowhere represents as pathetic 
 and partly successful gropings after God. They are 
 one and all represented as groping downward, not 
 groping upward. According to Christianity they 
 hinder, they do not help. Their adherents' hold 
 on them is like the blind grasping of drowning men 
 on roots or rocks that only tend to keep them to the 
 
A RELIGIOUS SYMPOSIUM. 78 
 
 bottom of the river. The truth that is in the false 
 religion may help, but it will be the truth, not the 
 false religion. 
 
 "According to Christianity the false religion exerts 
 all its force to choke and to kill the truth that is 
 in it. Hence the historic degeneration represented 
 in the first chapter of Romans as effecting false 
 religions in general.^ If they were upward reachings 
 they would grow better and better. If, as Paul 
 teaches, they in fact grow worse and worse, it must 
 be because they are downward reachings. The 
 indestructible instinct to worship, that is in itself a 
 saving j)ower. Carefully guarded, carefully culti- 
 vated, it may even save. But the worshiping 
 instinct, misused or disused, that is, depraved to 
 idolatry or extinguished in atheism — 'held down,' 
 as Paul graphically expresses it — is in swift process 
 of becoming an irresistible destroying power. The 
 light that is in the soul turns swiftly into darkness. 
 The instinct to worship lifts Godward. The issue 
 of that instinct, its abuse in idolatry, its disuse in 
 atheism, is evil, only evil, and that continually. 
 
 "The attitude, therefore, of Christianity toward 
 religions other than itself is an attitude of universal, 
 absolute, eternal, unappeasable hostility, while 
 toward all men, everywhere, the adherents of false 
 religion by no means excepted, its attitude is an 
 attitude of grace, mercy, peace, for whosoever will. 
 How many may be found that will is a problem 
 which Christianity leaves unsolved. Most welcome 
 hints and suggestions, however, it affords, encour- 
 aging Christians joyfully and gratefully to entertain 
 
74 
 
 on behalf of the erring that relieved and sym- 
 pathetic sentiment which the poet has taught us 
 to call ' the larger hope.' " 
 
 More generous and inviting is the "Message of 
 Christianity to Other Religions," as voiced by the 
 Rev. James S. Dennis, D. D., secretary of the Pres- 
 byterian Board of Missions. I^ gives the message 
 in a series of "code words," as he calls them: 
 
 "The initial word which we place in this signal 
 code of Christianity is fatherhood. This may have 
 a strange sound to some ears, but to the Christian 
 it is full of sweetness and dignity. It simply means 
 that the creative act of God, so far as our human 
 family is concerned, was done in the spirit of fatherly 
 love and goodness. He created us in his likeness, 
 and to express this idea of spiritual resemblance and 
 tender relationship the symbolical term of father- 
 hood is used. When Christ taught us to pray ' Our 
 Father ' he gave us a lesson which transcends human 
 philosophy, and has in it so much of the height and 
 depth of divine feeling that human reason has 
 hardly dared to receive, much less to originate, the 
 conception. 
 
 "A second word which is representative in the 
 Christian message is brotherhood. This exists in two 
 senses — there is the universal brotherhood of man 
 to man, as children of one father, in whose likeness 
 the whole family is created, and the spiritual broth- 
 erhood of union in Christ. Here again is the sug- 
 gestion of love as the rule and sign of human as well 
 as Christian fellowship. The world has drifted far 
 
A RELIGIOUS SYMPOSIUM. 75 
 
 away from this ideal of brotherhood; it has been 
 repudiated in some quarters even in the name of 
 religion, and it seems clear that it will never be 
 fully recognized and exemplified except as the 
 Spirit of Christ assumes its sway over the hearts of 
 men. 
 
 " The next code word of Christianity is redemp- 
 tion. We use it here in the sense of a purpose on 
 God's part to deliver man from sin, and to make a 
 universal provision for that end, which, if rightly 
 used, insures the result. I need not remind you 
 that this purpose is conceived in love. God, as 
 Redeemer, has taken a gracious attitude toward man 
 from the beginning of history, and he is ' not far 
 from every one ' in the immanence and omnipresence 
 of his love. Redemption is a world-embracing term. 
 It is not limited to any age or class. Its j^otentiality 
 is world-wide; its efficiency is unrestrained except 
 as man limits it; its application is determined by 
 the sovereign wisdom of God, its Author, who deals 
 with each individual as a possible candidate for 
 redemption, and decides his destiny in accordance 
 with his spiritual attitude toward Christ. 
 
 "Where Christ is unknown God still exercises 
 his sovereignty, although he has been pleased to 
 maintain a significant reserve as to the possibility, 
 extent, and sjjiritual tests of redemption where trust 
 is based on God's mercy in general rather than upon 
 his mercy as specially revealed in Christ. We know 
 from his word that Christ' s sacrifice is infinite. God 
 can apply its saving benefits to one who intelligently 
 accepts it in faith, or to an infant who receives its 
 
76 world's religious congresses. 
 
 benefits as a sovereign gift, or to one who, not hav- 
 ing known of Christ, so casts himself upon God's 
 mercy that divine wisdom sees good reason to exer- 
 cise the prerogative of compassion and apply to the 
 soul the saving jDower of the great sacrifice. 
 
 ' ' Another cardinal idea in the Christian system 
 is incarnation — God clothing himself in human 
 form and coming into living touch with mankind. 
 This he did in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. It 
 is a mighty mystery, and Christianity would never 
 dare assert it except as God has taught its truth. 
 Granted the purpose of God to reveal himself in 
 visible form to man, and he must be free to choose 
 his own method. He did not consult human reason. 
 He did not seek the permission of ordinary laws. 
 He came in his spiritual chariot, in the glory of the 
 supernatural, but he entered the realm of human 
 life through the humble gateway of nature. He 
 came not only to reveal God, but to bring him into 
 contact with human life. He came to assume per- 
 manent relations to the race. His brief life among 
 us on earth was for a purpose, and when that 
 was accomplished, still retaining his humanity, he 
 ascended to assume his kingly dominions in the 
 heavens. 
 
 "We are brought now to another fundamental 
 truth in Christian teaching — the mysterious doc- 
 trine of atonement. Sin is a fact which is indis- 
 putable. It is universally recognized and acknowl- 
 edged. It is its own evidence. It is, moreover, a 
 barrier between man and his God. The divine holi- 
 ness and sin, with its loathsomeness, its rebellion, 
 
A RELIGIOUS SYMPOSIUM. 77 
 
 its horrid degradation, and its hopeless ruin, can not 
 coalesce in any system of moral government. God 
 can not tolerate sin, or temporize with it, or make a 
 place for it in his presence. He can not parley with 
 it; he must punish it. He can not treat with it; he 
 must try it at the bar. He can not overlook it; he 
 must overcome it. He can not give it a moral status; 
 he must visit it wdth the condemnation it deserves. 
 
 ■" Atonement is God's marvelous method of vindi- 
 cating, once for all, before the universe, his eternal 
 attitude toward sin, by the voluntary self assump- 
 tion, in the spirit of sacrifice, of its penalty. This 
 he does in the person of Jesus Christ, who came as 
 God incarnate upon this sublime mission. The facts 
 of Christ's birth, life, death, and resurrection take 
 their place in the realm of veritable history, and 
 the moral value and propitiatory efficacy of his per- 
 fect obedience and sacrificial death in a representa- 
 tive capacity become a mysterious element of limit- 
 less worth in the process of readjusting the relation 
 of the sinner to his God. 
 
 "Christ is recognized by God as a substitute. 
 The merit of his obedience and the exalted dignity 
 of liis sacrifice are both available to faith . The sin- 
 ner, humble, penitent, and conscious of un worthi- 
 ness, accepts Christ as his redeemer, his intercessor, 
 his saviour, and simply believes in him, trusting in 
 his assurances and promises, based as they are upon 
 his atoning intervention, and receives from God, as 
 the gift of sovereign love, all the benefits of Christ's 
 mediatorial work. This is God's way of reaching 
 the goal of pardon and reconciliation. It is his way 
 
78 world's religious congresses. 
 
 of being liimself just and yet accomplishing the 
 justification of the sinner. Here again we have the 
 mystery of love in its most intense form and the 
 mystery of wisdom in its most august exemplifica- 
 tion. 
 
 "This is the heart of the gospel. It throbs with 
 mysterious love. It i3ulsates with ineffable throes 
 of divine feeling; it bears a vital relation to the 
 whole scheme of government; it is in its hidden 
 activities beyond the scrutiny of human reason; but 
 it sends the life-blood coursing through history and 
 it gives to Christianity its superb vitality and its 
 undying vigor. It is because Christianity eliminates 
 sin from the problem that its solution is complete 
 and final. 
 
 " We pass now to another word which is of vital 
 importance — it is character. God' s ow^n attitude to 
 the sinner being settled, and the problem of moral 
 government solved, the next matter which presents 
 itself is the personality of the individual man. It 
 must be x)urified, transformed into the spiritual like- 
 ness of Christ, trained for immortality. It must be 
 brought into harmony with the ethical standards of 
 Christ. This Christianity insists upon, and for the 
 accomplishment of this end it is gifted with an influ- 
 ence and impulse, a potency and winsomeness, an 
 inspiration and helpfulness, which is full of spirit- 
 ual mastery over the soul. Christianity uplifts, 
 transforms, and eventually transfigures the i^ersonal 
 character. It is a transcendent school of incompar- 
 able ethics. It honors the rugged training of disci- 
 pline; it uses it freely but tenderly. It accomplishes 
 
A KELIGIOUS SYMPOSIUM. 79 
 
 its purpose by exacting obedience, by teaching sub- 
 mission, by helping to self-control, by insisting 
 upon practical righteousness as a rule of life, and by 
 introducing the golden rule as the law of contact 
 and duty between man and man. 
 
 "In vital connection with character is a word of 
 magnetic impulse and unique glory which gives to 
 Christianity a sublime practical power in history. 
 It is service. There is a forceful meaning in the 
 double influence of Christianity over the inner life 
 and the outward ndnistry of its followers. Christ, 
 its founder, glorified service and lifted it in his own 
 experience to the dignity of sacrifice. In the light 
 of Christ's example, service becomes an honor, a 
 privilege, and a moral triumph ; it is consummated 
 and crowned in sacrifice. 
 
 "Christianity, receiving its lesson from Christ, 
 subsidizes character in the interest of service. It 
 lays its noblest fruitage of personal gifts and spirit- 
 ual culture upon the altar of philanthropic sacrifice. 
 It is unworthy of its name if it does not reproduce 
 this spirit of its master; only by giving itself to 
 benevolent ministry, as Christ gave himself for the 
 world, can it vindicate its origin. - Christianity 
 recognizes no worship which is altogether divorced 
 from work for the weal of others; it indorses no 
 religious professions which are unmindful of the 
 obligations of service; it allows itself to be tested 
 not simply by the purity of its motives, but by the 
 measure of its sacrifices. The crown and goal of its 
 followers is, ' Well done, good and faithful servant.' 
 
 * ' One other word completes the code. It is fellow- 
 
ship. It is a word which breathes the sweetest hope 
 and sounds the highest destiny of the Christian. It 
 gives the grandest possible meaning to eternity, for 
 it suggests that it is to be passed with God. It 
 illumines and transhgures the present, for it brings 
 God into it, and places him in living touch with our 
 lives, and makes him a helper in our moral struggles, 
 our spiritual aspirations, and our heroic though 
 imperfect efforts to live the life of duty. It is solace 
 in trouble, consolation in sorrow, strength in weak- 
 ness, courage in trial, help in weariness, and cheer 
 in loneliness. It becomes an unfailing inspiration 
 when human nature, left to its own resources, would 
 lie down in despair and die. Fellowship with God 
 implies and secures fellowship with each other in a 
 mystical spiritual union of Christ with his people, 
 and his people with each other. An invisible society 
 of regenerate souls, which we call the kingdom of 
 God among men, is the result. This has its visible 
 product in the organized society of the Christian 
 church, which is the chosen and honored instrument 
 of God for the conservation and propagation of 
 Christianity among men. 
 
 "This, then, is the message which Christianity 
 signals to other religions as it greets them to-day: 
 Fatherhood, brotherhood, redemption, incarnation, 
 atonement, character, service, fellowship." 
 
 If we pause here to compare, we lind the Hindu 
 looking up to the Almighty and the All-merciful One, 
 who was incarnate on earth, as Krishna, and taught 
 the love of God for its own sake; believing that the 
 
A RELIGIOUS SYMPOSIUM. 81 
 
 pure in heart see him, and that purity is attained by 
 crucifying all selfish desire, and in the constant strug- 
 gle to become perfect, even as the Father in heaven 
 is perfect. In what that perfection consists is not 
 definitely set forth; nor does the means of reaching 
 it appear clear, except as a continual struggle, 
 through no matter how many conditions of life, to 
 rise above selfishness. One might suggest here, that 
 however defective this view may be to the intellect 
 aspiring to a knowledge of the origins and issues of 
 life and death, yet, as a practical religion, it teaches 
 the acknowledgment of the divine in shunning the 
 evils of self-love as sins against liim. And here one 
 is reminded of the voice of Jehovah, by the prophet, 
 " If a man turn from the evil he hath done and doeth 
 righteousness he shall live," and of the word in the 
 gospel, that "whosoever will do his will shall 
 know," and "he that hath my commandments and 
 keepeth them, he it is that loveth me," and "he 
 that is not against us is for us." 
 
 Orthodox Christianity, on the other hand, sees 
 the great fact of sin as a bar to the love of God, and 
 finds in the gospel no hope for any until the old sin 
 and the guilt of mankind is blotted out from the 
 mind of God by a substitutional sacrifice, accejDted by 
 faith on the part of the sinner. It sees in Chris- 
 tianity only an attitude of absolute, eternal, and 
 unappeasable hostility toward other religions, while 
 it holds out to all men grace and mercy, and pleads 
 for the acceptance of redemption and atonement, 
 through faith in the sacrifice of Christ as acceptable 
 with God, with inclination toward a "larger hope." 
 
82 
 
 LIBERAL CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 Of course there is the broader view, with which all 
 are familiar in this day, as voiced by Dr. Lyman 
 Abbott, who said, ' ' Religion is essential to human- 
 ity," the '' religion" that is "the mother of all re- 
 ligions, not the child," which he defined as the 
 power to apprehend the infinite and the eternal. 
 
 Tracing some of the ways in which the children of 
 God are necessitated to seek after him. Doctor Abbott 
 €on eludes: 
 
 ' ' Thus we get out of religion religions — religions 
 that vary with one another, according as curiosity, 
 or fear, or hope, or the ethical element, or the per- 
 sonal reverence predominates. Religious curiosity 
 wants to know about the infinite and eternal, and it 
 gives us creeds and theologies; the religion of fear 
 gives us the sacrificial system, with its atonements 
 and propitiations; the religion of hope expects some 
 reward or recompense from the great Infinite, and 
 exj^resses itself in services and gifts, with the expec- 
 tation of rewards liere or in some Elysium hereafter. 
 Then there is the religion which, although it can 
 never learn the nature of the law-giver, still goes on 
 trying to understand the nature of his laws; and, 
 finally, the religion which more or less clearly sees 
 behind all this that there is One who is the ideal of 
 humanity, the infinite and eternal Ruler of human- 
 ity, and therefore reveres and worships, and last of 
 all learns to love. 
 
 ' ' If, in this very brief summary, I have carried you 
 with me, you will see that the object of man's 
 search is not merely religion; he is seeking to know 
 
A RELIGIOUS SYMPOSIUM. 83 
 
 the infinite and the eternal, not merely the priests 
 and the hierarchies, not merely the men and women, 
 with their services, and their rituals, and their 
 prayer-books, but the whole current and tendency 
 of human life is a search for the infinite and the 
 divine. All science, all art, all sociology, all busi- 
 ness, all government, as well as all worship, is in 
 the last analysis an endeavor to comprehend the 
 meaning of the great words, honesty, justice, truth, 
 pity, mercy, love. In vain does the atheist or 
 the agnostic try to stop our search to know the 
 infinite and eternal; in vain does he tell us it is a 
 useless quest. Still we press on, and must press on. 
 The incentive is in ourselves, and nothing can blot it 
 out of us and still leave us men and women. 
 
 "God made us out of himself and God calls us 
 back to himself. It w( uld be easier to kill the 
 appetite of man and let us feed by merely shoveling 
 in carbon as into a furnace; it would be easier to 
 blot ambition out of man and to consign him to end- 
 less and nerveless content; easier to blot love out of 
 man and banish him to live the life of a eunuch in 
 the wilderness than to blot out of the soul of man 
 those desires and aspirations which knit him to the 
 infinite and the eternal, give him love for his fellow- 
 man and reverence for God. In vain does the 
 philosopher of the barnyard say to the egg, ' You 
 are made of egg; you alwa^^s were an egg; you 
 always will be an egg; don't try to be anything but 
 an egg.' The chicken pecks and pecks until he 
 breaks the shell and comes out to the sunlight of 
 the world. 
 
84 world's religious congresses. 
 
 ''We welcome here to-day, in this most cosmo- 
 politan city of the most cosmopolitan race on the 
 globe, the representatives of all the various forms 
 of religious life from east to west and north to 
 south. We are glad to welcome them. We are 
 glad to believe that they, as we, have been seeking 
 to know something more and better of the divine 
 from which we issue, of the divine to which we 
 are returning. We are glad to hear the message 
 they have to bring to us. We are glad to know what 
 they have to tell us, but what we are gladdest of all 
 about is that we can tell them what we have found 
 in our search, and that we have found the Christ. 
 
 " I do not stand here as an exponent, the ajjolo- 
 gist, or the defender of Christianity. In it there 
 have been the blemishes and the marks of human 
 handiwork. It has been too intellectual, too much 
 a religion of creeds. It has been too fearful, too 
 much a religion of sacrifices. It has been too self- 
 ishly hopeful; there has been too much a desire 
 of reward here or hereafter. It has been too little 
 a religion of unselfish service and unselfish reverence. 
 No! It is not Christianity that we want to tell our 
 brethren across the sea about; it is the Christ. 
 
 "What is it that this universal hunger of the 
 human race seeks ? Is it not these things — a better 
 understanding of our moral relations, one to an- 
 other, a better understanding of what we are and 
 what we mean to be,* that we may fashion ourselves 
 according to the idea of the ideal being in our 
 nature, a better appreciation of the infinite one who 
 is behind all phenomena, material and spiritual ? Is 
 
A RELIGIOUS SYMPOSIUM. 85 
 
 it not more health and added strength and clearer 
 light in our upward tendency to our everlasting 
 Father s arms and home ? Are not these the things 
 that most we need in the world 1 We have found 
 the Christ, and loved him and revered him and ac- 
 cepted him, for nowhere else, in no other prophet, 
 have we found the moral relations of men better 
 represented than in the golden rule, 'Do unto 
 others that which you would have others do unto 
 you.' We do not think that he furnishes the only 
 ideal the world has ever had. We recognize the 
 voice of God in all prophets and in all time. But 
 we do think we have found in this Christ, in his 
 patience, in his courage, in his heroism, in his self- 
 sacrifice, in his unbounded mercy and love an idea 
 that transcends all other ideals written by the pen 
 of poet, painted by the brush of artist, or graven 
 into the life of human history. 
 
 "We do not think that God has spoken only in 
 Palestine and to the few in that narrow province. 
 We do not think he has been vocal in Christendom 
 and dumb everywhere else. No ! We believe that 
 he is a speaking God in all times and in all ages. 
 But we believe no other revelation transcends and 
 none other equals that which he has made to man in 
 the one transcendental human life that was lived 
 eighteen centuries ago in Palestine. And we think 
 we find in Christ one thing that we have not been 
 able to find in any otlier of the manifestations of the 
 religious life of the world. All religions are the 
 result of man's seeking after God. If what I have 
 portrayed to you this morning so imperfectly has 
 
86 world's religious congresses. 
 
 any truth in it the whole human race seeks to know 
 its eternal and divine Father; the message of the 
 Incarnation — that is the glad tidings we have to 
 give to Africa, to Asia, to China, to the isles of the sea. 
 ' ' The everlasting Father is also seeking the children 
 who are seeking him. He is not an unknown, hid- 
 ing himself behind a veil impenetrable. He is not a 
 being dwelling in the eternal silence; he is a speak- 
 ing, revealing, incarnate God. He is not an abso- 
 lute Justice, sitting on the throne of the universe 
 and bringing before him imperfect, sinful man and 
 judging him with the scales of unerring justice; he 
 is a father coming into human life and coming into 
 one transcendental human life, coming into all 
 human life for all time. Perhaps we have some- 
 times misrepresented our own faith respecting this 
 Christ. Perhaps, in our metaphysical definitions, 
 we have sometimes been too anxious to be accurate 
 and too little anxious to be true. He himself has 
 said it. He is a door. We do not stand merely to 
 look at the door for the beauty of the carving upon 
 it. We i3ush the door open and go in. Through 
 that door God enters into human life; through that 
 door humanity enters into the divine life; man seek- 
 ing after God, the incarnate God seeking after man; 
 the end in that great future after life's troubled 
 dream shall be o'er, and we shall awake satisfied 
 because we awake in his likeness." 
 
 BUDDHISM. 
 
 Buddhism rivals Christianity in the number and 
 characteristic diiferences of its sects; but with 
 
A RELIGIOUS SYMPOSIUM. 87 
 
 better reason in the intent of its original teacher, 
 according to Banriu Yatsabuchi of Japan, from 
 whose paper we quote the following: 
 
 ^'Buddhism is the doctrine taught by Buddha 
 Sakyamuni. The word Buddha is Sanscrit, and in 
 the Japanese it is Satoru, which means under- 
 standing, or comprehension. It has three meanings 
 — self-comprehension, to let others comprehend, and 
 perfect comi^rehension. When wisdom and human- 
 ity are attained thoroughly by one he may be 
 called Buddha, which means perfect comi^rehension. 
 In Buddhism we ,have Buddha as our Saviour, the 
 spirit incarnate of x>erfect self-sacrifice and divine 
 coAipassion, and the embodiment of all that is pure 
 and good. Although Buddha was not a creator and 
 had no power to destroy the law of the universe, he 
 had the power of knowledge to know the origin of 
 nature and end of each revolving manifestation of 
 the universal phenomena. He suppressed the crav- 
 ing and passions of his mind until he could reach 
 no higher spiritual and moral plane. As every 
 object of the universe is one part of the truth, 
 of course it may become Buddha, according to a 
 natural reason. . . . 
 
 "The complete doctrines of Buddha, who spent 
 fifty years iu elaborating them, were preached pre- 
 cisely and carefully, and their meanings are so pro- 
 found and deep that I can not explain at this time 
 an infinitesimal part of them. His preaching was 
 a compass to point out the direction to the be- 
 wildered sjjiritual world. He taught his disciples 
 just as the doctor cures his patient, by giving sev- 
 
88 WORLD S RELIGIOUS CONGRESSES. 
 
 eral medicines according to the different cases. 
 Twelve divisions of Satras and 84,000 laws made to 
 meet tlie different cases of Buddha's patients in the 
 suffering world are minute classifications of Bud- 
 dha's teachings. Why are there so many sects and 
 preachings in Buddhism? Simply because of the 
 differences in human character. His teaching may 
 be divided under four heads: Thinking about the 
 general state of the world; thinking about the indi- 
 vidual character simply; conquering the passions; 
 giving up the life to the sublime first principle. 
 
 "There is no room for censure because Buddhism 
 has many sects which were founded on Buddha's 
 teachings, because Buddha considered it best to 
 preach according to the spiritual needs of his hear- 
 ers and leave to them the choice of any i^articular 
 set. We are not allowed to censure other sects, 
 because the teaching of each guides us all to the 
 same place at last. The necessity for separating the 
 many sects arose from the fact that the people of 
 different countries were not alike in dispositions 
 and could not accept the same truths in the same 
 way as others. One teaching of Buddha contains 
 many elements which are to be distributed and sep- 
 arated; but as the object as taught by Buddha is 
 one, we teach the ignorant according to the condi- 
 tions that arise through our different sects." 
 
 The teachings of Buddhism were more particu- 
 larly set forth in a paper by H. R. H. Prince Chan- 
 dradatChudhadharn, on " The Buddhism of Siam," 
 explaining that all things in the universe are made 
 
A RELIGIOUS SYMPOSIUM. 89 
 
 up from Dliarma, defined as "the essence of na- 
 ture," and iDresenting the three following phenom- 
 ena, namely: 1st, the accomplishment of eternal 
 evolution; 2d, sorrow and suffering, according to 
 human ideas; and 3d, a separate power uncontrol- 
 lable by the desire of man, and not belonging to 
 man. He continued: 
 
 "Man, who is an aggregate of Dharma, is, how- 
 ever, unconscious of the fact, because his will 
 either receives impressions an5 becomes modified 
 by mere visible things, or because his spirit has 
 become identified with appearances, such as man, 
 animal, deva, or any other beings that are also but 
 modified spirits and matter. Man becomes, there- 
 fore, conscious of separate existence. But all out- 
 ward forms, man himself included, are made to live 
 or to last for a short space of time only. They are 
 soon to be destroyed and recreated again and again 
 by an eternal evolution. He is first body and spirit, 
 but, through ignorance of the fact that all is 
 Dharma, and of that which is good and evil, his 
 spirit may become impressed with evil temptation. 
 Thus, for instance, he may desire certain things 
 with that force peculiar to a tiger, whose spirit is 
 modified by craving for lust and anger. In such a 
 case he will be continually adopting, directly or 
 indirectly, in his own life, the wills and acts of that 
 tiger, and thereby is himself that animal in spirit 
 and soul. Yet outwardly he appears to be. a man, 
 and is as yet unconscious of the fact that his spirit 
 has become endowed with the cruelties of the tiger. 
 
 ' ' If this state continues until the body be dissolved 
 
90 
 
 or changed into other matter, be dead, as we say, 
 that same spirit which lias been endowed with the 
 cravings of lust and anger of a tiger, of exactly the 
 same nature and feelings as those that have 
 appeared in the body of the man before his death, 
 may reappear now to find itself in the body of a 
 tiger, suitable to its nature. Thus, so long as man 
 is ignorant of that nature of Dharma, and fails to 
 identify that nature, he continues to receive dif- 
 ferent impressions l^rom beings around him in this 
 universe, thereby sufferings, pains, sorrows, disap- 
 pointments of all kinds, death. 
 
 "If, however, his spirit be impressed with the good 
 qualities that are found in a superior being, such as 
 the deva, for instance, by adopting in his own life 
 the acts and wills of that superior being man 
 becomes spiritually that superior being himself, both 
 in nature and soul, even while in his present form. 
 When death puts an end to his physical body a 
 spirit of the very same nature and quality may 
 reappear in the new body of a deva, to enjoy a life 
 of happiness not to be compared to anything that is 
 known in this world. 
 
 "However, to all beings alike, whether superior or 
 inferior to ourselves, death is a suffering. It is, 
 therefore, undesirable to be born into any being 
 that is a modification of Dharma, to be sooner or 
 later, again and again, dissolved by the eternal 
 phenomenon of evolution. The only means by 
 which we are able to free ourselves from sufferings 
 and death is, therefore, to possess a perfect knowl- 
 edge of Dharma, and to realize by will and acts that 
 
A RKLiaiOUS SYMPOSIUM. 91 
 
 nature only obtainable by adhering to the precepts 
 given by Lord Buddha in the four Noble Truths. 
 The consciousness of self-being is a delusion, so 
 that, until we are convinced that we ourselves and 
 whatever belongs to ourselves is a mere nothing- 
 ness, until we have lost the idea or impression that 
 we are men, until that idea be completely annihil- 
 ated and we have become united to Dharma, we are 
 unable to reach spiritually the state of Mrvana, 
 and that is only attained when the bodies dissolve 
 both spiritually and physicall3^ So that one 
 should cease all petty longing for personal hap- 
 piness, and remember that one life is as hollow as 
 the*other, that all is transitory and unreal. 
 
 "The true Buddhist does not mar the purity of his 
 self-denial by lusting after a positive happiness 
 which he himself shall enjoy here or hereafter. 
 Ignorance of Dharma leads to sin, wliicli leads to 
 sorrow; and under these conditions of existence 
 each new birth leaves man ignorant and finite still. 
 What is to be hoped for is the absolute repose of 
 Nirvana, the extinction of our being, nothingness. 
 Allow me to give an illustration: A piece of rope is 
 thrown in a dark road; a silly man passing by can 
 not make out what it is. In his natural ignorance 
 the rope appears to be a horrible snake, and imme- 
 diately creates in him alarm, fright, and suffering. 
 Soon light dwells upon him; he now realizes tliat 
 what he took to be a snake is but a piece of rope. 
 His alarm and fright are suddenly at an end; they 
 are annihilated, as it were. The man now becomes 
 happy and free from the suffering he has just 
 experienced through his own folly. 
 
92 
 
 "It is precisely the same with ourselves, our lives, 
 our deaths, our alarms, our cries, our lamentations, 
 our disappointments, and all other sufferings. 
 They are created by our own ignorance of eternity, 
 of the knowledge of Dharma to do away with and 
 annihilate all of them. 
 
 " I shall now refer to the four Noble Truths as 
 taught by our merciful and omniscient Lord 
 Buddha; they point out the path that leads to 
 Nirvana, or to the desirable extinction of self. 
 
 " The first noble truth is suffering; it arises from 
 birth, old age, illness, sorrow, death, separation, 
 and from what is loved, association with what is 
 hateful, and, in short, the very idea of self in spirit 
 and matters that constitute Dharma. The second 
 Noble Truth is the cause of suffering which results 
 from ignorance, creating lust for objects of a perish- 
 able nature. If the lust be for sensual objects it is 
 called, in Pali, Kama Tanha. If it be for supersen- 
 sual objects, belonging to the mind but still possess- 
 ing a form in the mind, it is called Bhava Tanha. 
 If the lust be pure for supersensual objects that 
 belong to the mind, but are devoid of all form what- 
 ever, it is called Wibhava Tanha. The third Noble 
 Truth is the extinction of sufferings, which is 
 brought about by the cessation of the three kinds of 
 lust, together with their accompanying evils, which 
 all result directly from ignorance. The fourth Noble 
 Truth is the means of paths that lead to the cessation 
 of lusts and other evils. This Noble Truth is divided 
 into the following eight paths: Eight understand- 
 ing, right resolutions, right speech, right acts, right 
 
A RELIGIOUS SYMPOSIUM. 93 
 
 way of earning a livelilioodj right efforts, right 
 meditation, right state of mind. A few words of 
 explanation on these paths may not be out of place: 
 
 ''By right understanding is meant prox)er com- 
 prehension, especially in regard to what we call 
 sufferings. We should strive, to learn the cause of 
 our sufferings and the manner to alleviate and even 
 to suppress them. We are not to forget that we 
 are in this world to suffer; that wherever there is 
 pleasure there is pain, and that, after all, pain and 
 pleasure only exist according to human ideas. 
 
 "By right resolutions is meant that it is our 
 imperative duty to act kindly to our fellow-creat- 
 ures. We are to bear no malice against anybody 
 and never seek revenge. We are to understand 
 that in reality we exist in flesh and blood only for a 
 short time, and that hapx)iness and sufferings are 
 transient or idealistic, and therefore we should try 
 to control our desires and cravings and endeavor 
 to be good and- kind toward our fellow-creatures. 
 
 "By right speech is meant that we are always to 
 speak the truth, never to incite one's anger toward 
 others, but always to speak of things useful, and 
 never use harsh words destined to hurt the feelings 
 of others. By right acts is meant that we should 
 never harm our fellow-creatures, neither steal, take 
 life, nor commit adultery. Temperance and celibacy 
 are also enjoined. By right way of earning a liveli- 
 hood is meant that we are always to be honest and 
 never to use wrongful or guilty means to attain an 
 end. By right efforts is meant that we are to perse- 
 vere in our endeavors to do good and to mend our 
 
94 
 
 conduct should we ever have strayed from the path 
 of virtue. By right meditation is meant that we 
 should always look upon life as being temporary, 
 consider our existence as a source of suffering, and 
 therefore endeavor always to calm our minds that 
 may be excited by the sense of pleasure or pain. 
 By right state of mind is meant that we should be 
 firm in our belief, and be strictly indifferent both to 
 the sense or feeling of pleasure and joain. 
 
 ''It would be out of place here to enter into fur- 
 ther details on the four Noble Truths; it would 
 require too much time. I will, therefore, merely 
 summarize their meanings and say that sorrow and 
 sufferings are mainly due to ignorance, which 
 creates in our minds lust, anger, and other evils. 
 The extermination of all sorrow and suffering, and 
 of all unhappiness, is attained by the eradication of 
 ignorance and its evil consequences, and by replac- 
 ing it with cultivation, knowledge, contentment, 
 and love. 
 
 "Now comes the question. What is good and 
 what is evil? Every act, speech, or thought derived 
 from falsehood, or that which is injurious to others, 
 is evil. Every act, speech, or thought derived from 
 truth, and that which is not injurious to others, is 
 good. Buddhism teaches that lust prompts avarice, 
 anger creates animosity, ignorance produces false 
 ideas. These are called evils because they cause 
 pain. On the other hand, contentment prompts 
 charity, love creates kindness, knowledge produces 
 progressive ideas. These are called gO(-d because 
 they give pleasure. 
 
A EBLIGI0U8 SYMPOSIUM. 95 
 
 ''The teachings of Buddhism on morals are nu- 
 merous, and are divided into three groups of advan- 
 tages: The advantage to be obtained in the present 
 life, the advantage to be obtained in the future life, 
 and the advantage to be obtained in all eternity. 
 For each of these advantages there are recommended 
 numerous paths to be followed by those v^ho aspire 
 to any one of them. I will only quote a few ex- 
 amples. To those who aspire to advantages in the 
 present life Buddhism recommends diligence, econ- 
 omy, expenditure suitable to one's income, and 
 association with the good. To those who asjjire to 
 the advantages of the future life are recommended 
 charity, kindness, knowledge of right and wrong. 
 To those who wish to enjoy the everlasting advan- 
 tages in all eternity are recommended purity of 
 conduct, of mind, and of knowledge. 
 
 *' Allow me now to say a few words on the duties 
 of man toward his wife and family, as preached by 
 the Lord Buddha himself to the lay disciples in dif- 
 ferent discourses, or Sutras, as they are called in 
 Pali. They belong to the group of advantages of 
 present life. A good man is characterized by seveii 
 qualities. He should not be loaded with faults, he 
 should be free from laziness, he should not boast of 
 his knowledge, he should be truthful, benevolent, 
 content, and should aspire to all that is useful. 
 
 ^'A husband should honor his wife, never in- 
 sult her, never displease her, make her mistress of 
 the house, and provide for her. On her part, a wife 
 ought to be cheerful toward him when he works, 
 entertain his friends and care for his dependents, to 
 
96 world's religious congresses. 
 
 never do anything he does not wish, to take good 
 care of the wealth he has accumulated, not to be 
 idle, but always cheerful when at work herself. 
 
 ' ' Parents in old age expect their children to take 
 care of them, to do all their work and business, to 
 maintain the household, and, after death, to do 
 honor to their remains by being charitable. Parents 
 help their children by preventing them from doing 
 sinful acts, by guiding them in the path of virtue, 
 by educating them, by providing them with hus- 
 bands and wives suitable to them, by leaving them 
 legacies. When poverty, accident, or misfortune 
 befalls man, the Buddhist is taught to bear it with 
 patience, and if these are brought on by himself it 
 is his duty to discover their causes and try, if possi- 
 ble, to remedy them. If the causes, however, are 
 not to be found here in this life lie must account for 
 them by the wrongs done in his former existence. 
 Temperance is enjoined upon all Buddhists, for 
 the reason that the habit of using intoxicating 
 things tends to lower the mind to the level of that 
 of an idiot, a madman, or an evil spirit. 
 
 " These are some of the doctrines and moralities 
 taught by Buddhism, which I hope will give you an 
 idea of the scope of the Lord Buddha's teachings. 
 In closing this brief paper I earnestly wish you all, 
 my brother religionists, the enjoyment of long life, 
 happiness, and prosperity." 
 
 The gentle Dharmapala of Ceylon, who won all 
 hearts by his refined intelligence, affectionate and 
 uniform charity, and his zeal to lift all men out of 
 
p. a MOZOOMDAR, 
 
 Brahmo-Somaj, Calcutta, India. 
 
A RELIGIOUS SYMPOSIUM. 97 
 
 gross selfishness, read on sevegjal occasions from an 
 extended exposition of the teachings and influence 
 of Buddhism. We quote here from his address the 
 following showing of some points of difference and 
 of resemblance between Buddhism and Cliristianity: 
 
 "Max Miiller says: 'When a religion has 
 ceased to produce champions, prophets, and mar- 
 tyrs, it had ceased to live in the true sense of the 
 word, and the decisive battle for the dominion of 
 the world would have to be fought out among the 
 three missionary religions which are alive — Bud- 
 dhism, Mohammedanism and Christianity.' Sir 
 William W. Hunter, in his 'Indian Emjure' 
 (1893), says: 'The secret of Buddha's success was 
 that he brought spiritual deliverance to the people. 
 He X3 reached that salvation was equally open to all 
 men, and that it must be earned, not by propitiating 
 imaginary deities, but by our *own conduct. His 
 doctrines thus cut away the religious basis of caste, 
 and that of the efficiency of the sacrificial ritual, and 
 assailed the supremacy of the Brahmans (priests) 
 as the mediators between God and man.' Buddha 
 taught that sin, sorrow, and deliverance, the state of 
 man in this life, in all previous and in all future 
 lives, are the inevitable results of his own acts 
 (Karma). He thus apj)lied the inexorable law of 
 cause and effect to the soul. What a man sows he 
 must reap. 
 
 " As no evil remains without punishment and no 
 good deed without reward, it follows that neither 
 priest nor God can prevent each act bearing its own 
 consequences. Misery or happiness in this life is 
 
 7 
 
98 
 
 the unavoidable re8i:jlt of our conduct in a past life, 
 and our actions here will determine our happiness 
 or misery in the life to come. When any creature 
 dies he is born again, in some higher or lower state 
 of existence, according to his merit or demerit. His 
 merit or demerit, that is, his character, consists of 
 the sum total of his actions in all previous lives. 
 
 "By this great law of Karma Buddha explained 
 the inequalities and apparent injustice of man's 
 estate in this world as the consequence of acts in 
 the past, while Christianity compensates those 
 inequalities by rewards in the future. A system in 
 which our whole well-being, past, present, and to 
 come, depends on ourselves, theoretically, leaves 
 little room for the interference, or even existence, 
 of a personal God. But the atheism of Buddha 
 was a philosophical tenet, which, so far from weak- 
 ening the function* of right and wrong, gave them 
 new strength from the doctrine of Karma, or the 
 metempsychosis of character. To free ourselves 
 from the thrall dom of desire and from the fetters of 
 selfishness was to attain to the state of the perfect 
 disciple in this life and to the everlasting rest after 
 death. 
 
 "The great practical aim of Buddha's teaching- 
 was to subdue the lusts of the llesh and the crav- 
 ings of self, and this could only be attained by the 
 practice of virtue. In place of rites and sacrifices 
 Buddha prescribed a code of x)ractical morality as 
 the means of salvation. The four essential features 
 of that code were: Keverence to spiritual teachers 
 and parents, control over self, kindness to other 
 
A RELIGIOUS SYMPOSIUM. 99 
 
 men, and reverence for the lifft of all creatures. He 
 urged on his disciples that they must not only fol 
 low the true path themselves, but that they should 
 teach it to all mankind. 
 
 "The life and teachings of Buddha are also begin- 
 ning to exercise a new influence on religious thought 
 in Europe and America. Buddhism will stand 
 forth as the embodiment of the eternal verity that 
 as a man sows he will reap, associated with the 
 duties of mastery over self and kindness to all men, 
 and quickened into a popular religion by the exam- 
 ple of a noble and beautiful life. 
 
 "Here are some Buddhist teachings as given in 
 the words of Jesus and claimed by Christianity: 
 
 " 'Whosoever cometh to me and heareth my say- 
 ings and doeth them, he is like a man which built a 
 house and laid the foundation on a rock. 
 
 " 'Why call ye me lord and do not the things 
 which I say? 
 
 " ' Judge not, condemn not, forgive. 
 
 '"Love your enemies and do good, hoping for 
 nothing again, and your reward shall be great. 
 
 ' ' ' Blessed are they that hear the word of God and 
 keep it. 
 
 " ' Be ready, for the Son of Man cometh at an hour 
 when ye think not. 
 
 ' ' ' Sell all that ye have and give it to the poor. 
 
 " ' Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many 
 years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. 
 But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy 
 soul shall be required of thee, then whose shall 
 these things be which thou hast provided^ 
 
100 world's religious congresses. 
 
 " ' The life is more than meat and the body more 
 than raiment. Whosoever he be of yon that for- 
 saketh not all that he hath he can not be my 
 disciple. 
 
 ' ' ' He that is faithful in that which is least is faith- 
 ful in much. 
 
 '* ' Whosoever shall tave his life shall lose it, and 
 whosoever shall lose his life shall preserve it. 
 
 " ' For behold the kingdom of God is within you. 
 
 a i There is no man that hath left house or parents, 
 or brethren, or wife, or children for the kingdom of 
 God's sake who shall not receive manifold more in 
 this present time. 
 
 '' ' Take heed to yourselves lest at any time your 
 hearts be overcharged with surfeiting and drunken- 
 ness and cares of this life. Watch ye, therefore, and 
 pray always.' 
 
 "Here are some Buddhist teachings for compari- 
 son: 'Hatred does not cease by hatred at any time. 
 Hatred ceases by love. This is an ancient law. Let 
 us live happily, not hating those who hate us. 
 Among men who hate us, let us live free from 
 hatred. Let one overcome anger by love. Let him 
 overcome evil by good. Let him overcome the 
 greedy by liberality. Let the liar be overcome by 
 truth. 
 
 " 'As the bee, injuring not the flower, its color or 
 scent, flies away, taking the nectar, so let the wise 
 man dwell upon the earth. 
 
 " ' Like a beautiful flower, full of color and full of 
 scent, the flne words of him who acts accordingly 
 are full of fruit. 
 
A RELIGIOUS SYMPOSIUM. 101 
 
 *' 'Let Mm speak the truth, let,hin^i net yield. tp 
 anger, let him give when asked, even' from the little 
 he has. By these things he will efit^x he^itii^jii. . ; 
 
 " 'The man who has transgressed Oiie law and 
 speaks lies and denies a future world, there is no 
 sin he could not do. 
 
 ' ' ' The real treasure is that laid up through charity 
 and piety, temperance and self-control; the treasure 
 thus hid is secured, and passes not away. 
 
 " 'He who controls his tongue, speaks wisely and 
 is not puffed up, who holds up the torch to enlighten 
 the world, his word is sweet. 
 
 "'Let his livelihood be kindness, his conduct 
 righteousness; then in tbe fullness of gladness he 
 will make an end of grief. 
 
 " ' He who is tranquil and has completed his course, 
 who sees truth as it really is, but is not partial 
 when there are persons of different faith to be dealt 
 with, who with firm mind overcomes ill will and cov- 
 etousness, he is a true disciple. 
 
 " 'As a mother, even at the risk of her own life, 
 protects her son, her only son, so let each one culti- 
 vate good- will without measure among all beings.' 
 
 "Nirvana is a state to be realized here on this 
 earth. He who has reached the fourth stage of 
 holiness consciously enjoys tlie bliss of Nirvana. 
 But it is beyond the reach of him who is selfish, 
 skeptical, realistic, sensual, full of hatred, full of 
 desire, proud, self-righteous, and ignorant. When 
 by supreme and unceasing effort he destroys all self- 
 ishness and realizes the oneness of all beings; is free 
 from all prejudices and dualism; when he by patient 
 
102 world's religious congresses. 
 
 inrestigation, disco vers truth, tlie stage of holiness 
 is reached. ^ 
 
 . '. '; AmoTig Buddhist ideals are self-sacrifice for the 
 sake of others, compassion based on wisdom, joy in 
 the hope that there is final bliss for the pure-minded, 
 altruistic individual. The student of Buddha's 
 religion takes the burden of life with sweet content- 
 ment; uprightness is his delight; he encompasses 
 himself with holiness in word and deed; he sustains 
 his life by means that are quite pure; good is his 
 conduct; guarded the door of his senses; mindful 
 and self-possessed, he is altogether happy. 
 
 '^H. T. Buckle, the author of the 'History of 
 Civil'zation,' says: 'A knowledge of Buddhism is 
 necessary to the right understanding of Christianity. 
 Buddbism is, besides, a most philosophical creed. 
 Theologians should study it.' 
 
 *' In his inaugural address delivered at the Con- 
 gress of Orientals last year. Max Miiller remarked: 
 'As to the religion of Buddha being influenced by 
 foreign thought, no true scholar now dreams of that. 
 The religion of Buddha is the daughter of the old 
 Brahman religion, and a daughter in many resjDects 
 more beautiful than the mother. On the contrary, 
 it was through Buddhism that India, for the first 
 time, stepped forth from its isolated position and 
 became an actor in the historical drama of tlie world.' 
 
 ' ' Doctor Hoey, in his preface to Doctor Oldberg' s 
 excellent work on Buddha, says: ' To thoughtful 
 men who evince an interest in the comparative study 
 of religious belief, Buddhism, as the highest effort 
 of pure intellect to solve the problem of being, is 
 
A RELIGIOUS SYMPOSIUM. 108 
 
 attractive. It is not less so to the metaphysician 
 and the sociologist who study the philosophy ol' the 
 modern German pessimistic school and observe its 
 social tendencies.' 
 
 "Dr. Rhys David i?ays that Buddhism is a field 
 of inquiry in wliich the only fruit to be gathered is 
 knowledge. R. C. Dutt says: 'The moral teach- 
 ings and precepts of Buddhism have so much in 
 common with those of Cliristianity that some con- 
 nection between the two systems of religion has 
 long been suspected. Candid inquirers who have 
 paid attention to the Idstory of India and of the 
 Greek world during the centuries immediately pre- 
 ceding the Ciiiistian era, and noted the intrinsic 
 relationship whicli existed between these countries 
 in scientific, religious, and literary ideas, found no 
 difficulty in believing that Buddhist ideas and 
 precepts penetrated into the Greek world before 
 the birth of Christ. The discovery of the Asoka 
 inscription of Hirnar, whicli tells us that that en- 
 lightened emperor of India made peace with five 
 Greek kings, and sent Buddhist missionaries to 
 preacli his religion in Syria, explains to us the 
 process by which the ideas were communicated. 
 Researches into doctrines of the Therapeuts in 
 Egypt and of the Essenes in Palestine leave no 
 doubt, even in the minds of such devout Christian 
 thinkers as Dean Mansel, that tlie movement which 
 those sects embodied was due to Buddhist mission- 
 aries who visited Egypt and Palestine within two 
 generations of the time of Alexander the Great. A 
 few writers, like Benson, Seydal, and Lillie, maintain 
 
104 
 
 that the Christian religion has sprung directly from 
 Buddhism.' " 
 
 JUDAISM. 
 
 Judaism was amply represented in its historic 
 relation to the past and to the future; but for the 
 purposes of this comparison by no one more ably, 
 and on no occasion more fully, than in the address 
 of Dr. Emil G. Hirsch of Chicago, on the last day 
 of the congress, upon "The Elements of Universal 
 Religion." 
 
 "The day of national religions," he said, "is 
 past. The God of the universe speaks to all man- 
 kind. He is not the God of Israel alone, not that 
 of Moab, of Egypt, Greece, or America. He is not 
 domiciled in Palestine. The Jordan and the 
 Ganges, the Tiber and the Euphrates hold water 
 wherewith the devout may be baptized unto his serv- 
 ice and redemption. ' Whither shall I go from 
 thy sjjirit ? whither flee from thy presence 1 ' 
 exclaims the old Hebrew bard. And before his 
 wondering gaze unrolled itself the awful certainty 
 that the heavenly divisions of morning and night 
 were obliterated in the all-embracing sweep of 
 divine law and love. If the wide expanses of the 
 skies and abysses of the deep can not shut out from 
 the divine presence, can the pigmy barriers erected 
 by man and protected by political intrigues and 
 national pride dam in the mighty stream of divine 
 love? The prophet of Islam repeats the old Hebrew 
 singer's joy when he says: 'The east is God's and 
 the west is his,' as indeed the apostle, true to the 
 
A RELIGIOUS SYMPOSIUM. 105 
 
 spirit of the prophetic message of Messianic Judaism, 
 refused to tolerate the line of cleavage marked by lan- 
 guage or national aifinity. Greek and Jew are invited 
 by him to the citizenship of the kingdom to come. 
 
 " The church universal must have the pentecostal 
 gift of the many flaming tongues in it, as the rabbis 
 say was the case at Sinai. God's revelation must 
 be sounded in every language, in every land. But, 
 and this is essential as marking a new advance, the 
 universal religion for all the children of Adam will 
 not palisade its courts by the pointed and forbid- 
 ding stakes of a creed. Creeds in time to come will 
 be recognized to be indeed cruel barbed-wire fences, 
 wounding those that would stray to broader past- 
 ures and hurting others who would come in. 
 Will it for this be a Godless church? Ah, no; it 
 will have much more of God than the churches and 
 synagogues with their dogmatic definitions now 
 possess. Coming man will not be ready to resign 
 the crown of his glory which is his by virtue of his 
 feeling himself to be the son of God. He will not 
 exchange the churcli's creed for that still more pre- 
 sumptous and deadening one of materialism which 
 would ask his acceptance of the hopeless perversion 
 that the w^orld which sweeps by us in such sublime 
 harmony and order is not cosmos, but chaos — is the 
 fortuitous outcome of the chance play of atoms pro- 
 ducing consciousness by the interaction of their own 
 unconsciousness. Man will not extinguish the 
 light of his own higher life by shutting his eyes to 
 the telling indications of purpose in history, a pur- 
 pose which when revealed to him in the outcome of 
 
106 
 
 Ms own career he may well find reflected also in the 
 interrelated life of nature. But for all this man will 
 learn a new modesty now wofully lacl\ing to so 
 many who honestly deem themselves religious. His 
 God will not be a flgment, cold and distant, of met- 
 aphysics, nor a distorted caricature of embittered 
 theology. ' Can man by searching find out God ? ' 
 asks the old Hebrew poet. And the ages so flooded 
 with religious strife or vocal with the st^iging 
 rebuke to all creed-builders say that man can not. 
 Man grows unto the knowledge of God, but not to 
 him is vouchsafed that fullness of knowledge which 
 would warrant his arrogance to hold that liis 
 blurred vision is the full light and that there can be 
 none other. 
 
 " Says Maimonides, greatest thinker of the many 
 Jewish philosophers of the middle ages: 'Of God 
 we may merely assert that he is; what he is in him- 
 self we can not know. "My thoughts are not your 
 thoughts and my ways are not your ways." ' This 
 prophetic caution will resound in clear notes in the 
 ears of all who will worship in the days to come at 
 the universal shrine. They will cease their futile 
 efforts to give a definition of him who can not be 
 defined in human symbols. They will certainly be 
 astonished at our persistence — in their eyes very 
 blasphemy — to describe by article of faith God, as 
 though he were a fugitive from justice and a Pinker- 
 ton detective should be enabled to capture him by 
 the identification laid down in the catalogue of his 
 attributes. The religion universal will not presume 
 to regulate God' s government of this world by cir- 
 
A RELIGrOUS SYMPOSIUM. 107 
 
 cumscribing the sphere of his possible salvation and 
 declaring, as though he had taken us into his counsel, 
 whom he must save and whom he may not save. 
 The universal religion will once more make the God 
 idea a vital principle of human life. It will teach 
 men to find him in their own hearts and to have him 
 with them in whatever they may do. No mortal has 
 seen God' s face, but he who opens his heart to the 
 message will, like Moses on the lonely rock, behold 
 him pass and hear the solemn proclamation. 
 
 "It is not in the storm of fanaticism nor in the 
 fire of prejudice, but in the still, small voice of con- 
 science, that God speaks and is to be found. He 
 believes in God who lives a godlike, i. e., a goodly, 
 life. Not he that mumbles his credo, but he who 
 lives it, is accepted. Were those marked for glory 
 by the great Teacher of Nazareth who wore the 
 largest phylacteries? Is the sermon on the mount 
 a creed? Was the decalogue a creed? Character 
 and conduct, not creed, will be the key-note of the 
 gospel in the Church of Humanity Universal. 
 
 "But what then about sin? Sin as a theological 
 imputation will perhaps drop out of the vocabulary 
 of this larger communion of the righteous. But ns 
 a weakness to be overcome, an imperfection to be 
 laid aside, man will be as potently reminded of his 
 natural shortcomings as he is now of that of his first 
 progenitor, over whose conduct he certainly had no 
 control, and for whose misdeed he should not be held 
 accountable. Religion will then, as now, lift man 
 above his weaknesses by reminding him of his 
 responsibilities. The goal before is Paradise. Eden 
 
108 
 
 is to rise. It has not yet been. And the life of the 
 great and good and saintly, who went about doing 
 good in their generations, and who died that others 
 might live, will for very truth be pointed out as the 
 spring from which have flowed the waters of salva- 
 tion, by whose magic efficacy all men maybe washed 
 clean, if baptized in the spirit which was living 
 within these Grod-appointed redeemers, of their 
 infirmities. 
 
 ' ' This religion will indeed be for man to lead him 
 to God. Its sacramental word will be duty. Labor 
 is not the curse but the blessing of human life. For 
 as man was made in the image of the Creator, it is 
 his to create. Earth was given him for his habita- 
 tion. He changed it from Tohu into his home. A 
 theology and a monotheism which will not leave 
 room in this world for man's free activity and dooms 
 him to passive inactivity will not harmonize with 
 the truer recognition that man and God are the 
 correlates of a working plan of life. Sympathy and 
 resignation are indeed beautiful flowers grown in the 
 garden of many a tender and noble human heart. 
 But it is active love and energy which alone can 
 push on the chariot of human progress, and progress 
 is the gradual realization of the divine spirit whicli 
 is incarnate in every human being. This principle 
 will assign to religion once more the place of honor 
 among the redeeming agencies of society from the 
 bondage of selfishness. On this basis every man is 
 every other man' s brother, not merely in misery, but 
 in active work. ^ As you have done to the least of 
 these you have unto me ' will be the guiding princi- 
 
A RELIGIOUS SYMPOSIUM. 109 
 
 pie of liuman conduct in all the relations into which 
 human life enters. No more than Cain's enormous 
 excuse, a scathing accusation of himself, ^ Am I my 
 brother's keeper? ' no longer will be tolerated or con- 
 doned the double standard of morality, one for 
 Sunday and the church and another diametrically 
 opposed for week-days and the counting-room. Not 
 as now will be heard the cynic insistence that ' busi- 
 ness is business ' and has as business no connection 
 with the decalogue or the sermon oji the mount. 
 Religion will, as it did in Jesus, penetrate into all 
 the relations of human society. Not then will men 
 be rated as so many hands to be bought at the low- 
 est possible price, in accordance Avith a deified law of 
 supply and demand, which can not stop to consider 
 such sentimentalities as the fact that these hands 
 stand for souls and hearts. 
 
 "An invidious distinction obtains now between 
 secular and sacred. It will be wiped away. Every 
 thought and every deed of man must be holy or it 
 is unworthy of men. Did Jesus merely regard the 
 temple as holy? Did Buddha merely have religion 
 on one or two hours of the Sabbath ? Did not an 
 earlier prophet deride and condemn all ritual 
 religion? 'Wash ye, make ye clean.' Was this 
 not the burden of Isaiah's religion? The religion 
 universal will be true to these, its forerunners. 
 
 "But what about death and hereafter? This 
 religion will not dim the hope which has been man's 
 since the first day of his stay on earth; but it will 
 be most emphatic in winning men to the conviction 
 that a life worthily spent here on earth is the best. 
 
no world's religious congresses. 
 
 is the only preparation for heaven. Said the old 
 rabbis: ' One hour spent here in truly good works 
 and in the true intimacy with God is more precious 
 than all life to be.' The egotism which now mars 
 so often the aspirations of our souls, the scramble 
 for glory which comes while we forget duty, will be 
 replaced by a serene trust in the eternal justice of 
 him 4n whom we live and move and have our 
 being.' To have done religiously will be a reward 
 sweeter than .which none can be offered. Yea, the 
 religion of the future will be impatient of men who 
 claim that they have the right to be saved, while 
 they are perfectly content that others shall not be 
 saved, and while not stirring a foot or lifting a hand 
 to redeem brother men from hunger and wretched- 
 ness, in the cool assurance that this life is destined 
 or doomed to be a free race of haggling, snarling 
 competitors in which by some mysterious will of 
 Providence the devil takes the hindmost. 
 
 "Will there be prayer in the universal religion? 
 Man will worship, but in the beauty of holiness his 
 prayer will be the prelude to liis prayerful action. 
 Silence is more reverential and worshipful than a 
 wild torrent of words breatliing forth not adoration 
 but greedy requests for favors to self. Can an 
 unforgiving heart pray, 'Forgive as we forgive?' 
 Can one ask for daily bread when he refuses to 
 break his bread with the hungry ? Did not the 
 prayer of the great Master of Nazareth thus teach all 
 men and all ages that prayer must be the stirring to 
 love? Had not that little waif caught the inspira- 
 tion of our universal prayer who, when first 
 
A KELIGIOUS SYMPOSIUM. Ill 
 
 taught its sublime phrases, persisted in changing 
 the opening words to * Your father which is in 
 heaven ? ' Rebuked time and again by the teacher, 
 he finally broke out, 'Well, if it is our father, 
 why, I am your brother.' Yea, the gates of prayer 
 in the church to rise will lead to the recognition 
 of the universal brotherhood of man. 
 
 ' ' Will this new faith have its Bible ? It will. It 
 retains the old Bibles of mankind, but gives them 
 a new luster by remembering that ' the letter killeth, 
 but the spirit giveth life. ' Religion is not a question 
 of literature, but of life. God's revelation is con- 
 tinuous, not contained in tablets of stone or sacred 
 parchment. He speaks to-day yet to those that 
 would hear him. A book is inspired when it 
 inspires. Religion made the Bible, not the book 
 religion. 
 
 "And what will be the name of this church ? It 
 will be known not by its founders, but by its fruits 
 God replies to him who insists upon knowing his 
 name: 'I am he who I am.' The church will be. 
 If any name it will have, it will be ' the church of 
 God,' because it will be the church of man. 
 
 ''When Jacob, so runs an old rabbinical legend, 
 weary and footsore the first night of his sojourn 
 away from home, would lay him down to sleep 
 under the canopy of the star-set skies, all the 
 stones of the field exclaimed: ' Take me for thy pil- 
 low.' And because all were ready to serve him all 
 were miraculously turned into one stone. This 
 became Beth El, the gate of lieaven. So will all 
 religions, because eager to become the pillow of man, 
 
112 world's religious co:n^gresses. 
 
 dreaming of God and beholding the ladder joining 
 earth to heaven, be transformed into one great rock 
 which the ages can not move, a foundation-stone 
 for the all-embracing temple of humanity united 
 to God's will witli one accord." 
 
 This address, most enthusiastically received, 
 shows not only the new spirit of Judaism, but repre- 
 sents the popular discontent with artificial, tradi- 
 tional, and formal religions, and the demand for 
 reality. It was notable, not for its definitions, or 
 the new light thrown upon religious questions, but 
 for its demand that a man shall be and do what he 
 believes. Christians and men of the world, listen- 
 ing, each defining "religion" for himself, yet 
 enthusiastically applauded this appeal for reality 
 and genuineness; and this the more because uttered 
 by a representative of Judaism. 
 
 MOHAMMEDANISM. 
 
 A religion which holds influence over such mul- 
 titudes, whole tribes and nations having been 
 reclaimed by it from idolatry, naturally received a 
 prominent place, and awakened much interest. 
 There has been noticeable in recent years, moreover, 
 a change in the attitude of Christians toward 
 Mohammedanism. Whereas it was formerly attrib- 
 uted to Satanic agency, recently there has grown 
 up a spirit of tolerance, not only, but a recognition 
 in it of a mission from above, called for by the state 
 of the Eastern nations, and brought forth in the 
 Divine Providence. One feels some disappointment 
 
A RELIGIOUS SYMPOSIUM. ' 113 
 
 in the papers of Mohammed Webb on ''The Spirit 
 of Islam" and "The Influence of Islam on Social 
 Conditions," which are confined almost exclusively 
 to the superficial features of the Moslem religion. 
 Some passages brought together from the two 
 addresses delivered by him may serve our present 
 purpose. Defining Islam, he said: 
 
 ''Now let us see what the word Islam means. It 
 is the most expressive word in existence for a 
 religion. It means simply and literally resignation 
 to the will of God. It means aspiration to God. 
 The Islam system is designed to cultivate all that is 
 purest and noblest and grandest in the human char- 
 acter. Some people say Islam is impossible in a 
 high state of civilization. Now that is the result 
 of ignorance. Look at Spain in the eighth century, 
 when it was the center of all the arts and sciences, 
 when Christian Europe went to Moslem Spain to 
 learn all that there was worth knowing — languages, 
 arts, all the new discoveries were to be found in 
 Moslem Spain, and in Moslem Spain alone. There 
 was no civilization in the world as high as that of 
 Moslem Spain. 
 
 " With this spirit of resignation to the will of God 
 is inculcated the idea of individual responsibility, 
 that every man is responsible, not to this man, or 
 that man, or the other man, but responsible to God 
 for every thought and act of his life. He must pay 
 for every act that he commits; he is rewarded for 
 every thought he thinks. There is no mediator, 
 there is no priesthood, there is no ministry. 
 
 " The Moslem brotherhood stands upon a perfect 
 
114 woeld's eeligious congeesses. 
 
 equality, recognizing only the fatherhood of God 
 and the brotherhood of man. The emir, who leads 
 in prayer, preaches no sermon. He goes to the 
 mosque every day at noon and reads two chapters 
 from the holy Koran. He descends to the floor, 
 upon a perfect level with the hundreds, or thou- 
 sands, of worshipers, and the prayer goes on, he 
 simply leading it. The whole system is calculated 
 to inculcate that idea of perfect brotherhood. 
 
 "The subject is so broad, there is so much of it 
 that I can only touch upon it. There is so much 
 unfamiliar to Americans and Englishmen in Islam 
 that I regret exceedingly I have not more time to 
 speak of it. A man said to me in New York the 
 other day: ' Must I give up Jesus and the Bible if 
 I become a Mohammedan ? ' No, no ! There is no 
 Mussulman on earth who does not recognize the 
 inspiration of Jesus. The system is one that has 
 been taught by Moses, by Abraham, by Jesus, by 
 Mohammed, by every inspired man the world has 
 ever known. You need not give up Jesus, but as- 
 sert your manhood. Go to God. 
 
 "Now, let us look at the practical side of Islam 
 in reference to the api3lication of the spirit of Islam 
 to daily life. A Mussulman is told that he must 
 pray. So is everyone else; so are the followers of 
 every other religion. But the Mussulman is not 
 told to pray when he feels like it, if it does not inter- 
 fere with business, with his inclinations, or some 
 particular engagement. Some people do not pray at 
 such times; they say it does not make very much 
 difference, we can make it up some other time. A 
 
A RELIGIOUS SYMPOSIUM. 115 
 
 little study of human nature will show that there 
 are people who" pray from a conscientious idea of 
 doing a duty, but there are a great many others who 
 shirk a duty at every chance if it interferes with 
 pleasure or business. The wisdom of Mohammed 
 was apparent in the single item of prayer. He did 
 not say, ' Pray wheu you feel like it,' but 'Pray fiv^e 
 times a duy at a certain time.' Stated in the briefest 
 manner possible, the Islamic system requires belief 
 in the unity of God and in the inspiration of Mo- 
 hammed. Its pillars of practice are physical and 
 mental cleanliness, prayer, fasting, fraternity, alms- 
 giving, and pilgrimage. There is nothing in it that 
 tends to immorality, social degradation, nor fanati- 
 cism. On the contrary, it leads on to all that is 
 purest and noblest in the human character; and any 
 professed Mussulman who is unclean in his person 
 or habits, or is cruel, untruthful, dishonest, irrever- 
 ent, or fanatical, fails utterly to grasp the meaning 
 of the religion he professes. 
 
 ''But there is something more in the system than 
 the mere teaching of morality and personal purity. 
 It is thoroughly practical, and the results, which 
 are plainly apparent among the more intelligent 
 Moslems, show how well the prophet understood 
 human nature. It will not produce the kind of 
 civilization that we Americans seem to admire so 
 much, but it will make a man sober, honest, and 
 truthful, and will make him love his God with all his 
 heart and all his mind, and his neighbor as himself. 
 Every Mussulman who has not become demoral- 
 ized by contact with British civilization prays five 
 
116 
 
 times a day; not whenever he happens to feel like 
 it, but at fixed periods. His prayer is not a servile, 
 cringing petition for some material benefit, but a 
 hymn of praise to the one incomxjrehensible, un- 
 knowable God, the omnipotent, omniscient, omni- 
 I)resent ruler of the universe. He does not believe 
 that by argument and entreaty he can sway the 
 judgment and change the plans of God; but with 
 all the force of his soul he tries to soar upward in 
 spirit to where he can gain strength to be pure and 
 good and holy, and worthy of the happiness of the 
 future life. His purpose is to rise above the selfish 
 pleasures of earth, and strengthen his spirit wings 
 for a lofty flight when he is at last released from 
 the body. 
 
 ' ' Before every prayer he is required to wash his 
 face, nostrils, mouth, hands, and feet, and he does 
 it. During youth he acquires the habit of washing 
 himself five times a day, and this habit clings to him 
 through life and keeps him physically clean. He 
 comes in touch with his religion five times a day in 
 a manner which produces results proportionate to 
 the intelligence and spiritual development of the 
 man His religion is not a thing apart from his 
 daily life, to be put on once a week, and thrown 
 aside when it threatens to interfere with his busi- 
 ness or pleasure. It is a fixed and inseparable part 
 of his existence, and exerts a direct and potent 
 influence on his every thought and act. Is it to be 
 wondered at that his idea of civilization differs from 
 that of the West ? That it is less active and pro- 
 gressive, less grand and imposing, and dazzling and 
 
A RELIGIOUS SYMPOSIUM. 117 
 
 Qoisy ? I will confess that when I went to live among 
 the intelligent Mussulmans I was astonished beyond 
 measure at the social conditions I encountered. I 
 had acquired the idea that prevails generally in this 
 country and Europe, and was prepared to find the 
 professed followers of Islam selfish, treacherous, 
 untruthful, intolerant, sensual, and fanatical. I 
 was very agreeably disappointed. I saw the practi- 
 cal results of Islam manifested in honesty, truthful- 
 ness, sobriety, tolerance, gentleness, and a degree of 
 true brotherly love that was a surprise to me. The 
 evils that we Americans complain of in our social 
 system — drunkenness, prostitution, marital infi- 
 delity, and cold selfishness — were almost entirely 
 absent." 
 
 THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH. 
 
 Throughout the series of congresses the interest 
 and activity of the Catholic church was conspicuous; 
 and in the deliverances before the parliament none 
 surpassed its representatives in the generosity of 
 love for tlie good of all men, combined with the 
 quiet dignity of faith in its divine authority and 
 mission to help men. If the individual, as Prince 
 Wolkonsky said, in proportion to the strength of 
 his individual qualities, seeks the more to merge 
 himself in the church, it is because he has persuaded 
 himself that the church is of God, and that he 
 speaks through it as an organic whole. This was 
 the conclusion presented by Bishop Keane, rector 
 of the Catholic University of America, in his ad- 
 dress on "The Center and Character of the Ultimate 
 
118 
 
 Religion," at the last session of the parliament. If 
 the conclusion was to be expected, it may surprise 
 some to observe the breadth of his recognition of 
 good and truth in all religions. 
 
 Starting out with congratulations at the meeting 
 of God's long-separated children to clasp hands in 
 friendship and in brotherhood, he said: " We have 
 had practical and experimental evidence of the truth 
 of the old saying that ' there is truth in all relig- 
 ions." And he stated explicitly what was none too 
 often remembered: " It is because the human fam- 
 ily started from unity, from one undivided treasury 
 of truth, and when tlie separations and wanderings 
 came they carried with them what they could of the 
 treasure. ^N'o wonder that we all recognize the com- 
 mon possession of the olden truth when we come 
 together at Inst. 
 
 "Then we have heard repeated and multifarious, 
 yet concordant definitions of what religion really 
 is, viewed in all its aspects; we have seen how true 
 is' the old definition that religion means the union 
 of man with God. This, we have seen, is the great 
 goal toward which all aim, whether walking in the 
 fullness of the light or groping in the dimness of 
 the twilight. And therefore we have seen how true 
 it is that religion is a reality back of tdl religions. 
 Religions are orderly or disorderly systems for the 
 attainment of that great end, the union of man with 
 God. Any system not having that for its aim may 
 be a philosophy, but can not be a religion ! 
 
 ''And therefore, again, we have clearly recognized 
 that religion, in itself and in the system for its 
 
A RELIGIOUS SYMPOSIUM. 119 
 
 attainment, necessarily implies two sides, two con- 
 stitutive elements — the human <ind the divine, 
 man's side to God's side, in the union and in the 
 way or means to it. The human side of it, the crav- 
 ing, the need, the aspiration, is, as here testified, 
 universal among men. And this is a demonstration 
 that the author of our nature is not wanting as to 
 his side; that the essential religiousness of man is 
 not a meaningless trick of nature; that the craving 
 is not a Tantalus in man's heart meant only for his 
 delusion and torture. This parliament has thus 
 been a weighty blow to atheism, to deism, to antag- 
 onism, to naturalism, to mere humanism. While 
 the utterances of these various philosophies have 
 been listened to with courage and charity, yet its 
 whole meaning and moral has been to the contrary; 
 the whole drift of its practical conclusion has been 
 that man and the world never could, and in the 
 nature of things never can, do without God, and so 
 it is a blessing. 
 
 "From this standpoint, therefore, on which our 
 feet are so plainly and firmly planted by this parlia- 
 ment, we look forward and ask. Has religion a future, 
 smd, what is that future to be like? Again in the 
 facts which we have been studying during these 
 seventeen days we find the data to guide us to the 
 answer. Here we have heard the voice of all the 
 nations, yea, and of all the ages, certifying that the 
 human intellect mast have the great first cause and 
 last end as the alpha and omega of its thinking; that 
 there can be no philosophy of things without God. 
 
 " Here we have heard the cry of the human heart 
 
120 
 
 all the world over that without God life would not 
 be worth living. We have heard the verdict of 
 human society in all its ranks and conditions, the 
 verdict of those who have most intelligently and 
 most disinterestedly studied the problem of the 
 improvement of human conditions, that only the 
 wisdom and power of religion can solve the mighty 
 social problems of the future, and that in proportion 
 as the world advances toward the perfection of self- 
 government, the need of religion as a balance-power 
 in every human life, and in the relations of man 
 with man and of nation with nation, becomes more 
 and more imperative. 'Next we must ask, Shall the 
 future tendency of religion be to greater unity, or 
 to greater diversity? 
 
 " This parliament has brought out in clear light 
 the old familiar truth that i**eligion has a two-fold 
 aim — the improvement of the individual and, 
 through that, the improvement of society and of 
 race; that it must, therefore, have in its system of 
 organization and its methods of action a two-fold 
 tendency and plan on the one side to what might be 
 called religious individualism, on the other side 
 what may be termed religious socialism or solidarity; 
 on the one side, adequate provision for the dealings, 
 of God with the individual soul; on the other, pro- 
 vision for the order, the harmony, the unity, which 
 is always a characteristic of the works of God, and 
 which is equally the aim of wisdom in human 
 things, for 'order is heaven's first law.' 
 
 ''The parliament has also shown that, if it may 
 be truly alleged that there have been times when 
 
A EELIGIOUS SYMPOSIUM. 121 
 
 solidarity pressed too heavily on individualism, at 
 present the tendency is to an extreme of individu- 
 alism threatening to fill the world more and more 
 with religious confusion and distract the minds of 
 men with religious contradictions. 
 
 "But on what basis, what method, is religious 
 unity to be attained or approached? Is it to be by 
 a process of elimination, or by a process of synthesis? 
 Is it to be by laying aside all disputed elements, no 
 matter how manifestly true and beautiful and use- 
 ful, so as to reach at last the simplest form of 
 religious assertion, the protoplasm of the religious 
 organism? Or, on the contrary, is it to be by the 
 acceptance of all that is manifestly true, and good, 
 and useful, of all that is manifestly from the heart 
 of God as well as from the heart of humanity, so as 
 to attain to the developed and perfected organism 
 of religion? To answer this momentous question 
 wisely let us glance at analogies. 
 
 "First, in regard to human knowledge, we are, 
 and must be, willing to go down to the level of un- 
 informed or imperfectly informed minds; not, how- 
 ever, to make that the intellectual level of all, but in 
 order that from that low level we may lead up to 
 the higher and higher levels which knowledge has 
 reached. In like manner as to civilization, we are 
 willing to meet the barbarian or the savage on his 
 own low level, not in order to assimilate our condi- 
 tion to his, but in order to lead him up to better 
 conditions. So also in scientific research we go 
 down to the study of the protoplasm and of the cell, 
 but only in order that we may trace the process of 
 
122 world' s religious congresses. 
 
 differentiation, of accretion, of development by 
 which higher and higher forms of organization lead 
 to the highest. In the light, therefore, of all the 
 facts here placed before us, let us ask to what result 
 gradual development will lead us. 
 
 '^In the first place, this comi:>arison of all the 
 principal religions of the world has demonstrated 
 that the only worthy and admissible idea of God is 
 that of monotheism. It has shown that polytheism 
 in all its forms is only a rude degeneration. It 
 has proved that pantheism in all its modifications, 
 obliterating as it does the personality both of God 
 and of man, is no religion at all, and therefore 
 inadmissible as such. That it can not even be 
 admitted as a philosophy, since its very first postu- 
 lates are metaphysical contradictions. Hence, the 
 basis of all religion is the belief in the one living- 
 God. 
 
 " Next, this parliament has shown that humanity 
 repudiates the gods of the Epicureans, who Avere so 
 taken wp with their own enjoyment that they had 
 no thought for poor man, and nothing to say to 
 him for his instruction and no cai'e to bestow 
 on him for his welfare. It has shown that the 
 god of agnosticism is only the god of the Epi- 
 cureans dressed up in modern garb and that he 
 cares nothing for humanity, but leaves it in the 
 dark; humanity cares nothing for him and is will- 
 ing to leave him to his unknowableness. As the 
 first step in the solid ascent of the true religion is 
 belief in the one living God, so the second must be 
 the belief that the great Father has taught his 
 
A EELIGIOUS SYMPOSIUM. 123 
 
 children what they need to know nnd what they 
 need to be in order to attain their destiny, that 
 is, belief in divine revelation. 
 
 ^' Again, the i3arliament has shown that all the 
 attemjits of the tribes of earth to recall and set 
 forth God's teaching, all their endeavors to tell of 
 the means i)rovided by the Almighty God for uniting 
 man with himself, logically'- and historically lead 
 up to and culminate in Jesus Christ. The world 
 longing for the truth points to him who brings its 
 fullness. The world's sad wail over the wretched- 
 ness of sin points not to despairing escape from the 
 thralls of humanity — a promise of escape which is 
 only an impossibility and a delusion — but to hu- 
 manity's cleansing, and uplifting, and restoration in 
 his redemption. The world's craving for union 
 with the divine finds its archetypal glorious realiza- 
 tion in his incarnation, and to a share in 4:hat won- 
 drous union all are called as branches of the mystical 
 vine, members of the mystical body, which lifts 
 humanity above its natural state and jiours into it 
 the life of love. 
 
 "Therefore does the verdict of the ages proclaim 
 in the words of the a]30stle of the Gentiles, who 
 knew him and knew all the rest: ' Other founda- 
 tion can no man lay but that which God hath laid, 
 which is Christ Jesus.' As long as God is God and 
 man is man, Jesus Christ is the center of religion 
 forever. 
 
 ''But, still further, we have seen that Jesus 
 Christ is not a myth, not a symbol, but a personal 
 reality. He is not a vague, shadowy personality, 
 
124 world's religious congresses. 
 
 leaving only a dim, vague, mystical impression be- 
 hind liim; he is a clear and definite personality, 
 with a clear and definite teaching as to truth, clear 
 and definite command as to duty, clear and definite 
 ordaining as to the means by which God's life 
 is imparted to man and by which man receives it, 
 corresponds to it, and advances toward perfection. 
 
 "ThewoQdrous message he sent 'to every creat- 
 ure,' proclaiming, as it had never been proclaimed 
 before, the value and the rights of each individual 
 soul, the sublimest individualism the world has ever 
 heard of. And then, with the heavenly balance 
 and equilibrium which brings all individualities 
 into order, and harmony, and unity, he calls all to 
 be sheep of ( ne fold, branches of one vine, mem- 
 bers of one body, in which all, while members of 
 one head, are also 'members one of another,' in 
 which is the fulfillment of his own sublime prayer 
 and x>ropliecy: 'That all may be one, as thou. 
 Father, in me, and I in thee, that they also may be 
 one in us, that ihey may be made perfect in one.' 
 
 "Thus he makes his church a perfect society, 
 both human and divine; on its human side the 
 most perfect multiplicity in unity and unity in 
 multiplicity, the most XDerfect socialism and solidar- 
 ity that the world could ever know; on its divine 
 side, the instrumentality devised by the Saviour of 
 the world for imparting, maintaining, and operating 
 the action of the divine life in each soul; in its en- 
 tirety, the body, the vine, both divine and human, 
 a living organism, imparting the life of God to hu- 
 manity. Thiis is the way in which the church of 
 
A KELIGIOUS SYMPOSIUM. 125 
 
 Christ is presented to us by the apostles and by 
 our Lord himself. It is a concrete individuality, as 
 distinct and unmistakable as himself. It is no mere 
 aggregation, no mere cooperation or confederation 
 of distinct bodies; it is an organic unity, it is the 
 body of Christ, our means of being ingrafted in 
 him and sharing in his life." 
 
 Many who felt the bishop mistaken in his conclu- 
 sion that the Catholic church is the organic body of 
 Christ, presented by the apostles and kept in living- 
 integrity by the spirit of the Lord from the begin- 
 ning for its ultimate perfection, could not but feel 
 the majesty of the conception, and the ultimate cer- 
 tainty of some such realization, even if only in a 
 spiritual and invisible bond, when he concluded 
 with these words: "Jesus Christ is the ultimate 
 center of religion. He has declared that his one 
 organic church is equally ultimate. Because I be- 
 lieve him, here must be my stand forever." 
 
 THE GREEK CHUECH. 
 
 One of the most eloquent and every way remark- 
 able of the addresses before the parliament was the 
 oration of Archbishop Latus, on the part of Greece 
 and the Greek church in the history of Christianity. 
 It set forth in noble review the intellectual prej)ara- 
 tion of the world for Christianity through the influ- 
 ence of Grecian learning and philosopliy. 
 
 "Ancient Greece prepared the way for Christian- 
 ity, and rendered smooth the path for the diffusion 
 and propagation of it in the world Greece under- 
 
126 wokld's religious congresses. 
 
 took to develop Christianity, and formed and sys- 
 tematized a Christian church; that is the church of 
 the East, the original Christian church, which for 
 this reason historically and justly may be called 
 the mother of the Christian churches. The orig- 
 inal establishment of the Greek church is directly 
 referred to the presence of Jesus Christ and his 
 apostles. The coming of the Messiah, from which 
 the kingdom of God was to originate in this world, 
 was at a fixed point of time, as the Apostle Paul 
 said. The fullness of this point of time ancient 
 Greece was predestined to point out and determine. 
 Greece had bo developed letters, arts, sciences, phi- 
 losophy, and every other form of progress, that in 
 comparison with it all other nations were exhausted. 
 For this reason the inhabitants of that happy land 
 used rightly and properly to say: ' Whoever is not 
 a Greek is a barbarian.' But while at that time, 
 under Plato and Aristotle, Greek philosophy had 
 arrived at the highest phase of its development, 
 Greece at that very period, after these great philos- 
 ophers, began to decline and fall. Tlie Macedonian 
 and Roman armies gave a definite blow to the polit- 
 ical independence and national liberty of Greece, 
 but at the same time opened up to Greece a new 
 career of spiritual life, and brought them into imme- 
 diate contact and intercommunication with other 
 nations and peoples of the earth." 
 
 Tracing then the development of Grecian philos- 
 ophy in Alexandria, and its contact there with 
 Judaism, and the refiex effect upon Grecian thought, 
 
A KELIGIOUS SYMPOSIUM. 127 
 
 the archbishop proceeded to show the relation of 
 this intellectual preparation to the reception of 
 Christianity. 
 
 *' When the Roman Empire began to fall Chris- 
 tianity had to undertake the great struggle of 
 acquiring superiority over all other religions that it 
 might demolish the partition walls which separated 
 race from race, nation from nation. It is the work 
 of Christianity to bring all men into one spiritual 
 family, into the love of one another, and into the 
 belief of one suj^reme God. Mary, the most blessed 
 of all human kind, appears and brings forth the 
 expected divine nature, revealed to Plato. She 
 brings forth the fulfillment of the ideals of the Gods 
 of the different peoples and nations of the ancient 
 world. She brings forth at last that one whose 
 name, whose shadow came down into the world and 
 overshadowed the souls, the minds, the hearts of all 
 men, and removed the mystery from every philoso- 
 phy and philosophic system. 
 
 ' ' In this permanent idea and the tendencies of the 
 different peoples in such a time and religion, I may 
 say two voices are heard. One, though it is from 
 Palestine, reechoed into Egypt, and especially to 
 Alexandria and through parts of Greece and Rome. 
 Another voice from Egypt reechoed through Pales- 
 tine, and through it over all the other countries and 
 peoples of the East. And the voices from Palestine, 
 having Jerusalem as their focus and center, reechoed 
 the voice back again to the Grecians and the 
 Romans. And there it was that his doctrine fell 
 amidst the Greek nations, the Grecian elements of 
 
128 
 
 character, Greek letters, and the sound reasoning 
 of different systems of Greek jjhilosophy. 
 
 " Surely in the regeneration of the different peo- 
 ples there had been a divine revelation in the forma- 
 tion of all human kind into one spiritual family 
 through the goodness of God. In one family equal, 
 without any distinctions between tbe mean and the 
 great, without distinction of climate or race, with- 
 out distinction of national destiny or inspiration, of 
 name or nobility, or family ties. And all the 
 beauties which ever clustered around the ladder of 
 Jacob, or were given to it by the men of Judea, were 
 given by the prophets to the Virgin Mary in the 
 cave of Bethlehem. But Greece gave Christianity 
 the letters, gave the art, gave, as I may say, the 
 enlightenment with which the Gosjjel of Christianity 
 was invested, and pre^sented itself then and now 
 presents itself before all nations." 
 
 Following the history of the introduction of Chris- 
 tianity into Greece, reciting in magnificent decla- 
 mation Paul's sermon on Mars Hill, translating 
 and applying it in scarcely less remarkable English, 
 he concluded: 
 
 "It suffices me to say that no one of you, I 
 believe, in the presence of these historical docu- 
 ments will deny that the original Christian, the first 
 Christan church was the church of the East, and 
 that is the Greek church. Surely the first Christian 
 churches in Asia Minor, Egypt, and Assyri i were 
 instituted by the apostles of Christ and for the 
 most part in Greek communities. All those are the 
 foundation-stones on which the present Greek 
 
,« "«•«. 
 
 MOST REV. DIONYSIOS LATUS, 
 
 Archbishop of Zante, Greece. 
 
A RELIGIOUS SYMPOSIUM. 129 
 
 church is based. The apostles themselves preached 
 and wrote in the Greek letters, and all the teachers 
 and writers of the gospel in the East, the contem- 
 poraries and the successors of the apostles, were 
 teaching, i3reaching, and writing in the Greek lan- 
 guage. Especially the two great schools, that of 
 Alexandria and that of Antioch, undertook to 
 develop Christianity and form and systematize a 
 Christian church. The great teachers and writers 
 of these two schools, whose names are ver\' well 
 known, labored courageously to defend and deter- 
 mine forever the Christian doctrine and to con- 
 stitute under divine rules and forms a Christian 
 church. At last the Greek church, therefore, may 
 be called historically and justly the treasurer of the 
 first Christian doctrine, fundamental evangelical 
 truths. It may be called the ark which bears the 
 spiritual manna and feeds all those who look to it 
 in order to obtain from it the richness of the ideas 
 and the unmistakable reasoning of every Christian 
 doctrine, of every evangelical truth, of every 
 ecclesiastical sentiment. 
 
 ' ' After this my oration about the Greek church I 
 have nothing more to add than to extend my open 
 arms and embrace all those who attend this congress 
 of the ministers of the world. I embrace, as my 
 brothers in Jesus Christ, as my brothers in the 
 divinely inspired gospel, as my friends in eminent 
 ideas and sentiments, all men; for we have a common 
 creator, and consequently a common father and God. 
 And I pray you lift with me for a moment the mind 
 toward the divine presence, and say with me, with 
 
130 wukld's religious congresses. 
 
 all your minds and hearts, a prayer to Almighty 
 God." 
 
 Here the grand old churchman lifted his hands 
 and his eyes heavenward, and said: 
 
 "Most High, Omnipotent King, look down upon 
 human kind; enlighten us that we may know thy 
 will, thy ways, thy holy truths. Bless and magnify 
 the reunited peoples of the world and the great 
 people of the United States of America, whose 
 greatness and kindness has invited us from the 
 remotest parts of the earth in this their Columbian 
 year to see witli them an evidence of their progress 
 in the wonderful achievements of the human mind 
 and the human soul." 
 
 JAPAl^ESE CRITICISM AND APPEAL. 
 
 On more than one occasion Christendom and 
 Christianity, as represented by missionaries and 
 Christian civilization, came in for severe criticism 
 from the representatives of other religions. 
 
 Kinza Riuge Hirai of Japan created quite a sen- 
 sation by an earnest assault upon the treatment of 
 Japan by so-called Christian nations. Among other 
 things in his arraignment he said: 
 
 ''Admitting, for the sake of argument, that we 
 are idolaters and heathen, is it Christian morality to 
 trample upon the rights and advantages of a non- 
 Christian nation, coloring all their natural happi- 
 ness with the dark stain of injustice? I read in the 
 Bible, 'Whosoever shall smite thee on thy right 
 cheek, turn to him thy left also' ; but I can not dis- 
 cover there any passage which says, 'Whosoever 
 
A RELIGIOUS SYMPOSIUM. 131 
 
 shall demand Justice of thee smite his right cheek, 
 and when he turns smite the other also.' Again I 
 read in the Bible, ' If any man will sue thee at law, 
 and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak 
 also'; but I can not discover there any passage 
 which says, 'If thou shalt sue any man at the law, 
 and take away his coat, let him give thee his cloak 
 also. ' You send your missionaries to Japan and they 
 advise us to be moral and believe Christianity. We 
 like to be moral; we know that Christianity is good; 
 and we are very thankful for this kindness; but at 
 the same time our people are rather perplexed and 
 very much in doubt about this advice. For we 
 think that the treaty stipulated in the time of feud- 
 alism, when we were yet in our youth, is still clung 
 to by the powerful nations of Christendom; when 
 we find that every year a good many western vessels 
 engaged in the seal fishery are smuggled into our 
 seas; when legal cases are decided by the foreign 
 authorities in Japan unfavorably to us; when some 
 years a Japanese was not allowed to enter a univer- 
 sity on the Pacific Coast of America because of his 
 being of a different race; when a few months ago 
 the school board of San Francisco enacted a regula- 
 tion that no Japanese should be allowed to enter 
 the public school there; when last year the Japan- 
 ese were driven out in wholesale from one of the 
 territories of the United States of America; when 
 our business men in San Francisco were compelled 
 by some union not to employ the Japanese assist- 
 ants or laborers, but the Americans; when there are 
 some in the same city who speak on the platforms 
 
132 world's religious congresses. 
 
 against those of us who are already here; when 
 there are many men who go in processions hoisting 
 lanterns marked ' Jap must go' ; when the Japanese 
 in the Hawaiian Islands are deprived of their suf- 
 frage; when we see some western people in Japan 
 who erect before the entrance of their houses a 
 special post upon which is the notice, ' No Japanese 
 is allowed to enter here,' just like a board upon 
 which is written, ' No dogs allowed' ; when we are 
 in such a situation is it unreasonable — notwith- 
 standing the kindness of the western nations, from 
 one point of view, who send their missionaries to us 
 — for us intelligent heathen to be embarrassed and 
 hesitate to swallow the sweet and warm liquid of 
 the heaven of Christianity? If such be the Christian 
 ethics, well, we are perfectly satisfied to be heathen. 
 "If any person should claim that there are many 
 people in Japan who speak and write against Chris- 
 tianity, I am not a hypocrite and I will fraukly 
 state that I was the first in my country who ever 
 publicly attacked Christianity — no, not real Chris- 
 tianity, but false Christianity, the wrongs done 
 toward us by the people of Christendom. If any 
 reprove the Japanese because they have had strong 
 an ti- Christian societies, I will honestly declare that 
 I was the first in Japan who ever organized a society 
 against Christianity — no, not against real Chris- 
 tianity, but to protect ourselves from false Chris- 
 tianity and the injustice which we receive from the 
 people of Christendom. Do not think that I took 
 such a stand on account of my being a Buddhist, for 
 this was my position many years before I entered 
 
A RELIGIOUS SYMPOSIUM. 133 
 
 the Buddhist temple; but at the same time I will 
 proudly state that if any one discussed the affinity 
 of all religions before the public, under the title of 
 Synthetic Religion, it was T. I say this to you 
 because I do not wish to be understood as a bigoted 
 Buddhist sectarian. 
 
 "Really there is no sectarian in my country. 
 Our people well know what abstract truth is in 
 Christianity, and we, or at least I, do not care about 
 the names if I speak from the point of teaching. 
 Whether Buddhism is called Christianity or Chris- 
 tianity is named Buddhism, whether we are called 
 Confucianists or Shintoists, w^e are not particular; 
 but we are very particular about the truth taught 
 and its consistent application. Whetlier Christ 
 saves us or drives us into hell, whether Gautama 
 Buddha was a real person or there never was such 
 a man, it is not a matter of consideration to us, but 
 the consistency of doctrine and conduct is the point 
 on which we put the greater importance. Therefore 
 unless the inconsistency which we observe is re- 
 nounced, and especially the unjust treaty by which 
 we are entailed is revised upon an equitable basis, our 
 people will never cast away their prejudices about 
 Christianity, in spite of the eloquent orator who 
 speaks its truth from the pulpit. We are very often 
 called barbarians, and I have heard and read that 
 Japanese are stubborn and can not understand the 
 truth of the Bible. I will admit that this is true in 
 some sense, for, though they admire the eloquence 
 of the orator and wonder at his courage, though they 
 approve his logical argument, yet they are very 
 
134 world's religious cot^gresses. 
 
 stubborn and will not join Christianity as long as 
 they think it is a western morality to preach one 
 thing and practice another." 
 
 Far more significant than this criticism of (he 
 breach between Christian theory and practice is an 
 appeal made at a later day from the Christianity of 
 the sects to the Christianity of the gospels. N. 
 Kishimoto, speaking of the future of religion in 
 Japan, i)ointed out that "that country is the battle- 
 field between religion and no religion, and also 
 between Christianity and other systems of religion,"" 
 and in concluding said: 
 
 "In my mind there is no doubt that Christianity 
 will survive in this struggle for existence and 
 become the future religion of the land of the rising 
 sun. My reasons for this are numerous, but I must 
 be brief. In the first place, Christianity claims to 
 be and is the universal religion. It teaches one 
 God, who is the father of all mankind, but is so 
 pliable that it can adapt itself to any environment, 
 and then it can transform and assimilate the environ- 
 ment to itself. This is amply proved by its history. 
 In the second place, Christianity is inclusive. It 
 is a living organism, a seed or germ which is capa- 
 ble of growth and development and which will 
 leaven all the nations of the world. In growing it 
 drawls and can draw its nutritious elements from 
 any sources. It survives the struggle of existence 
 and feeds and grows on the flesh of the fallen. 
 
 "In the third place, Christianity teaches that man 
 was created in the image of God. The human is 
 
A KELIC4I0US SYMPOSIUM. 135 
 
 divine and the divine is human. Here lies the 
 merit of Christianity, in ni3lifting man, all human 
 beings — young and old, men and women, the 
 governing and the governed — to their i^roper posi- 
 tion. In the fourth place, Christianity teaches love 
 to God and love to men as its fundamental teachiiig. 
 The golden rule is the glory of Christianity, not 
 because it was originated by Christ — this rule was 
 also taught by Buddha and Lao-tsee many centuries 
 before — but because he properly emphasized it by 
 his words and by his life. In the fifth place, Chris- 
 tianity requires every man to be perfect, as the Father 
 in heaven is j)erfect. Here lies the basis for the hope 
 of man's infinite develox)ment in science, in* art, and 
 in character — in one word, in perfection. In brief 
 these are some of the reasons which make me think 
 that sooner or later Christianity will, as it ought to, 
 become the future religion of Japan. 
 
 ''If Christianity will triumph and become the 
 religion of Japan, which form of Christianity, or 
 Christianity of which denomination, will become 
 the religion of Japan? Catholic Christianity or 
 Protestant Christianity? We do not want Catholic 
 Christianity, nor do we want Protestant Chris- 
 tianity. We want the Christianity of the Bible, 
 nay, the Christianity of Christianity. We do not 
 want the Christianity of England nor the Chris- 
 tianity of America; we want the Christianity of 
 Japan. On the whole, it is better to have different 
 sects and denominations than to have lifeless monot- 
 ony. The Christian church should observe the 
 famous saying of St. Vincent: 'In essentials, unity; 
 
136 world's religious congresses. 
 
 ill non-essentials, liberty; in all things charity.' 
 We Japanese want the Christianity of the Christ. 
 We want the truth of Christianity; nay, we want 
 the truth pure and simple. We want the spirit of 
 the Bible and not its letter. We hope for the 
 union of all Christians, at least in spirit if not 
 possible in form. But we Japanese Christians are 
 hoping more; we are ambitious to present to the 
 world one new and unique interpretation of Chris- 
 tianity as it is presented in our Bible, which knows 
 no sectarian controversy and which knows no heresy 
 hunting. Indeed, the time is cominsr, and ought to 
 come, when God shall be worshiped, not by rites and 
 ceremonies, but he shall be worshiped in spirit and 
 in truth." 
 
 This voice from the Orient will be hailed by many 
 as a hopeful portent. If some despair of anything 
 better in the effort of native churches to find in the 
 Gospels the religion of Jesus Christ, others, more 
 hopeful and more faithful, will see in that effort the 
 promise of a true Christian church that may yet 
 become the teacher of a Christendom that has lost 
 its teaching power through the falsities of centuries' 
 inventing. And this aspiration after a new and 
 native form of Christianity, free from the dogmas of 
 Western theologies, and suited to the genius of 
 the oriental mind, recalls another form of faith; a 
 reform in the religion of India which its founder, 
 Cheshub Chunder Senn, proclaimed as ''The New 
 Dispensation in India." 
 
A RELIGIOUS SYMPOSIUM. 137 
 
 THE BRAHMO-SOMAJ. 
 
 Much interest attaches to this development of 
 Hinduism, because, started as a reform movement 
 in India, it became in its development under the 
 leadership of Cheshub Chunder Senn in some degree 
 a native Christian church. Since the death of 
 Chunder Senn, P. C. Mozoomdar, who was present 
 and spoke often at the congresses, has been the 
 acknowledged leader of the movement. The Rev. 
 B. B. Nagarkar of Bombay furnished in his ad- 
 dress the following simple and beautiful exposi- 
 tion of ^' The Ideals of the Brahmo-Somaj ": 
 
 ^ ' The fundamental spiritual ideal of the Brahmo- 
 Somaj is belief in the existence of one true God. 
 Now, the expression belief in the existence of God 
 is nothing new to you. In a way you all believe in 
 God, but to us of the Brahmo-Somaj that belief is 
 a stern reality; it is not a logical idea; it is nothing 
 arrived at after an intellectual process. It must be 
 our aim to feel God, to realize God in our daily 
 spiritual communion with him. We must be able, 
 as it were, to feel his touch — to feel as if we were 
 shaking hands with him. This deep, vivid, real, 
 and lasting perception of the Supreme Being is the 
 first and foremost ideal of the theistic faith. 
 
 '^ You in the Western countries are too aj)t to for- 
 get this ideal. The ceaseless demand on your time 
 and energy, the constant worry and hurry of your 
 business activity, and the artificial conditions of 
 your Western civilization are all calculated to make 
 you forgetful of the personal presence of God. You 
 are too apt to be satisfied with a mere belief — per- 
 
138 world's religious congresses. 
 
 haps at tlie best a notional belief in God. The East- 
 ern does not live on such a belief, and such a belief 
 can never form the life of a life-giving faith. It is 
 said that the way to an Englishman's heart is 
 through his stomach; that is, if you wish to reach 
 his heart you must do so through the medium of 
 that wonderful organ called the stomach. The 
 stomach, therefore, is the life of an Englishman, 
 and all his life rests in his stomach. 
 
 "Wherein does the heart of a Hindu lie ? It lies 
 in his sight. He is not satisfied unless and until he 
 has seen God. The highest dream of his spiritual 
 life is God-vision — the seeing and feeling in every 
 place and at every time the presence of a Supreme 
 Being. He does not live by bread but by sight. 
 
 " The second s^jiritual ideal of the Brahmo-Somaj 
 is the unity of truth. We believe that truth is born 
 in time but not in a place. No nation, no people, 
 or no community has any exclusive monopoly of 
 God's truth. It is a misnomer to speak of truth as 
 Christian truth, Hindu truth, or Mohammedan truth. 
 Truth is the body of God. In his own providence 
 he sends it through the instrumentality of a nation 
 or a people, but that is no reason why that nation 
 or that people should pride themselves for having 
 been the medium of that truth. Thus we must 
 always be ready to receive the gospel truth from 
 whatever country and from whatever people it may 
 come to us. We all believe in the principle of 
 free trade or unrestricted exchange of goods. And 
 we eagerly hope and long for the golden day when 
 people of every nation and of every clime will pro- 
 
A RELIGIOUS SYMPOSIUM. 139 
 
 claim the principle of free trade in spiritual matters 
 as ardently and as zealously as they are doing in 
 secular affairs or in industrial matters. 
 
 "It apx^ears to me that it is the duty of us all to 
 put together the grand and glorious truths believed 
 iu and taught by different nations of the world. 
 This synthesis of truth is a necessary result of the 
 recognition of the principle of the unity of truth. 
 Owing to this character of the Brahmo-Somaj the 
 church of Indian theism has often been called an 
 eclectic church; yes, the religion of the Brahmo- 
 Somaj is the religion of eclecticism, of putting 
 together the spiritual truths of the entire humanity 
 and of earnestly striving after assimilating them 
 with our spiritual being. The religion of the 
 Brahmo-Somaj is inclusive and not exclusive. 
 
 "The third spiritual ideal of the Brahmo-Somaj 
 is the harmony of prophets. We believe that the 
 prophets of the world — spiritual teachers such as 
 Vyas and Buddha, Moses and Mohammed, Jesus 
 and Zoroaster, all form a homogeneous whole. 
 Each has to teach mankind his own message. 
 Every prophet was sent from above with a distinct 
 message, and it is the duty of us who live in these 
 advanced times to put these messages together and 
 thereby harmonize and unify the distinctive teach- 
 ings of the prophets of the world. It would not do 
 to accept the one and reject all the others, or to 
 accept some and reject even a single one. The 
 general truths taught by these different prophets 
 are nearly the same in their essence; but in the 
 midst of all these universal truths that they taught 
 
140 world's religious congresses. 
 
 eacli has a distinctive truth to teach, and it should 
 be our earnest purpose to find out and understand 
 this particular truth. To me Vyas teaches how to 
 understand and apprehend the attributes of divin- 
 ity. The Jewish prophets of the Old Testament 
 teach the idea of the sovereignty of God; they 
 speak of God as a king, a monarch, a sovereign 
 who rules over the affairs of mankind as nearly and 
 as closely as an ordinary human king. Mohammed, 
 on the other hand, most emphatically teaches the 
 idea of the unity of God. He rebelled against the 
 trinitarian doctrine imported into the religion of 
 Christ through Greek and Roman influences. The 
 monotheism of Mohammed is hard and unyielding, 
 aggressive, and almost savage. I have no sympathy 
 with the errors or erroneous teachings of Moham- 
 medanism, or of any religion, for that matter. In 
 spite of all such errors Mohammed's ideal of the 
 unity of God stands supreme and unchallenged in his 
 teachings. Buddha, the great teacher of morals and 
 ethics, teaches in most sublime strains the doctrine 
 of Nirvana, or self-denial and self-effacement. This 
 principle of extreme self-abnegation means nothing 
 more than the subjugation and conquest of our 
 carnal self. For you know that man is a composite 
 being. In him he has the angelic and the animal, 
 and the spiritual training of our life means no more 
 than subjugation of the animal and the setting free of 
 the angelic. So, also, Christ Jesus of Nazareth 
 taught a sublime truth when he inculcated the noble 
 idea of the fatherhood of God. He taught many 
 other truths, but the fatherhood of God stands su- 
 
A RELIGIOUS SYMPOSIUM. 141 
 
 preme above them all. The brotherhood of man is a 
 mere corollary, or a conclusion, deduced from the 
 idea of the fatherhood of God. Jesus taught this 
 truth in the most emphatic language, and therefore 
 that is the special message that he has brought to 
 fallen humanity. In this way, by means of an honest 
 and earnest study of the lives and teachings of dif- 
 ferent prophets of the world, ^e can find out the 
 central truth of each faith. Having done this it 
 should be our highest aim to harmonize all these 
 and to build up our spiritual nature on them. 
 
 '' The religious history of the present century has 
 most clearly shown the need and necessity of the 
 recognition of some universal truths in religion. 
 For the last several years there has been a ceaseless 
 yearning, a deep longing after such a universal 
 religion. The present parliament of religions, 
 which we have been for the last few days celebrat- 
 ing with so much edification and ennoblement, is 
 the clearest indication of this universal longing, 
 and whatever the proj)hets of despondency or the 
 champions of orthodoxy may say or feel, every 
 individual who has the least spark of spirituality 
 alive in him must feel that this spiritual fellowshii:) 
 that wS have enjoyed for the last several days 
 within the precincts of this noble hall can not but be 
 productive of much that leads toward the establish- 
 ment of universal peace and good-will among men 
 and nations of the world. 
 
 "To us of the Brahmo-Somaj this happy consum- 
 mation, however partial and imperfect it maybe for 
 the time being, is nothing short of a sure foretaste 
 
142 would' S llELIGIOUS CONGRESSES. 
 
 of the realization of the principle of the harmony of 
 prophets. In politics and in national government 
 it is now an established fact that in future countries 
 and continents on the surface of the earth will be 
 governed, not by mighty monarchies or aristocratic 
 autocracies, but by the system of universal federa- 
 tion. The history of political progress in your own 
 country stands in noble evidence of my statement; 
 and I am one of those who strongly believe that at 
 some future time every country will be governed 
 by itself as an independent unit, though in some 
 respects may be dependent on some brother power 
 or sister kingdom. What is true in politics will 
 also be true in religion; and nations will recognize 
 and realize tlie truths taught by the universal family 
 of the sainted prophets of the world. 
 
 "In the fourth place, we believe that the religion 
 of the Brahmo-Somaj is a dispensation of this age; 
 it is a message of unity and harmony, of universal 
 amity and unification, proclaimed from above. We 
 do not believe "in the revelation of books and men, 
 of histories and historical records. We believe in 
 the infallible revelation of the Spirit — in the mes- 
 sage that comes to man by the touch of the human 
 spirit with the supreme Spirit. And can \?e even 
 for a moment ever imagine that the Spirit of God 
 has ceased to work in our midst? No, we can n( t. 
 Even to-day God communicates his Avill to mankind 
 as truly and as really as he did in the days of Christ 
 or Moses, Mohammed or Buddha. 
 
 "The disj)ensations of the world are not isolated 
 units of truth, but, viewed as a whole, and followed 
 
A RELIGIOUS SYMPOSIUM. 143 
 
 out from the earliest to the latest in their historical 
 sequence, tiiey form a continuous chain, and each 
 dispensation is only a link in this chain. It is our 
 bounden duty to read the message of each dispensa- 
 tion in the light that comes from above, and not 
 according to the dead letter that might have been 
 recorded in the past. The interpretation of letters 
 and words, of books and chapters, is a drag behind 
 on the workings of the Spirit. Truly hath it been 
 said that the letter killetli. Therefore, brethren, 
 let us seek the guidance of the Spirit, and interpret 
 the message of the supreme Spirit by the help of his 
 holy Spirit. 
 
 "TIjus the Brahmo-Somaj seeks to Hiiiduize 
 Hinduism, Mohammedanize Mohammedanism, and 
 Christianize Christianity. And whatever the cham- 
 pions of the old Christian orthodoxy may say to the 
 contrary, mere doctrine, mere dogma can never give 
 life to any country or community. We are ready 
 and most willing to receive the truths of the religion 
 of Christ as truly as the truths of the religions of 
 other prophets, but we shall receive these from the 
 life and teachings of Christ himself, and not through 
 the medium of any church or the so-called mis- 
 sionary <5f Christ. If Christian missionaries have in 
 them the meekness and humility and tlie earnest- 
 ness of purpose that Christ lived in his own life, 
 and so pathetically exemplified in his glorious death 
 on the cross, let our missionary friends show it in 
 their lives. 
 
 "We are wearied of hearing the dogmas of Chris- 
 tendom reiterated from Sunday to Sunday from 
 
144 world's religious congresses. 
 
 hundreds of pulpits in India, and evangelists and 
 revivalists of the type of Doctor Pentecost, who go 
 to our country to sing to the same tune, only add 
 to the chaos and confusion presented to the natives 
 of India by the dry and cold lives of hundreds and 
 thousands of his Christian brethren. They come to 
 India on a brief sojourn, pass through the country 
 like birds of passage, moving at a whirlwind speed, 
 surrounded by Christian fanatics and dogmatists; 
 and to us it is no matter of wonder that they do not 
 see any good, or having seen it do not recognize it, 
 in any of the ancient or modern religious systems 
 of India. Mere rhetoric is no reason, nor is abuse 
 an argument, unless it be the argument of a want of 
 common sense. And we are not disposed to quarrel 
 with any people if they are inclined to indulge in 
 these two instruments generally used by those w^ho 
 have no truth on their side. For these our only 
 feeling is a feeling of pity — unqualified, unmodi- 
 fied, earnest pity — and we are ready to ask God to 
 forgive them, for they know not what they say. 
 
 ''The fifth ideal of the Brahmo-Somaj is the ideal 
 of the motherhood of God. I do not possess the 
 powers, nor have I the time to dwell at length on 
 this most sublime ideal of the church of Indian 
 Theism. The world has heard of God as the almighty 
 creator of the universe, as the omnipotent sovereign 
 that rules the entire creation, as the protector, the 
 saviour and the judge of the human race; as the 
 supreme being, vivifying and enlivening the whole 
 of the sentient and insentient nature. 
 
 " We humbly believe that the world has yet to 
 
A RELIGIOUS SYMPOSIUM. 145 
 
 understand and realize, as it never has in the past, 
 the tender and loving relationship that exists be- 
 tween mankind and their su^jreme, universal, divine 
 mother. Oh, what a world of thought and feeling 
 is centered in that one monosyllabic word ma, whicli 
 in my language is indicative of the English word 
 mother. Words can not describe, hearts can not 
 conceive of the tender and self-sacrificing love of a 
 human mother. Of all human relations the relation 
 of mother to her children is the most sacred and 
 elevating relation. And yet our frail and fickle 
 human mother is nothing in comparison with the 
 divine mother of the entire humanity, who is the 
 primal source of all love, of all mercy and all purity. 
 Let us, therefore, realize that God is our mother, 
 the mother of mankind, irrespective of the country 
 or the clime in which men and women may be born. 
 The deeper the realization of the motherhood of 
 God the greater will be the strength and intensity 
 of our ideas of the brotherhood of man and th^ 
 sisterhood of woman. Once we see and feel that 
 God is our mother, all the intricate problems of 
 theology, all the puzzling quibbles of church gov- 
 ernment, all the quarrels and wranglings of the 
 so-called religious world will be solved and settled. 
 We of the Brahmo-Somaj family liold that a vivid 
 realization of the motherhood of God is the only 
 solution of the intricate problems and differences 
 in the religious world. 
 
 "May the universal mother grant us all her bless- 
 ings to understand and appreciate her sweet rela- 
 tionship to the vast family of mankind. Let us 
 
 lO 
 
146 
 
 ai)proach her footstool in the spirit of lier humble 
 and obedient children." 
 
 One js inclined to speculate as to the origin and 
 real force of this conception of the divine mother- 
 hood, as to how far it is an appeal in behalf of di- 
 vine attributes heretofore undervalue I in the relig- 
 ious experiences of the Hindus, or as to how far it 
 may be an aspiration after the realization of what 
 has been known to Christians as the Spiritual Mother; 
 that is, heaven and the church, through which the 
 Lord mediates his love and nurture to the feebleness 
 of his children. The confidence expressed tlia t the 
 realization of the divine motherhood would resolve 
 conflicts and bring in universal charity would indicate 
 a faith in what all Christians have believed in, an 1 too 
 often sought to realize in human ecclesiastical orders 
 in the name of God, when the divine of the Lord 
 was not in them. In that case this ideal of the 
 Brahmo-Somaj is simply faith in a universal church 
 from the triumph sometime of the universal love of 
 God. And it is at least evident that the plan of 
 procedure, as Mr. Nagarkar says, "to Hinduize 
 Hinduism, to Christianize Christianity," or in other 
 words to make the subjects of any religion more 
 faithful to its fundamental truths, is a witness to 
 their belief that religious life and faith are from 
 God alone; and being genuine from him, will make 
 all worshipers one in him. This recalls the teach- 
 ing of Swedenborg concerning the universal church 
 of the Lord, that "the Lord's church is neither 
 here nor there, but is everywhere, both within 
 
A RELIGIOUS SYMPOSIUM. 147 
 
 those kingdoms where the church is and outside of 
 the same, wlierever men lead a life according to the 
 precepts of charity;" and that all in the whole world 
 who are in love to the Lord, and charity toward 
 the neighbor, are really one universal communion or 
 church, "conjoined with the Lord's kingdom in the 
 heavens, and thus conjoined with the Lord himself." 
 Though he taught that of this universal church, 
 which is as one grand man in the Lord's sight, the 
 church where the Word is known and loved, is as 
 the heart and lungs; and that when the Lord would 
 revive and restore the health of the chui^ch uni- 
 versal, and institute a new dispensation, he does so 
 by opening revelation and life afresh where the 
 Word is, and that he has done so even at this day 
 in Christendom. It is obvious, at least, that some- 
 thing has occurred to open the minds of all profess 
 ors of religion, and that influences are operative 
 which are not very well understood, but which 
 incite to a more free and tolerant, not to say char- 
 itable and loving, search for fundamental principles. 
 We may, therefore, close this general comparison 
 with the writer's presentation of this position, on 
 the last day of the parliament, in a paiDer on ' ' Swe- 
 denborg and the Harmony of Religion." 
 
 THE NEW CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 
 
 "Before the closing of this grand historic assem- 
 bly, with its witness to the worth of every form of 
 faith by which men worship God and seek com- 
 munion with him, one word more needs be spoken, 
 one more testimony defined, one more hope recorded. 
 
148 world's religious congrp:sses. 
 
 "Every voice has witnessed to the recognition of 
 a new age. An age of inquiry, expectation, and 
 experiment has dawned. New inventions are stir- 
 ring men's hearts, new ideals inspire their arts, new 
 physical achievements beckon them on to one mar- 
 velous mastery after another of the universe. And 
 now we see that the new freedom of ' willing and 
 thinking' has entered the realm of religion, and 
 the faiths of the world are summoned to declare 
 and compare not only the formulas of the past, but 
 the movements of the present and the forecasts of 
 the future. 
 
 "One religious teacher, who explicitly heralded 
 the new age before yet men had dreamed of its 
 possibility, and referred its causes to great move- 
 ments in the centers of influx in the spiritual world, 
 and described it as incidental to great purposes in 
 the providence of God, needs to be named from this 
 platform — one who ranks with prophets and seers 
 rather than with inquirers and speculators; a reve- 
 lator rather than a preacher and interpreter; one 
 whose exalted personal character and transcendent 
 learning are eclipsed in the fruits of his mission as 
 a herald of a new dispensation in religion, as the 
 revealer of heavenly arcana, and 'restorer of the 
 foundations of many generations ' ; who, ignored by 
 his own generation, and assaulted by its successor, 
 is honored and respected in the present, and awaits 
 the thoughtful study which the exxmnsion and cul- 
 mination of the truth and the organic course of 
 events will bring with to-morrow; ' the permeating 
 and formative influence ' of whose teachings in the 
 
A RELIGIOUS SYMPOSIUM. 149 
 
 religious belief and life of to-day in Christendom is 
 commonly admitted; who subscribed with his name 
 on the last of his Latin quartos — Emanuel Sweden- 
 borg, ' servant of the Lord Jesus Christ.' " 
 
 The address then proceeded to set forth Sweden- 
 borg's claim of seership, his account of a last judg- 
 ment accomplished in the spiritual world, and of 
 the influences which would descend from new 
 sources of influx in that world to bring in a new 
 dispensation of the church among men, and that 
 this new dispensation is inaugurated and defined 
 among men by the revelation of the spiritual eense 
 and divine meaning of the sacred Scriptures, and 
 that the Lord by this means makes his second ad- 
 vent, which is spiritual and universal. 
 
 ' ' The Christian world is incredulous of such an 
 event, and for the most part heedless of its 
 announcement ; but that does not much signify, 
 except as it makes one with the whole course of his- 
 tory as to the reception of divine announcements. 
 What prophet was ever welcomed until the event 
 had proved his message ? The question is not 
 whethe^ it meets the exi)ectation of men; not 
 whether it is what human prudence would forecast; 
 but whether it reveals and meets the needs and 
 necessities of the nations of the earth. ' My thoughts 
 are not your thoughts, saith the Lord, neither are 
 your ways my ways.' The great movements of 
 divine providence are never what men anticipate, 
 but they always provide what men need. And the 
 appeal to the Parliament of Religions in behalf 
 
150 world's religious congresses. 
 
 of the revelation announced from heaven is in its 
 ability to prove its divinity by outreaching abun- 
 dantly all human forecast whatsoever. Does it 
 throw its light over the past and into the present, 
 and project its promise into the future ? Does it 
 illuminate and unify history, elucidate the conflict- 
 ing movements of to-day, and explain the hopes 
 and yearnings of the heart in every age and clime ? 
 
 "There is not time at this hour for exposition 
 and illustration, only to indicate the catholicity of 
 Swedenborg's teachings in their spirit, scope, and 
 purpose. There is one God and one church. As 
 God is one, the human race, in the complex move- 
 ments of its growth and history, is before him as one 
 greatest man. It has had its ages in their order, cor- 
 responding to infancy, childhood, youth, and man- 
 hood in the individual. As the one God is the 
 Father of all, he has witnessed himself in every age 
 according to its state and necessities. The divine 
 care has not been confined to one line of human 
 descent, nor the revelation of God's will to one set 
 of miraculously given Scriptures. 
 
 "The great religions of the world have their origin 
 in that same Word or mind of God which wrote itself 
 through Hebrew law-giver and prophet and became 
 incarnate in Jesus Christ. He, as ' the Word which 
 was in the beginning with God, and was God,' was 
 the light of every age in the spiritual development 
 of mankind, preserving and carrying over the life 
 of each into the several streams of tradition in the 
 religions of men, conserving and embodying all in 
 the Hebrew Scriptures, fulfilling that in his own 
 
A RELIGIOUS SYMPOSIUM. 151 
 
 person, and now opening his divine mind in all that 
 Scripture, the religions of the world are to be 
 restored to unity, iDurified and jDerfected in him. 
 
 ''Nor is this with Swedenborg the liberal sentiment 
 of good-will and the enthusiasm of hope, but the 
 discovery of divine fact and the rational insight of 
 spiritual understanding. He has shown that the 
 sacred Scriptures are written according to the cor- 
 respondence of. natural with spiritual things, and 
 that they contain an internal spiritual sense treat- 
 ing of the x^rovidence of God in the dispensations of 
 the church, and of the regeneration and sxDiritual 
 life of the soul. Before Abraham there was the 
 church of Noah, and before the word of Moses 
 there was an ancient word, written in allegory and 
 correspondences, which the ancients understood and 
 loved, but in x)rocess of time turned into magic and 
 idolatry. The ancient church scattered into Egypt 
 and Asia, carried fragments of that ancient word, 
 and preserved something of its rex)resentatives and 
 allegories in scriptures and mythologies, from which 
 have come the myths and fables of the oriental 
 religions, modified according to nations and peox^les, 
 and revived from time to time in the teachings of 
 leaders and prophets. 
 
 "From the same ancient word Moses derived, 
 under divine direction, the early chapters of Gene- 
 sis, and to this in the order of providence was 
 added the law and the x^rophets, the history of the 
 incarnation, and the prophecy of a final kingdom of 
 God, all so written as to contain an internal sx)irit- 
 ual sense, corresx^onding with the letter, but dis- 
 
152 world's RELIGiaUS CONGRESSES. 
 
 tinct from it, as the soul corresponds with the body 
 and is distinct and transcends it. It is the opening 
 of this internal sense in all the holy Scriptures, and 
 not any addition to their letter, which constitutes 
 the new and needed revelation of our day. The 
 science of correspondences is the key which unlocks 
 the Scriptures and discloses their internal contents. 
 The same key opens the Scriptures of the Orient and 
 traces them back to their source in primitive 
 revelation. 
 
 " If it shows that their myths and representatives 
 have been misunderstood, misrepresented, and mis- 
 applied, it shows also that the Hebrew and Christian 
 Scriptures have been likewise perverted and falsified. 
 It is that very fact which necessitates the revelation 
 of their internal meaning, in which resides their 
 divine inspiration and the life of rational under- 
 standing for the separation of truth from error. 
 The same rational light and science of interpreta- 
 tion separates the great primitive truths from the 
 corrupting speculations and traditions in all the 
 ancient religions, and furnishes the key to unlock 
 the myths and symbols in ancient Scriptures and 
 worship. 
 
 " If Swedenborg reveals errors and superstitions 
 in the religions out of Christendom, so does he also 
 show that the current Christian faith and worship 
 is largely the invention of men and falsifying to the 
 Christian's Bible. If he promises and shows true 
 faith and life to the Christian from the Scriptures, 
 so does he also to the Gentiles in leading them back 
 to primitive revelation and showing them the mean- 
 
A RELIGIOUS SYMPOSIUM. 168 
 
 ing of their own aspirations for the light of life. If 
 he sets the Hebrew and Christian word above all 
 other sacred Scripture, it is because it brings, as now 
 opened in its spiritual depths, the divine sanction to 
 all the rest, and gathers their strains into its sub- 
 lime symphony of revelation. 
 
 ' ' So much for the indication of what Swedenborg 
 does for catholic enlightenment in spiritual wisdom. 
 As for salvation, he teaches that God has provided 
 with every nation a witness of himself and means of 
 eternal life. He is present by his Spirit with all. 
 He gives the good of his love, which is life, inter- 
 nally and impartially to all. All know that there is 
 a God, and that he is to be loved and obeyed; that 
 there is a life after death, and that there are evils 
 which are to be shunned as sins against God. So 
 far as any one so believes and so lives from a princi- 
 ple of religion he receives eternal life in his soul, 
 and after death instruction and perfection according 
 to the sincerity of his life. 
 
 "No teaching could be more catholic than this, 
 showing that, ' Whosoever in any nation feareth 
 God and worketh righteousness is accepted of him.' 
 If he sets forth Jesus Christ as the only wise God, 
 in whom is the fullness of the Godhead, it is Christ 
 glorified and realizing to the mind the infinite and 
 eternal Lover and Thinker and Doer, a real and per- 
 sonal God, our Father and Saviour. If he summons 
 all proi)hets and teachers to bring their honor and 
 glory unto him, it is not as to a conquering rival, 
 but as to their inspiring life, whose word they have 
 spoken and whose work they have wrought. If he 
 
154 world's religious congresses. 
 
 brings all good spirits in the other life to the 
 acknowledgment of the glorified Christ as the only 
 God, it is because they have in heart and essential 
 faith believed in him and lived for him, in living 
 according to the precepts of their religion. He calls 
 him a Christian who lives as a Christian; and he 
 lives as a Christian who looks to the one God and 
 does what he teaches, as he is able to know it. If 
 he denies reincarnation, so also does he deny sleep 
 in the grave and the resurrection of the material 
 body. If he teaches the necessity of regeneration 
 and union with God, so also does he show that the 
 subjugation and quiescence of self is the true ' Nir- 
 vana,' opening consciousness to the divine life, and 
 conferring the peace of harmony with God. If he 
 t ^aches that man needs the Spirit of God for the 
 subjugation of self, he teaches that this Sx)irit is 
 freely imparted to whosoever will look to the Lord 
 and shun selfishness as sin. If he teaches, thus, 
 that faith is necessary to salvation, he teaches that 
 faith alone is not sufficient, but faith which worketh 
 by love. If he denies that salvation is of favor or 
 immediate mercy, and affirms that it is v tal and the 
 effect .of righteousness, be also teaches that the 
 divine righteousness is imparted vitally to him who 
 seeks it first and above all; and if he denies that 
 several probations on earth are necessary to the 
 working out of the issues of righteousness, it is 
 because man enters a spiritual world after death in 
 a spiritual body and personality, and in an environ- 
 ment in which his ruling love is developed, his 
 ignorance enlightened, his imperfections removed, 
 
A RELIGIOUS vSYMPOSIUM. 155 
 
 his good beginnings perfected, until lie is ready to 
 be incorporated in the Grand Man of heaven, to 
 receive and functionate his measure of the divine 
 life and participate in the divine joy. And so I 
 might go on. 
 
 " My purpose is accomplished if I have won your 
 respect, and interest in the teachings of this great 
 ai30stle, who, chiiming to be called of the Lord to 
 ojjen the Scriptures, presents a harmony of truths 
 that would gather into its embrace all that is of 
 value in every religion, and open out into a career 
 ot* illimitable spiritual progress. 
 
 "The most unimpassioned of men, perhaps be- 
 cause he so well understood that his mission was 
 not his own but the concern of Him who builds 
 through the ages, Swedenborg wrote and published. 
 The result is a library that calmly awaits the truth- 
 seekers. If the religions of the world become 
 disciples there, it will not be proselytism that 
 will take them there, but the organic course of 
 events in that i)rovidence which works on, silent 
 but mighty, like the forces that poise x>lanets and 
 gravitate among the stars. 
 
 "Present history shows the effect of unsuspected 
 causes. The Parliament of Religions is itself a tes- 
 timony to unseen spiritual causes, and should at 
 least incline to belief in Swedenborg' s testimony, 
 that a way is oi^en, both in the spiritual world and 
 on earth, for a universal church in the faith of one 
 visible God in whom is tlie Invisible, imxjarting 
 eternal life and enlightenment to all from every 
 nation who believe in him and work righteousness." 
 
CHAPTER ly. 
 
 A RELIGIOUS SYMPOSIUM — CONTINUED. 
 
 HAVING now passed in review some of the 
 best things tlie representatives of the several 
 religions had to declare for themselves, and 
 to prophesy for men, we may compare the positive 
 declarations of various speakers upon the great 
 subjects of religious thought. 
 
 Central in every religion is the idea of God, for 
 God to every man is what he regards as best and 
 highest, what gives him the law of his being, and 
 what he inwardly obeys in his doing. We begin, 
 therefore, with the idea of God as interpreted by 
 students of the ancient religions and by the teachers 
 of the living religions represented in the World's 
 Religious Congress. 
 
 GOD. 
 
 The first thing to remark is the universality of 
 the idea that there is a God and that he is one. As 
 Prince Momolu Massaquoi, of the Yey Nation in 
 West Africa, a Christian, and educated in this coun- 
 try, but just returned from his own people, who are 
 pagans, said in speaking of their religion, "They 
 worship the same God that you do. The mission- 
 aries see them bow down before some natural object 
 and report that they are idolaters. But they do not 
 
 (156) 
 
A RELIGIOUS SYMPOSIUM. 157 
 
 worship) such things. They know that God is the 
 creator of the universe, and they speak to him 
 when they bow before what he has made, and think 
 of him as a great spirit in the man form." And 
 Swami Yivekananda, in speaking of the worship 
 of the simple in India, said their idols are only 
 symbols and reminders, and called attention to the 
 fact that Christians, in common with all men, 
 sought to make their spiritual ideas sensual by some 
 symbolic object of sight. It is dem iistrabL^ that 
 all idolatry originated in this tendency, confirmed 
 by evils with the mass, but never obliterating the 
 idea of one God so completely as to hide it from 
 the innocent and good. And if this be true, it 
 admonishes us to look behind the doctrinal develop- 
 ments of every religion for the great primitive con- 
 cept that underlies them and coni^titutes for the good 
 "the secret of the Lord with them that fear him." 
 Prof. N. Yallentine, in his paper on "The Har- 
 monies and Distinctions in the Theistic Teachings 
 of the Various Historic Faiths," remarks that "at 
 the outset we need to remind ourselves of the exceed- 
 ing difiiculty of the comparison or of precise and 
 firm classification of the theistic faiths of mankind. 
 They are all — at least all the ethnic faiths — devel- 
 opments or evolutions, having undergone various 
 and immense changes. Their evolutions amount to 
 revolutions in some cases. They are not perma- 
 nently marked by the same features, and will not 
 admit the same predicates at diiferent times. Some 
 are found to diifer more from themselves in their 
 history than from one another." 
 
158 
 
 He linds, however, at the basis of them all the 
 idea of God, unless Buddhism be excepted, and the 
 absence of positive tbeistic teaching in this system 
 he regards as negative failure to emphasize the idea, 
 which certainly is not denied. "But," he adds, 
 "if these various religions be comi3ared in the light 
 of a second principle in theistic teaching — that of 
 monotheism — it is startling to find how terribly the 
 idea of God, whose existence is so unanimously 
 owned, has been misconceived and distorted. For 
 taking the historic faiths in their fully developed 
 form, only two, Christianity and Mohammedanism, 
 present a xiure and maintained monotheism. Zoro- 
 astrianism can not be counted in here; though at 
 first its Ahriman, or evil spirit, was not conceived of 
 as a God, it afterward lajjsed into theological dual- 
 ism and practical polytheism. All the rest are pre- 
 vailingly and discordantly polytheistic. They move 
 off into endless multiplicity of divinities and gro- 
 tesque degradations of their character. This fact 
 does not speak well for the ability of the human 
 mind, without supernatural help, to formulate and 
 maintain the necessary idea of God worthily. 
 
 "This dark and regretful phenomenon is, however, 
 much relieved by several modifying facts. One is 
 that the search-lights of history and philology 
 reveal for the principal historic faiths, back of their 
 stages and conditions of luxuriantly developed 
 polytheism, the existence of an early, or jiossibly 
 though not certainly primitive, monotheism. This 
 point, I know, is strongly contested, especially by 
 many whose views are determined by acceptance of 
 
A RELIGIOUS SYMPOSIUM. 159 
 
 the evolutionist hypothesis of the derivative origin 
 of the liuman race; but it seems to me that the 
 evidence, as made clear through the true historical 
 method of investigation, is decisive for monotheism 
 as the earliest known form of theistic conception in 
 the religions of Egypt, China, India, and the orig- 
 inal Druidism, as well as of the two faiths .already 
 classed as asserting the divine unity. 
 
 "Polytheisms are found to be actual growths. 
 Tracing them back they become simpler and simpler. 
 'The younger the polytheism the fewer the gods,' 
 until a stage is reached where God is conceived of 
 as one alone This accords, too, as has been well 
 pointed out, with the psychological genesis of ideas 
 — the singular number preceding the plural, the 
 idea of a god preceding the idea of gods, the affir- 
 mation 'There is a God' going before the affirma- 
 tion ' There are two or many gods.' 
 
 "Another fact of belief is that the polytheisms 
 have not held their fields without dissent and revolt. 
 Over against the tendency of depraved humanity to 
 corrupt the idea of God and multiply imaginary and 
 false divinities, there are forces that act for correction 
 and improvement. The human soul has been formed 
 for the one true and only God. Where reason is 
 highly developed and the testing powers of the 
 intellect and conscience are earnestly applied to the 
 problems of existence and duty, these grotesque 
 and gross polytheisms f)rove unsatisfactory." 
 
 Passing to another point of comparison, the 
 principle of jDersonality, he notes that ' ' under this 
 
160 world's religious congresses. 
 
 principle the religions of the world fall into two 
 classes: those which conceive of God as an intelli- 
 gent being, acting in freedom, and those that con- 
 ceive of him pantheistically as the sum of nature or 
 the impersonal energy or soul of all things. In 
 Christian teaching God is a personal being, with all 
 the attmbutes or predicates that enter into the con- 
 cept of such being. In the Christian Scriptures of 
 the Old and New Testaments this conception is never 
 for a moment lowered or obscured. God, though 
 immanent in nature, filling it with his presence and 
 power, is yet its creator and preserver, keeping it 
 subject to his will and purposes, never confounded 
 nor identified with it. He is the infinite, absolute 
 personality. 
 
 ' ' In the early belief of Egypt, of China, of India, 
 in the teaching of Zoroaster, of Celtic Druidism, of 
 Assyrian and Babylonian faith, and in the best 
 intuition of the Greek and Roman philosophers, 
 without doubt God was apprehended as a personal 
 God. Indeed, in almost the whole world's religious 
 thinking this element of true theistic concej^tion 
 has had more or less positive recognition and main- 
 tenance. It seems to have been spontaneously and 
 necessarily demanded by the religious sense and life. 
 
 "The human feeling of helplessness and need 
 called for a God who could hear and understand, feel 
 and act. And whenever thought rose beyond the 
 many pseudo-gods to the existence of the one true 
 God as a creator and ruler of the world, the ten 
 thousand marks of order, plan, and purpose in nat- 
 ure speaking to men's hearts and reason led up to 
 

 
 i J »i 
 
 H. DHARMAPALA, 
 
 Buddhist, Ceylon. 
 
A RELIGIOUS SYMPOSIUM. 161 
 
 the grand truth that the Maker of all is a thinker 
 and both knows and wills. And so a relation of 
 trust, fellowship, and intercourse was found and 
 recognized. None of the real feelings of worship, 
 love, devotion, gratitude, consecration, could live 
 and act simply in the presence of an impersonal, 
 unconscious, fateful energy or order of nature. No 
 consistent hope of a conscious personal future life 
 can be established except as it is rooted in faith in a 
 personal God. 
 
 " And yet the personality of God has often been 
 much obscured in the historic faiths. The obscura- 
 tion has not come as a natural and spontaneous 
 product of the religious impulse or consciousness, 
 but of mystic speculative philosophies. The phe- 
 nomenon presented by Spinozaism and later panthe- 
 isms, in the i^resence of Christianity, was substan- 
 tially anticipated again and again ages ago, in the 
 midst of various religious faiths, despite their own 
 truer visions of the eternal God. As we understand 
 it, the philosophy of religion with Hinduism, the 
 later Confucianism, developed Parseeism and Druid- 
 ism is substantially pantheistic, reducing God to 
 impersonal existence or the conscious factors and 
 forces of cosmic order." 
 
 The important points here are these: tliat at the 
 root of all the historic faiths is the idea that there 
 is a God and that he is one divine person, a lover, 
 and thinker, and doer; but that this primitive idea 
 is variously obscured by the sensuous persuasions on 
 the one hand, and by speculative thinking on the 
 11 
 
162 
 
 other; and that these developments, and revolts, 
 and revivals, at different periods in their history, 
 and on the pai't of their different sects, make any 
 simple positive statement as the faith of any one of 
 them difficult. 
 
 The i:)revailing ]3repossessation on the part of Chris- 
 tian scholars who contribute papers on comparative 
 theology being the theory of progressive evolution, 
 too much importance can not be given to facts like 
 these presented by Professor Yallentine, wliich 
 directly discredit the theory. The showing of one 
 of the papers, for instance, that in the ancient 
 Egyptian religion the one central religious notion 
 was the nearness of the divine, and that in the 
 Babylonian-Assyrian, on the other hand, the cen- 
 tral idea was the sepg^rateness and transcendence of 
 the divine, with the argument that these two ele- 
 mental truths have been conveyed from Egypt and 
 Babylonia to the nations of men, favors in such 
 form the evolutionary leaning of thinkers. But it is 
 not shown that the less-emphasized truth was absent 
 from the religion which made the other i^rominent; 
 nor is it necessary to conclude that either Egypt or 
 Babylonia exercised any more than a motiifying 
 effect upon other religions, which together with 
 them possessed both ideas as an inheritance from 
 primitive revelation. 
 
 Belief in primitive revelation as the origin of the 
 idea of God was not prominent, however, though it 
 might be confirmed by most of the facts cited in 
 support of the natural development of the idea of 
 God. An exception to the rule was the argument 
 
A KELIGIOUS SYMPOSIUM. 163 
 
 of the Rev. Maurice Phillips of Madras, India, that 
 the primitive Hindu religion was from primitive 
 revelation. 
 
 In harmony with Professor Vallentine, quoted 
 above, he contended that — 
 
 "Two things are evident. That the higher we 
 push our inquiries into the ancient religion of India 
 the purer and simpler we find the CDUceiotion of 
 God, and that in proportion as we come down the 
 stream of time the more corruj^t and complex it 
 becomes. We conclude, therefore, that the ancient 
 Hindus did not acquire their knowledge of the 
 divine attributes and functions empirically, for in 
 that case we should find at the end what we now 
 find at the beginning. Hence we must seek for a 
 theory that will account alike for the acquisition of 
 that knowledge, the godlike conception of Yaruna 
 and its gradual depravation which culminated in 
 Brahma. 
 
 "And what theory will cover these facts as well 
 as the doctrine of a ' primitive revelation ' ? If we 
 admit on the authority of the Bible that God 
 revealed himself originally to man, the knowledge 
 of the divine functions and attributes possessed by 
 the ancient Hindus would be a reminiscence. And 
 if we admit, on both the authority of the Bible and 
 consciousness, the sinful tendency of human nature 
 which makes the retention of divine knowledge 
 either a matter of difficulty or aversion, it is easy to 
 conceive that the idea of God as a spiritual personal 
 being would gradually recede and ultimately disax^- 
 pear from the memory, while his attributes and 
 
164 world's religious congresses. 
 
 functions would survive like broken fragments of a 
 once united whole." 
 
 The same theory will explain satisfactorily the 
 fact that ancient tradition of the true God in Egypt 
 should take on rather than grow out of the natural 
 characteristic of its people, and the same primitive 
 truth receive a different bent and emphasis in the 
 Babylonian mind. And this alone will explain the 
 undeniable fact that, in proj^ortion as the simple 
 idea of a heavenly Father, the Creator of the uni- ; 
 verse, is revolved in sensuous and speculative 
 thought with any people the more "corrupt and 
 complex it becomes." Still, as remarked before, it 
 is not entirely lost, and is from time to time, in the 
 history of every faith, grasped and asserted anew by 
 some one "pure in heart" who "sees God." It 
 would be interesting, indeed, as showing to what 
 the idea has come, to set side by side the answers of 
 the several faiths, and sects even, to the direct ques- 
 tion, "What have you to say of GodT' It is 
 impossible to gather more than general answers 
 from the discussions before the parliament. 
 
 Swami Yivekananda, the Hindu monk, quoting a 
 Yedic sage, who he says was inspired from the 
 throne of mercy, and proclaimed in words of hope 
 and consolation, 'I have found the Ancient One,' 
 thus expounds the Hindu faith in God: "The 
 Vedas proclaim, not a dreadful combination of 
 unforgiving laws, not an endless prison of cause and 
 effect, but that at the head of all these laws, in 
 and through every particle of matter and force, 
 stands one ' through whose command the wind 
 
A RELIGIOUS SYMPOSIUM. 165 
 
 blows, the fire burns, the clouds rain, and death 
 stalks upon the earth.' And what is his nature? 
 
 '' He is everywhere, the pure and formless one, the 
 almighty and the all-merciful. 'Thou art our 
 father, thou art our mother, thou art our beloved 
 friend, thou art the source of all strength. Thou 
 art he that bearest the burdens of the universe; 
 helj) me bear the little burden of this life.' Thus 
 sang the Rishis of the Veda. And how to worship 
 him? Through love. ' He is to be worshiped as 
 the one beloved, dearer tban everything in this and 
 the next life.' " And he adds, as giving definiteness 
 to this idea, that the Hindus believe Krishna to have 
 been " Grod incarnate on earth." 
 
 As a Christian estimate of the Hindu thought of 
 God the following from Rev. R. A. Hume may be 
 illustrative: 
 
 ' ' Both Christian and Hindu thought recognize an 
 infinite being witli whom is bound up man's 
 rational and spiritual life. Both magnify the 
 indwelling of this infinite being in every part of the 
 universe. Both teach that this great being is ever 
 revealing itself; that the universe is a unit, and that 
 all things come under universal laws of the infinite. 
 
 "To Christianity God is the heavenly Father, 
 always and infinitely good; God is love. 
 
 " To philosophical Hinduism man is an emanation 
 from the infinite, which, in the present stage of 
 existence, is the exact result of this emanation in 
 previous stages of existence. His moral sense is an 
 illusion, for he can not sin. 
 
166 WOELD'S llELIGTOUS CONGEESSES. 
 
 ^' To popular Hinduism man is partially what he is 
 to philosophical Hinduism, determined by fate; 
 partially he is thought of as a created being more or 
 less sinful, dependent on God for favor or disfavor. 
 
 '^To Christianity man is the child of his heavenly 
 Father, sinful and often erring, yet longed for and 
 sought after by the Father." 
 
 In a remarkably definite and explicit paper on 
 "Zoroastrianism," by Jinan ji Jamshodji Modi, we 
 are told of the idea of God among the Parsees: 
 
 ^'Zoroastrianism, or Parseeism — by whatever 
 name the system may be called — is a monotheistic 
 form of religion. It believes in the existence of one 
 God, whom it knows under the names of Mazda, 
 Ahura, and Ahura-Mazda, the last form being one 
 that is most commonly met with in the latter writ- 
 ings of the Avesta. The first and the greatest truth 
 that dawns upon the mind of a Zoroastrian is that 
 the great and the infinite universe, of which he is an 
 infinitesimally small i^art, is the work of a powerful 
 hand — the result of a master-mind. The first and 
 the greatest conception of that master-mind, Ahura- 
 Mazda, is that, as the name implies, he is the Omnis- 
 cient Lord, and as such he is the ruler of both the 
 material and immaterial world, the corj^oreal and 
 the incorporeal world, the visible and the invisible 
 world. The regular movements of the sun and the 
 stars, the periodical waxing and waning of the moon, 
 the regular way in which the sun and the clouds 
 are sustained, the regular flow of waters and the 
 gradual growth of vegetation, the rapid movements 
 
A RELIGIOUS SYMPOSIUM. 167 
 
 of the winds and the regular succession of light and 
 darkness, of day and night, with their accompani- 
 ments of sleep and wakefulness; all these grand 
 and striking phenomena of nature point to and bear 
 ample evidence of the existence of an almighty 
 power, who is not only the creator but the preserver 
 of this great universe, who has not only launched 
 that universe into existence with a .premeditated 
 plan of completeness, but who, with the controlling 
 hand of a father, preserves by certain fixed laws 
 harmony and order here, there, and everywhere. 
 
 "As Ahura-Mazda is the ruler of the physical 
 world, so he is the ruler of the spiritual world. 
 His distinguished attributes are good mind, right- 
 eousness, desirable control, piety, perfection, and 
 immortality. He is the beneficent Spirit from whom 
 emanate all good and all piety. He looks into 
 the hearts of men, and sees how much of the 
 good and of the piety that have emanated from 
 him has made its home there, and thus rewards the 
 virtuous and punishes the vicious. Of course 
 one sees at times in the plane of this world moral 
 disorders and want of harmony, but then the pres- 
 ent state is only a part, and that a very small 
 part, of his scheme of moral government. As the 
 ruler of the world, Ahura-Mazda hears the prayers 
 of the ruled. He grants the prayers of those who 
 are pious in thoughts, pious in words, and j)ious in 
 deeds. ' He not only rewards the good, but punishes 
 the wicked. All that is created, good or evil, fort- 
 une or misfortune, is his work.' " 
 
 He combats the misunderstanding 'that Zoroaster 
 
168 world's religious congresses. 
 
 preaches dualism. Aliura-Mazda is supreme; the 
 good and evil principles which contend in the world 
 and in man are under him. He cites in explanation 
 the Christian doctrine of the devil and hell, and 
 continues: "Consequently, though the Almighty 
 is the creator of all, a part of the creation is said to 
 be created by the good principle and a part by the 
 evil principle. Thus, for example, the heavenly 
 bodies, the earth, water, fire, horses, dogs, and such 
 other objects are the creation of the good principle, 
 and serpents, ants, locusts, etc., are the creation of 
 the evil principle. In short, those things that con- 
 duce to the greatest good of the greatest number of 
 mankind fall under the category of the creations of 
 the good principle, and those that lead to the con- 
 trary result, under that of the creations of the evil 
 principle. This being the case, it is incumbent 
 upon men to do actions that would support the 
 cause of the good principle and destroy that of the 
 evil one. Therefore, the cultivation of the soil, 
 the rearing of the domestic animals, etc., on the 
 one hand, and the destruction of wild animals and 
 other noxious creatures on the other, are considered 
 meritorious actions by the Parsees. 
 
 "As there are two primeval principles under 
 Ahura-Mazda that produce our material world, so 
 there are two principles inherent in the nature of 
 man, which encourage him to do good or tempt him 
 to do evil. One asks him to support the cause of 
 the good principle, the other to support that of the 
 evil principle." 
 
 The idea of God in orthodox Judaism, according 
 
A RELIGIOUS SYMPOSIUM. 169 
 
 to Rabbi Mendes, is ' ^ expressed in the creeds for- 
 mulated by Maimonides, as follows : 
 
 ''We believe in God the creator of all, a unity, a 
 spirit who never assumed corporeal form, eternal, 
 and he alone ought to be worshiped. 
 
 ''We unite with Christians in the belief that 
 revelation is inspired. We unite with the founder 
 of Christianity that not one jot or tittle of the law 
 should be changed. Hence we do not accept a first- 
 day Sabbath, etc.   
 
 "We unite in believing that God is omniscient 
 and just, good, loving, and merciful. 
 
 " We unite in the belief in the coming Messiah. 
 
 "We unite in our belief in immortality. In 
 these Judaism and Christianity agree." 
 
 The definitions of Rabbi Wise, less specific in 
 statement, are explicit as giving authority of reve- 
 lation to only such passages in the Hebrew Script- 
 ures as represent God to have spoken of himself, 
 his name, or his attributes. 
 
 "Judaism is the complex of Israel's religious 
 sentiments ratiocinated to conceptions in harmony 
 with its Jehovistic God-cognition. 
 
 "These conceptions made permanent in the con- 
 sciousness of this people are the religious knowl- 
 edges which form the substratum to the theology of 
 Judaism. The Thorah maintains that its ' teaching 
 and canon' are divine. Man's knowledge of the 
 true and the good comes directly to human reason 
 and conscience (which is unconscious reason) from 
 the supreme and universal reason, the absolutely 
 true and good ; or it comes to him indirectly from 
 
170 world's religious congresses. 
 
 the same source by the manifestations of nature, 
 the facts of history, and man's power of induction. 
 This principle is in conformity with the second po^t- 
 ulate of theology, and its extens^ion in harmony 
 with the standard of reason. 
 
 "All knowledge of God and his attributes, the 
 true and the good, came to man by successive reve- 
 kitions of the indirect kind first, which we may call 
 natural revelation, and the direct kind afterward, 
 which we may call^anscendental revelation. Both 
 these revelations concerning God and his substantial 
 attributes, together with their historical genesis, are 
 recorded in the Thorah in the seven holy names of 
 God, to which neither prophet nor philosopher in 
 Israel added even one, and all of which constantly 
 recur in all Hebrew literature. 
 
 "What we call the God of revelation is actually 
 intended to designate God as made known in the 
 transcendental revelations, including the successive 
 God-ideas of natural revelation. His attributes of 
 relation are made known only in such passages of 
 the Thorah in which he himself is reported to have 
 spoken to man of himself, his name, and his attri- 
 butes, and not by any induction or reference from 
 any law, story, or doing ascribed to God anywhere. 
 The prophets only expand or define those concep- 
 tions of deity which these passages of direct tran- 
 scendental revelation in the Thorah contain. There 
 exists no other source from which to derive the cog- 
 nition of the God of revelation." 
 
 It is known that Mohammedanism was a revolt 
 against idolatry, and that its founder claimed that 
 
A RELIGIOUS SYMPOSIUM. 171 
 
 in so doing he had returned to the ]3ure religion of 
 Abraham. Still, "Mohammedanism is no more a 
 reformed Judaism than it is a form of Christianity. 
 It was essentially a new religion.*' It is worthy of 
 notice that the best account of Mohammedanism 
 j)resented to the congress was by Doctor Washburn, 
 president of Roberts College, Constantinople, and 
 not by the disci])le of Islam. Doctor Washburn 
 gives the doctrine of God as statect by a Mohamme- 
 dan authority as follows : 
 
 "God is one and eternal. He lives, and is 
 almighty. He knows all things, hears all things, 
 sees all things. He is endowed with will and action. 
 He has neither form nor feature, neither bounds, 
 limits, or numbers, neither parts, multix)lications, or 
 divisions, because he is neither body nor matter. 
 He has neither beginning nor end. He is self -exist- 
 ent, without generation, dwelling, or habitation. 
 He is outside the empire of time, unequaled in his 
 nature as in his attributes, which, without being- 
 foreign to his essence, do not constitute it." 
 
 Doctor Washburn continues: "It has often been 
 said that the God of Islam is simply a God of 
 almighty power, while the God of Christianity is a 
 God of infinite love and perfect holiness; but this is 
 not a fair statement of truth. The ninety-nine 
 names of God which the good Moslem constantly 
 repeats assign these attributes to him. The fourth 
 name is ' The Most Holy ' ; the twenty- ninth, ' The 
 Just'; the forty-sixth, 'The All Loving'; the first 
 and most common is 'The Merciful,' and the moral 
 attributes are often referred to in the Koran. In 
 
172 
 
 truth there is no conceivable perfection which the 
 Moslem would neglect to attribute to Grod. 
 
 " Their conception of him is that of an absolute 
 oriental monarch, and his unlimited power to do 
 what he pleases makes entire submission to his will 
 the first, most prominent duty. The name which 
 they gave to their religion implies this. It is Islam, 
 which means submission or resignation; but a king 
 may be good or bad, wise or foolish, and the Moslem 
 takes as much jjains as the Christian to attribute to 
 God all wisdom and all goodness. 
 
 "The essential difference in the Christian and 
 Mohammedan conception of God lies in the fact 
 that the Moslem does not think of this great King 
 as having anything in common with his subjects, 
 from whom he is infinitely removed. The idea of 
 the incarnation of God in Christ is to them not only 
 bhisphemous but absurd and incomprehensible; and 
 the idea of fellowship with God, which is expressed 
 in calling him. our Father, is altogether foreign to 
 Mohammedan thought." 
 
 Confucianism in its modern disciples seems to 
 have little definite idea of God, though a central 
 thought of spirits and of a supreme spirit answers to 
 them for the divine, which they denominate heaven. 
 Confucianism was represented in the congress by a 
 prize essay, and also by an address from Pung 
 Quang Yu, a disciple, and secretary of the Chinese 
 legation at Washington. The prize essay says: 
 
 "The most important thing in the superior man's 
 learning is to fear disobeying heaven's will. There- 
 fore in our Confucian religion the most important 
 
A RELIGIOUS SYMPOSIUM. 173 
 
 thing is to follow the will of heaven. The book of 
 Yik King says: ' In the changes of the world there 
 is a great supreme which produces two i)rincii)ies, 
 and these two principles are Yin and Yang. By 
 supreme is meant the spring of all activity. Our 
 sages regard Yin and Yang and the five elements as 
 acting and reacting on each other without ceasing, 
 and this doctrine is all-important, like as the hinge 
 of a door. 
 
 ' ' The incessant production of all things depends on 
 this as the tree does on the root. Even all human 
 affairs and all good are also dependent on it; there- 
 fore it is called the supreme, just as we speak of the 
 extreme points of the earth as the north and south 
 poles. 
 
 " By great supreme is meant that there is noth- 
 ing above it. But heaven is without sound or smell, 
 therefore the ancients spoke of the infinite and the 
 great supreme. The great supreme producing Yin 
 and Yang is law -producing forces. When Yin and 
 Yang unite they produce water, fire, wood, metal, 
 earth. When these fivQ forces operate in harmony 
 the four seasons come to pass. The essences of the 
 infinite, of Yin and Yang, and of the five elements, 
 combine, and the heavenly become male, and the 
 earthly become female. When these powers act on 
 each other all things are produced and reproduced 
 and developed without end. 
 
 "As toman, he is the best and most intelligent 
 of all. This is what is meant in the book of Chung 
 Yung when it says that what heaven has given is 
 the spiritual. nature. This nature is law. All men 
 
174 world's religious congresses. 
 
 are thus born and have this law. Therefore it is 
 Meneiiis says that all children love the parents and 
 when grown up all respect their elder bretLren. If 
 men only followed the natural bent of this nature, 
 then all would go the right way; hence, the Chung 
 Yung says: ' To follow nature is the right way.' 
 
 ''The choicest product of Yin, Yang, and the five 
 elements in the world is man; the rest are refuse 
 products. The choicest anjong the choice ones are 
 the sages and worthies, and the refuse among them 
 are the foolish and the bad. And as man's body 
 comes from the Yin and man's soul from the Yang 
 he can not be perfect. This is what the Lung 
 philosophers called the material nature. Although 
 all men have at birth a nature for goodness, still if 
 there is nothing to fix it, then desires arise and pas- 
 sions rule, and men are not far from being like 
 beasts; hence Confucius says: 'Men's nature is 
 originally alike, but in practice men become very 
 different.' The sages, knowing this, sought to fix 
 the nature with the principles of moderation, 
 uprightness, benevolence, and righteousness. 
 Heaven appointed rulers and teachers, who in turn 
 established worship and music to improve men's 
 disposition and set uj) governments and x^enalties in 
 order to check men's wickedness. The best among 
 the people are taken into schools where they study 
 wisdom, virtue, benevolence, and righteousness, so 
 that they may know beforehand how to conduct 
 themselves as rulers or ruled. 
 
 "And lest, after many generations, there should 
 be degeneration and difficulty in finding the truth, 
 
A RELIGIOUS SYMPOSIUM. 175 
 
 the principles of heaven and earth, of men and 
 of all things, have been recorded in the Book of 
 Odes for the use of after generations The Chung 
 Yung calls the practice of wisdom religion. Our 
 religion well knows heaven's will; it looks on all 
 under heaven as one family, great rulers as elder 
 branches in their parents' clan, great ministers as 
 chief officers of this clan, and people at large as 
 brothers of the same parents; and it holds that all 
 things should be enjoyed in common, because it 
 regards heaven and earth as the parents of all alike. 
 And the commandment of the Confucian is, ' Fear 
 greatly lest you offend against heaven.' " 
 
 It thus appears that the disciples of Confucius have 
 given less attention to dehnition of the divine than 
 to practice in harmony with " heaven's will." Pung 
 Quang Yu in his address gives some account of 
 worship, as follows : 
 
 '' ' My prayers,' says Confucius, 'were offered up 
 long ago.' The meaning he wishes to convey is 
 that he considers his prayers to consist in living a 
 virtuous life and in constantly obeying the dictates 
 of conscience. 
 
 " He therefore looks upon prayers as of no avail 
 to deliver any one from sickness. 'He who sins 
 against heaven,' again he says, 'has no place to 
 pray.' What he means is that even spirits have no 
 power to bestow blessings on those who have sinned 
 against the decrees of heaven. 
 
 "The wise and the good, however, make use of 
 offerings and sacrifices simply as a means of purify- 
 ing themselves from the contamination of the world, 
 
176 world's religious congresses. 
 
 so that they may become susceptible of spiritual 
 influences and be in sympathetic touch with the 
 invisible world, to the end that calamities may be 
 averted and blessings secured thereby. Still, sacri- 
 fices can not be offered by all persons without dis- 
 tinction. Only the emperor can offer sacrifices to 
 heaven. Only governors of provinces can offer sac- 
 rifices to the spirits of mountains and rivers, land 
 and agriculture. Lower officers of the government 
 can offer sacrifices only to their ancestors of the five 
 preceding generations, but are not allowed to offer 
 sacrifices to heaven. The common people, of course, 
 are likewise denied this privilege. They can offer 
 sacrifices only to their ancestors. 
 
 '' All persons, from the emperor down to the com- 
 mon people, are strictly required to observe the wor- 
 shij) of ancestors. The only way in which a virtuous 
 man and a dutiful son can show his sense of obliga- 
 tion to the authors of his being is to serve them when 
 dead as when they were alive, when departed as 
 when present. It is for this reason that the most 
 enlightened rulers have always made filial duty the 
 guiding principle of government. Observances of 
 this character have nothing to do with religious cel- 
 ebrations and ceremonies.' ' 
 
 It is commonly believed that there is no theism 
 in the teachings of Buddha. H. Dharmaj)ala, in 
 his extended exposition of Buddhism, said that 
 'Uo guide humanity in the right path a Messiah 
 appears from time to time," but adds: 
 
 '' In the sense of a supreme creator, Buddha says 
 that there is no such being, accepting the doctrine 
 
A EELIGIOUS SYMPOSIUM. 177 
 
 of evolution as the only true one, with its corollary, 
 the law of cause and effect. He condemns the idea 
 of a creator, but the supreme God of the Brahmins 
 and minor Gods are accepted; but they are subject 
 to the law of cause and effect. This supreme God 
 is all love, all merciful, all gentle, and looks upon 
 all beings with equanimity. Buddha teaches men 
 to practice these four supreme virtues. But there 
 is no difference between the perfect man and this 
 sui3reme God of the present world. 
 
 ''The teachings of the Buddha on evolution are 
 clear and expansive. We are asked to look npon 
 the cosmos ' as a continuous process unfolding itself 
 in regular order in obedience to natural laws. We 
 see in it all not a yawning chaos restrained by the 
 constant interference from without of a wise and 
 beneficent external power, but a vast aggregate of 
 original elements perpetually working out their own 
 fresh redistribution in accordance with their own 
 inherent energies. He regards the cosmos as an 
 almost infinite collection of material, animated by 
 an almost infinite sum total of energy, which is 
 called Akasa. I have used the above definition of 
 evolution as given by Grant Allen in his ' Life of 
 Darwin,' as it beautifully expresses the generalized 
 idea of Buddhism. We do not postulate that man's 
 evolution began from the jjrotoplasmic stage; but 
 we are asked not to speculate on the origin of life, 
 on the origin of the law of cause and effect, etc. So 
 far as this great law is concerned we say that it con- 
 trols the phenomena of human life as well as those 
 of external nature; the whole knowable universe 
 forms one undivided whole. 
 
 12 
 
178 woeld's religious congresses. 
 
 ''Buddha promulgated his system of philosophy 
 after having studied all religions. And in the 
 Brahma-jola sutra sixty-two creeds are discussed. 
 In the Kalama, the sutra, Buddha says: 
 
 " ' Do not believe in what ye have heard. Do not 
 believe in traditions, because they have been handed 
 down for many generations. Do not believe in any- 
 thing because it is renowned and spoken of by 
 many. Do not believe merely because the written 
 statement of some old sage is produced. Do not 
 believe in conjectures. Do not believe in that as 
 truth to which you have become attached by habit. 
 Do not believe merely on the authority of your 
 teachers and elders. Often observation and analysis, 
 when the result agrees with reason, are conducive to 
 the good and gain of one and all. Accept and live 
 up to it.'" 
 
 One looks to the gentle Dharmapala for precepts 
 of righteousness and purity rather than for philo- 
 sophical insight; but this quotation here cited ex- 
 presses just the one mission of Buddhism, to make 
 such men full of the spirit of purity and love, which 
 " accepts and lives up to " what it perceives to be 
 right. The divine, which is man's ideal highest 
 and best, is realized in Buddha, and to be with him 
 where he is, is the aspiration of life Avitli his disciples. 
 " To realize the unseen is the goal of the student of 
 Buddha's teachings, and such a one has to lead an 
 absolutely pure life. Buddha says: 
 
 " ' Let him fulfill all righteousness; let him be 
 devoted to that quietude ol' heart which springs from 
 within; let him not drive back the ecstasy of con- 
 
A RELIGIOUS SYMPOSIUM. 179 
 
 templation; let him look through things; let him be 
 much alone. Fulfill all righteousness for the sake 
 of the living, and for the sake of the blessed ones 
 that are dead and gone.' '' 
 
 If we turn to the Christian presentation of the 
 idea of God, we travel for the most part through a 
 dreary waste of philosophy. It may be confessed, 
 indeed, that the design of these learned disquisi- 
 tions is to show the defensibility of God's self- 
 revelation in the sacred Scriptures, and to justify it 
 to reason; but tlie amount and x)reponderance of 
 such reasoning is an indication of failing faith in 
 revelation, and of the aspiring assumption of 
 human intelligence in Christendom. But even here 
 we find something new; a reconstruction of the old 
 theistic arguments into harmony with the accepted 
 imx)ortance of the idea of the divine immanence in 
 nature and man, and a certain revolt of reason 
 against unthinkable dogma. Perhaps it is because 
 dogmatic theology has obscured the simple majesty 
 of God's self- revelation in the Scriptures as the self- 
 subsisting lover and thinker and doer, who is 
 immanent by his Spirit in nature and in man, 
 whose providence is the operation of his love and 
 wisdom, according to their own law impressed upon 
 the universe, who speaks to man by his Word and 
 reveals himself and his love and redeeming power 
 in Jesus Christ; perhaps it is because the mind 
 seeks for this truth in the nature of things, which 
 dogmatic theology has overlaid and obscured in 
 Scripture, that we find in these presentations so 
 
180 world's religious congresses. 
 
 little argument from revelation to faith, and so 
 much argument from the necessities of the case, 
 with critical examination of the processes by which 
 we know that we know that God is. Certain it is, 
 that in a careful review of all these declarations 
 concerning Grod Cliristian scholars will be found in 
 the attitude, not of apostles teaching the nations out 
 of the church, but of apologists trying to extract 
 from the nature of things reasons in defense of the 
 idea of a heavenly Father. The effort is legitimate 
 if necessary for any reason, and the arguments are 
 an improvement on the old; but what does it come 
 to? We may give the answer in the closing words 
 of Doctor Momerie's paper on "The Moral Evi- 
 dences of a Divine Existence": 
 
 "To sum up in one sentence — all knowledge, 
 whether practical or scientific, nay, the commonest 
 experience of every-day life, implies the existence 
 of a mind which is oninipresent and eternal, while 
 the tendency toward righteousness, which is so 
 unmistakably manifest in the course of history, 
 together with the response which this tendency 
 awakens in our awn hearts, combine to prove that 
 the infinite thinker is just and kind and good. It 
 must be because he is always with us that we some- 
 times imagine that he is nowhere to be found." 
 
 If any look for an exposition of the doctrine of 
 one God in three coequal and coeternal persons, 
 the prevalence of this faith may be found incident- 
 ally in forms of speech founded on it, and ideas of 
 divine government derived from it, but in exposition 
 
A RELIGIOUS SYMPOSIUM. 181 
 
 it is greatly modified. In a paper on "Christ the 
 Reason of the Universe," the R-ev. James W. Lee 
 presents the doctrine of the trinity in Gfod in a way 
 that shows the effort of reason to reconcile it with 
 the absolute oneness of the Divine Being, and at 
 the same time illustrates the intricacy of the i^roc- 
 esses of thought in the new intellectual activity of 
 Christendom. He says: "What man seeks, and 
 has always sought, is such a x)hilosophy or synthesis 
 of the facts of nature, of man, and of God as har- 
 monizes him with himself, with his world, and with 
 the being he calls God. We call Christ the reason 
 of the universe because he brings to thought such a 
 synthesis of nature, man, and God as harmonizes 
 human life with itself, and with the facts of nature 
 and God." 
 
 In the elucidation of this theme he seeks to show 
 that a " self -causative, self -active, omnipotent en- 
 ergy is the deepest thing, and the first thing in the 
 universe;" and again that self-consciousness, which 
 is the "complete form of self -activity, self-causation, 
 and self -relation," contains within itself "the sub- 
 ject that thinks, and the object that is thought, and 
 also the identity of subject and object in a living, 
 intelligent personality." He then proceeds as fol- 
 lows: 
 
 ''In the absolute self-consciousness of God there 
 is subject and object and the identity of subject and 
 object in one divine personality^ But it is neces- 
 sary that what the absolute subject thinks must be, 
 and must also be as perfect as the absolute subject. 
 It is necessary also that the absolute object must be 
 
182 world's religious congresses. 
 
 one. So in the divine self-consciousness the absolute 
 subject is Father, and the thought of the Father, or 
 the absolute object, is the Son. But as the Son is as 
 perfect as the Father it is necessary that what he 
 thinks must be also. 
 
 ' ' Here it is that Christian philosophy and tljeology 
 gets the imperfect world. The Son thinks himself 
 ftrst as eternally derived, as eternally begotten. In 
 the fact that the Son differs from the first person 
 in that he is eternally derived from him is found 
 the thought of limitation, which is expressed in the 
 imperfect world in all stages and grades of existence, 
 from pure passivity up through s]3ace and atoms, 
 and force and compounds, and plants and animals to 
 man, who is in the image of God and at the top of 
 creation. In God as Father the idea of transcend- 
 ence is met, and thus we have the truth of mono- 
 theism; in God the Son the idea of an indwelling 
 God is met, and Ave have the truth of polytheism. 
 In God the Spirit the idea of God pervading the 
 world is reached, and we have the truth of pantheism. 
 Here we have a trinity not such as would be con- 
 stituted by three judges in a court, or by three 
 things imagined under sensible forms. The relations 
 between three such judges or three such sensible 
 things would be mechanical and accidental and not 
 absolute and essential. The trinity of the Christian 
 church is not simply the aggregation of three indi- 
 viduals or the unity of three mathematical points. 
 The trinity revealed in the Christian Scriptures is 
 such as makes a concrete unity through and by 
 means of difference. This trinity makes a unity, 
 
A RELIGIOUS SYMPOSIUM. 183 
 
 the distinguisliing feature of which is ' fullness ' and 
 not emptiness. It is a trinity constitutive of a real, 
 experimental, and knowable unity. God is revealed 
 in the Scriptures as intelligence, life, and love, and 
 the living process of each is triune. The terms of 
 a self, whose living function is intelligence, are 
 three, subject, object, and the organic identity of 
 the two. The terms of such a self are necessarily 
 three, and yet its nature is necessarily one. 
 
 ''If God is intelligent he is triune, because the 
 process of intelligence is triune. There can not be 
 mind without self -consciousness, and the object of 
 the eternal self -consciousness is the eternal Logos, 
 who is the full and complete expression of the 
 eternal mind. Time or space is not necessary to 
 the complete act of self -consciousness. 
 
 "The movement of the eternal mind passing 
 through the Son into the Holy Spirit, and then 
 through the finite world and the Christian church 
 back to himself, has been called a procession. A 
 procession, because infinite, eternally complete. 
 Thus, while God eternally goes from himself he 
 eternally returns to himself with spirits redeemed 
 by the Son, and regenerated by the Spirit, capable 
 of sharing the love and joy and life of himself. 
 
 " This view makes it necessary that God through 
 the Son create the w^orld. At this doctrine some 
 people will stagger. One thing is sure, God has 
 created the world, and if the necessity for creating 
 it was not in his nature, then creation is an accident. 
 There is no reason where there is no necessity. The 
 necessity for a thing is the reason for it. If there 
 
184 
 
 was no necessity for creation, the creative act 
 becomes wholly irrational. God is represented in 
 the very iirst chapter of the Bible as Creator. It is 
 necessary that a creator create. 
 
 ''It is to be remembered, however, while it is 
 necessary that God create, this is a necessity that 
 falls within his own nature. This means that God 
 is essentially a creative being. There is no necessity 
 outside of God by which he is compelled to do any- 
 thing. This would be the establishment of a fate 
 greater than God. All necessity relating to God 
 falls within his own being and is that which defines 
 what he rationally and essentially is. 
 
 ''But while the doctrine makes the creation of 
 the finite world necessary, it does not make sin, or 
 the self-assertion of a finite spirit necessary. But 
 man is free, with a body made of the earth at the 
 bottom of himself, and with a spirit the direct gift 
 of God at the top of himself. Between man as body 
 and man as spirit there is the realm of choice. If 
 he acts with reference to himself as body simply, he 
 sins. The possibility of sin in the case of man is 
 found in that in his personality there come together 
 a limited and an unlimited self, a carnal and a 
 spiritual self, a self in time and space and a self 
 under the form of eternity. 
 
 "This doctrine helps us again to account for the 
 two poles of man's moral and intellectual con- 
 sciousness. Human nature has a dual constitution. 
 It is the unity of two principles, a principle of 
 thought and will and a principle of truth and right. 
 As a physical being he is dual. The subjective side 
 
A RELIGIOUS SYMPOSIUM. 185 
 
 of his physical self is hunger, the objective side oi 
 his physical nature is food. Now, before he can 
 live as a physical being the hunger and the food 
 must come together. On his subjective side man 
 feels he is free, but on his objective side he feels he 
 must obey. How is he to be free and obedient at 
 the same time ? When we remember that the nature 
 of man is a reproduction of the nature of the Son of 
 God, and that the Holy Spirit, proceeding from the 
 Father and the Son, flows out into humanity to en- 
 lighten, to quicken, to convince of sin, and then to 
 renew, to regenerate and to organize into the Chris- 
 tian church, we will see that the truth the Spirit 
 presents to man's intellect is adapted to it as food 
 is to his hunger, and that the law the Spirit stimu- 
 lates and urges man to obey is the law of his own 
 nature. 
 
 " This doctrine gives us the meaning of the strug- 
 gle, conflict, pain, which are apparent throughout 
 the realm of nature and human life. Liebnitz, 
 looking at the toj) of things, at health, at joy, sun- 
 shine, laughter, and prosperity, said this was the 
 best possible world. Schopenhauer, looking at the 
 bottom, at storms, thorns, disease, poverty, death, 
 said this was the worst possible world. The 
 entrance of the divine procession into the limitations 
 of time and space is advertised by the storm and 
 stress, the ceaseless clash and strife which begin 
 among the atoms. This struggle is kept up 
 through all stages of organization until when we 
 reach the j)lane of human life it is expressed in cries 
 and wails, in tragedies, epics, litanies, which become 
 
186 
 
 the most interesting part of human literature. Into 
 this struggle comes the Son of Man and the 8()n 
 of God. He meets it, endures it, and conquers 
 it, and is crucihed, and his crucifixion is the cul- 
 mination of the process of trial and storm and strife 
 which begun with the atoms and continued through 
 the whole course of nature, When Christ comes 
 up from the dead then the truth of the ages gets 
 defined^ that through suffering and denial and 
 crucifixion is the way to holiness and everlasting 
 life. From thenceforth a redeemed humanity 
 becomes the working hypothesis and the ideal of 
 the race. Then it comes to be seen that the whole 
 movement of God looks to the organization of the 
 human race in Jesus Christ, the reason, the logos, 
 the plan and the ideal framework of the universe." 
 
 It needs to be borne in mind, however, when seek- 
 ing help of philosophy, that the very ideas with 
 wiiich it concerns itself are derived from revelation. 
 As Bishop Keane said, in preparing the way for his 
 discussion of the "incarnation idea in all history": 
 ' ' The sublime conception of the existence of God 
 and of the existence of revelation is not a spon- 
 taneous generation from the brain of man. Tyndal 
 and Pasteur have demonstrated that there is no 
 spontaneous generation from the inorganic to the 
 organic. Just as little is there, or could there be, a 
 spontaneous generation of the idea of the infinite 
 from the brain of the finite. The fact, in each case, 
 is the result of a touch from above. All humanity 
 points back to a golden age, when man was taught 
 
A RELIGIOUS SYMPOSIUM. 187 
 
 of the divine by the divine, that in that knowledge 
 lie might know why he himself existed, and how 
 his life was to be shaped." 
 
 The necessity for a revealing God to be in con- 
 tinual revelation, and to a fallen race, in continual 
 adajDtation to its necessities, inevitably links the idea 
 of incarnation with the Christian conception of the 
 divine, and its fullest statement that which accounts 
 for the appearance of Jesus Christ. 
 
 INCARTiATION. 
 
 Bishop Keane, in tracing the history of the idea, 
 shows it to be universal. The " i3rimitive teaching 
 of man by his creator has been transformed in the 
 lapse of ages, in the vicissitudes of distant wander- 
 ings, of varying fortunes, and of changing culture; 
 still, the comparative study of ancient religions 
 shows that in them all there has existed one central, 
 pivotal concept, dressed, indeed, in various garbs of 
 myth and legend and philosophy, yet ever recogniz- 
 ably the same — the concept of the fallen race of 
 man and of a future restorer, deliverer, redeemer, 
 who, being human, should yet be different from and 
 above the merely human." 
 
 Pointing out, then, the difference in the Eastern 
 and Western concepts of man, leading to different 
 ideas of the indwelling of the divine, and tracing^ 
 the voice of the prophets pointing forward to him 
 that is to come, and showing in its fulfillment the 
 divine answer to a universal expectation and a 
 
188 world's religious congresses. 
 
 universal need, he presents the reasonableness of 
 the incarnation as follows: 
 
 "Reason sees that the finite could not thus 
 mount to the infinite any more than matter of itself 
 could mount to spirit. But could not the infinite 
 stoop to the finite and lift it to liis bosom and unite 
 it with himself, wdth no confounding of the finite 
 with the infinite nor of the infinite with the finite, 
 yet so that they shall be linked in one? Here rea- 
 son can discern no contradiction of ideas, nothing 
 beyond the power of the infinite. But could the 
 infinite stoop to this? Reason sees that to do so 
 would cost the infinite nothing, since he is ever his 
 unchanging self; it sees, moreover, that since crea- 
 tion is the offspring not of his need but of his 
 bounty, of his love, it would be most worthy of 
 infinite love to thus perfect the creative act, to thus 
 lift up the creature and bring all things into unity 
 and harmony. Then must reason declare it is not 
 only i^ossible but it is most fitting that it should be so. 
 
 "Moreover, we see that it is this very thing that 
 all humanity has been craving for, whether intel- 
 ligently or not. This very thing all religions have 
 been looking forward to or have been groping for in 
 the dark. Turn we then to himself and ask: ' Art 
 thou he who is to come, or look we for another?' 
 To that question he must answer, for the world 
 needs and must have the truth. Meek and humble 
 of heart though he be, the world has a right to 
 know whether he be indeed 'the Expected of the 
 Nations, the Immanuel, Lord with us.' Therefore 
 does he answer clearly and unmistakably: 
 
A EELIGIOUS SYMPOSIUM. 189 
 
 " Abraham rejoiced that he should see my day. He saw it and 
 was glad. 
 
 " Art thou then older than Abraham? 
 
 " Before Abraham was I am. 
 
 "Who art thou, then? 
 
 " I am the beginning, who also speak to you. 
 
 "Whosoever seeth me seeth the Father; I and the Father are 
 one. 
 
 " No one comet h to the Father but by me." 
 
 The appeal of Bishop Keane to Jesus Christ as 
 the revealed God, in whom is the fulfillment of 
 divine promise and the substance of things longed 
 for by the sages of the Gentiles, was fitly followed 
 by the address of the Rev. J. K. Smyth, of the New 
 Jerusalem church in Boston Highlands, on ''The 
 Incarnation of God in Christ," from which we may 
 quote at length: 
 
 "Christianity, in its broadest as well as its 
 deepest sense, means the presence of God in human- 
 ity. It is the revelation of God in his world; the 
 opening up of a straight, sure way to that God; 
 and a new tidal fiow of divine life to all the sons of 
 men. The hope of this has, in some measure, been 
 in every age and in every religion, stirring them 
 with expectation. Evil might be strong; but a day 
 would come when the seed of a woman would 
 bruise the serpent's head, even though it should 
 bruise the conqueror's heel. God in his world to 
 champion and redeem it ! This is what the relig- 
 ions of the ages have, in some form and with 
 various degrees of certainty, looked for. This is 
 what sang itself into the songs and prophecies of 
 Israel. ' And the glory of Jehovah shall be revealed: 
 
190 
 
 and all flesh shall see it together; for the mouth of 
 Jehovah hath spoken it. 
 
 "'Behold, the Lord Jehovah will come in 
 strength, and his arm shall rule for him. Behold 
 his reward is with him and his work before him. 
 He shall feed his flock like a shepherd. He shall 
 gather the lambs with his arms, and carry them in 
 his bosom, and shall gently lead those that are 
 with young.' 
 
 ''Christianity is in the world to utter her belief 
 that he who revealed himself as the Good Shepherd 
 realizes these expectations and fulfills these prom- 
 ises, and that in the Word made flesh the glory of 
 Jehovah has been revealed and all flesh may see it 
 together. Even in childhood he bears the name 
 Immanuel, which, being interpreted, is 'God with 
 us.' He explains his work and his presence by 
 declaring that it is the coming of the kingdom 
 — not of law, nor of earthly government, nor 
 of ecclesiasticism, but of God. His purpose, 
 to manifest and bring forth the love and the wis- 
 dom of God; his miracles, simply the attesta- 
 tions of the divine immanence; his supreme end, 
 the culmination of all his labors; his sufferings, 
 his victories, to become the open and glorified me- 
 dium of divine life to the world. It is not another 
 Moses, nor another Elias, but God in the world — 
 God with us — this, the supreme announcement of 
 Christianity, asserting his immanence, revealing 
 God and ninn as intended for each other, and rous- 
 ing in man slumbering wants and capacities to real- 
 ize the new vision of manhood that dawns upon him 
 from this luminous Figure. 
 
A RELIGIOUS SYMPOSIUM. 191 
 
 "Christianity affirms as a fundamental fact of 
 the God it worships that he is a God who does not 
 hide or withhold himself, but who is ever going 
 forth toyman in the effort to reveal himself, and to 
 be known and felt according to the degree of man's 
 capacity and need. This self- manifestation or 
 'forthgoing of all that is known or knowable of 
 the divine perfections' is the Logos, or Word; and 
 it is the very center of Christian revelation. This 
 Word is God, not withdrawn in dreary solitude, but 
 coming into intelligible r.nd personal manifestation. 
 From the beginning — for so we may now read the 
 ' Golden Proem ' of St. John's Gospel, with its won- 
 derful spiritual history of the Logos — from the 
 beginning God has this desire to go forth to some- 
 thing outside of himself and be known by it. ' In 
 the beginning was the Word.' Hence the creation. 
 ' All things were made by him.' Hence, too, out of 
 this divine di^sire to reveal and accommodate him- 
 self to man, his presence in various forms of relig- 
 ion. 'He was in the world.' Even in man's sin 
 and spiritual blindness the eternal Logos seeks to 
 bring itself to his consciousness. 
 
 "'The light shineth in the darkness.' But 
 gradually through the ages, through man's sinful- 
 ness, his spiritual perceptions become dim and he 
 sees" as in a state of open-eyed blindness only the 
 forms through which the divine mind has sought to 
 manifest himself. ' He was in the world and the 
 world knew him not.' What more can be done? 
 T^yp^j symbol, religious ceremonials, scrix)tures — all 
 have been employed Has not man slipped beyond 
 
192 world's religious congresses. 
 
 the reach of the divine endeavors? But the Christian 
 history of the Logos moves on to its supreme an- 
 nouncement: ' Aiid the Word was made flesh and 
 dwelt among ns, and we beheld his glory, the glory 
 as of the only begotten of the Father, fulTof grace 
 and truth.' Not some angel come from heaven to 
 deliver some further message; not another prophet 
 sprung from our bewildered race to chide, to warn, 
 or to exhort; but the Logos, which in the beginning 
 was with God and which was God; the Jehovah of 
 the old prophecies, whose glory, it had been prom- 
 ised, would be revealed that all flesh might see it 
 together. And so in the Christian view of it the 
 history of the Logos completes itself in the story of 
 the manger. And so, too, the incarnation, instead of 
 being exceptional, is exactly in line with what the 
 Logos has from the beginning been doing. God, 
 as the Word, has ever been coming to man in a 
 form accommodated to his need, keeping step with 
 his steps until, in the completeness of this desire to 
 bring himself to man where he is, he appears to 
 the natural senses and in a form suitable to our 
 natural life. 
 
 '' In the Christian conception of God, as one who 
 seeks to reveal himself to man, it simply is inevit- 
 able that the Word should manifest himself on the 
 very lowest plane of man's life if at any time it 
 would be true to say of the spiritual condition: 
 ' This people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears 
 are dull of hearing and their eyes they have closed.' 
 It is not extraordinary in the sense of its being a 
 hard or an unnatural thing for God to do. He has 
 
\ 
 
 ''~*~'-«^**»*-^* * 
 
 SWAMI VIVEKANANDA, 
 
 Hindu Monk, India. 
 
A RELIGIOUS SYMPOSIUM. 193 
 
 always been approacliing man, always adapting his 
 revelations to Imman conditions and needs. It is 
 this constant accommodation and manifestation 
 that has kept man's power of spiritual thought 
 alive. The history of religions, together with their 
 remains, is a proof of it. The testimony of the his- 
 toric faiths presented in this x)arliament has con- 
 firmed it as the most self-evident thing of the divine 
 nature in his dealings with the children of men, 
 and the incarnation as its natural and completest 
 outcome. 
 
 "And when we begin to follow the life of him 
 whose footi^rints, in the light of Christian history 
 and experience, are still looked ui)on as the very 
 footprints of the Incarnate Word, the gospel story 
 is a story of toil, of suffering, of storm, and tem- 
 pest; a story of sacrifice, of love so pure and holy 
 that even now it has the jjower to touch, to thrill, 
 to re-create man's selfish nature. There is an un- 
 doubted actuality in the human side of this life, but 
 just as surely there is a certain divine something 
 forever speaking through those human tones and 
 reaching out through those kindly hands. The 
 character of the Logos is never lost, sacrificed, or 
 lowered. It is always this divine something trying 
 to manifest itself, trying to make itself understood, 
 trying to redeem man from his slavery to evil and 
 draw to itself his spiritual attachment. 
 
 "Here, plain to human sight, is part of that age- 
 long effort of the Word to reveal itself to man only 
 now through a nature formed and born for the pur- 
 pose. We are reminded of it when we hear him 
 
 13 
 
194 world's religious congresses. 
 
 say: 'Before Abraliam was, I am.' We are 
 assured of it when he declares that he came forth 
 from the Father. And we know that he has tri- 
 umphed when, at the last, we hear his promise, 
 'Lo, I am with you always.' It is the Logos 
 speaking. The divine purpose has been fulfilled. 
 The Word has come forth on this plane of human 
 life, manifested himself and established a relation- 
 ship with man nearer and dearer than ever before. 
 He has made himself available and indispensable 
 to every need or effort. 'Without me ye can do 
 nothing.' In his divine humanity he has estab- 
 lished a perfect medium whereby we mny have free 
 and immediate access to God' s fatherly help. ' I 
 am the Door of the sheep.' 'lam the Way, the 
 Truth, and the Life.' In this thought of the divine 
 character of the Son of Man the early Christians 
 found strength and comfort. For a time they did 
 not attempt to define this faith theologically. It 
 was a simple, direct, earnest faith in the goodness 
 and redeeming power of the God-man, whose perfect 
 nature had inspired them to believe in the reality of 
 his heavenly reign. They felt that the risen Lord 
 w^as near them; that he was the Saviour so long 
 ]3romised; the world's hope, 'in whom dwelleth all 
 the fullness of the Godhead bodily.' But to- 
 day man claims his right to enter understandingly 
 into the mysteries of faith, and reason asks. How 
 could God or the divine Logos be made flesh? 
 
 "Yet, in seeking for an answer to such an in- 
 quiry, we are at the same time seeking to know of 
 the origin of human life. The conception and birth 
 
A RELIGIOUS SYMPOSIUM. 195 
 
 of Jesus Christ, as related in the gospels, is, de- 
 clares the reason, a strange fact. So, too, is the 
 conception and birth of every human being. Neither 
 can be explained by any principle of naturalism, 
 which regards the external as first and the internal 
 as second and of comparative unim]3ortance. 
 Neither can be understood unless it be recognized 
 that spiritual forces and substances are related to 
 natural forces and substances as cause and effect; 
 and that they, the former, are prior and the active, 
 formative agents playing upon, and received by, the 
 latter. We do not articulate words and then try to 
 pack them with ideas and intentions. The process 
 is the reverse. First the intention, then that inten- 
 tion coming forth as a thought, and then the 
 thought incarnating itself by means of articulated 
 sounds or written characters. 
 
 "By this same law man is primarily, essentially, 
 a spiritual being. In the very form of his creation 
 that which essentially is the man, and which in 
 time loves, thinks, makes plans and efforts for use- 
 ful life, is spiritual. In his conception, then, the 
 human seed must not only be acted upon but be 
 derived from invisible, spiritual substances which 
 are clothed with natural substances for the sake 
 of conveyance. That which is slowly developed 
 into a human being or soul must be a living organ- 
 ism composed of spiritual substances. Gradually 
 that primitive form becomes enveloped and pro- 
 tected within successive clothings, while the mother, 
 from the substances of the natural world, silently 
 weaves the swathings and coverings which are to 
 
196 
 
 serve as a natural or physical body and make possi- 
 ble its entrance into this outer court of life. 
 
 " We do not concede, then, that there is anything 
 impossible or contrary to order in the declaration of 
 the gospel, but ' that which is conceived in her is 
 of the Holy Spirit.' It is still in line with the gen- 
 eral law of the concej^tion and birth of all human 
 beings. The primitive form or nature, as in the case 
 of man, is spiritual. But in this instance it is not de- 
 rived from a human father, but is especially formed 
 or molded by the divine creative spirit; formed as with 
 us, of spiritual substances; formed with a perfection 
 and with infinite possibilities of development un- 
 known to us; formed, too, for the special i^urjiose of 
 being the perfect instrument or medium upon and 
 through which the divine might act as its very soul. 
 Because that primitive form is divinely molded or 
 begotten instead of being derived from a finite pater- 
 nity, it is unique. It is divine in first principles. 
 In the outer clothings of the natural mind and in 
 the successive wrappings furnished by the woman 
 nature it shares our weakness. But primarily, 
 essentially, it is born with the capacity of becoming 
 divine through the removal of whatever is imperfect 
 or limiting, and through complete union with the 
 divine which formed it for himself. 
 
 '^ Yery like our humanity in all that pertains to 
 the growth of the natural body and natural mind 
 would be this humanity of the Son of Man. The 
 same tenderness and helplessness of its infantile 
 body; the same possibility of weariness, hunger, 
 thirst, pain; the same exposure, too, in the lower 
 
A RELIGIOUS SYMPOSIUM. 197 
 
 planes of the mind, to the assaults of evil resulting in 
 internal struggle, temptation, and anguish of spirit. 
 And yet there is always an unlikeness, a difference, in 
 that the very primitive, determining forms and possi- 
 bilities of that humanity are divinely begotten. And 
 so we think of this humanity of Jesus Christ as so 
 formed and born as to be able to serve as a perfect 
 instrument whereby the eternal Logos might come 
 and dwell among us; might so express and pour 
 forth his love; might so accommodate and reveal his 
 truth; might, in a word, so set himself on all the 
 planes of angelic and human existence as to be for- 
 ever after immediately present in them, and so 
 become literally, actually God-with-us. 
 
 "Gradually this was done. Gradually the divine 
 life of love and wisdom came into the several planes 
 which, by incarnation, existed in this humanity, 
 removing from them whatever was limiting or 
 imperfect, substituting what Avas divine, filling 
 them, glorifying them, and in the end making them 
 a very part of himself. 
 
 "This brings into harmony the two elements 
 which we are apt to look upon and keep distinct, 
 the human and the divine. For he himself tells us 
 of a process, a distinct change which his humanity 
 underwent, and which is the key to his real nature. 
 'The Holy Spirit,' says the record, 'was not yet 
 given, because that Jesus was not yet glorified.' 
 Some divine operation was going on witliin that 
 humanity which was not fully accomplished. But 
 on the eve of his crucifixion he exclaimed: 'Now 
 is the Son of Man glorified and God is glorified in 
 
198 wokld's religious congresses. 
 
 him.' It is this process of putting off what was 
 finite and infirm in the human, and the substitution 
 of the divine from within, resulting in the formation 
 of a divine humanity. So long as that is going on 
 the human as the Son feels a separation from the 
 divine as the Father, and speaks of it and turns to 
 it as though it were another person. But when the 
 glorification is accomplished, when the divine has 
 entirely filled tiie human and they act ' reciprocally 
 and unanimously as soul and body,' then the decla- 
 ration is: 'I and the Father are one.' Divine in 
 origin, human in birth, divinely human through 
 glorification. As to his soul, or inmost being, the 
 Father; as to his human, the Son; as to the life and 
 saving power that go forth from his glorified nature, 
 the Holy Spirit. 
 
 "This story of the divine life in its descent to 
 man, this coming or incarnation of the Logos through 
 the humanity of Jesus Christ, it is the sweet and 
 serious privilege of Christianity to carry into the 
 w^orld. I try to state it; I try from a new theolog- 
 ical standpoint to show reasons for its rational 
 acceptance. But I know that however true and 
 necessary explanations may be, the fact itself tran- 
 scends them all. No one in this free assembly is 
 required or expected to hide his denominationalism. 
 And yet I love to stand with my fellow Christians 
 and unite with them in that simplest, most compre- 
 hensive creed that was ever uttered, Credo Domino. 
 Denominationalism, dogmatism, aside! Aside, too, 
 all prejudices and practices. What is the simplest, 
 the fundamental idea of the being of Jesus Christ ? 
 
A RELIGIOUS SYMPOSIUM. 199 
 
 Brother men, are we not ready to unite in saying it 
 is, and saying it to the whole round world: that the 
 Lord Jesus Christ is the life or the love of God, 
 manifesting itself to man, going out into the world, 
 awakening the capacity which is in every man for 
 spiritual, yes, for divine life ? Is not that the very 
 heart of the gospel, or rather is not that the gospel^ 
 And is it not equally true that up to this liour there 
 is no fact so real, no fact so powerful, no fact that is 
 working such spiritual wonders as the fact, the 
 influence, the being of Jesus Christ? 
 
 "We are sitting here as the first great parliament 
 of the religions of the world. We rightly believe, 
 we boldly say, that from this time on the father- 
 hood of God and the brotherhood of man must 
 mean more to us than ever before, and none can be 
 so timid but would dare to stand here and say that 
 in this hall the death-knell of bigotry has sounded. 
 Yet it were a sacrilege to suppose that the large tol- 
 erance which has been shown here, and which has 
 secured for the representatives of every faith such a 
 hospitable reception, is the evolution of mere good 
 nature. It is the Spirit of him whose utterance of 
 those simple words, which have been inscribed as 
 the text of the Columbian Liberty Bell, are already 
 ringing in 'the Christ that is to be' — 'A new com- 
 mandment I give unto you. That ye love one 
 another.' " 
 
 SIN AND RECONCILIATION". 
 
 If we turn now to the subject of Sin and Reconcilia- 
 tion, it is of interest to note the following testimony 
 
200 world's eeligious congresses. 
 
 from the Rev. T. E. Slater of Bangalore, India. 
 Having pointed out that the speculative problem 
 before the Hindu philosopher and the struggle of 
 the religious man have been how to break the dream, 
 get rid of the impostures of sense and time, emanci- 
 pate self from the bondage of a fleeting world, and 
 attain the one reality, the divine, he shows tliat 
 idolatry itself, degrading as it is, is an effort to 
 realize to the senses what otherwise is only an idea. 
 
 ' ' Idolatry ' ' he says, " is a strong human protest 
 against pantheism, which denies the personality of 
 God, and atheism, which denies God altogether; it 
 testifies to the natural craving of the heart to have 
 before it some manifestation of the unseen — to 
 behold a humanized God. It is not, at bottom, an 
 efl'ort to get away from God, but to bring God near. 
 
 ' ' Once more. The idea of the need of sacrificial 
 acts, ' the first and primary rites ' — eucharistic, 
 sacramental, and projjitiary — bearing the closest 
 parallelism to the provisions of the Mosaic economy, 
 and prompted by a sense of personal unworthiness, 
 guilt, and misery — that life is to be forfeited to 
 the Divine Proprietor — is ingrained in the whole 
 system of Yedic Hinduism. A sense of original 
 corruption has been felt by all classes of Hindus, 
 as indicated in the prayer: ' I am sinful, I commit 
 sin, my nature is sinful. Save me, thou lotus-eyed 
 Hari, the remover of sin.' 
 
 "No literature," he continues, "not even the 
 Jewish, contains so many words relating to sacrifice 
 as Sanskrit. The land has been saturated with 
 blood. The secret of this great importance attached 
 
A RELIGIOUS SYMPOSIUM. 201 
 
 to sacrifice is to be found in the remarkable fact 
 that the authorship of the institution is attributed to 
 'Creation's Lord' himself and its date is reckoned 
 as coeval with the creation. The idea exists in the 
 three chief Vedas, and in the Brahmanas and Upani- 
 shads that Prajapati, ' the lord and supporter of his 
 creatures' — the Purusha (primeval male) — begot- 
 ten before the world, becoming half immortal and 
 half mortal in a body fit for sacrifice, offered himself 
 for the devas (emancipated mortals) and for the 
 benefit of the world; thereby making all subsequent 
 sacrifice a reflection or figure of himself. The ideal 
 of the Vedic Prajapati, mortal and yet divine, him- 
 self both priest and victim, who by death overcame 
 death, has long since been lost in India. Among 
 the many gods of the Hindu pantheon none has ever 
 come forward to claim the vacant throne once rever- 
 enced by Indian rishis. No other than the Jesus of 
 the Gospels — ' the Lamb slain from the foundation 
 of the world ' — has ever appeared to fulfill this 
 primitive idea of redemption by the eflacacy of sac- 
 rifice; and when this Christian truth is preached it 
 ought not to sound strange to Indian ears. An emi- 
 nent Hindu preacher has said that no one can be a 
 true Hindu without being a true Christian. But 
 one of the saddest and most disastrous facts of the 
 India of to-day is that modern Brahmanism, like 
 modern Parseeism, is fast losing its old ideas, relax- 
 ing its hold on the more spiritual portions, the dis- 
 tinctive tenets of the ancient faith. Happily, how- 
 ever, a reaction has set in, mainly through the exer- 
 tions of these scholars, and the more thoughtful 
 
202 
 
 minds are earnestly seeking to recover from their 
 sacred books some of the buried treasures of the 
 past." 
 
 The reference here to Parseeism recalls what J. J. 
 Modi says in his paper on the religion of Zoroaster 
 about the Parsee doctrine of purification. Man to 
 be perfect before God must shun evil, and work 
 righteousness; and the sacred fire is the symbol of 
 the purifying temptation by which he is perfected. 
 
 "JSTowwhat does a fire so j)i'^pared signify to a 
 Parsee? He thinks to himself: ' When this fire on 
 this vase before me, though pure in itself, though 
 the noblest of the creations of God, and though the 
 best symbol of the divinity, had to undergo certain 
 processes of purification, had to draw out, as it 
 were, its essence — nay, its quintessence — of purity 
 to enable itself to be worthy of occupying this ex- 
 alted position; how much more necessary, more 
 essential, and more important it is for me — a 
 a poor mortal who is liable to commit sins and 
 crimes, and who comes into contact with hundreds 
 of evils, both physical and mental — to undergo the 
 process of purity and piety by making my thoughts, 
 words, and actions pass, as it were, through a sieve 
 of piety and purity, virtue and morality, and to 
 separate by that means my good thoughts, good 
 words, and good actions from bad thoughts, bad 
 words, and bad actions, so that I may in my turn be 
 enabled to acquire an exalted position in the next 
 world.' Again, the fires jDut together as above are 
 collected from the houses of men of different grades 
 
A RELIGIOUS SYMPOSIUM. 203 
 
 in society. This reminds a Parsee that, as all these 
 fires from the Louses of men of different grades have 
 all, by the process of purification, equally acquired 
 the exalted place in the vase, so before God all men 
 
 — no matter to what grades of society they belong 
 
 — are equal, provided they pass through the process 
 of purification, i. e., provided they j)reserve purity 
 of thoughts, purity of words, and purity of deeds. 
 
 "Again, when a Parsee goes before the sacred fire, 
 which is kept all day and night burning in the fire 
 temple, the officiating x^riest presents before him 
 the ashes of a part of the consumed fire. The Par- 
 see applies it to his forehead jusfc as a Christian 
 applies the consecrated water in his church, and 
 thinks to himself: 'Dust to dust. The fire, all 
 brilliant, shining, and resplendent, has spread the 
 fragrance of the sweet-smelling sandal and frankin- 
 cense round about, but is at last reduced to dust. 
 So it is destined for me. After all I am to be 
 reduced to dust and have to depart from this tran- 
 sient life. Let me do my best to spread, like this 
 fire, before my death, the fragrance of charity and 
 good deeds and lead the light of righteousness and 
 knowledge before others.' In short, the sacred fire 
 burning in a fire temple serves as a perpetual moni- 
 tor to a Parsee standing before it to preserve piety, 
 purity, humility, and brotherhood." 
 
 And in evidence that there is no thought of a sub- 
 stitutional righteousness in connection with the sym- 
 bol, but a real and living righteousness to be 
 adopted and established in the worshiper, he says: 
 
204 
 
 ' ' All Parsee prayers begin with an assurance to do 
 acts that would please the Almighty God. The 
 assurance is followed by an expression of regret for 
 past evil thoughts, words, or deeds, if any. Man is 
 liable to err, and so, if during the iaterval any 
 errors of commission or omission are comitted, a 
 Parsee in the beginning of his prayers repents for 
 those errors. He says: 
 
 " ^O Omniscient Lord! I repent of all my sins. I 
 repent of all evil thoughts that I might have enter- 
 tained in my mind, of all the evil words that I have 
 spoken, of all the evil actions that I might have 
 committed. O Omniscient Lord! I repent of all 
 the faults that might have originated with me, 
 whether they refer to thoughts, words, or deeds, 
 whether they appertain to my body or soul, whether 
 they be in connection with the material world or 
 spiritual.' " 
 
 This does not greatly differ in its ideal from what 
 is known among us as liberal Christianity, which 
 holds that moral conduct when performed by 
 man in acknowledgment of God, and in harmony 
 with his divine and all-pervading life, lias a spirit- 
 ual value. Thus Prof. C. H. Toy of Harvard Uni- 
 versity, in a paper on '^ Religion and Conduct," 
 says: 
 
 ^'In the sphere of religion the two sorts of sanc- 
 tion are what we call natural and supernatural. 
 The laws of nature may be considered to be laws 
 of God, and the natural i3enalties and rewards of 
 life to be divine sanctions. Obedience to these laws 
 
A RELIGIOUS SYMPOSIUM. 205 
 
 is a moral act, because it involves control of self 
 in the interest of organic development; but super- 
 natural sanctions are inorganic and non-moral, since 
 they do not apjDeal to a rational self-control. He 
 who is honest merely to escape punishment or 
 receive reward fixed by external law is not honest at 
 all; but lie who observes the laws of health or of 
 honesty because he perceives that they are necessary 
 to the well-being of the world is also religious if he 
 recognizes these laws as the ordination of God. 
 
 "When religious sanctions are spoken of it is 
 commonly the supernatural sort 'that is meant. It 
 is an interesting question how far the belief in these 
 is now morally effective. That it has at various 
 times been influential can not be doubted. In the 
 ancient world and in medieval Europe the deity was 
 believed to intervene supernaturally in this life for 
 the protection of innocence and the punishment of 
 wickedness; but this belief appears to be vanishing 
 and can not be called an effective moral force at the 
 present day. Men think of reward and punishment 
 as belonging to the future, and this conception is 
 IDrobably of some weight; yet its practical impor- 
 tance is much diminished by the distance and the 
 dimness of the day of reckoning. The average man 
 has too little imagination to realize the remote fut- 
 ure. At the critical moment it is usually passion or 
 the present advantage that controls action. 
 
 "It is also true that the supernatural side of the 
 belief in future retribution is passing away; it is 
 becoming more and more the conviction of the 
 religious world that the future life must be mor- 
 
206 
 
 ally the continuation and consequence of tlie pres- 
 ent. This must be esteemed a great gain — it tends 
 to banish the mechanical and emphasize tlie ethical 
 element in life and to raise religion to the plane of 
 rationality. Rational religious morality is obedi- 
 ence to the laws of nature as laws of God. 
 
 *'Weare thus led to the other side of religion, 
 communion with God as the effective source of 
 religious influence on conduct. It is this, in the 
 first place, that gives eternal validity to the laws of 
 right. Resting on conscience and the constitution of 
 society, these laws may be in themselves obligatory 
 on the world of men, but they acquire a universal 
 character only when we remember that human 
 nature itself is an effluence of the divine, and that 
 human experience is the divine self-revelation. 
 
 ''Further, the consciousness of the divine presence 
 should be the most potent factor in man's moral 
 life. The thought of the ultimate basis of life, 
 incomprehensible in his essence yet known through 
 his self-outputting in the world as the ideal of 
 right, as a comrade of man in moral life, should be, 
 if received into the soul as a living every-day fact, 
 such a purifying and uplifting influence as no merely 
 human relationship has ever engendered. 
 
 " The true power of religion," he concludes, '4ies 
 in the contact between the divine soul and the soul 
 of man. It must be admitted that to attain this is 
 no easy thing. To feel the reality of a divine per- 
 sonality in the universe, to value this personality as 
 the ideal of justice and love, to keep the image of it 
 fresh and living in the mind day by day in the 
 
\ A RELIGIOUS SYMPOSIUM. 207 
 
 midst of the throng of petty and serious cares of 
 life, demands an imaginative power and a force of 
 will rarely found among men. It is in this power 
 that the great creative religious minds have excelled. 
 The mass of religious people are controlled by lower 
 considerations, and never reach the plane of pure 
 religious feeling. Most men look to God as their 
 helper in physical things, or as an outside law-giver, 
 rather than as their comrade in moral struggle. 
 Thus religion has not come to its rights in the 
 world; it still occupies, as a rule, the low plane of 
 early non-moral thought; but is there any reason 
 why it should continue in this inferior plane ^ Is 
 there anything to prevent our living in moral con- 
 tact with the soul of the world, and thence deriving 
 the inspiration and strength we need ? What has 
 been done by some may be done in a measure by all. 
 Inadequate conceptions of God and of the moral 
 life must be swept away, the free activity of the 
 human soul must be recognized and relied on, the 
 habit of contemplation of the ideal must be culti- 
 vated; we must feel ourselves to be literally and 
 truly co-workers with God. In the presence of such 
 a (5bmraunion would not moral evil be powerless 
 over man ? Finally, we here have a conception of 
 religion in which almost all, perhaps all, the systems 
 of the world may agree. It is our hope of unity." 
 
 Still, on the other hand, it is contended that all 
 the systems of the world show man's need of a 
 divine reconciliation. The old doctrine of a substi- 
 tutional sacrifice and vicarious atonement was set 
 
208 
 
 forth by Rev. Dr. Kennedy, in a paper on ^' The 
 Redemption of Sinful Man tlirough Jesus Christ," 
 with great frankness. Of tlie fall, and its effects, 
 he says: "Adam of his own free will upset the first 
 order of God's providence, and he now came under 
 another order; he had been innocent and just, 
 he was now a guilty and fallen man; he could not 
 enter into heaven^ and he was doomed to suffer the 
 other miseries brought on by his own sin until God 
 saw fit to send him a Redeemer. He no doubt 
 soon repented of his sin; and if he returned to God 
 with a sincerely contrite heart the guilt would be 
 remitted and he would not be punished eternally 
 for it. But he was powerless to repair the injury 
 done, because the gifts and graces he had lost were 
 gratuitous favors, not due to his nature, but granted 
 through pure love and goodness by God; hence 
 their restoration was subject to his good pleasure. 
 
 '^ Unfortunately for us this fall of the father of the 
 human race affected his posterity. The perfections 
 of original justice would have passed to his descend- 
 ants had he remained faithful, but he failed to com- 
 ply with the conditions on which they had. been 
 granted, and, having lost them himself, he comld 
 not transmit them to his children. In consequence 
 of his sin we too were deprived of the supernatural 
 perfections that he possessed. Though not guilty 
 of any actual personal sins, the children of Adam 
 are, as St. Paul says (Epli. ii, 3), 'by nature 
 children of wrath ' ; they are displeasing in the sight 
 of God, because he does not see in their souls the 
 graces, virtues, and perfections he had intended for 
 
A RELIGIOUS SYMPOSIUM. 209 
 
 all, and of which they were deprived through the 
 fault of Adam by an act in which he was morally 
 the representative of the human race. This is 
 what is meant by original sin; at least this is the 
 explanation of its essence given by the majority of 
 theologians; and if any one tries to see in original 
 sin as taught by the church a personal act by wdiich 
 men offend God, lie will not succeed, because it is 
 not a personal sin ; it is the habitual state displeas- 
 ing to God in which the souls of men are left since 
 the father of the human race offended God by an 
 act of proud disobedience. 
 
 "With the supernatural grace the preternatural 
 gifts were also lost. We became subject to death, 
 not only as to a law of nature but also as a i3enalty, 
 for 'by one man sin entered into this world, and by 
 sin death, and so death passed upon all men, in 
 whom all have sinned.' (Rom. v, 12.) We also 
 experience the stings of conscience, the war of the 
 liesh against the spirit, which would, in the benevo- 
 lent designs of jDrovidence, have been prevented by 
 the subjection of the mind to grace. Our nature, 
 also, was wounded, like the nature of Adam, with 
 the three wounds of ignorance, weakness, and pas- 
 sion. Then began the rule of him who had the 
 empire of death, that is to say, the devil (Heb. ii, 
 14), which was to last until Christ came to destroy 
 that empire by his death. St. Augustine, in one 
 of his sermons, calls this unhappy condition a sick- 
 ness of human nature that had spread over the face 
 of the earth, 'Magnus per orhem jacebat cegrotus.'' 
 And in another place he says that in consequence of 
 
 14 
 
210 woeld's religious congeesses. 
 
 sin, the nature of man, which should have been a 
 beautiful olive tree planted and watered and nur- 
 tured by the hand of God, and bearing fruits for 
 eternity, became a miserable oleaster, contemptible 
 and disagreeable by the ugliness of its appearance 
 and the bitterness of its false fruits. The work 
 of the gardener had been interfered with and man 
 was condemned to taste the bitter fruits of his own 
 planting. He was displeasing to God and he needed 
 some one who could reconcile him with the heavenly 
 Father by atoning for his sins; he had lost the grace 
 of God, and of himself could not recover it; he was 
 a slave under the power of Satan, and stood in need 
 of a redeemer." 
 
 Expounding the plan of redemption, he continues: 
 ''In the lirst place, it must be borne in mind that 
 God could, if he willed^ have chosen another method 
 of redemption. Being Lord of all things, he might 
 have condoned Adam' s offense and restored to man 
 his lost prerogatives without demanding any atone- 
 ment. He might, if he willed, have accepted in 
 satisfaction for sin the salutary penances of Adam 
 or of some of his descendants. But, says St. Atha- 
 nasius, in this we must consider not what God could 
 have done, but what was best for man, for that was 
 chosen. Away then with all thoughts of excessive 
 rigor on the part of God. He willed to redeem and 
 save us through the sufferings and merits of Christ, 
 because it was better for us; and at the same time 
 he gave to the world the greatest manifestation ever 
 known of his own goodness, power, wisdom, and 
 
A RELIGIOUS SYMPOSIUM. 211 
 
 justice, as we are told by St. John Damascene 
 and St. Thomas Aquinas — two princes of the- 
 ology. This plan of redemption was freely and lov- 
 ingly accepted by the second person of the trinity, 
 and the Son came into the world in the form of man 
 that he might be our Saviour; and as a Saviour he 
 manifested himself from the first moment of his 
 incarnation until the day of his ascension; a Saviour 
 he is still, for as St. Paul tells us (Rom. viii, 34), 
 sitting now at the right hand of God he continually 
 intercedes for us, ojffering to the Father in our 
 behalf his superabundant merits. He was a Saviour 
 by his teaching, by his example, and by his death. 
 The prophet Isaiah had foretold, 800 years before 
 his birth: ' Behold, I have given him for a witness 
 before the people, for a leader and for a master to 
 the Gentiles' (Iv, 4); and when he came, after he 
 had been baptized by St. John, the Father' s voice 
 from the clouds announced that he was the divinely 
 appointed teacher of m ankind : ' This is m y beloved 
 Son, in whom I am well i)leased; hear ye him ' (Matt, 
 xvii, 5), and St. Peter afterward proposed that 
 his Master's doctrine was heavenly and salutary: 
 ' Thou, O Lord, hath the words of eternal life ' (John 
 vi, 69)." 
 
 Then, of the efficacy of Christ's death, he says: 
 ''Thenitw^as that our Saviour consented to be a 
 voluntary victim offered up in expiation for the sins 
 of the world. ' The Word was made flesh and dwelt 
 amongst us' (John i, 14); Christ came into the 
 world, true God and true man. Being man, he could 
 
212 world's religious congresses. 
 
 suffer; being God, anyone of his actions would have 
 infinite value both for merit and for atonement. 
 ' God laid on him the iniquity of us all,' says Isaiah 
 (liii, 6); by his death God's justice was satisfied 
 and man was redeemed; for, says St. Peter (I Ep. 
 i, 18), we were ' not redeemed with corruptible things, 
 as gold and silver, but with the i^recious blood of 
 Christ, as of a lamb unspotted and undefiled.' Thus 
 was blotted out the handwriting of the decree that 
 was against us (Col. ii, 14). By his death Christ 
 not only freed us from evil, he also merited for us 
 the graces we need in order that we may do good, 
 performing actions meritorious of eternal life. 
 Without Christ we can do nothing (John xv, 5). 
 All those who were saved under the old law were 
 saved through faith in the Redeemer to come; grace 
 was granted to them owing to his foreseen merits. 
 In the new law all our sufficiency is from him (II 
 Cor. ii, 3); all graces are granted, as we ask them, 
 ' through the merits of our Lord and Saviour Jesus 
 Christ.' He merited these graces for us by all the 
 acts of his life, but principally by dying for us; the 
 precious blood shed on Calvary flows through the 
 church; it vivifies the sacraments, the channels of 
 grace, by partaking of which we drink from that 
 ' fountain of water springing into life everlasting ' 
 (Johniv, 14)." \r-' "- 
 
 Equally orthodox, but carrying the discussion into 
 the realm of the effect in man of the acceptance of 
 Christ' s sacrifice, Avas the address of Walter Elliott, 
 of the Paulist Convent, New York, from which we 
 
A RELIGIOUS SYMPOSIUM. 213 
 
 cite the following as showing the orthodox ideal of 
 the atonement, arbitrary though the means may 
 seem, is with some, at least, conceived as a real and 
 living union of the soul with God: 
 
 " 'The justilication of a wicked man is his trans- 
 lation from the state in which man is born as a 
 son of the first Adam into the state of grace and 
 adoption of the sons of God by the second Adam, 
 Jesus Clirist, our Saviour.' These words of the 
 Council of Trent affirm that the boon of God' s favor 
 is not merely restoration to humanity's natural 
 innocence. God's friendship for man is elevation 
 to a state higher than nature's highest, and infinitely 
 so, and yet a dignity toward which all men are 
 drawn by the unseen attraction of divine grace and 
 toward which in their better moments they con- 
 sciously strive, however feebly and blindly. Re- 
 ligion, as understood by Christianity, means new 
 life for man, different life, additional life. The 
 Christian mind is thus to be discovered and tested 
 by comparison with the highest standard: ' Be ye 
 perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.' 
 
 " Before coming to the ways and means and proc- 
 esses of acquiring this divine life we must consider 
 atonement for sin. It may be asked. Why does 
 Christ elevate us to union with his Father through 
 suffering ? The answer is that God is dealing with 
 a race which has degraded itself with rebellion and 
 with crime, which naturally involves suffering. 
 God's purpose is now just what it was in the begin- 
 ning, to communicate himself to each human being, 
 and to do it personally, elevating men to brother- 
 
214 
 
 hood with his own divine Son, making them par- 
 takers of tlie same grace which dwells in the soul of 
 Christ, and sharers hereafter in the same blessed- 
 ness which he possesses with the Father. To accom- 
 plish this purpose God originally constituted man 
 in a supernatural condition of divine favor. That 
 lost by sin, God, by an act of grace yet more signal, 
 places his Son in the circumstances of humiliation 
 and suffering due to sin. This is the order of atone 
 ment, a word which has come to signify a mediation 
 through suffering, although the etymological mean- 
 ing of it is bringing together into one. Mediation 
 is now, as ever before, the constant and final pur- 
 pose of God's loving dealing with us. 
 
 " Religion is positive. It makes me good with 
 Christ's goodness. Religion does essentially more \ 
 than rid me of evil. In the mansions of the Father, ^ 
 sorrow opens the outer door of the atrium in which 
 I am pardoned, and love leads to the throne room. 
 If forgiveness and union be distinct, it is only as 
 we think of them, for to God they are one. And this 
 is to be noted: all infants who pass into heaven 
 through the laver of regeneration have had no con- 
 scious experience of any kind, and yet will enjoy 
 the union of filiation forever. 'Nov can it be denied 
 that there are multitudes of adults whose sanctifica- 
 tion has had no conscious process of the remission 
 of grave sin, for many such have never been guilty 
 of it. To excite them to a fictitious sense of sinfulness 
 is untruthful, unjust, and unchristian. Hounding 
 innocent souls into the company of demons is false 
 zeal and is cruel. The expiation of sin is the 
 
A RELIGIOUS SYMPOSIUM. 215 
 
 removal of an obstacle to our union with God. 
 Nothing hinders the progress of guileless or repent- 
 ant souls, even their peace of mind, more than prev- 
 alent misconceptions on this point. Freed from 
 sin many fall under the delusion that all is done; 
 not to commit sin is assumed to be the end of 
 religion. In reality pardon is but the initial work 
 of grace, and even j)ardon is not possible without 
 the gift of love. The sufferings of Christ as well as 
 whatever is of a penitential influence in his religion 
 are not in the nature of merely paying a penalty, but 
 is chiefly an offering of love. Atonement is related 
 to mediation as its condition and not as its essence. 
 We are washed in the Redeemer's blood, but that 
 blood does not remain on the surface; it penetrates 
 us and sanctifies our own blood, mingling with it. 
 We are not ransomed only, but ennobled. The 
 process on man's i^art of union with God is free and 
 loving acceptance of all liis invitations, inner and 
 outer, natural and revealed, organic and personal. 
 Loving God is the practical element in our recep- 
 tion of the Holy Spirit. The fruition of love is 
 union with ihe beloved. If to be regenerated means 
 to be born of God, then Avhat is to be sought after is 
 newness of life by the immediate contact with life's 
 source and center in love. The perfection of any 
 finite being is the closest possible identity with its 
 ideal. The supreme end and office of religion is to 
 cause men by love personally to approximate to the 
 ideal, not merely of humanity, but of humanity 
 made one with the Deity." 
 
216 
 
 The objection to this idea of the divine govern- 
 ment and plan of atonement has always been its 
 ideal of God. It presupposes that he needs to be 
 reconciled and ajjpeased and his government vindi- 
 cated; whereas the apostle declares, "God was in 
 Christ reconciling the world unto himself." The 
 problem with most minds is, How did God in 
 Christ redeem mankind from the great w^eight and 
 bondage of evil, and how does he carry over to 
 man the power of his life and work so as to be in 
 man a real and vital reconciliation and union with 
 God? 
 
 On this point the paper of the Rev. Theodore F. 
 Wright, Ph. D., of Cambridge will be read with 
 interest, and by many with satisfaction, as present- 
 ing a view of the subject distinctive from the 
 orthodox and from the moral influence theory of 
 atonement, and one which makes the statement of 
 his subject signiflcant. His subject was "Recon- 
 ciliation Vital, not Vicarious." 
 
 "There are certain dicta of Scripture," he said, 
 "which are universal because fundamental and 
 fundamental because universal. One of these is 
 that saying of the Apostle John, ' God is love; 
 and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and 
 God in him.' Once of sympathies so narrow that 
 he was for bringing fire from heaven down upon a 
 village which would not receive his Lord as he 
 journeyed, he was now so tenderly conscious of the 
 infinite love which had sought him out and 
 gathered him that he could say: 'He that loveth 
 not knoweth not God, for God is love; beloved, if 
 
A RELIGIOUS SYMPOSIUM. 217 
 
 God so love us, we also ought to love one another.' 
 John had attained to this conviction by the process 
 of religious experience. Others have seen the same 
 infinite fact written in vernal fields and ripening 
 harvests. Others find it in the intricate harmony 
 of natural forces. They all see tliat there is as the 
 center and source of life a fountain of fatherliness 
 which is ever begetting and nurturing, so that, 
 indeed, we can not conceive of the idle God, the 
 neglectful God, or the God of limited interests.^ 
 Our minds will not work until we place before them 
 the ever-creating God, who neither slumbers nor 
 sleeps; the ever present help. ' Perad venture he 
 sleepeth ' might be said of Baal, for there was no 
 answer; but when Elijah called on the God of 
 Abraham, of Isaac, and of Israel, 'the fire of the 
 Lord 'fell.' It is in the light of this fact of the 
 universal divine love that the fallen condition of 
 man finds its remedy disclosed. There may have 
 been a time when this light was so dim that 
 Judaism fancied its God a partisan, and a regressive 
 Christianity thought that it had ascertained the 
 limits of the divine care, but now we know that 
 God is one, and that ' his tender mercies are over 
 all his work.' This being so, it is true to say that 
 fallen man was succored by the same love that 
 created him. The father of the prodigal does not 
 sulk in his tent while some elder brother is left. to 
 search out the wanderer and bring him in, pointing 
 to the wounds he got in rescuing him as a means of 
 softening the heart of the father; nay, the father 
 watches the pathway with longings, and sends his 
 
218 
 
 love after the boj^, and when the wayward one is 
 yet a great way off, he sees, he hath compassion, he 
 runs, he falls on his neck, he kisses him ; he bids 
 them bring the robe, the ring, the shoes, the fatted 
 calf; he reproves the cold vindictiveness of the elder 
 brother; he is all shepherd-like. 
 
 "We need not dogmatize as to the fallen state of 
 man. Intellectually man has not fallen. He is as 
 bright as he ever was. He is growing brighter. 
 The evolution of the intellect is indisputable. But 
 *as to the will, what is man? Is he the worshiping 
 child that he once was? Does he eagerly do the % 
 truth he learns or does he find it necessary to com- 
 pel himself to do it ? There is a degree of igno- 
 rance, of illiteracy, but it is easy to find a remedy 
 for it in the common school. There is on every side 
 a spectacle of lust, and greed, and indolence, and 
 selfishness, and our schools touch it not. We are 
 making men shrewd, but we are not making them 
 good. The human mind wants reaching in its 
 depths. The motives behind our thinking want 
 renewal, else mind-life is like John RandoliDlrs 
 mackerel in the moonlight, which stank as it shone. 
 So was man in the sad days of Roman sensuality 
 and Jewish hypocrisy, and so do our daily chroni- 
 cles testify to-day. The cure for the lost sheep is 
 to seek for it till it is found. ' All we like sheep 
 have gone astray; we have turned every one to his 
 own way.' (Is. liii, 6.) The question is, How 
 should the divine love accomplish the purpose with 
 which it must be teeming — the recovery of the lost 
 state? Our answer is in general to say that the 
 
A RELIGIOUS SYMPOSIUM. 219 
 
 remedy was within the keeping of the infinite love 
 and wisdom which had so far made and conducted 
 man, or we must hold some view which limits the 
 Holy One of Israel. If God would come with any 
 mercy he must descend to the place of the fallen. 
 If he would conquer the evil without destroying 
 them, he must contend with them on their own 
 plane. To take upon himself the nature born of 
 woman would be his means of redemption. He 
 must take on the office of Joshua, who led the 
 people out of the wilderness into their inheritance. 
 And a virgin conceived and bore a son, and called 
 his name Jesus — that is, Joshua. The Wisdom or 
 Word of God was made flesh, so that we behold the 
 glory of the Father. It was the Father in the Son 
 who did the works. How marvelously clear are 
 the prophetic songs of Mary and Zacharias. She 
 said: ' My spirit hath rejoiced in God, my Saviour. 
 He hath showed strength with his arm. He hath 
 holpen his servant, Israel, in remembrance of his 
 mercy, as he spake to our fathers.' And the father 
 of the forerunner said: 'Blessed be the Lord God of 
 Israel, for he hath visited and redeemed his people; 
 that we, being delivered out of the hands of our 
 enemies, might serve him without fear all the days 
 of our life; the day-spring from on high hath visited 
 us, to give light to them that sit in darkness and the 
 shadow of death, to guide our feet in the way of 
 peace.' Therefore John the BaiDtist proclaimed him 
 as ' the Lamb of God that taketli away the sin of the 
 world,' and therefore he bade his hearers j)repare 
 the way of Jehovah, and make straight his path. 
 
220 
 
 " Born of woman, and so open to every tempta- 
 tion, he was early led to find the written word, his 
 light of life. He went about his father's business 
 by expounding it. Tried in the wilderness, he made 
 no other answer than the lav\^. Going about doing 
 good, he healed the sick and gave sight to the blind, 
 and brought good tidings to the meek. At Jerusa- 
 lem he cleansed the temple of its corruption, even as 
 he was daily rendering his own nature the temple of 
 God. The inevitable conflict was not shunned. The 
 perceived unfaithfulness of many did not provoke a \ 
 word of resentment. The attempts of habitual sin- 
 ners of this world and the other to overthrow him 
 failed again and again, but it was inevitable that 
 there must be a last and most direful assault. He 
 foresaw it ; but behold the conduct of infinite love ! 
 He bathed his disciples' feet in order to teach them 
 the new commandment of love to one another. He 
 bade them be not troubled, and spoke of the peace 
 he had to give to them. He chastened himself in 
 the garden. On his way to the cross he asked them 
 to weep rather for themselves than for him. He 
 gave the mother a son to care for her old age. To 
 perjured Peter his answer had been but a look. To 
 the false accusations he had been dumb. For his 
 love they were his adversaries, but he gave himself 
 unto prayer. Rising again, he came with indescrib- 
 able gentleness to the recognition of Mary Magda- 
 lene. To the two discouraged disciples he was all 
 patience. To doubting Thomas he was infinitely 
 condescending. As he stood there, for the time 
 made visible to their spiritual sight, having entered 
 
A RELIGIOUS SYMPOSIUM. 221 
 
 where the doors were shut, he was the embodi- 
 ment of prophecy fulfilled, of divine love triumph- 
 ant. He was, he is, ' Our Lord and our God,' ' the 
 brightness of his glory, the express image of his 
 person.' 
 
 ' ' This is no merely vicarious act of a subordinate 
 or additional person of God. It was the act of God 
 himself to restore the vital union between man and 
 himself, that union which man had severed by 
 increasing self-assertion, waywardness, and wicked- 
 ness, and which could only be renewed by contri- 
 tion and return and reconciliation. In the case of 
 the man healed of his blindness, in the ninth chapter 
 of John, we have first the evil condition, then the 
 remedy offered, next the remedy accepted, at once 
 the cure effected, and finally a vital union of safety 
 for him established with the Lord, as shown by his 
 saying, 'Lord, I believe,' and by his worshiping 
 him. In more difficult cases, as we know by some 
 experience, the knowledge of the remedy may be 
 cold and unfruitful in the memory until in seeking 
 to lead a less selfish life, to be worthy of a loving 
 wife or a trusting child, or to consecrate our lives in 
 full to the Lord's service, we begin to form new 
 motives with the divine aid; to hate what we once 
 wickedly loved, and to love what we once wickedly 
 hated; and so, little by little, born from above, a 
 new heart is formed with in us, and we come to act as 
 faithful rather than as unfaithful servants of the 
 Lord, as friends rather than as enemies. So do 
 we cease to do evil and learn to do well, if we 
 will. Thus we may see that the will and the power 
 
222 world's religious congresses. 
 
 to rescue and to reconcile wayward souls sprang 
 from the intinite love; that the method is that of 
 the divine order, and that the result in the individ- 
 ual redeemed through repentance and regeneration 
 is just what man's fallen state required and requires. 
 It is preciselj'- as Paul said: 'Gfod was in Christ 
 reconciling of the w^orld unto himself.' (II Cor. v, 
 19.) And again he said: ' In him dwelleth ali the 
 fullness of the Godhead bodily.' (Col. xi, 9.) 'Sve 
 dwell in him,' said John once more, ' and he in us; 
 we loved him because he first loved us. ' ' This is 
 the true God and eternal life.' 
 
 " ' That uncreated beauty, which has gained 
 My raptured heart, has all my glory stained; 
 His loveliness my soul has prepossessed, 
 And left no room for any other guest.' " 
 
 KEVELATIOJN^ AND THE SCRIPTURES. 
 
 If we turn to the subject of revelation we find 
 abundant testimony to the universality of belief in 
 revelation of some sort from God to man. An 
 interesting descriptive and illustrative paper on 
 "The Sacred Books of the World as Literature" 
 was furnished by Prof. Milton S. Terry, D. D., who 
 said in appeal for a larger study of all sacred litera- 
 tures: "I am a Christian, and must needs look at 
 things from a Christian j)oint of view; but that 
 fact should not hinder the broadest observation. 
 Christian scholars have for centuries admired the 
 poems of Homer, and will never lose interest in the 
 story of Odysseus, the myriad-minded Greek, who 
 traversed the roaring seas, touched many a foreign 
 
A RELIGIOUS SYMPOSIUM. 223 
 
 shore, and observed the habitations and customs of 
 many men. Will they be likely to discard the 
 recently deciphered Accadian hymns and Assyidan 
 penitential p>salms ? Is it probable that men who 
 can devote studious years to the philosophy of Plato 
 and Aristotle will care nothing about the invoca- 
 tions of the old Persian Avesta, tlie Yedic hymns, 
 the doctrines of Buddha, and the maxims of Confu- 
 cius? Nay, I repeat it, I am a Christian; therefore 
 I think there is nothing human or divine in any lit- 
 erature of the world that I can afford to ignore." 
 
 Beginning with a quotation from the Chinese on 
 creation and setting in comparison with citations 
 from the Vedas, and referring to the Scandinavian 
 Edda, and the Chaldean account of creation, he 
 says: "As theologians we naturally study these 
 theosophic poems with reference to their oxigin and 
 relationship. But we now call attention to the 
 place they hold in the sacred literatures of the 
 world. Each composition bears the marks of an 
 individual genius. He may, aud probably does, in 
 every case express the current belief or tradition of 
 his nation, but his description reveals a human mind 
 wrestling with the mysterious problems of the 
 world, and suggesting, if not announcing, some 
 solution. As specimens of literature the various 
 poems of creation exhibit a world-wide taste and 
 tendency to cast in poetic form the profoundest 
 thoughts which busy the human soul." 
 
 Speaking of the scriptures of Buddhism he gives 
 some interesting facts: "The sacred scrix)tures of 
 Buddhism comprise three immense collections 
 
224 world's religious congresses. 
 
 known as the Tripitaka, or 'three baskets.' One of 
 these contains the discourses of Buddha, another 
 treats of doctrines and metaphysics, and another is 
 devoted to ethics and discipline. In bulk these 
 writings rival all that was ever included under the 
 title of Veda, and contain more than seven times the 
 amount of matter in the Scriptures of the Old and 
 New Testaments. The greater portion of this exten- 
 sive literature, in the most ancient texts, exists as 
 yet only in manuscript. But as Buddhism spread 
 and triumphed mightily in Southern and Eastern 
 Asia, its sacred books have been translated into Pali, 
 Burmese, Siamese, Tibetan, Chinese, and other Asi 
 atic tongues. The Tibetan edition of the Tripitaka 
 fills about 325 folio volumes. Every important tribe 
 or nation which has adopted Buddhism appears to 
 have a more or less complete Buddhist literature of 
 its own. But all this literature, so vast that one life- 
 time seems insufficient to exi^lore it thoroughly, 
 revolves about a comparatively few and simple doc- 
 trines. First we have the four sublime Verities: (1) 
 All existence, being subject to change and decay, is 
 evil. (2) The source of all this evil is desire. (3) 
 Desire and the evil which follows it may be made to 
 cease. (4) There is a fixed and certain way by 
 which to attain exemption from all evil. Next 
 after these Verities are the doctrines of the Eightfold 
 Path: (1) Right belief, (2) right judgment, (3) right 
 utterance, (4) right motives, (5) right occupation, 
 (6) right obedience, (7) right memory, and (8) right 
 meditation. Then we have further, five command- 
 ments: (1) Do not kill; (2) do not steal; (3) do not 
 
MISS JEANNE SORABJI, 
 Christian Convert, Bombay, India. 
 
A RELIGIOUS SYMPOSIUM. 225 
 
 lie; (4) do not become intoxicated; (5) do not commit 
 adultery." 
 
 Advancing to the sacred literature of China, he 
 speaks as follows of the ''books of Confucianism, 
 which is par excellence the religion of the Chinese 
 Empire. Bat Confucius was not the founder of the 
 religion which is associated with his name. He 
 claimed merely to have studied deeply into antiquity 
 and to be a teacher of the records and worship of 
 the past. The Chinese classics comprise the five 
 King and the four Shu. The latter, however, are 
 the works of Confucius' disciples, and hold not the 
 rank and authority of the five King. The word 
 King means a web of cloth (or the warp which keeps 
 the thread in place), and is applied to the most 
 ancient books of the nation, as works possessed of a 
 sort of a canonical authority. Of these ancient 
 books the Shu King and the Shih King are of chief 
 importance. One is a book of history and the other 
 of poetry. The Shu King relates to a period extend- 
 ing over seventeen centuries, from about 2357 B. C. 
 to 627 B. C, and is believed to be the oldest of all 
 the Chinese Bible, and consists of ballads relating to 
 events of the national history and songs and hymns 
 to be sung on great state occasions. They exhibit a 
 primitive simplicity and serve to picture forth the 
 manners of the ancient time. ' ' 
 
 "In passing now from sacred literatures of the 
 far East to those of the West I linger for a moment 
 over the religious writings of the ancient Babyloni- 
 ans and the Persians. Who has not heard of Zoro- 
 aster and the Zend-Avesta? But the monuments of 
 
 15 
 
226 world's religious congresses. 
 
 the great valley of the Tigris and Euphrates have 
 in recent years disclosed a still more ancient litera- 
 ture. The old Accadian and Assyrian hymns might 
 be collected into a volume which would perhaps rival 
 the Veda in interest if not in value." 
 
 ' 'As for the sacred scriptures of the Parsees, the 
 Avesta, it may be said that few remains of antiquity 
 are of much greater interest to the student of his- 
 tory and religion. But these records of the old 
 Iranian faith have suffered sadly by time and the 
 revolutions of the empire. One who had made 
 them a special life stitdy observes: 'As the Parsees 
 are the ruins of a people, so are their sacred books 
 the ruin of a religion. There has been no other 
 great belief that ever left such poor and meager 
 monuments of its past splendor.' The oldest por- 
 tions of the Avesta consist of praises to the holy 
 powers of heaven and invocations for them to be 
 present at the ceremonial worship. The entire col- 
 lection taken together is mainly of the nature of a 
 prayer-book or ritual." 
 
 As for these and other sacred scriptures, the 
 people among whom they are received regard them 
 as in some way the revelation of the divine wisdom 
 for man. What recognition have Christians to give 
 to them, how do they explain their origin, and value 
 them in comparison with our own sacred Scriptures? 
 On this point Professor Carpenter of Oxford, in his 
 plea for "a wider conception of revelation," says: 
 " The early Christians were confronted with the fact 
 that Greek poets and philosophers had reached 
 
A RELIGIOUS SYMPOSIUM. 327 
 
 truths about the being of God not at all unlike those 
 of Moses and the prophets. Their solution was 
 worthy of the freedom and universality of the spirit 
 of Jesus. They were for recognizing and welcoming 
 truth, wherever they found it, and they referred it 
 without hesitation to the ultimate source of wisdom 
 and knowledge, the Logos, at once the inner 
 thought anl the uttered word of God. The martyr 
 Justin affirmed that the Logos had worked through 
 Socrates, as it had been present in Jesus; nay, with 
 a wider outlook he spoke of the seed of the Logos 
 implanted in every race of man. In virtue of this 
 fellowship, therefore, all truth was revelation and 
 akin to Christ himself. ' Whatsoever things were 
 said among all men are the property of us Chris- 
 tians.' The Alexandrian teachers shared the same 
 conception. The divine intelligence pervaded 
 human life and history and showed itself in all that 
 was best in beauty, goodness, truth. The way of 
 truth was like a mighty river, ever flowing, and as it 
 passed it was' ever receiving fresh streams on this 
 side and that. Nay, so clear in Clement's view was 
 the work of Greek philosophy that he not only 
 regarded it like law and gospel as a gift of God, it 
 was an actual covenant as much as that of Sinai, 
 possessed of its own Justifying power, or following 
 the great generalization of St. Paul, the law was a 
 tutor to bring the Jews to Christ. Clement added 
 that philosophy wrought the same heaven-appointed 
 service for the Greeks. May we not use the same 
 great conception over other fields of the history of 
 religion? 'In all ages,' affirmed the author of the 
 
228 world's religious congresses. 
 
 wisdom of Solomon, 'wisdom entering into holy 
 souls maketli tliem friends of God and proi^hets.' 
 So we may claim in its widest ajpplication the say- 
 ing of Mohammed: ' Every nation has a creator of 
 the heavens, to which they turn in prayer; it is 
 God who turneth them toward it. Hasten, then, 
 emulously after good wheresoever ye be. God wall 
 one day bring you all together.' " 
 
 It is interesting in this connection to recall the 
 theory of Maurice Phillips of Madras, quoted 
 above, that the Vedic Hinduism was derived from 
 primitive revelation, and to raise the question 
 whether all these sacred Scriptures are not the 
 more or less perverted streams of such primitive 
 revelation. They all show an antecedent history, 
 wiiich is not the history of savage man. They not 
 only show interior relation and striking family 
 resemblance, but they issue at full head out of the 
 gateway ot^" an unapproachable past. They are 
 colored by the washing of the channels through 
 which they run; but what is essential to each is 
 common to all, and testifies to a divine fountain of 
 the water of life. They use the same symbols and 
 imagery, and suggest a mystical meaning. "The 
 idea of a divine revelation," says the author of the 
 pai)er on "Concessions to Native Ideas," "the idea 
 of a ' word of God ' communicated directly to inspired 
 sages or rishis, according to a theory of inspiration 
 higher than that of any other religion in the world, 
 is perfectly familiar to Hindus, and is, indeed, uni- 
 versally entertained. Yet the conclusion reached is 
 
A EELIGIOUS SYMPOSIUM. 229 
 
 this, that a careful comparison of religions brings 
 out this striking contrast between the Bible and all 
 other scriptures; it establishes its satisfying char- 
 acter in distinction from the seeking spirit of other 
 faiths. The Bible shows God in quest of man rather 
 than man in quest of God. It meets the questions 
 raised in the philosophies of the East, and supplies 
 their only true solution." 
 
 Is this because the Bible contains a verbal revela- 
 tion, given as at the first by inspiration, and main- 
 tained in purity by divine providence, while all 
 other scriptures are derived from traditions of a 
 primitive word of God? In confirmation of this 
 faith, it may be recalled that Rawlinson says, " The 
 facts appear on the whole to point to the existence 
 of a primitive religion communicated to man from 
 without, and the gradual clouding over of this 
 primitive revelation everywheie, unless it were 
 among the Hebrews." 
 
 The origin of religion in revelation will be 
 admitted by those who incline -to the theory of 
 natural development as well as those who think of 
 it as the voice of God from above; but what is the 
 idea of revelation? It would appear from the deliv- 
 erances before the congress that there are essen- 
 tially two, and only two, ideas of revelation in the 
 world to-day. One almost universally accepted in 
 some form or other is that it is the voice of God in 
 human consciousness. The other, accepted prob- 
 ably by a very few, that it is the involution of the 
 divine in human speech, through human instru- 
 ments, but by a divine act; and that it is through 
 
230 world's religious congresses. 
 
 the inspiration in men of such verbal communica- 
 tion from God that spiritual and divine ideas can 
 be communicated to man's conscious recognition. 
 
 The first theory, the revelation of the divine in 
 consciousness, appears in declarations from the Ori- 
 ent and from Christendom. Mr. Mozoomdar, in his 
 eloquent address on "The World's Debt to Asia," 
 voiced this thought of revelation in his i^oetic way: 
 "In the high realms of that undying wisdom the 
 Hebrew, the Hindu, the Mongolian, the Christian 
 are ever at one, for that wisdom is no part of them- 
 selves, but the self -rev elation of God. The Hindu 
 books have not plagiarized the Bible, Cliristianity 
 has not plundered Buddhism, but universal wis- 
 dom is like unto itself everywhere. Similarly love, 
 when it is unselfish and incarnal, has its counterj)art 
 in all lands and all times. The deepest poetry, 
 whether in Dante, Shakespeare, or Kalidasa, is uni- 
 versal. The love of God repeats itself century after 
 century in the jdIous of every race; the love of man 
 makes all mankind its kindred. True holiness is 
 the universal idea, however much personal prej- 
 udices or passions stand in the way of the light. 
 Hence Asia, seeking the universal God in her soul, 
 has discovered God to all the world. This process of 
 seeking and finding God within is an intense spirit- 
 ual culture, known by various names in various 
 countries; in India we call it Yoga. The self -con- 
 centrated devotee finds an immersion in the depths 
 of the indwelling deity. God's reason becomes 
 man's reason, God's love becomes man's love. God 
 and man become one. Introspection finds the uni- 
 
A RELIGIOUS SYMPOSIUM. 231 
 
 versal soul — the over-soul of your Emerson — beat- 
 ing in all humanity, and a human and divine are thus 
 reconciled." 
 
 This doctrine in its more definite statement by 
 western thinkers, is substantially this: That God is 
 immanent in nature and man, and by his operation in 
 the human soul draws man to seek him, and enables 
 man to find him, and more or less truly to record what 
 he has found. All sacred Scriptures are such record. 
 Scripture and interpretation alike are the voice of 
 God in the unfolding consciousness of man. It is 
 this which gives coordinate authority for Doctor 
 Briggs to Scripture and reason and the church. 
 Scripture is the record of what God has taught in 
 gifted souls; reason sex)arates the essential from the 
 non-essential and corrects the record in fuller light; 
 the church perserves the record and keeps pure the 
 witness to essential truths by a consensus of the voice 
 of the divine Spirit in many through long time; each 
 is serviceable to correct the other, and God works 
 through all for the perfecting of each. The same 
 theory lies at the root of the doctrine of the Cath- 
 olic church concerning the Bible, only in its claim 
 the superior authority is with the church, which 
 by its Catholic decision establishes the written 
 word, and by its Catholic consensus interprets it. 
 It is probable, also, that the same theory underlies 
 Joseph Cook' s emphatic and characteristic declara- 
 tion that "the worth of the Bible results from the 
 fact that it contains a revelation of religious truth 
 not elsewhere communicated to man." For he says 
 
232 world's religious congresses. 
 
 this is true ' ' irrespective of any question as to the 
 method of inspiration," and rests its religious infal- 
 libility ux)on "the literal infallibility of the strictly 
 self-evident truths of Scripture." Dr. Briggs can 
 say as mucli, as follows: 
 
 "We may now say confidently to all men: ' All 
 the sacred books of the world are now accessible to 
 you; study them, compare them, recognize all that 
 is good and noble and true in them all and tabulate 
 results, and you will be convinced that the holy 
 Scriptures of the Old and 'New Testaments are true, 
 holy, and divine.' When we have gone searchingly 
 through all the books of other religions we will find 
 that they are as torches of various sizes and brilliance 
 lighting up the darkness of the night, but the holy 
 Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are like 
 the sun shining in the heavens and lighting up the 
 whole world." 
 
 But the sacred Scriptures are not the word of 
 God, they are records of the Word as it was revealed 
 in holy men, and the records are not without error, 
 nor have they any magical or peculiar divine power 
 which makes them authoritative over reason which 
 is God's voice now in men. Thus he says of the 
 writers: 
 
 "They were guided by the divine Spirit in their 
 comprehension and expression of the divine instruc- 
 tion, but, judging also from their work, it seems 
 most probable that they were not guided by the 
 divine Spirit in grammar, rhetoric, logic, expression, 
 arrangement of material, or general editorial work. 
 
A RELIGIOUS SYMPOSIUM. 233 
 
 They were left to those errors which even the most 
 faithful and scrupulous of writers will sometimes 
 make. The science which approaches the Bible 
 from without and the science which studies it from 
 within agree as to the essential facts of the case. 
 Now, can the truthfulness of Scripture be main- 
 tained by those who recognize these errors? There 
 is no reason why the substantial truthfulness of the 
 Bible shall not be consistent with circumstantial 
 errors. God did not speak himself in the Bible 
 except a few words recorded here and there; he 
 spoke in much greater portions of the Old Testa- 
 ment through the voices and ]3ens of the human 
 authors of the Scriptures. Did the human minds 
 and pens always deliver the inerrant word ? 
 
 ' 'All that we can claim is inspiration and accuracy 
 for that which suggests the religious lessons to be 
 imparted: God is true. He is the truth. He can 
 not lie; he can not mislead or deceive his creatures. 
 But the question arises, when the infinite God 
 speaks to finite man must he speak words which are 
 not error? This depends not only upon God's 
 speaking, but on man's hearing, and also of the 
 means of communication between God and man. It 
 is necessary to show the capacity of man to receive 
 the word before we can be sure that he transmitted 
 it correctly. The inspiration of the holy Scriptures 
 does not carry with it inerrancy in every particular; 
 it was sufficient if the divine truth was given with 
 such clearness as to guide men aright in religious 
 life. 
 
 "The errors of holy Scripture are not errors of 
 
234 world's religious congresses. 
 
 falsehood or deceit, but of ignorance, inadvertence, 
 partial and inadequate knowledge, and of incapacity 
 to express the whole truth of God which belonged to 
 man as man. Just as light is seen not in its pure 
 and unclouded state, but in the beautiful colors of 
 the spectrum, so it is that the truth of God, its reve- 
 lation and communication to man, met with such 
 obstacles in human nature. Men are capable of 
 receiving it only in its diverse operations, and 
 diverse manners as it comes to them through the 
 diverse temperaments and points of view of the 
 Biblical writers. The religion of the Old Testament 
 is a religion which includes some things hard to 
 reconcile in an inerrant revelation. The sacrifice of 
 Jephthah's daughter, the divine command to Abra- 
 ham to offer up his son as a burnt offering, and other 
 incidents seem unsuited to divine revelation. The 
 ISTew Testament taught that sacrifices must be of 
 broken, contrite hearts and humble and cheerful 
 spirits. What pleasure would God take in smoking 
 altars? How could the true God prescribe such 
 puerilities?" 
 
 With more confidence, because established in the 
 supreme authority of the church, through which, 
 acting in its Catholic capacity as an organized body, 
 it is claimed, the divine Spirit reveals itself infalli- 
 bly, the Rt.-Rev. Mgr. Seton declared the Catholic 
 doctrine of the Bible: 
 
 "The-church is a living society commissioned by 
 Jesus Christ to preserve the Word of God pure and 
 unchanged . This revealed Word of God is contained 
 
A KELIGIOUS SYMPOSIUM. 235 
 
 partly in the holy Scripture and partly in tradition. 
 The former is called the written Word of God, 
 writing — not necessarily, indeed, on paper, but as 
 often found on more durable materials, such as clay 
 or brick tablets, stone slabs and cylinders, and metal 
 plates — being the art of fixing thoughts in an intelli- 
 gible and lasting shape, so as to hand them down to 
 other generations and thus perpetuate historical 
 records. There is a sjjecial congruity that the 
 Almighty, from whose instructions, not only orig- 
 inal spoken, but probably also written, language was 
 derived, should have put his divine revelations in 
 wilting through the instrumentality of chosen men; 
 and as the human race is originally one, we think 
 that the fact that scriptures of some sort claiming 
 to be inspired are found in all the civilized nations 
 of the past shows that such conceptions, although 
 outside of the orthodox line of tradition, are derived 
 from the primitive unity and religion of the human 
 family. The church teaches that the sacred Script- 
 ures are the written Word of God and that he is^ 
 their author, and consequently she receives them 
 with piety and reverence. This gives a distinct 
 character to the Bible which no other book possesses, 
 for of no mere human composition, however excel- 
 lent, can it ever be said that it comes directly from 
 God. The church also maintains that it belongs 
 to her, and to her alone, to determine the true 
 sense of the Scriptures, and that they can not be 
 rightly interpreted contrary to her decision; because 
 she claims to be and is the living, unerring authority 
 to whom, and not to those who expound the Script- 
 
236 world's religious congresses. 
 
 ure by the light of private judgment, infallibility 
 was promised and given." 
 
 The second theory of revelation was set forth 
 by the Rev. Frank Sewall, with an appeal to the 
 testimony of the Scriptures themselves, so full and 
 frank as to challenge that " criticism " of which Doc- 
 tor Briggs thinks so highly that he says the faith 
 which shrinks from it is a faith so weak and uncer- 
 tain that it excites suspicion as to its life and vital- 
 ity. When, in preparing for the parliament, it was 
 observed that the programme provided for no pres- 
 entation of the plenary inspiration of the Scriptures, 
 I asked that the Rev. Mr. Sewall be assigned "The 
 Character and Degree of the Inspiration of the 
 Christian Scriptures." The paper, because it stands 
 alone in the doctrine advocated both as to the canon 
 and as to nature of inspiration, and presents its argu- 
 ment from the Scriptures themselves, will interest 
 even those committed to the jjrevailing theories. 
 
 " There is a common consent among Christians 
 that the Scri^Dtures known as the Holy Bible are 
 divinely inspired; that they constitute a book unlike 
 all other books in that they contain a direct com- 
 munication from the divine Spirit to the mind and 
 heart of man. The nature and the degree of the 
 inspiration which thus characterizes the Bible can 
 only be learned from the declaration of the holy 
 Scriptures themselves, since only the divine can 
 truly reveal the divine or afford to human minds 
 the means of judging truly regarding what is divine. 
 
 "The Christian Scripture, or the Holy Bible^ is 
 
A RELIGIOUS SYMPOSIUM. 237 
 
 written in two parts, the Old and the New Testa- 
 ment. In the interval of time that transpired 
 between the writing of these two parts, the divine 
 truth and essential Word, which in the beginning 
 was with God and was God, became incarnate on 
 our earth in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ. 
 He, as the Word made flesh and dwelling among 
 men, being himself ' the true Light that lighteth 
 every man that cometh into the world,' placed the 
 seal of divine authority upon certain of the then 
 existing sacred Scriptures. He thus forever fixed 
 the divine canon of that portion of the written 
 Word; and from that portion we are enabled to 
 derive a criterion of judgment regarding the degree 
 of divine inspiration and authority to be attributed 
 to those other Scriptures which were to follow after 
 our Lord's ascension and which constitute the New 
 Testament. 
 
 "The divine canon of the W^ord in the Old Testa- 
 ment Scriptures is declared by our Lord in Luke, 
 twenty-fourth chapter, forty-fourth verse, where he 
 says: ' All things must be fulfilled which were 
 written in the law of Moses, and in the Prophets, and 
 in the Psalms concerning me.' And in verses 
 twenty-five to twenty- seven: ' O fools, and slow of 
 heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken ' 
 — ' and beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he 
 expounded unto them in all the Scriptures things 
 concerning himself.' The Scriptures of the Old Tes- 
 tament thus enumerated as testifying of him and 
 as being fulfilled in him embrace two of the three 
 divisions into which the Jews at that time divided 
 
238 world's religious congresses. 
 
 their sacred books. These two are the Law (Torah), 
 or the five books of Moses, so called, and the 
 Prophets (Nebiim). Of the books contained in the 
 third division of the Jewish canon, known as the 
 Kethubim or 'other writings,' our Lord recognizes 
 but two: he names by title 'the Psalms;' and in 
 Matthew, twenty-fourth chapter, fifteenth verse, 
 when predicting the consummation of the age and his 
 own second coming, our Lord cites the prophecy of 
 Daniel. It is evident that our Lord was not gov- 
 erned by Jewish tradition in naming these three 
 classes of the ancient books which were henceforth 
 to be regarded as essentially ' the Word,' because of 
 having their fulfillment in himself. In the very 
 words of Jesus Christ the canon of the Word is 
 established in a twofold manner: First, intrinsic- 
 ally, as including those books which interiorly tes- 
 tify of him and were all to be fulfilled in him. 
 Secondly, the canon is fixed specifically by our 
 Lord's naming the books which compose it under 
 the three divisions: ' The Law, the Prophets, and 
 the Psalms.' The canon in this sense comprises 
 consequently the ^ye books of Moses, or the ' Law, ' 
 so-called; the books of Joshua, the Judges, First 
 and Second Samuel, First and Second Kings, or 
 the so-called earlier prophets; the later prophets, 
 including the four ' great ' and the twelve ' minor ' 
 prophets, and finally the Book of Psalms. The 
 other books of the Old Testament, namely: Ezra, 
 Nehemiah, Job, Proverbs, First and Second Chron- 
 icles, Kuth, Esther, the Songs of Solomon, and Eccle- 
 siastes, are as well as the so-called, ' Apocrypha.' 
 
A RELIGIOUS SYMPOSIUM. 239 
 
 Of those books, whicli compose the divine canon 
 itself, it may be said that they constitute the inex- 
 haustible source of revelation and inspiration. We 
 may regard, therefore, as established that the source 
 of the divinity of the Bible, of its unity, and its 
 authority as divine revelation lies in having the 
 Christ, as the eternal Word v^ithin it, at once its 
 source, its inspiration, its prophecy, its fulfillment, 
 its power to illuminate the minds of men with a 
 knowledge of divine and spiritual things, to ' convert 
 the soul,' to ' make wise the simple.' 
 
 "We next observe regarding these divine books 
 that, besides being thus set apart by Christ, they 
 declare themselves to be the word of the Lord in 
 the sense of being actually spoken by the Lord, and 
 so as constituting a divine language. This shows 
 that not only do these books claim to be of God's 
 revealing, but that the manner of the revelation was 
 that of direct dictation by means of a voice actually 
 heard, as one hears another talking, although by 
 the internal organs of hearing. The same is also 
 true throughout the prophetical books above enu- 
 merated. Here we are met with the constant decla- 
 ration of the ^Word of the Lord coming,' as the 
 ^ voice of the Lord speaking,' to the writers of these 
 books, showing that the writers wrote not of them- 
 selves, but from the 'voice of the Lord through 
 them.' 
 
 *' We now turn to the New Testament, and apply- 
 ing to those books which in the time of Christ were 
 yet unwritten criteria derived from those books 
 which had received from him the seal of divine 
 
240 world's religious congresses. 
 
 authority, namely, that they are words spoken by 
 the Lord or given by his Spirit, and that they testify 
 of him and so haye in them eternal life, we find in 
 the four Gospels either — 
 
 '*1. The words 'spoken unto' us by our Lord 
 himself when among men as the Word, and of which 
 he says: ' The words which I speak unto you they 
 are spirit and they are life.' 2. The acts done by 
 him or to him ' that the Scriptures might be ful- 
 filled,' or finally the words 'called to the remem- 
 brance ' of the apostles and the evangelists by the 
 Holy Spirit according to his promise to them in 
 John xiv, 26. Besides the four Gospels we have 
 the testimony of John the Eevelator that the visions 
 recorded in the Apocalypse were vouchsafed to him 
 by the Lord himself, thus showing that the Book 
 of Revelation is no mere personal communication 
 from the man John, but is the actual revelation of 
 the Divine Spirit of Truth itself. 
 
 "No such claims of direct divine inspiration or 
 dictation are made in any other part of the New 
 Testament. Only to the four Gospels and to the 
 Book of Revelation could one presume to apply 
 these words, written at the close of the Apocalypse 
 and applying immediately to it: ' If any man shall 
 take away from the words of the prophecy of this 
 book, God shall take away his part out of the book 
 of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things 
 which are written in this book.' In the portion of 
 the Bible which we may thus distinguish preemi- 
 nently as the ' Word of the Lord ' it is therefore the 
 words themselves that are inspired, and not the 
 
A RELIGIOUS SYMPOSIUM. 241 
 
 men that transmitted them. This is what our Lord 
 declares. 
 
 Moreover, the very v^ords which the apostles 
 and the evangelists themselves heard, and the acts 
 which they beheld and recorded, had a meaning 
 and content of which they were partially and in 
 some cases totally ignorant. Thus when our Lord 
 speaks of the ' eating of his flesh ' the disciples mur- 
 mur, ' This is an hard saying; who can bear it? ' And 
 when he speaks of ' going away to the Father and 
 coming again,' the disciples say among themselves, 
 ' What is this that he saith? We can not tell what 
 he saith.' If we look at the Apocalypse, with its 
 strange visions, its mysterious numbers and signs; 
 if we read the prophets of the Old Testament, with 
 their commingling of times and nations, and lands 
 and seas, and things animate and inanimate in a 
 manner discordant with any conceivable earthly 
 history or chronology; if we read the details of the 
 ceremonial law dictated to Moses in the mount by 
 the ' voice of Jehovah ' ; if we read in Genesis the 
 account of creation and of the origins of human 
 history — we are compelled to admit that the penmen 
 recording these things were writing that of which 
 they knew not the meaning; that what they wrote 
 did not represent their intelligence or counsel, but 
 was the faithful record of what was delivered to 
 them by the voice of the Spirit speaking inwardly to 
 them. Here, then, we see the manner of divine 
 revelation in human language, again definitely 
 declared and exemplified in Jesus the Word incar- 
 nate, in that not only in his acts did he employ 
 
 16 
 
242 
 
 signs and miracles, but in teaching his disciples he 
 'spake in parables,' and 'without a parable sj)ake 
 he not to them, that it might be fulfilled which was 
 sj)oken by the prophet, saying, I will open my 
 mouth in parables; I will utter things which have 
 been kept sacred from the foundation of the world.' 
 We learn, therefore, that the divine language is 
 that of parable, wherein things of the kingdom of 
 heaven are clothed in the familiar figures of earthly 
 speech and action. If the Bible is divine, the law of 
 its revelation must be coincident with that of divine 
 creation. Both are the involution of the divine and 
 infinite in a series of veils or symbols, which become 
 more and more gross as they recede from their 
 source. In revelation the veilings of the divine 
 truth of the essential Word follow in accordance 
 with the receding and more and more sensualized 
 states of mankind upon earth. Hence the successive 
 dispensations, or church eras, which mark off the 
 whole field of human history. After the Eden days 
 of open vision, when ' heaven lay about us in our 
 infancy,' followed the Noetic era of a sacred lan- 
 guage, full of heavenly meanings, traces of whicli 
 occur in the hieroglyphic writings and the great 
 world-myths of most ancient tradition; then came 
 the visible and localized Theocracy of a chosen 
 nation, with laws and ritual, and a long history of 
 its war and struggle, and victory and decline, and 
 the promise of a final renewal and perpetuation; all 
 being at the same time a revelation of God's provi- 
 dence and government over man, and a jiicture of 
 the process of the regeneration of the human soul 
 
A RELIGIOUS SYMPOSIUM. 243 
 
 and its preparation for an eternal inheritance in 
 heaven. But even the law of God thus revealed in 
 the form of a national constitution, hierarchy, and 
 ritual was at length made of non-effect through the 
 traditions of men, and men ' seeing saw not, and 
 hearing heard not, neither did they understand.' 
 Then for the redemption of man in this extremity 
 ' the Word itself w^i s made flesh and dwelt among us, ' 
 and now, in the veil of a humanity subject to human 
 temptation and suffering, even to the death upon 
 the cross. 
 
 "Tims the process of the evolution of the Spirit 
 out of the veil or of the letter of the Scripture, begun 
 in our Lord's own interpretation of the 'Law for 
 those of ancient time,' is a process to whose 
 further continuance the Lord himself testifies. 
 The letter of Scripture is the cloud which every- 
 where proclaims the presence of the infinite God 
 with his creature man. The cloud of the Lord's 
 presence is the infinitely merciful adaptation of 
 divine truth to the spiritual needs of humanity. 
 The cloud of the literal gospel and of the ax)ostolic 
 traditions of our Lord is truly typified by that 
 cloud which received the ascending Christ out of 
 the immediate sight of men. The same letter of the 
 Word is the cloud in which he makes known his 
 second coming in power and great glory, in reveal- 
 ing to the church the inner and spiritual meanings 
 of both the Old and New Testament of his Wor^. 
 For ages the Christian church has stood gazing up 
 into heaven in adoration of him whom the cloud 
 has hidden from their sight, and with the tradi- 
 
244 
 
 tions of human dogma and the warring of schools 
 and critics more and more dense has the cloud 
 become. In the thickness of the cloud it behooves 
 the church to hold the more fast its faith in the 
 glory within the cloud. 
 
 '' The view of the Bible and its inspiration thus 
 presented is the only one compatible with a belief in 
 it as a divine in contradistinction from a human pro- 
 duction. Were the Bible a work of human art, 
 embodying human genius and human wisdom, 
 then the question of the writers' individuality and 
 their personal inspiration, and even of the time and 
 circumstances amid which they wrote, would be of 
 the first importance. Not so if the divine inspira- 
 tion and wisdom is treasured up in the very words 
 themselves as divinely chosen symbols and par- 
 ables of eternal truth. Far from placing a human 
 limitation upon the divine Spirit, such a verbal 
 inspiration as this opens in the Bible vistas of 
 heavenly and divine meanings such as they could 
 never possess were its inspirations confined to the 
 degree of intelligence possessed by the human 
 writers, even under a special illumination of their 
 minds. The difference between inspired words of 
 God and inspired men writing their own words is 
 like that between an eternal fact of nature and the 
 scientific theories which men have formulated upon 
 or about it. The fact remains forever a source of 
 n^w discovery and a means of ever new revelation 
 of the divine; the scientific theories may come and 
 go with the changing minds of men. 
 
 "It is not, then, from man, from the intelligence 
 
A RELIGIOUS SYMPOSIUM. 245 
 
 of any Moses, or Daniel, or Isaiah, or John, that 
 the Word of God contains its authority as divine. 
 The authority must be in the words themselves. If 
 they are unlike all otlier words ever written; if 
 tliey have a meaning, yea, worlds and worlds of 
 meaning, one within or above another, while human 
 words have all their meaning on the surface; if they 
 have a message whose truth is dependent upon no 
 single time or circumstance, but speaks to man at 
 all times and under all circumstances; if they have 
 a validity and an authority self-dictated to human 
 souls which survives the passing of earthly monu- 
 ments and powers, which speaks in all languages, 
 to all minds, wise to the learned, simple to the 
 simple ; if, in a word, these are words that 
 experience shows no man could have written from 
 the intelligence belonging to his time, or from the 
 experience of any single human soul, then may we 
 feel sure that we have in the words of our Bible that 
 which is diviner than any penman that wrote them. 
 Here is that which ' speaks with authority and not 
 as the scribes.' The words that God speaks to 
 man are 'si)irit and are life.' The authorship of 
 the Bible, and all that this implies of divine author- 
 ity to the conscience of man, is contained, like the 
 flame of the Urim and Thummim on the breast- 
 plate of the high priest, in the bosom of its own 
 language, to reveal itself by the Spirit to all who 
 will ' have an ear to hear. ' So shall it continue to 
 utter the 'dark parables of old which we have 
 known and our fathers have told us,' and 'to 
 show forth to all generations the praises of the 
 
246 world's religious congresses. 
 
 Lord,' becoming ever more and more translucent 
 witli the glory tliat shines within the cloud of the 
 letter; and so shall the church rest, amid all the 
 contentions that engage those who study the sur- 
 face of revelation, whether in nature or in Scripture, 
 in the undisturbed assurance that the ' Word of the 
 Lord abide th forever.' " 
 
 IMMORTALITY. 
 
 The doctrine of personal immortality received 
 general acknowledgment and confirmation, as based 
 on considerations of man's place in nature, the 
 incompleteness of the present life, and the universal 
 aspiration and intuition of the soul. Even the 
 argument of scientific evolutionists led them to the 
 inference of immortality. Professor Bruce of Glas- 
 gow closed the paper on "Man's Place in Nature," 
 contributed by him, as follows: 
 
 " Does the view of man as the crown of the evolu- 
 tionary process throw any light on his eternal des- 
 tiny 1 Does it contain any promise of immortality ? 
 Here one feels inclined to speak with bated breath. 
 A ho]3e so august, so inconceivably great, makes 
 the grasping hand of faith tremble. We are 
 tempted to exclaim, behold, we know not anything. 
 Yet it is worthy of note that leading advocates 
 of evolutionism are among the most pronounced 
 upholders of immortality. Mr. Fisk says: 'For 
 my own part I believe in the immortality of the 
 soul, not in the sense in which I accept the demon- 
 strable proofs of a science, but as a supreme act of 
 faith in the reasonableness of God's work.' He 
 
A RELIGIOUS SYMPOSIUM. 247 
 
 can not believe that God made the world, and 
 especially its highest creature, simply to destroy it, 
 like a child who builds houses out of rocks just for 
 the pleasure of knocking them down. Not less 
 strongly Le Conte writes: ' Without spirit-immor- 
 tality this beautiful cosmos, which has been devel- 
 oping into increasing beauty for so many millions 
 of years, when its evolution has run its course and 
 all is over, would be precisely as if it had never 
 been — an idle dream, an idle tale, signifying 
 nothing.' These utterances of course do not settle 
 the question; but, considering whence they ema- 
 nate, they may be taken at least as an authoritative 
 indication that the tenet of human immortality is 
 congruous to, if it be not a necessary deduction 
 from, the demonstrable truth that man is the con- 
 summation of the great world-process by which the 
 universe has been brought into being." 
 
 This of course teaches nothing that. man wants to 
 know. It simply asserts what all men refuse to 
 disbelieve. What most men would like to know, 
 is something about the mode of man's immortality. 
 Even the Buddhist acknowledges so much as is 
 asserted by Professor Bruce, and he carries on the 
 evolutionary process, through the working of cause 
 and effect in character, by means of repeated incar- 
 nations, until the process reaches perfection, when 
 he loses sight of it in the divine, and can affirm 
 nothing more of the soul' s state and mode of being. 
 His whole doctrine of transmigration is a doctrine 
 of evolution, elaborated in the effort to solve the 
 
248 
 
 apparent inequality of opportunity, and manifest 
 incompleteness of every mortal life. Back of it lies 
 a tradition, which his doctrine seeks to interpret; 
 but what he would ask of Christianity is some 
 better explanation of the soul's longings and the 
 necessity of self-conquest, and the obvious incom- 
 pleteness of most lives, consistent with a benevolent 
 conception of the divine order of the universe. One 
 wonders that ths is all that Buddhism has to say; 
 that it makes no claim to Gautama's seershij) and 
 introduction into an inner and higher world at the 
 time of his illumination, which others have claimed 
 for him. But its representatives before the parlia- 
 ment showed no such thought, nor any idea of 
 Nirvana which could be described as a state of rest in 
 conscious love and thought and activity in harmony 
 with "the spirits of just men made perfect," in a 
 spiritual world, in conscious reciprocal union with 
 Grod. Nor can it be said that Christians were for- 
 ward with assured and helpful explanations, with 
 two exceptions to be noted presently. 
 
 The paper on "The Religious System of the Par- 
 sees' ' showed that ' ' Zoroastrianism teaches the 
 immortality of the soul," and that the Parsees 
 " believe in heaven and hell" Heaven is called by 
 a word which literally means "the best life." 
 Heaven is represented as a place of radiance, splen- 
 dor, and glory, and hell as that of gloom, darkness, 
 and stench. And the state of the soul and trend 
 of life determines man's place in the hereafter. 
 
 "According to the Parsee Scriptures, for three 
 days after a man's death his soul remains within 
 
' A KELIOIOUS SYMPOSIUM. 249 
 
 the limits of the world under the guidance of the 
 angel Serosh. If the deceased be a pious man or a 
 man who led a virtuous life, his soul utters the 
 words signifying, ' Well is he by whom that which 
 is his benefit becomes the benefit of any one else.' 
 If he be a wicked man or one who led an evil life, 
 his soul utters the plaintive words which signify, 
 ' To which land shall I turn ? Whither shall I go ? ' 
 
 "On the dawn of the third night the departed 
 souls appear at the 'Chinvat Bridge.' This bridge 
 is guarded by the angel Meher the judge. He pre- 
 sides there as a judge, assisted by the angels Rashne 
 and Astad, the former representing justice and the 
 latter truth. At this bridge, and before this angel 
 Meher, the soul of every man has to give an account 
 of its doings in the past life. The judge weighs a 
 man's actions by a scale-pan. If a man's good 
 actions outweigh his evil ones, even by a small 
 particle, he is allowed to pass from the bridge to the 
 other end, to heaven. If his evil actions outweigh 
 his good ones, even by a small weight, he is not 
 allowed to pass over the bridge, but is hurled down 
 into the deep abyss of hell. If his meritorious and 
 evil deeds counterbalance each other, he is sent to 
 a place corresponding to the Christian ' purgatory ' 
 and the Mohammedan ' aeraf.' His meritorious 
 deeds done in the past life would prevent him from 
 going to hell, and his evil actions would not let him 
 go to heaven. 
 
 "Again Zoroastrian books say that the merito- 
 rionsness of good deeds and the sin of evil ones 
 increase with the growth of time. As capital 
 
250 world's eeligious congeesses. 
 
 increases with interest, so good and bad actions 
 done by a man in his life increase, as it were, with 
 interest in their effects. Thus a meritorious deed 
 done in young age is more effective than that very 
 deed done in advanced age. A man must begin 
 practicing virtue from his very young age. As in 
 the case of good deeds and their meritoriousness 
 so in the case of evil actions and their sins. The 
 burden of the sin of an evil action increases, as it 
 were, with interest. A young man has a long time 
 to repent of his evil deeds and to do good deeds 
 that could counteract the effect of his evil deeds. If 
 he does not take advantage of these opportunities 
 the burden of those evil deeds increases with time." 
 
 The expositions of Mohammedanism had little to 
 say of the soul's future life; and Christian references 
 to the subject were confined to the usual general 
 assumption of continued existence in a state of hap- 
 piness and peace in union with God, or of unhappi- 
 ness in sex)aration from God and the good. One 
 noble paper on "The Argument for Immortality," 
 and one on " The Soul audits Future Life," con- 
 stitute the only exceptions to these general references 
 to the subject; and these, taken together, were so 
 excellent as to make one almost glad that they 
 stand alone. 
 
 Doctor Moxom's treatment of "The Argument 
 for Immortality" was eloquent and exhaustive, as 
 showing the rational necessity for the conception of 
 continued personal existence under spiritual con- 
 ditions. As to the nalwire of evidence, he said: 
 
A RELIGIOUS SYMPOSIUM. 251 
 
 '' None oi the highest, the essentially spiritual facts 
 of man's knowledge and experience fall within the 
 scope of what is known as scientific proof. God, 
 the soul, truth, love, righteousness, repentance, 
 faith, beauty, the good —all these are unapproach- 
 able by scientific tests; yet these, and not salts and 
 acids, and laws of cohesion, and chemical affinity, and 
 gravitation, are the supreme realities of man' s life, 
 even in this world of matter and force. When one 
 demands scientific j)roof of immortality, then, it is as 
 if he demanded the linear measurement of a imnci- 
 ple, or the troy weight of an emotion, or the color 
 of an affection, or as if he should insist upon find- 
 ing the human soul with his scalpel or microscope." 
 He made a strong plea for the doctrine of con- 
 tinuity of existence, and for the personal conscious- 
 ness and individuality which it implies; referred 
 with feeling to the Saviour's comforting promise, 
 "I go to prepare a place for you," which he said 
 infects one's heart with hapi^y confidence; and 
 ended with the statement that hope grows into an 
 assurance of immortality, and serene faith deepens 
 into a conscious experience as the soul knows Grod 
 and strives toward the ideals of culture and charac- 
 ter wliicli rise in divine beckonings before us. If it 
 could have been followed by a x)aper on the evi- 
 dence from the sacred Scriptures showing that to 
 opened vision of prophets and seers the spiritual 
 world was displayed, • and the demands of reason 
 and the expectation of hope justified in fact, the 
 showing would have been a complete and fitting 
 preparation for the paper which followed, and con- 
 
252 world's religious congresses. 
 
 stituted the only attempt to set forth the mode 
 of man's immortality. 
 
 This paper, by the Rev. Samuel M. Warren of 
 Hoxbury, on "The Soul and Its Future Life," 
 assuming immortality, considered in what form and 
 body and under what conditions man lives again. 
 Starting with the propositions "That the soul is 
 substantial, though not of earthly substance, and is 
 the very man, and that the body is merely the 
 earthly form and instrument of the soul, and that 
 every part of the body is produced from the soul 
 according to its likeness, in order that it may per- 
 form its functions in the world during the brief but 
 important time that this is the place of man's con- 
 scious abode," the argument proceeds as follows: 
 
 "If, as all Christians believe, man is an immortal 
 being, created to live on through the endless ages 
 of eternity, then the longest life in this world is, 
 comparatively, but as a point, an infinitesimal part 
 of his existence. In this view, it is not rational to 
 believe that that part of man which is for his brief 
 use in this world only, and is left behind when he 
 passes out of this world, is the most real and sub- 
 stantial part of him; every rational mind perceives 
 that it can not be so. That is more substantial 
 which is more enduring, and that is the more real 
 part of a man in which his characteristics and bis 
 qualities are. All the facts and phenomena of life 
 confirm the doctrine that the soul is the real man. 
 What makes the quality of a man? What gives 
 him character as good or bad, small or great, lov- 
 able or detestable? Do these qualities pertain to 
 
A RELIGIOUS SYMPOSIUM. 253 
 
 the body? Every one knows that they do not. But 
 they are the qualities of the man. Then the real 
 man is not the body, but is 'the living soul.' The 
 body has absolutely no human quality but what it 
 derives from the soul, not even its human form; and 
 all that is human about it departs when the soul 
 leaves the body — even its human form quickly van- 
 ishes. But the man endures. If there is immortal 
 life he has not vanished, except from mortal and 
 material sight. As between the soul and the body, 
 then, there can be no rational question as to which 
 is the substantial and which the evanescent thing. 
 
 "Again, if the immortal soul is^the real man, and 
 is substantial, what must be its form? It can not 
 be a formless, vaporous thing and be a man. Can it 
 have other than the human form? Reason clearly 
 sees that if formless or in any other form he would 
 not be a man. The soul of man, or the real man, is 
 a marvelous assemblage of powers and faculties of 
 will and understanding; and the human form is such 
 as it is because it is perfectly adapted to the exercise 
 of these various powers and faculties. In other 
 words, the soul forms itself, under the divine 
 Maker's hand, into an organism by which it can 
 adequately and perfectly put forth its wondrous 
 and wonderfully varied powers, and bring its pur- 
 poses into acts. 
 
 "The human form is thus an assemblage of 
 organs that exactly correspond to and embody and 
 are the express image of the various faculties of 
 the soul. And there is no organ of the human form 
 the absence of which would not hinder and impede 
 
254 world's religious congresses. 
 
 the free and efficient action and putting forth of the 
 soul's powers. And by the human form is not 
 meant merely, nor primarily, the organic forms of 
 the material body. The faculties are of the soul, 
 and if the soul is the man, and endures when the 
 body decays and vanishes, it must itself be in a 
 form which is an assemblage of organs perfectly 
 adapted and adequate to the exercise of its powers; 
 that is, in the human form. The human form is 
 then primarily and especially the form of the soul — 
 which is the perfection of all forms, as man at his 
 highest is the consummation and fullness of all lov- 
 ing and intelligent attributes. 
 
 " But when does the soul itself take on its human 
 form? Is it not until the death of the body? Man- 
 ifestly, if it is the very form of the soul, the soul 
 can not exist without it, and it is put on in and by 
 the fact of its creation and the gradual development 
 of its powers. It could have no other form and be 
 a human soul. Its organs are the necessary organs 
 of its faculties and powers, and these are clothed 
 with their similitudes in dead material forms ani 
 mated by the* soul for temporary use in the material 
 world. Tlie soul is omnipresent in the material 
 body, not by diffusion, formlessly, but each organ 
 of the soul is within and is the soul of the corre- 
 sponding organ of the body; so that every organic 
 form of the body, inward and outward, is the mate- 
 rial embodiment and counterpart of a correspond- 
 ing organ of the soul, by which the soul manifests 
 and puts forth its affections and its powers. Thus 
 the saying of the Apostle Paul is literally and 
 
A RELIGIOUS SYMPOSIUM. 265 
 
 exactly true, that, ' If there is a natural body there 
 is also a sx")iritual body' (I Cor. xv, 44), and that, 
 ' If the earthly house of our tabernacle be dissolved, 
 we have a building of God, a house not made with 
 hands, eternal in the heavens ' (II Cor. v, 1). 
 
 ^'That the immortal soul is the very man involves 
 the eternal preservation of his identity; for in the 
 soul are the distinguishing qualities that constitute 
 the individuality of a man — all those certain char- 
 acteristics, affectional and intellectual, which make 
 him such or such a man, and distinguish and differ- 
 entiate him from all other men. He remains, there- 
 fore, the same man to all eternity. He may become 
 more and more, to endless ages, an angel of light — 
 even as here a man may advance greatly in wisdom 
 and intelligence, and yet is always the same man. 
 This doctrine of the soul involves also the perma- 
 nency of established character. The life in this 
 world is the period of character building. It has 
 been very truthfully said that a man is a bundle of 
 habits. What manner of man he is depends on 
 what his manner of life has been. This is meant by 
 the words of the Scriptures, ' Their works do follow 
 them' (Rev. xiv, 13), and 'He shall render unto 
 every man according to his deeds ' (Mark xvi, 27). 
 
 "If evil and vicious habits are continued through 
 life they are fixed and confirmed and become of the 
 very life, so that the man loves and desires no other 
 life, and does not wish to, will not be led out of 
 them, because he loves the practice of them. On 
 the other hand, if from childhood a man has been 
 inured to virtuous habits, these habits become fixed 
 
266 world's eeligious congresses. 
 
 and established and of his very soul and life. In 
 either case the habits thus fixed and confirmed are 
 of the immortal soul and constitute its permanent 
 character. The body, as to its part, has been but 
 the pliant instrument of the soul. 
 
 ' ' With respect to the soul' s future life the first 
 important consideration is what sort of a world it 
 will inhabit. If we have shown good reasons for 
 believing the doctrine that the soul is not a something 
 formless, vague, and shadowy, but is itself an 
 organic human form, substantial, and the very man, 
 then it must inhabit a substantial and very real 
 world. It is a gross fallacy of the senses that there 
 is no substance but matter, and nothing substantial 
 but what is material. Is not God, the divine, 
 omnipotent Creator of all things, substantial ? Can 
 Omnipotence be an attribute of that which has no 
 substance and no form? Is such an existence con- 
 ceivable? But he is not material and not visible or 
 cognizable by any mortal sense. Yet we know that 
 he is substantial; for it is manifest in his wondrous 
 and mighty works. There is, then, other substance 
 than that which is cognizable to the senses, there is 
 even divine substance; and if, as we have clearly 
 shown, the soul is substantial, there is spiritual sub- 
 stance. And of such substance must be the world 
 wherein the soul is eternally to dwell. That the 
 spiritual world and the things of it are not visible, 
 and not cognizable by any earthly sense, is no evi- 
 dence that they are unsubstantial and unreal. The 
 interior and most potent things of this natural 
 world are not themselves tangible or visible or cog- 
 
PRINCE MOMOLU MASSAQUOI, 
 
 Of the Veys, West Africa. 
 
A RELIGIOUS SYMPOSIUM. 257 
 
 nizable by any sense. It is proverbial that nature 
 works unseen. What, for example, do we know ol' 
 electricity except by its wonderful phenomena? Its 
 phenomena, its wondrous power in and upon things 
 visible and tangible, give proof of it. But what are 
 these to the stupendous and varied powers of the 
 spiritual within the natural universe which we see 
 about us in all the phenomena of vegetable life, and 
 even in the inorganic things of nature, which as 
 servants of the divine Creator, himself invisible, 
 inspire and effect the numberless and marvelous 
 activities which make an otherwise inert and dead 
 material world to be quick and living, and filled 
 with all things beautiful and desirable by man. It 
 is the reality of the spiritual world that makes this 
 world real, just as it is the reality of the soul that 
 makes the human body a reality and a possibility. 
 As there could be no body without the soul, there 
 could be no natural world without the spiritual. 
 Moreover, as it is not rational to believe that the 
 body which the soul briefly inhabits is more sub- 
 stantial than the soul itself, which endures for- 
 ever, so it does not satisfy enlightened reason to 
 think that this world which is the place of man's 
 temporary sojourn is more substantial than that 
 which the soul inhabits forever — that the temporal 
 is substantial, and the eternal world spectral and 
 unreal. Indeed every rational consideration, how- 
 ever viewed, goes to coniirm the doctrine that the 
 spiritual world is a substantial and real world. 
 
 " Not only is that world substantial, but it must 
 be a world of surpassing loveliness and beauty. It 
 
 17 
 
258 world's religious congresses. 
 
 has justly been considered one of the most benefi- 
 cent manifestations of the divine love and wisdom 
 that this beautiful world that we briefly inhabit is 
 so wondrously adapted to all man's wants and to 
 call into exercise and gratify his every faculty and 
 good desire. And when he leaves this temporary 
 abode, a man with all his faculties and refined by 
 freedom from the incumbrance of the flesh, an 
 incumbrance which we are often very conscious of, 
 will he not enter a world of beauty exceeding the 
 loveliest asx3ects of this ? The soul is human, and 
 the world in which it is to dwell is adapted to 
 human life; and it; would not be adapted to human 
 life if it did not adequately meet and answer to the 
 soul's desires. Is it reasonable that this material 
 world should be so full of life and loveliness and 
 beauty, where ' Nature spreads for every sense a 
 feast,' to gratify every exalted faculty of the soul, 
 and not the spiritual world wherein the soul is to 
 abide forever ? Can it be there is no loveliness of 
 sight and sound, no springing, joyful life, nothing 
 to excite to noble contemplation and fill the mind 
 with gratitude and joy ? It is not so; but rather as 
 it is written: ' Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, 
 neither have entered into the heart of man the 
 things which God hath prepared for them that love 
 him' (I Cor. ii, 9). 
 
 " And the life of that world is human life. The 
 same laws of life and happiness obtain there that 
 govern here, because they are grounded in human 
 nature. Man is a social being, and everywhere, in 
 that world as in this, desires and seeks the com- 
 
A RELIOIOUS SYMPOSIUM. 259 
 
 panionship of those that are congenial to him — 
 that is, who are of similar quality to himself. Men 
 are thus mutually drawn together by spiritual 
 affinity. This is the law of association here, but it 
 is less perfectly operative in this world, because 
 there is much dissimulation among men, so that 
 they often do not appear to be what they really 
 are, and thus by false and deceptive appearances 
 the good and the evil are often associated together. 
 '^ And so it is for a time and in a measure in the 
 first state and region into which men come when 
 they enter the spiritual world. They go into that 
 world as they are, and are at first in a mixed state, 
 as in this world. This continues until the real 
 character is clearly manifest, and good and evil 
 are separated, and they are thus i^repared for 
 their final and permanent association and abode. 
 They who in the world have made some real effort 
 and beginning to live a good life, but have evil 
 habits not yet overcome, remain there until they 
 are entirely purified of evil, and are fitted for some 
 society of heaven; and those who inwardly are evil 
 and have outwardly assumed a virtuous garb remain 
 until their dissembled goodness is cast off and their 
 inward character becomes outwardly manifest. 
 When this state of separation is comi3lete there can 
 be no successful dissimulation — the good and the 
 evil are seen and known as such, and the law of 
 si3iritual affinity becomes perfectly operative by 
 their own free volition and choice. Then the evil 
 and the good become entirely separated into their 
 congenial societies. The various societies and com- 
 
260 world's religious congresses. 
 
 munities of the good thus associated constitute 
 heaven and those of the evil constitute hell — not 
 by any arbitrary judgment of an angry God, but of 
 voluntary choice, by the perfect and unhindered 
 operation of the law of human nature that leads 
 men to prefer and seek the companionship of those 
 most congenial to themselves. 
 
 "As regards the permanency of the state of those 
 who by established evil habit are fixed and deter- 
 mined in their love of evil life, it is not of the Lord's 
 will, but of their own. We are taught in his holy 
 Word that he is ever 'gracious and full of com- 
 passion.' He would that they should turn from 
 their evil ways and live, but they will not. 
 
 " There is no moment, in this or in the future life, 
 when the infinite mercy of the Lord would not that 
 an' evil man should turn from his evil course and 
 live a virtuous and upright and happy life; but 
 they will not in that world for the same reason that 
 they would not in this, because when evil habits are 
 once fixed and confirmed they love them and will 
 not turn from them. ' Can the Ethiopian change 
 his skin or the leopard his spots ? Then may they 
 also do good that are accustomed to do evil.' 
 Heaven is a heaven of men and the life of heaven 
 is human life. The conditions of life in that exalted 
 state are greatly different from the conditions here, 
 but it is human life adapted to such transcendent 
 conditions, and the laws of life in that world, as we 
 have seen, are the same as in this. Man was created 
 to be a free and willing agent of the Lord to bless 
 his kind. His true happiness comes, not in seeking 
 
A RELIGIOUS SYMPOSIUM. 261 
 
 happiness for himself, but seeking to promote the 
 happiness of others. Where all are animated by 
 this desire, all are mutually and reciprocally blest. 
 "Such a state is heaven, whether measurably in 
 this world or fully and perfectly in the next. Then 
 must there be useful ways in heaven by which they 
 can contribute to each other's happiness. And of 
 such kind will be the employments of heaven, for 
 there must be useful employments. There could 
 be no happiness without to beings who are designed 
 and formed for usefulness to others. What the 
 employments are in that exalted condition we can 
 not well know except as some of them are revealed 
 to us, and of them we have faint and feeble con- 
 ception. But undoubtedly one of them is attend- 
 ance upon men in this world. It is written, and the 
 words apply to every man: 'He shall give his 
 angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways' 
 (Ps. xci, 11); and, 'Are they not all ministering 
 spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be 
 heirs of salvation?' (Heb. i, 14)." 
 
 SOCIOLOGY. 
 
 If the deliverances before the parliament on the- 
 ological subjects are not all that could be wished, if 
 Christian as well as non-Christian speakers seemed 
 less clear and less confident than we had hoped on 
 the great subjects of revelation, and reconciliation 
 and union with God, and man' s future life and ulti- 
 mate destiny, it must be admitted that on practical 
 subjects, and in the realm of the motive and method 
 of man's helpfulness to man, a positive and, so far 
 
262 world's religious congresses. 
 
 as it goes, a clear doctrine was set forth. Here we 
 meet religion in a new aspect and girded for a new 
 experiment. If tlieology is becoming less exact 
 and confident and more speculative, practical 
 religion, at least, is becoming more scientific. 
 There has sprung up within the memory of this 
 generation a new science, with its systematic study 
 of the whole structure of society, to discover its 
 laws and remove the hindrances, i3olitical, econom- 
 ical, or customary, which are in the way of its 
 welfare. It has given new emphasis to the doctrine 
 that society is a man; that "the social fabric is in 
 its structure and intent a unit," that " the interde- 
 pendence of its parts is as a body with its many 
 members unified by a common vitality." The Lord 
 had declared it; Paul had expounded it; the church 
 had once and again asserted it as the bond of fel- 
 lowship and care among its own members; but in 
 later times it has come to the front as a doctrine of 
 social science independent of religion — that the 
 law ' ' Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself " is a 
 "law incorporated in the nature of man;" that "men 
 are so made that if they w^ould secure for themselves, 
 or for the society in which they live, perfection and 
 blessedness, they must obey this law;" that "a 
 rational self love must at least be made the measure 
 of the love and service of others; " and that this is a 
 law of nature and necessity, and when violated man 
 comes under its penalties. 
 
 It is a notable fact that in the Parliament of 
 Religions this doctrine of social science was taken 
 up in the name of religion, and treated with more 
 
A RELIGIOUS SYMPOSIUM. 263 
 
 fullness than any other subject, and that, moreover, 
 as the one practical religious consideration. And 
 it was here that Christian thought showed its 
 unmistakable preeminence, in defining ethical doc- 
 trines, to which the non-Christian peoples are 
 strangers, and in which they are to find their social 
 regeneration. Papers were presented on ' ' Christ and 
 the SocialQuestion," by Pro! F. G. Peabody of Har- 
 vard University ; on ' ' Religion and Wealth, ' ' by Rev . 
 Washington Gladden, D.D. ; on " Individual Efforts 
 at Reform not Sufficient," by Prof. R. C. Henderson, 
 D.D., of the University of Chicago; on "The Church 
 and Labor," by Rev. James M. Cleary; on "Chris- 
 tianity as a Social Force," by Prof. Richard T. Ely 
 of the University of Wisconsin; " Religion and the 
 Erring and Criminal Classes," by Rev. Anna G. 
 Spencer, and on other allied subjects. 
 
 This remarkable series of papers was introduced 
 by a brief speech from Thomas Wentworth Higgin- 
 son, who called attention to the fact that the subject 
 of the day marked "a natural turning-point in the 
 history of the Parliament of Religions." Up to 
 this time, he said, attention had been given almost 
 wholly to speculative and abstract ideas ; now it 
 was to be turned to the actual facts of life and the 
 social questions which press upon us so tremen- 
 dously. He told a characteristic story of "the 
 Scotch candidate for the ministry who was being 
 examined by some of the sternest of the presbyters, 
 or whatever they call them. Every one of his ex- 
 aminers stood firm in favor of justification by faith, 
 and each one had fifteen minutes of questions, all 
 
264 world's religious congresses. 
 
 bearing upon faith, to put to him. By and by, when 
 the candidate was in an exhausted condition, one 
 indiscreet examiner said, ' Well, what do you think 
 of good works? ' ' Oh,' said the exhausted candi- 
 date, looking around at his persecutors, ' I'll not 
 say that it might not be well enough to have a few 
 of them.' " Every oriental that comes to us, he 
 said, concedes to us the power of organization, the 
 power of labor, the method in actual life, which 
 they lack. We could test the real worth of these 
 conceded virtues by examining how far they have 
 been brought to bear on works for the moral and 
 social welfare of men. 
 
 In the paper on ' ' Religion and the Erring and 
 Criminal Classes," Anna Gr. SjDencer sought to 
 show that "not only does religion give ethics its 
 root, but it has also j)layed an enormous part in the 
 variations of the moral standards of the world;" 
 and after tracing the history of some of these varia- 
 tions, she said: 
 
 " There is a new form of religion dawning upon 
 the Western world, and I believe also upon the 
 Eastern. Christianity was and is a composite faith, 
 compounded of Jewish religious ideals, of Greek 
 thought, Roman organization, and of Germanic 
 racial influences of domestic and social habit. The 
 new religious ideal which is shaping the reform 
 movements of Christianity, and of other great his- 
 toric faiths as well, is the outgrow^th on its thought 
 side of that new conception of the universe and man's 
 relation to it, that new conception which is cosmical 
 and universal rather than racial or special. The 
 
A KELIGIOUS SYMPOSIUM. 265 
 
 new religious philosophy finds the synthesis of all 
 religions in the universal and eternal elements of 
 human aspiration toward the everlasting truth, 
 the absolute right, the boundless love, and the per- 
 fect beauty! This conception, in brief, puts at the 
 center of all things perceived or experienced ' one law, 
 one light, one element, and one far-off divine event 
 toward which the whole creation moves.' This 
 new and scientific thought conception makes of 
 morals, not a series of obligatory commands given 
 by one Grod or many gods to one race or many races, 
 but a turning of the will of man by the force of 
 moral gravitation toward that central law which 
 reveals itself in the human conscience and is de- 
 veloped through social influences, and in obedience 
 to which alone mankind finds his true orbit of action. 
 This view of morals, which is fast becoming common 
 to all enlightened men of all historic faiths, has 
 already started the newest tendencies in the treat- 
 ment of vice and crime. Those newest tendencies 
 we set down as reformatory, those which aim to 
 make over the criminal and erring into law-abiding 
 and respectable members of society." 
 
 "The new scientific element in religion," she said, 
 "has given us social science of which enlightened 
 penology is a part. The old word of religion said 
 to the soul: 'Be ye perfect here and now, no mat- 
 ter how ye were born or trained, or in what depths 
 of social degradation ye find yourself.' The new 
 religion says that also — such forever must be the 
 clarion call to the will to work out a personal salva- 
 tion or it will cease to be religion. The religion of 
 
266 world's religious congresses. 
 
 the future, however, which is ah-eady born, has 
 taken counsel of facts as well as of faith, and it has 
 added the social ideal to the personal. It has 
 learned that evil heredity, and poor physique, and 
 degraded home influences, and bad social surround- 
 ings, and too severe toil, and too little happiness and 
 education make for millions of mankind walled bar- 
 riers of circumstance, behind which the dull and 
 torpid soul catches but faint echoes of the divine 
 summons. The relation of this new religion to the 
 criminal and erring classes is not only the tender- 
 ness of human sympathy which would not that any 
 should perish ; it is the consecration of human wis- 
 dom to social betterment which shall yet forbid 
 that any shall perish. In this new ideal of religion 
 the call is not only to justice for the criminal and 
 erring after they come within the scope of social 
 control, but it is the call also to a study of those 
 conditions in the individual and in society which 
 make for crime and vice; and above all it is tlie call 
 for the social lifting of all the weaker souls of our 
 common humanity upon the winged strength of its 
 wisest and best. The new social ideal in religion 
 calls upon us to make this world so helpful a place 
 to live in ' for the least of these our brethren ' that 
 it shall yet be as easy for the will to follow good- 
 ness ' and the heart to be true, as for grass to be 
 green or skies to be blue,' in the 'natural way of 
 living.' " 
 
 What she calls the new religion. Prof. F. G. 
 Peabody contends is the religion of the gospels, but 
 
A RELIGIOUS SYMPOSIUM. 267 
 
 with care to balance the importance of the indi- 
 vidual and social factors as objects of Christian love. 
 Pointing out that the theological seminaries are 
 adding the new field of sociology, he asks, Is there 
 danger that the new humanitarianism may crowd 
 out the old religion? 
 
 "When the Christian turns to the social questions 
 is he, on the one hand, turning away from the 
 themes of a Christian church, or is he, on the other 
 hand, sacrificing Christ to society, or is there, lastly, 
 any law laid down by Christ himself which directs 
 a Christian in his study of such affairs? That is the 
 question with which we turn to Christ, and he gives 
 us a clear and often-reiterated reply. One of the 
 first things which strikes one as he reads the gospels 
 is that Jesus Christ was a great individualist. His 
 appeal is always to the single life; his central doc- 
 trine of humanity is that of the infinite worth of 
 each single soul. 
 
 "Nothing can make up for the loss of the indi- 
 vidual. Tlie shepherd goes out after the one lost 
 sheep; the woman sweeps the house to find the one 
 bit of money; the gain of the world is nothing if a 
 man loses his own soul. Thus Christ and his teach- 
 ings stand forever over against the schemes which 
 are going to redeem the world by any impersonal 
 mechanical plan. He seeks to save men one at a 
 time; his kingdom is within; he calls his disciples 
 singly; he calleth his own sheep by name and 
 leadeth them out. It is a personal relation, an 
 individual work . ' ' 
 
 Tijis personal method of Jesus, he shows, has 
 
^68 world's religious congresses. 
 
 given the idea of individual worth, and influenced 
 largely the effort of the churches to benefit men. 
 And then he turns to consider "one whole side 
 of the teaching of Jesus which such a view entirely 
 ignores. Suppose one goes on to ask humbly: 
 ' Why does Christ thus appeal to the individual ? 
 Why is the single soul of such infinite worth to 
 him? Is it for its own sake? Is there this tre- 
 mendous significance about my little being and 
 doing that it has its own isolated worth ? ' IS'ot at all. 
 A man' s life, taken by itself, is just what it seems 
 — a very insignificant affair. What is it that gives 
 significance to such a single life ? It is its relation 
 to the whole of which it is a part. Just as each 
 minutest wheel is essential in some great machine, 
 just as the health of each slighted limb or organ in 
 your body affects the vitality and health of the 
 whole, so stands the individual in the organic life 
 of the social world. 'We are members of one 
 another.' 'We are one body in Christ;' 'no man 
 liveth or dieth to himself — so runs the Christian 
 conception of the common life; and in this organic 
 relationshij) the individual finds the meaning and 
 worth of his own isolated self. What is this con- 
 ception in Christ's own language ? It is his marvel- 
 ous ideal of what he calls 'the kingdom of God,' 
 that perfected world of humanity in wliich, as in a 
 perfect body, each part should be sound and whole, 
 and thus the body be complete. How Jesus looked 
 and prayed for this coming of a better world ! The 
 kingdom of heaven is the ona thing to desire. It is 
 the good seed of the future; it is the leaven 
 
A KELIGIOUS SYMPOSIUM. 269 
 
 dropped into the mass of the world; it is the hidden 
 treasure, the pearl of great price. It may come 
 slowly, as servants look for a reckoning after years 
 of duty done; it may come suddenly, as virgins 
 wake and meet the bridegroom. 
 
 "However and wherever this Christian common- 
 wealth, this kingdom of God, arrives, then and 
 there only will the hopes of Jesus be fulfilled. 
 'Thy kingdom come' is the central prayer of the 
 disciple of Christ. What does this mean, then, as 
 to Christ's thought of society? It means that a 
 completed social order was his highest dream. We 
 have seen that he was the great individualist of 
 history. We now see that lie was the great social- 
 ist as well. His hope for man was a universal hope. 
 What he prophesied was just that enlarged and 
 consolidated life of man which many modern dreams 
 repeat, where all the conflicts of selfishness should 
 be outgrown, and there should be one kingdom and 
 one king; one motive — that of love; one unity 
 — that of the spirit; one law — that of liberty. Was 
 ever socialistic prophet of a revolutionary society 
 more daring, or sanguine, or, to practical minds, 
 more impracticable than this visionary Jesus with 
 his assurance of a coming kingdom of God ? 
 
 '' But how can it be, we go on to ask once more, 
 that the same teacher can teach such opposite 
 truths ? How can Christ appeal thus to the single 
 soul and yet hope thus for the kingdom? How 
 can he be at once the great individualist and the 
 great socialist of history ? Are we confronted with 
 an inconsistency in Christ's doctrine of human life ? 
 
270 world's religious congresses. 
 
 On the contrary, we reach here the very essence of 
 the gospel in its relation to human needs. The two 
 teachings, that of the individual and that of the 
 social order, that of the part and that of the whole, 
 are not exclusive of each other or ojpposed to each 
 other, but are essential parts of the one law of Christ. 
 Why is the individual soul of such inestimable 
 value ? Because of its essential part in the organic 
 social life. And why is the kingdom of God set 
 before each individual? To free him from all 
 narrowness and selfishness of aim. Think of those 
 great words of Jesus, spoken as he looked back on 
 his completed work: 'For their sakes I sanctify 
 myself. ' ' For their sakes ' — that is the sense of the 
 common life working as a motive beyond all personal 
 desire, even for holiness itself. ' I sanctify myself ' 
 — that is the way in which the common life is to be 
 saved. The individual is the means; the kingdom 
 of God is the end. 
 
 ''The way to make a better world is first of all 
 to make your own soul better, and the way to make 
 your own soul better is to stir it with the sense 
 of the common life. And so the same master of the 
 problem of life becomes at once the most positive of 
 individualists and the most visionary of socialists. 
 His first appeal is personal: ' Sanctify thyself.' 
 His second call is to the common life: 'For their 
 sakes ' ; and the end and the means together make 
 the motto of a Christian life — 'For their sakes I 
 sanctify myself.' Such is Christ in his dealing with 
 the social question. He does not ignore the social 
 problems of any age, but he approaches them 
 
A RELIGIOUS SYMPOSIUM. 271 
 
 always at their personal ends. With unfailing 
 sagacity he declines to be drawn into special 
 questions of legislation or programmes of reform. 
 Changes of government are not for him to make. 
 'Render unto Csesar the things that are Caesar's.' 
 The precise form of the coming kingdom is not for 
 him to define. ' To sit on my right hand is not mine 
 to give.' It is in vain to claim Jesus Christ as the 
 expounder of any social panacea. He simply brings 
 all such schemes and dreams to the test of a uni- 
 versal principle, the princijjle of sanctifying one's 
 self for others' sakes, the two-fold principle of the 
 infinite worth of the individual and the infinite 
 hope of a kingdom of God, and of every plan and 
 work which is proposed for social welfare, Christ 
 says: 'Let it begin with the individual — his 
 character, his liberty, his enlargement of life — and 
 then out of this individual sanctification will grow 
 the better social world.' " 
 
 Professor Peabody admits that we have not ad- 
 vanced far in the solution of these problems; pan- 
 aceas have not worked, and individual reformation 
 does not seem to issue in works that have much 
 social value. He turns to ask Christ's method 
 toward poverty, and shows that what he wants is 
 man' s soul ' ' trained into personal power, individual 
 capacity, self-help," and concludes there is more 
 " Christian charity in teaching a trade than in alms, 
 in finding work than in relieving want." He turns 
 on the other hand to ask Christ s attitude toward 
 the rich, and concludes that his condemnation "was 
 
272 world's religious congresses. 
 
 directed, not against the fact of wealth, but against 
 the abuses and perils of wealth." He would have 
 us warned of the same dangers to-day. " We might 
 as well face the fact that one of the severest tests of 
 character which our time affords has to be borne by 
 the rich. The person who proi3oses to maintain 
 simiDlicity and symjpathy, responsibility and high- 
 mindedness in tlie midst of the wealth and luxury 
 of the modern times is undertaking that which he 
 had better at once understand to be very hard. The 
 rich have some advantages, but they unmistakably 
 have also many disadvantages, and the Christianiza- 
 tion of wealth is beyond question the most serious of 
 modern problems. But this is not saying that rich 
 men should be abolished. Wealth only provides a 
 severer school for the higher virtues of life, and the 
 man or woman who can really learn the lesson of 
 that school has gained one of the hardest, but also 
 one of the most fruitful, experiences of modern 
 times." 
 
 He concludes that in the complications of modern 
 society wealth has a new function, and in its admin- 
 istration the Christian has a new mission. ' ' Christ 
 comes into the business world of to-day and, seek- 
 ing the man who wants to be his disciple, says to 
 him, ' This world of affairs is not to be abandoned, 
 nor yet to be feared; it is to be redeemed. Enter 
 into it. Be as sagacious, far-sighted, intelligent, 
 judicious as the children of this world. Be a 
 thoughtful, good man of business. And then add 
 to this self- culture the larger motive, the bringing 
 in of my kingdom. Ask yourself this question of 
 
A RELIGIOUS SYMPOSIUM. 273 
 
 your business : 'Am I in it hindering or helping the 
 better life of men ? Am I in any degree responsible 
 for the ends of the present industrial system, or am 
 I lessening them by the methods of my own ? Is 
 my success at the cost of my employes' degradation, 
 or do they share the satisfaction of my own pros- 
 perity? In short, am I helping to make this w^orld 
 God' s world, or would it, if all dealt as I do, soon 
 be the devil's world ? ' Then, having answered this 
 question in your soul, realize still further how many 
 of the first signs of the coming kingdom wait for 
 business men to show.' 
 
 "The Christian in business to-day is looking for 
 every stable relation between employer and em- 
 ployed. Cooperation is to him better than compe- 
 tition. He sees his own life in the light of the 
 common good. The Christian in business discov- 
 ers that good lodgings for the w^orking classes are 
 both wise charity and good business. The Christian 
 in business holds his sagacity and insight at the 
 service of public affairs. He is not ensnared in the 
 meshes of his own prosperity. He owns his wealth; 
 it does not own him. The community leans on him 
 instead of his being a dead weight on the commu- 
 nity. He teaches us the higher use of wealth instead 
 of warning us of its fearful perils. And when the 
 Christian business man dies the properties he has 
 controlled do not rise in the market because the 
 risk of his management is gone, but the business 
 world says of him, 'This man was a consistent 
 Christian. He did not fear or flee from the world, 
 but he made it the instrument of the higher life of 
 
 18 
 
274 wokld's religious congresses. 
 
 man. In this world's battles he was a good soldier 
 of Jesus Christ.' " 
 
 Prof. Eichard T. Ely spoke in more emphatic and 
 positive terms of ' ' Christianity as a Social Force, ' ' 
 to show that individualism, as commonly under- 
 stood, is non-Christian. Wealth, and talent, and 
 I^osition, and powers are in trust for the common 
 good, and individual salvation which ignores this is 
 not, within the true Christian idea, possible. OfPer- 
 ing some severe criticism of the social condition of 
 Christendom, Professor Ely concludes as follows : 
 
 " We may thus say that Christianity as a social 
 force stands for the conservation of energy. It 
 seeks the utilization of all human power for the 
 advancement of the welfare of man, and it tends to 
 preserve the achievements of the past because it 
 means peaceful progress. It may be thus said that 
 Christianity stands for progress emphatically, but 
 for conservative progress. Christianity means a 
 mighty transformation and turning of things upside 
 down, and while it seef^s to bring about the most 
 radical changes in peace, it has forces within it 
 which nothing can withstand and resistance to which 
 is sure to result in revolutionary violence. It is 
 true that Christ said he came to bring not peace, 
 but a Fword — signifying the opposition of malevo- 
 lence to social progress; yet a fruitless opposition, 
 for in the end the peace of Christ must triumph. 
 We can imagine Christ among us to-day, pointing, 
 as of old, to our great temples and warning us that 
 the time will come when one stone of them shall not 
 
A RELIGIOUS SYMPOSIUM. 275 
 
 rest upon another. We can imagine Christ x)olnt- 
 ing to our grade crossings and to our link and pin 
 couplers, covered with the blood of mutilated brake- 
 men, and crying out to us: ' Woe unto you, hyi)0- 
 crites! Ye do these things, and for a pretense make 
 long prayers.' We can also imagine him summon- 
 ing before our vision the thousands who have lost 
 their limbs in needless industrial accidents, and 
 pointing to the hospitals to relieve them, and the 
 charities to furnish them with artificial limbs, and 
 again uttering one of his terrible maledictions: ' Woe 
 unto you, hypocrites! ' We can also imagine him 
 in his scathing denunciations and heart-searching 
 sermons opening our eyes to our social iniquities 
 and shortcomings, and calling to mind the judgment 
 to come in which reward or penalty shall be visited 
 upon us, either as we have or have not ministered 
 to those who needed our ministrations — the hungry, 
 the naked, the prisoner, and the cax3tive. The 
 reward: ' Come, ye blessed of my Father, inasmuch 
 as ye have done it unto the least of these ye have 
 done it unto me;' the penalty: 'Inasmuch as ye 
 have not done it unto the least of these — depart 
 from me.' " 
 
 Discussing "Religion and Riches," the Rev. 
 Washington Gladden, so well and widely known in 
 this field of research, declared "poverty and per- 
 fection incompatible," and held that " the religious 
 man must be a co-worker with God, not only in the 
 production of wealth, but also in the distribution of 
 wealth." In answering the question, " Can we dis- 
 cover God's plan for this distribution? " he says: 
 
276 world's religious congresses. 
 
 " It is pretty clear that the world has not as yet 
 discovered God's plan. The existing distribution is 
 far from being ideal. While tens of thousands are 
 rioting in superfluity, hundreds of thousands are 
 suffering for the lack of the necessaries of life; some 
 are even starving. That the suffering is often due 
 to indolence and improvidence and vice — a natural 
 penalty which ought to be set aside — may be freely 
 admitted, but when that is all taken account of there 
 is a great deal of x^enury left which it is hard to 
 justify in view of the opulence everywhere visible. 
 What is the rule by which the wealth of the world 
 is now distributed? Fundamentally, I think, it is 
 the rule of the strongest. The rule has been greatly 
 modified in the progress of civilization; a great 
 many kinds of violence are now i)rohibited; in many 
 ways the weak are protected by law against the en- 
 croachments of the strong; human rapacity is con- 
 fined within certain metes and bounds; nevertheless, 
 the wealth of the world is still, in the main, the 
 prize of. strength and skill. Our laws furnish the 
 rules of the game, but the game is essentially as 
 Kob Roy describes it. To every one according to 
 his power is the underlying principle of the present 
 system of distribution. It is evident that under 
 such a system, in spite of legal restraints, the strong 
 will trample upon the weak. We can not believe 
 that such a system can be in accordance with the 
 will of a Father to whom the poor and needy are 
 the especial objects of care." 
 
 Discussing the three socialistic principles which 
 have been by one and another suggested, ' ' to every 
 
A RELIGIOUS SYMPOSIUM. 277 
 
 one alike; to every one according to his needs; to 
 every one according to his work," he thinks it evi- 
 dent "that none of these methods, taken by itself, 
 would furnish a rule in perfect harmony with divine 
 justice and benignity. The communistic rule is 
 clearly unjust and impracticable. To give to all an 
 equal j)ortion would be wasteful in the extreme, for 
 some could by no possibility use their portion; much 
 of it would be squandered and lost. Some could use 
 productively and beneficently ten times, or even a 
 thousand times more than others. The divine wis- 
 dom must follow somewhat closely the rule of the 
 man in the parable who distributed his goods among 
 his servants, giving ' to every man according to his 
 several ability.' But ability here is not ability to 
 take, but ability to use beneficently and product- 
 ively, which is a very different matter." And he 
 concludes that ' ' the divine plan must, therefore, be 
 that wealth shall be so distributed as to secure the 
 greatest results. And religion, which seeks to dis- 
 cern and follow the divine plan, must teach that the 
 wealth of the world will be rightly distributed only 
 when every man shall have as much as he can wisely 
 use to make himself a better man and the community 
 in which he lives a better community — so much and 
 no more." 
 
 In a paper on "Churches and City Problems," 
 Prof. A. W. Small, Ph. D., of the University of 
 Chicago, declared that "churches as such do not 
 think the thoughts, nor talk the language, nor 
 share the burdens which, for the masses in cities, 
 
278 
 
 contain the real problems in life. " " The chnrches, ' ' 
 he says again, "have no explicit policy toward city 
 problems; lack intelligent interest in them; they 
 are even suspicious of every endeavor to commit 
 the churches to cooperation insolations." He con- 
 cludes that the churcbes must choose between the 
 only alternatives: "First, they may confine them- 
 selves to the functions of spiritual edification, of 
 indoctrinating the children of their members, of 
 defending tlieir denominational orthodoxy, and of 
 evangelizing at home and abroad;" or " second, they 
 may accept the full responsibility of revealers and 
 realizers of right relations of men to each other as 
 well as of men to God." In choosing the first alter- 
 native the function might be logically fundamental, 
 but it must prove practically partial and self -limit- 
 ing. In choosing the other alternative, there must 
 be interdenominational organization and coopera- 
 tion, on the basis of brotherhood, without sinking 
 doctrinal differences. 
 
 Professor Small notes that recent papal deliv- 
 erances ux)on the attitude of the Roman church 
 toward " labor problems " are perhaps the nearest 
 api)roach to a settlement of denominational policy 
 with reference to any of these problems. A paper 
 by Charles F. Donnelly, on "The Relations of the 
 Roman Catholic Church to the Poor and Destitute," 
 traced the history of her St. Vincent de Paul and 
 other societies based on the principle of charity 
 which would lift men int) conditions of integ- 
 rity and self-help, both morally and materially. 
 
A RELIGIOUS SYMPOSIUM. 279 
 
 Another by the Rev. James M. Cleary defined the 
 position of the church with reference to ''Labor 
 Problems" as follows: 
 
 " The church having taught every chikl. of Adam 
 who earned his bread by laborious toil to assert his 
 own dignity and to understand his own worth, and 
 having hitherto led a hopeless multitude from the 
 dismal gloom of slavery to the cheering brightness 
 of the liberty of the children of God, bravely 
 defended the riglits and the privileges of her eman- 
 cipated children. 'Tlie church has regarded with 
 religious care the inheritance of the poor.' The 
 poor are the special charge of the church. Every 
 living soul is in God's immediate care, the rich as 
 well as the poor; there is no distinction of class or 
 privilege with him. Every soul, whether refined or 
 rude, is in his keeping. But with an especial care 
 he watches over those who ' eat bread in the sweat 
 of their brow.' None need the Divine Comforter 
 more than the weary children of toil, and none need 
 and have received the sympathy of the church as 
 they do. In his exhaustive encyclical on the con- 
 dition of labor Leo XIII. lays down the princij)le 
 that the workman' s wages is not a problem to be 
 solved by the pitiless arithmetic of avaricious greed. 
 The wage-earner has rights which he can not sur- 
 render, and which no man can take from him, for 
 he is an intelligent, responsible being owing hom- 
 age to God and duties to human society. His 
 recompense, then, for his daily toil can not be 
 measured by a heartless standard of supply and 
 demand, or a cruel code of inhuman economics, for 
 
280 world's religious congresses. 
 
 man is not a money-making machine, but a citizen 
 of earth and an heir to the kingdom of heaven. He 
 has a right, of which no man has the power to 
 deprive him, ' to the pursuit of life, liberty, and 
 happiness.' Every man has a God-given right to 
 live in decency and comfort. . Labor has a right to 
 freedom; labor has also a right to protect its ow^n 
 independence and liberty. Hence labor unions are 
 lawful and have enjoyed the sanction and protec- 
 tion of the church in all ages. Our times have wit- 
 nessed no more edifying spectacle than the noble, 
 unselfish pleading of our own Cardinal Gibbons for 
 the cause of organized labor at the See of Peter. 
 In organization there is strength, but labor must 
 use its power for its own protection, not for invad- 
 ing the rights of others. The strike, or refusal of 
 united labor to work, is a declaration of w^ar, for it 
 seriously disturbs many human activities. It is 
 justifiable only and should be resorted to only when 
 all other means have failed, when every other 
 expedient has been exhausted, and can be defended 
 only on the plea that the workman is treated 
 unjustly by organized capital. That form of strike, 
 however, by which labor unions use unlawful means 
 to prevent willing men who are anxious to earn a 
 livelihood for their families from engaging in honest 
 work can in no way be defended, and must surely fall 
 under the unqualified censure of religion. Labor has 
 a right, it is true, to prevent its own degradation, 
 and is justified in insisting that wages shall not be 
 so reduced as to prevent Christian men from living 
 like civilized beings, but religion, which is the guar- 
 
A RELIGIOUS SYMPOSIUM. 281 
 
 dian angel of social order and just law, must insist 
 that when such evils threaten society they are rem- 
 edied by legislation and not by appeals to force. 
 
 "Our Christian civilization must not be endan- 
 gered by false maxims and harsh methods of social 
 economy. Our civilization is a failure if it aims 
 only at the protection of wealth and the guardian- 
 ship of property. • 
 
 "111 fares the land, to hastening ills a prey, 
 Where wealth accumulates and men decay. 
 
 ' ' Men are more precious than money. The con- 
 tented Christian homes of an intelligent people, 
 happy in the opportunity of earning a decent com- 
 petence for present and future needs, are the safest 
 and most hopeful support of a nation and encour- 
 aging evidences of national prosperity. Religion's 
 duty is to teach the rich the responsibilities of 
 wealth and the poor respect for order and law. 
 The security of capital against the discontent and 
 envy of labor is the best security also for the work- 
 ingman. When capital becomes timid and shrinks 
 from the hazard of investment, labor soon feels the 
 pangs of hunger, and the dread specter of want 
 casts its dismal shadow over many a humble home. 
 
 ''Religion is the only influence that has been able 
 to subdue the pride and the passions of men, to 
 refine the manners and guide the conduct of human 
 society, so that rich and poor alike, mindful of their 
 common destiny, respect each other's rights, their 
 mutual dependence, and the rights of their common 
 Father in heaven. The religious teachers and guides 
 who apply the principles of the ' Sermon on the 
 
283 woeld's religioijs congresses. 
 
 Mount' to the everj-day affairs of men, and lead 
 humanity ui)ward to a better and nobler realization 
 of God's compassion for the weary ones of earth, 
 will merit the undying gratitude of men and heav- 
 en's choicest rewards." 
 
 Space will not admit of further analysis of this 
 valuable series of papers. If the result in outline 
 of methods of social reform is not wholly satisfac- 
 tory, it is at least evident that the religious motive 
 for the study and solution of social problems has 
 received eminent consideration, and is asserted with 
 a unanimity which demonstrates great progress in 
 Christendom along these lines, if the study of 
 sociology and efforts in social reform have to be 
 carried on for the most part indepf,ndent of Chris- 
 tian ecclesiastical organizations, it is evident that 
 its advocates intend to claim the sanction and 
 authority of Christ and the gospels in the adjust- 
 ment of the inherent and necessary rights and re- 
 sponsibilities of the individual and the social body, 
 under the ideal of the voluntary contribution of each 
 to the common good and of all to the good of each. 
 
 WOMAN. 
 
 "The place which woman has taken in the Par- 
 liament of Religions and in the denomifjational 
 congresses," said the remarkably efficient and ever- 
 gracious president of the woman's branch, Mrs. 
 Charles Henrotin, in her concluding address, "is 
 one of such great importance that it is entitled to 
 your careful attention." 
 
A RELIGIOUS SYMPOSIUM. 283 
 
 It will interest many to know what place 
 exactly woman occupied to lier own highest honor, 
 and as indicating the field of her most permanent 
 achievements, in the judgment of this executive 
 woman, who had such exceptional opx^ortunities 
 for estimating the value of the work of her sister 
 co-laborers. The series of auxiliary congresses 
 w^as opened in May with a congress of representa- 
 tive women, wiiich was one of the most largely 
 attended and popular in the whole series. This, 
 with the active part taken by women in all the suc- 
 ceeding congresses, led many to wonder if the order 
 of the world might not be changing, and woman be 
 destined to take the lead in the forensic work which 
 has heretofore been assumed to belong to man. 
 The men and women who worked together on com- 
 mittees, in the laborious and varied preparations 
 which were necessary to the success of the con- 
 gresses, knew well that if the field of her endeavor 
 is enlarging, her power is just what it has always 
 been — the power of patient, persistent, gracious, 
 and humanizing work. It is interesting in this 
 connection to have the following testimony from 
 such a representative of her sex as Mrs. Henrotin: 
 
 "As day by day the parliament has presented 
 the resnlt of the preliminary work of two years, it 
 may have appeared to you an easy thing to put 
 into motion the forces of which this evening is the 
 crowning achievement, but to bring about this 
 result hundreds of men and women have labored. 
 There are sixteen committees of women in the vari- 
 ous departments represented in the Parliament of 
 
284 
 
 Religions and denominational congresses, with a 
 total membership of 228. In many cases the men's 
 and the women's committee have elected to work as 
 one and in others the women have held separate 
 congresses. Sixteen women have spoken in the Par- 
 liament of Religions, and that more did not appear 
 is due to the fact that the denominational commit- 
 tee had secured the most prominent women for their 
 presentation. Doctor Barrows treated the woman's 
 branch with that courtesy and consideration, and I 
 may add Justice, which he has extended to the rep- 
 resentatives of every creed. In the denominational 
 congresses the first in order, was that of the Jewish 
 women, and here is the key-note to woman's position 
 in the modern religious world. It is that of the 
 worker, for it is not in the Parliament of Religions, 
 as able as have been the women representing her in 
 the parliament, that you can judge of the tremen- 
 dous power which she wields. It is in the denom- 
 inational congress that her work is best illustrated. 
 ' ' In the Roman Catholic congress the work of the 
 women for their church was most ably presented. 
 His Eminence Cardinal Gibbons, in his paper, ' The 
 Needs of Humanity Supplied by the Catholic Re- 
 ligion,' demonstrated that the needs of humanity 
 were ministered unto by women, laity as well 
 as sisters, in the Catholic church. His paper 
 could fitly have been named, ' What Woman Has 
 Accomplished for the Catholic Church.' The con- 
 gress of the Jewish women was a memorable 
 occasion, as it was the first time in the world's 
 history that the Jewish women met together as 
 
A EELIGIOUS SYMPOSIUM. 285 
 
 a religious power. Eighty-five delegates from the 
 different Jewish communities from all parts of the 
 United States were present, and before this con- 
 gress adjourned an international association of Jew- 
 ish women was formed, and if it brings into the 
 religious world the same zeal which has animated 
 that historic race, it is easy to conceive what a tre- 
 mendous force has here been put into motion. The 
 committee of Congregational women held an inter- 
 esting session treating of practical questions con- 
 nected with church work. The women of the 
 Lutheran church succeeded in uniting the Lutheran 
 women all over the United States in one congress, 
 and held four sessions in which Lutheran women 
 spoke on the work of women in their church. 
 Before this congress closed an international league 
 of Lutheran women was formed. The King's 
 Daughters i^resented their work on Monday, Octo- 
 ber 2d. In all the other denominational congresses 
 women have presented their work in the general 
 congress. Two hundred and twelve women have 
 taken part in the denominational and mission con- 
 gresses. Now the question presents itself, along 
 what line of thought have most of these women pre- 
 sented papers? And I may truly answer that tliey 
 liaise treated of practical efforts for the bettering of 
 social conditions." 
 
 In the many excellent papers presented by women 
 on the theory of woman's place and work in the 
 world, many suggestions were set forth, but the one 
 assured conviction and purpose running through 
 
286 
 
 them all is perhaps most adequately voiced by the 
 following passages from Miss Willard' s address: 
 
 ''We are then beginning to train those with each 
 other who were formed for each other, and tlie Eng- 
 lish-speaking home, with its Christian method of a 
 twofold headship, based on laws natural and divine, 
 is steadily rooting out all that remains of the me- 
 dieval, continental, and harem philosophies con- 
 cerning this greatest problem of all time. Tlie true 
 relations of that complex being whom God created 
 by uttering the mystic thought that had in it the 
 potency of paradise, ' In our own image let us make 
 man, and let him have dominion over all the earth,' 
 will ere long be ascertained by means of the new 
 correlation and attuning each to other of a more 
 complete humanity upon the Christ-like basis that 
 'there shall be no more curse.' " 
 
 " She is the embodiment of what sLall be. In an 
 age of force woman's greatest grace was to cling; 
 in this age of peace she doesn't cling much, but is 
 every bit as tender and as sweet as if she did. She 
 has strength and individuality, a gentle serious- 
 ness; there is more of a sister, less of the siren; 
 more of the duchess and less of the doll. Woman 
 is becoming what God meant her to be, and Christ's 
 gospel necessitates her being, the companion and 
 counselor, not the incumbrance and toy, of men. 
 To meet this new creation how grandly men them- 
 selves are growing, how considerate and brotherly, 
 how pure in word and deed! The world has never 
 yet known half the aptitude of character and life 
 to which men will attain when they and women live 
 
A RELIGIOUS SYMPOSIUM. ' 287 
 
 in the same world. It doth not yet appear what they 
 shall be, or we either, for that matter, but in many 
 a home presided over by a temperance voter and a 
 white-ribbon worker I have thought the heavenly 
 vision was really coming down to terra firm a. With 
 all my heart I believe, as do the best men of the 
 nation, that woman will bless and brighten every 
 place she enters, and that she will enter every place. 
 Its welcome of her presence and her power will be 
 the final test of any institution's fitness to survive." 
 
 As Mrs. Henrotin said: "It is too soon to prog- 
 nosticate woman's future in the churches. 
 Hitherto she has been not the thinker, the formu- 
 lator of creeds, but the silent worker. That day 
 has passed; it remains for her to take her rightful 
 position in the active government of the church, 
 and to the question, if men will accord that posi- 
 tion to her, my experience and that of the chairmen 
 of the woman's* committees warrants us in answer- 
 ing an emphatic yes. Her future in the western 
 churches is in her own hands, and the men of the 
 eastern churches will be emboldened by the 
 example of the western to return to their country 
 and bid our sisters of those distant lands to go and 
 do likewise. Woman has taken very literally 
 Christ's command to feed the hungry, clothe the 
 naked, heal the sick, and to minister unto those 
 who are in need of such ministrations; as her 
 influence and power increase, so also will her zeal 
 for good works. That the experiment of an equal 
 presentation of men and women in a parliament of 
 
288 world's religious congresses. 
 
 religions has not been a failure I think can be 
 proved by the part taken by the women who have 
 had the honor of being called to participate in this 
 great gathering. I must now bear witness to the 
 devotion, the unselfishness, and the zeal of the 
 chairman of every committee who has assisted in 
 arranging these programmes. I would that I had 
 the time to name them one by one. Their generous 
 cooperation and unselfish endeavor are of those 
 good things the memory of which is in this life a 
 foreshadowing of how divine is the principle of 
 loyal cooperation in working for righteousness." 
 
 These generous words, in which she pays tribute 
 to her earnest, modest, and as a rule notably 
 prudent and intelligent co-workers, set the text 
 upon which every man intimately associated in the 
 preparations for the congresses, and in their con- 
 duct, would like to enlarge. Regretting that the 
 limits of this review will not permit detailed 
 notice of the manifold ways in which the women of 
 the several committees contributed to their success, 
 I wish to record the conviction, founded in observa- 
 tion and experience, that without the self-sacrific- 
 ing and wise work of these women, continued from 
 the beginning throughout the organization, neither 
 the parliament nor the denominational congresses 
 could have been carried out with such breadth, 
 and in such a spirit of charity and cooperation, as 
 was achieved, and which constitutes their chief 
 value. 
 
-^^^ 
 
 B. B. InAGARKAR, 
 
 Brahmo-Somaj, Bombay, India. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE DENOMIIN^ATIONAL CONGRESSES. 
 
 THE Parliament of Religions was but a part of 
 the series of religious congresses, and though 
 it was in itself an event so notable and of 
 such x^opular interest as to overshadow the others 
 at the time, it will be found when the contributions 
 to the several denominational congresses are pub- 
 lished that the highest and most valuable worJi of 
 Christian thinkers was put into the preparation for 
 them. Over thirty congresses of different denomi- 
 nations and religious societies were held concur- 
 rently with and in the weeks preceding and 
 following the j^arliament, each one of which was of 
 sufficient dignity and importance to have attracted 
 international attention at any other time. There 
 was among the committees some disappointment 
 that the programmes, so carefully matured, and 
 commanding the best thought of representative men 
 and women in preparation, should have been so 
 completely overshadowed; but upon second thought 
 it has aiDpeared to most of those interested that the 
 great success of that event, as a signal demonstra- 
 tion of both the need and the possibility of frater- 
 nal frankness and comparison, will give to the 
 proceedings of tlie special congresses, when pub- 
 lished, an importance and value entirely worthy of 
 
 19 (289) 
 
290 world's religious cotstgresses. 
 
 the labor spent upon them. Without any attempt 
 to represent the matter of over thirty elaborately 
 prepared programmes, we can only here glance at 
 a few characteristic features of them. 
 
 The Jewish Congress, beginning August 27th, 
 showed how completely modern Judaism is organ- 
 izing for the ethical education of its people, and 
 displayed more zeal of propagandism than it has 
 been usually credited with. Subjects ranging from 
 the fundamental doctrines of Judaism through 
 ethics and the influence of Judaism upon civiliza- 
 tion down to the organization and methods of char- 
 itable relief were treated, presenting the whole 
 scope of Jewish thought, organization, and work; 
 and to this was added the congress of Jewish 
 women, treating of women, home, charity, and mis- 
 sion work among the uneducated — a thoroughly 
 practical series of papers, of value mainly to their 
 own people as imparting to them the inspiration of 
 history, and k larger conception of educational, 
 ethical, and charitable work. 
 
 The Columbian Catholic Congress, which was 
 held the week preceding the parliament, presented 
 a programme notable for the attention given to the 
 relation of the church to government and social 
 questions. Assured of its position, only eager to 
 define the harmony of its spiritual interests with the 
 civil order and institutions among which it works, 
 it addressed itself largely to the " social question" 
 in its various phases, the rights of labor, the duties 
 of capital, poverty, public and private charities, 
 labor unions, strikes and arbitration, women and 
 
THE DENOMINATIONAL CONGRESSES. 291 
 
 their work, and education. Both the papers, and 
 the discussions in the sections to which they were 
 assigned, showed the completeness and elasticity of 
 the orgmization, which has been bnilt up to cover 
 all ranges of life, and carry help to the lowest in 
 the name of religion. 
 
 The Congregational, Methodist, Lutheran, and 
 other evangelical Protestant bodies ran much to the 
 history of the denomination, less to the origin and 
 development of doctrine; giving full attention to 
 missionary motive and machinery, and, where the 
 women took a distinctive part, to education, the 
 home, mi;?sionary appeal to the erring, and help to 
 the helpless. 
 
 Universalism argued the goodness of God, the 
 essential holiness of man, the destructibility of sin, 
 the self-perpetuating power of goodness, with par- 
 donable rejoicing at the "Renaissance of Universal- 
 ism" in the various sects of Christendom. Uni- 
 tarianism presented its theological method, its 
 place in the development of Christianity, its influ- 
 ence in literature, philanthropy, and in the growth 
 of democracy, its history, doctrines, and organized 
 working forces. Even the Congress of Evolutionists 
 gave much time to ethics and religion, setting forth 
 the bearing of the doctrine of evolution upon belief 
 in immortality and the development of Christianity. 
 
 In the New Jerusalem Church Congress an elab- 
 orate series of papers set forth the Swedenborgian 
 doctrine on the unity of God' s ways to man in the 
 successive dispensations or churches, on the history 
 of revelation and the opening of the spiritual sense 
 
292 world's religious congresses. 
 
 of the sacred Scriptures, revealing the one Lord, and 
 one church with its successive ages, and the doc- 
 trines which constitute the basis of a universal faith 
 and charity. In another series the mission of its 
 doctrines to the Gentiles, to the Christian denomina- 
 tions, to biblical criticism, to science, to philosophy, 
 to the historian, to literature and art, to sociology 
 and government, and in education. In still another 
 series the relation of woman's work to man's, in 
 the church, the home, and the religious world. 
 
 Congresses were held by the Young Men's and 
 Young Women's Christian associations, by the 
 Evangelical Alliance, and a world's congress of 
 missions, covering the needs, problems, and pro- 
 visions for city, home, and foreign evangelization — 
 all serious, generous in plan, and striking in the 
 ability of the contributions offered to the advance- 
 ment of the causes represented. Indeed, the only 
 criticism to be offered is upon the appalling 
 breadth of subject, amount of detail, and w^ealth of 
 thought brought under review. This difficulty can 
 only be overcome when the several committees pub- 
 lish their papers for the use of those whose interest 
 and fitness lead them into one or another of these 
 interesting fields of inquiry. But if the complete 
 library stood before us, no single mind could fully 
 appreciate the amount and w^orth of original, honest, 
 and painstaking thought in this Columbian exhibit 
 of the mind and work of the world in morals and 
 religion. 
 
CHAPTER yi. ' 
 
 FAREWELL MEETINGS IN COLUMBUS AND WASHING- 
 TON HALLS. 
 
 THE closing scene of the Parliament of Relig- 
 ions fulfilled the promise of its opening, and 
 will live forever in the memory of those who 
 were fortunate enougli to participate in it or to wit- 
 ness it. If the 8,000 people who assembled to hear 
 the words of farewell could have been gathered into 
 one great assembly, with suitable surroundings, the 
 imi^ression would have been intensified. That this 
 immense body of people could be separated into 
 two audiences, uncomfortably seated in bare and 
 uninviting halls, to listen half of them to speeches 
 already once delivered to the other half, without 
 any diminution of enthusiasm, witnesses the great- 
 ness of the occasion. 
 
 It was early apparent that Columbus Hall would 
 not accommodate half the people who desired to 
 attend the closing exercises, and tickets were accord- 
 ingly issued for an overflow meeting in Washington 
 Hall, which the writer of this review and the Rev. 
 Jenkins L. Jones were asked to conduct. Both 
 halls were filled to their utmost capacity. In the 
 president's reception-room were assembled the rep- 
 resentatives of the oriental religions and the creeds 
 of Christendom, Buddhist and Baptist, Mohamme- 
 
 (293) 
 
294 woeld's eeligious congeesses. 
 
 dan and Methodist, Catholic and Confucian, Mono- 
 theist, Polytheist, and Pantheist, Episcopalian, 
 Evangelical, and Evolutionist, Orthodox and Heter- 
 odox, the New Disi3ensation in India, and the IN'ew 
 Dispensation in Christendom — all forms and colors 
 of faith, and varied cut and color of vestment, min- 
 gling together in happy fellowship. It was manifest 
 that the interest expectant in both the halls was 
 only to be satisfied by both seeing and hearing; and 
 we who were to be responsible for the overflow 
 meeting confronted a problem of no small difficulty. 
 
 It was arranged that the procession of guests and 
 speakers shoifld form and march first to the plat- 
 form of Washington Hall, there to group and stand 
 while introduced by Doctor Barrows, with the prom- 
 ise that when each had sx)oken in Columbus Hall 
 he should be escorted to that jjlatform and repeat 
 his words to that audience. And it was agreed 
 between Mr. Jones and myself that we would alter- 
 nately escort the speakers in the order of their pres- 
 entation to the other audience, and introduce them 
 to the assembly in Washington Hall. This pro- 
 gramme was fully carried out, with the hax)piest 
 results. 
 
 As the company of guests arranged themselves 
 on the platform of Columbus Hall the Ajjollo Club, 
 under the leadership of Professor Tomlins, opened 
 with "Lift up your heads, O ye gates!" Then at 
 the invitation of President Bonney the assembly 
 stood in silent prayer. After which Cardinal New- 
 man's hymn, "Lead, KiMly Light!" was sung by 
 the chorus. 
 
FAREWELL MEETINGS. 295 
 
 ''The demands of the occasion," said President 
 Bonney, "require the utmost possible economy of 
 our time. We shall endeavor to present during the 
 evening a large number of brief speeches rather 
 than a few long ones. Doctor Barrows will now pre- 
 sent some of the distinguished guests wdiom we 
 have entertained during the past three weeks, and 
 who have taken such an active part in the World's 
 Parliament of Religions." 
 
 Meanwhile in Washington Hall the audience was 
 entertained by a brief catholic and inspiring 
 paper on the ' ' Future of Religion ' ' by Merwin 
 Marie Snell, who had rendered valuable service in 
 the conduct of the scientific section during the ses- 
 sions of the parliament.- At the close of his 
 address, and while Doctor Momerie was speaking in 
 the Hall of Columbus, it fell to my lot to say the 
 few words I had been appointed to say. The 
 audience was put into the best of spirits by the 
 evident purpose to compensate them for the dis- 
 appointment in being barred from the first table, as 
 it were, and received with evident approval the 
 suggestion that the results of this parliament 
 would be not less religion but more, not vagueness 
 as to origins but greater definiteness of faith. 
 
 " One of the lessons of the parliament is that not 
 doctrine alone but life according to doctrine con- 
 stitutes and qualifies religion. Wherever there is 
 any religion there are two parties to constitute it, 
 God and man; for there must be conjunction 
 between them. And there are two means to this 
 conjunction: the life of divine love which flows in 
 
296 world's religious congresses. 
 
 inwardly with all men, and the truths of faith 
 which are provided in some form, in more or less 
 fullness, with every nation that has a religion. So 
 far as any one in any religion yields his heart to 
 live according to the truths of faith taught in his 
 religion, the Lord, the true and only God, conjoins 
 the good of life. And as good and truth, faith and 
 life are united in man, he comes into harmony 
 with the stream of God's providence, and is capable 
 of enlightenment and development of life under 
 favoring conditions in this world and the next. 
 
 "Every religion teaches that there is a God, and 
 that evils are to be shunned as sins against him; 
 and in almost every religion there is witness in 
 some form to the life after death, with its condi- 
 tions that flow from the life here, as lived in 
 acknowledgment of God and obedience to his pre- 
 cepts. The vitality of religion everywhere is in the 
 fidelity of life to belief. And the supreme good of 
 this parliament is the emphasis it has given to that 
 one truth. The fatherhood of God and the brother- 
 hood of man without that truth would mean noth- 
 ing, for brotherhood in religion flows from that 
 common fountain, fidelity to what one believes 
 from God. . That is my best, and that in every other 
 man is brother to that best in me. It is this recog- 
 nition which exalts the importance of the scriptures 
 and traditions in which the non-Christian religions 
 are founded, and constitutes the appeal of the 
 Christian Scriptures to them, as lighting up their 
 own origins, and giving expansion and validity to 
 their conception of God and righteousness. He is 
 
FAREWELL MEETINGS. 297 
 
 in the way of eternal life who lives wp to his belief 
 in God and his law ; not by this or that doctrine, but 
 by ' what is written in the law? How readest thou? 
 This do and thou shalt live.' The emphasis and 
 illustration which has been given to this funda- 
 mental truth in the Parliament of Religions can not 
 but issue in permanent and happy results" And 
 as Doctor Momerie entered at this point, reminding 
 me of Frederick Robertson of Brighton, I could call 
 him to witness to that great preaclier's prophecy of 
 the recognition sometime of the importance of this 
 truth — not that it makes no diflPerence what we 
 believe, but, as Robertson said, "Obedience is the 
 organ of spiritual enlightenment." 
 
 Doctor Momerie was introduced by the Rev. Mr. 
 Jones, w^ith happy reference to our satisfaction in 
 his visit and contribution to the work of the con- 
 gress, almost leading us to forget the disappoint- 
 ment at the unfortunate failure of the Anglican 
 church to be officially represented. 
 
 Doctor Momerie responded that he wished to say 
 three things. "First of all, I want to tender my 
 warmest congratulations to Doctor Barrows. I do 
 not believe there is another man living who could 
 have carried this congress through and made it such 
 a gigantic success. It needed a head, a heart, an 
 energy, a common sense, and a pluck such as I have 
 never known to be united before in a single indi- 
 vidual. 
 
 " Secondly, I should like to offer my congratula- 
 tions to the American people. This Parliament of 
 Religions has been held in the New World. I confess 
 
298 world's religious COTs^GRESSES. 
 
 I wish it liad been held in the Old World, in my own 
 country, and that it had had its origin in my own 
 church. It is the greatest event so far in the history 
 of the world, and it ha's been held on American soil. 
 I congratulate the people of America. Their exam- 
 ple will be followed in time to come in other coun- 
 tries and by other peoples, but there is one honor 
 which will always be Amei^ica's — the honor of hav- 
 ing led the way. And certainly I should like to offer 
 my congratulations to you, the citizens of Chicago. 
 While our minds are full of the parliament I can 
 not forget the Fair. I have seen all the expositions 
 of Europe during the last ten or twelve years, and I 
 am sure I do not exaggerate when I say that your 
 exposition is greater than all the rest put together. 
 But your Parliament of Religions is far greater than 
 your exposition. There have been plenty of expo- 
 sitions before. Yours is the best, but it is a compar- 
 atively common thing. The Parliament of Religions 
 is a new thing in the world. Most people, even 
 those who regarded the idea with pleasure, thought 
 that it was an impossibility; but it has been 
 achieved. Here in this Hall of Columbus vast 
 audiences have assembled day after day, the mem- 
 bers of which came from all churches and from all 
 sects, and sometimes from no church at all. Here 
 they sat side by side during the long hours of the 
 day, listening to doctrines which they had been 
 taught to regard with contempt; listening with 
 respect, with sympathy, with an earnest desire to 
 learn something which would improve their own 
 doctrines." And with a reference to the harmony 
 
FAREWELL MEETINGS. 299 
 
 among tbe representatives of churches and sects 
 which once hated and cursed one another, he closed 
 with congratulation and benediction for Chicago. 
 
 Returning from Columbus Hall with Mr. Mozoom- 
 dar, where his speech had been received with the 
 enthusiasm he never fails to arouse, it was evident 
 that the second audience was not likely to prove a 
 burden to the speakers. There was such a good- 
 humored cordiality and informal sphere pervading 
 Washington Hall that the speakers seemed to feel 
 a certain lightness of spirit and freedom of address 
 which made the repetition of the speech just 
 delivered to the other audience a gracious pleasure. 
 In presenting Mr. Mozoomdar, I could not but refer 
 again to the phrase descriptive of the mission 
 Brahmo-Somaj, namely, "The New Dispensation in 
 India," to which his quotation from their great 
 leader, Chunder Senn, in the address which follows, 
 gives peculiar significance. He said: 
 
 ' ' This Parliament of Eeligions, this concourse of 
 spirits, is to break up before to-morrow's sun. 
 What lessons have we learned from our incessant 
 labors ? Firstly, the charge of materialism, laid 
 against the age in general, and against America in 
 particular, is refuted forever. Could these myriads 
 have spent their time, their energy, neglected 
 their business, their pleasures, to be present with 
 us if their spirit had not risen above their 
 material needs or carnal desires? The spirit 
 dominates still over matter and over mankind. 
 Secondly, the unity of purpose and feeling un- 
 mistakably shown in the harmonious proceedings 
 
300 
 
 of these seventeen days teaclies that men with 
 opposite views, denominations with contradictory 
 principles and liistories, can form one congregation, 
 one household, one body, for however short a time, 
 when animated by one Spirit. Who is or what is 
 that Spirit ? It is the Spirit of God himself. This 
 unity of man with man is the -unity of man with 
 God, and the unity of man with man in God is the 
 kingdom of heaven. When I came here by the invi- 
 tation of your President, I came with the hope 
 of seeing the object of my lifelong faith and labors, 
 viz., the harmony of religions, effected. The last 
 public utterance of my leader, Cheshub Chunder 
 Senn, made in 1883, in his lecture called 'Asia's 
 Message to Europe,' was this: 
 
 ' ' ' Here will meet the world' s representatives, the 
 foremost spirits, the most living hearts, the leading 
 thinkers and devotees of each church, and offer 
 united homage to the King of kings and the 
 Lord of lords. This central union church is no 
 Utopian fancy, but a veritable reality, whose begin- 
 ning we see already among the nations of the earth. 
 Already the right wing of each church is pressing 
 forward, and the advanced liberals are drawing near 
 each other under the central banner of the new dis- 
 pensation. Believe me, the time is coming when the 
 more liberal of the Catholic and Protestant branches 
 of Christ's church will advance and meet upon a com- 
 mon platform and form a broad Christian commu- 
 nity, in which all sball be identified, in spite of all 
 diversities and differences in non-essential matters 
 of faith. So shall the Baptists and Methodists, 
 
FAREWELL MEETINGS. 301 
 
 Trinitarians and Unitarians, the Ritualists and tlie 
 Evangelical, all unite in a broad and universal cliurcli 
 organization, loving, honoring, serving the common 
 body while retaining the peculiarities of each sect. 
 Only the broad of each sect shall for the present 
 come forward, and others shall follow in time. 
 The base remains where it is; the vast masses at 
 the foot of each church will yet remain, perhaps 
 for centuries, where they now are. But as you look 
 to the lofty heights above you will see all the bolder 
 spirits and broad souls of each" church pressing 
 forward, onward, heavenward. Come, then, my 
 friends, ye broad -hearted of all the churches, ad- 
 vance and shake hands with each other and promote 
 that spiritual fellowship, that kingdom of heaven 
 which Christ predicted.' 
 
 "These words were said in 1883, and in 1893 every 
 letter of the prophecy has been fulfilled. The king- 
 dom of heaven is to my mind a vast concentric cir- 
 cle with various circumferences of doctrine, author- 
 ities, and organizations from outer to inner, from 
 inner to inner still, until heaven and earth become 
 one. The outermost circle is belief in God and the 
 love of man. In the tolerance, kindliness, good- 
 will, patience, and wisdom which have distinguished 
 the work of this parliament that outermost circle of 
 the kingdom of heaven has been described. We 
 have influenced vast numbers of men and women of 
 all opinions and the influence will spread and spread. 
 So many human unities drawn within the magnetic 
 circle of spiritual sympathy can not but influence 
 and widen the various denominations to which they 
 
302 world's religious congresses. 
 
 belong. In the course of time those inner circles 
 must widen also till the love of man and the love of 
 God are perfected in one church, one God, one sal- 
 vation. I conclude with acknowledging the singular 
 cordiality and appreciation extended to us orientals. 
 Where every one has done so well we did not 
 deserve special honor, but undeserved as the honor 
 may be, it shows the greatness of jouy leaders, and 
 especially of your chairman. Doctor Barrows. 
 Doctor Barrows, humanly speaking, has been the 
 soul of this noble movement. The profoundest 
 blessings of the jiresent and future generations shall 
 follow him. And now farewell. For once in his- 
 tory all religions have made their peace, all nations 
 have called each other brothers, and their repre- 
 sentatives have for seventeen days stood up morning 
 after morning to pray Our Father, the universal 
 father of all, in heaven. His will has been done so 
 far, and in the great coming future may that blessed 
 will be done further and further, forever and ever." 
 
 Without further attempt to describe two meetings, 
 we may go on in the order of the second, with which 
 the writer is most familiar. Prince Serge Wolkon- 
 sky, who endeared himself to everybody by his 
 enthusiasm for humanity, was next felicitously 
 introduced by Rev. Mr. Jones, and responded in 
 the following characteristic speech: 
 
 '' I hardly realize that it is for the last time in my 
 life I have the honor, the pleasure, the fortune to 
 speak to you. On this occasion I would like to tell 
 you so many things that I am afraid that if I give 
 
Fx^EEWELL MEETINGS. 303 
 
 free course to my sentiments I will feel the delicate 
 but imperative touch of Mr. President's hand on my 
 shoulder long before I reach the end of my speech. 
 Therefore, I will say thanks to all of yoa ladies and 
 gentlemen in the shortest possible words — thanks 
 for your kind attention, for your kind applause, 
 your kind laughter, for your hearty hand-shakes. 
 You will believe how deeply I am obliged to you 
 when I tell you that this was the first time in my 
 life that I ever took an active part in a congress, 
 and I wish any enterprise I might undertake later 
 on might leave me such happy remembrances as 
 this first experience. 
 
 "Before bidding you farewell, I want to express a 
 wish; may the good feelings you have shown me so 
 many times, may they, through my unworthy per- 
 sonality, spread to the people of my country, whom 
 you know so little and whom I love so much. If I 
 ask you that, it is because I know the prejudices 
 which prevail among the people of your country. 
 A compatriot said the other day that Russians 
 thought all Americans were angels, and that Ameri- 
 cans thought all Russians were brutes. Now once 
 in awhile these angels and these brutes come 
 together, and both are deceived in their expectations. 
 You see that you certainly are not angels, and you 
 see we are not qaite as much brute as you thought 
 we were. Now why this disappointment? Why this 
 surprise? Why this astonishment? Because we 
 won't remember that we are men, and nothing else 
 and nothing more. We can not be anything more, 
 for to be a man is the highest thing we can pretend 
 
304 world's eeligious congeesses. 
 
 to be on this earth. I do not know whether many 
 have learned in the sessions of this parliament what 
 respect of God is, but I know that no one will leave 
 the congress without having learned what respect of 
 man is. And should the Parliament of Religions of 
 1893 have no other result but this, it is enough to 
 make the names of Doctor Barrows and those who 
 have helped him imperishable in the history of 
 humanity. 
 
 " Should this congress have no other result than 
 to teach us to judge our fellow-man by his individ- 
 ual value, and not by the political opinion he may 
 have of his country, I will express my gratitude to 
 the congress, not only in the name of those your 
 brothers who are my countrymen, but in the name 
 of those our brothers whom we so often revile 
 because the political traditions of their country 
 refuse the recognition of home rule; in the name 
 of those our fellow-men whose mother-land stands 
 on the neck of India, in the name of those our 
 brothers whom we so often blame only because the 
 governments of their countries send rajjacious 
 armies on the western, southern, and eastern coasts 
 of Africa; I will exi)ress my gratitude to the con- 
 gress in the name of those my brothers w^hom we 
 often judge so wrongly because of the cruel treat- 
 ment their government inflicts upon the Chinese. I 
 will congratulate the congress in the name of the 
 w^hole world if those who have been here have 
 learned that as long as politics and politicians exist 
 there is no happiness possible on earth. I will con- 
 gratulate the congress in the name of the whole 
 
FAEEWELL MEETINGS. 305 
 
 humanity if those who have attended its sessions have 
 realized that it is a crime to be astonished when we 
 see that another human being is a man like our- 
 selves." And in concluding he paid a tribute of 
 respect and praise to Mr. Bonney for his unfailing 
 courtesy and charity. 
 
 Mr. Hirai of Japan, who was one of the first to 
 tell Christians some things they ought to know 
 about the wrongs of so-called Christian civilization, 
 had only words of good- will in farewell. 
 
 "We can not but admire the tolerant forbear- 
 ance and compassion of the people of the civilized 
 west. You are the pioneers in human history. 
 You have achieved an assembly of the world's 
 religions, and we believe your next step will be 
 toward the ideal goal of this j)arliament, the realiza- 
 tion of international justice. We ourselves desire 
 to witness its fulfillment in our lifetime and to greet 
 you again with our deepest admiration. By your 
 kind hospitality we have forgotten that we are 
 strangers, and we are very much attached to this 
 city. To leave here makes us feel as if we were 
 leaving our native country. To part with you 
 makes us feel as if we were parting from our own 
 sisters and brothers. When we think of our home- 
 ward journey we can not help shedding tears. 
 Farewell. The cold winter is coming, and we 
 earnestly wish that you may be in good health. 
 Farewell." 
 
 The kindly and gentle appeal in the speech of the 
 
 20 
 
306 woeld's religious congresses. 
 
 Chinese ambassador Pung Quang Yu is also some- 
 thing of a reproach to Christian America. After 
 formal thanks, he said: 
 
 " It is unnecessary for me to touch upon the exist- 
 ing relations between the government of China and 
 that of the United States. There is no doubt that 
 the Chinese minister at Washington and the honor- 
 able Secretary of State are well able to deal with 
 every question rising between the two countries in a 
 manner satisfactory and honorable to both. As I 
 am a delegate to the religious congresses, I can not 
 but feel that all religious people are my friends. I 
 have a favor to ask of all the religious people of 
 America, and that is that they will treat, hereafter, 
 all my countrymen just as they have treated me. I 
 shall be a hundred times more grateful to them for 
 the kind treatment of my countrymen than of 
 myself. I am sure that the Americans in China 
 receive just such considerate treatment from the 
 cultured people of China as I have received from 
 you. The majority of my countrymen in this coun- 
 try are honest and law^-abiding. Christ teaches us 
 that it is not enough to love one' s brethren only. I 
 am sure that all religious people will not think this 
 request too extravagant. It is my sincere hope 
 that no national differences will ever interrupt the 
 friendly relations between the two governments and 
 that the two peoples will equally enjoy the protec- 
 tion and blessings of heaven. I intend to leave this 
 country shortly. I shall take great pleasure in 
 reporting to my government the proceedings of this 
 parliament upon my return. With this I desire to 
 bid all my friends farewell." 
 
FAREWELL MEETINGS. 307 
 
 The high priest of the Shinto sect, of Japan, while 
 invoking eight million deities, expressed the spirit 
 of brotherhood which carries with it the acknowl- 
 edgment of a supreme Father. 
 . ' ' I am here in the pulpit again to express my thanks 
 for the kindness, hearty welcome, and applause I 
 .have been enjoying at your hands ever siuce I came 
 here to Chicago. You have shown great sympathy 
 with my humble opinion, and your newsj)ax)er men 
 have talked of me in high terms. I am happy that 
 I have had the honor of listening to so many famous 
 scholars and preaching the same opinion of the 
 necessity of universal brotherhood and humanity. 
 I am deeply impressed with the peace, politeness, 
 and education which characterize your audiences. 
 But is it not too sad that such pleasures are always 
 short-lived ? I, who made acquaintance with you 
 only yesterday, have to part with you to-day, 
 though reluctantly. This Parliament of Religions is 
 the most remarkable event in history, and it is the 
 first honor in my life to have the privilege of appear- 
 ing before you to pour out my humble idea, which 
 was so well acceioted by you all. You like me, but 
 I think it is not the mortal Shibata that you like, 
 but you like the immortal idea of universal broth- 
 erhood. What I wish to do is to assist you in car- 
 rying out the plan of forming universal brotherhood 
 under the one roof of truth. You know unity is 
 power. I, who can sj^eakno language but Japanese, 
 may help you in crowning that grand project with 
 success. To come here I had many obstacles to 
 overcome, many struggles to make. You must not 
 
308 world's religious congresses. 
 
 think I represent all Shintoism. I only represent my 
 own Shinto sect. But who dares to destroy univer- 
 sal fraternity? So long as the sun and moon con- 
 tinue to shine all friends of truth must be willing 
 to fight courageously for this great principle. I do 
 not know as I shall ever see you again in this life, 
 but our souls have been so pleasantly united here 
 that I hope they may be again united in the life 
 hereafter. Now I pray that 8,000,000 deities pro- 
 tecting the beautiful cherry-tree country of Japan 
 may protect you and your government forever, and 
 with this I bid you good-by." 
 
 The Rev. Dr. George T. Candlin, who is a Chris- 
 tian missionary to China, who showed his faith on 
 several occasions that God has not left himself with- 
 out a witness in any nation, and that the mission of 
 Christianity is to educate rather than subdue, said: 
 
 "It is with deepest joy that I take my part in 
 the congratulations of this closing day. The par- 
 liament has more than justified my most sanguine 
 expectations. As a missionary I anticipate that it 
 will, make a new era of missionary enterprise and 
 missionary hope. If it does not it will not be your 
 fault, and let those take the blame who make it 
 otherwise. Very sure I am that at least one mis- 
 sionary, who counts himself the humblest member 
 of this noble assembly, will carry through every 
 day of work, through every hour of effort on till 
 the sun of life sets on the completion of his task, 
 the strengthening memory and uplifting inspira- 
 tion of this Pentecost. By this parliament the city 
 
FAREWELL MEETINGS. 309 
 
 of Chicago lias j)laced herself far away above all 
 the cities of the earth. In this school you have 
 learned what no other town or city in the world yet 
 knows. The conventional idea of religion which 
 obtains among Christians the world over is that 
 Christianity is true, all other religions false; that 
 Christianity is of God, while other religions are of 
 the devil; or else, with a little spice of moderation, 
 that Christianity is a revelation from heaven, while 
 other religions are manufactures of men. You 
 know better, and with clear light and strong assur- 
 ance can testify that there may be friendshij) 
 instead of antagonism between religion and religion; 
 that so surely as God is our common Father, our 
 hearts alike have yearned for him and our souls in 
 devoutest moods have caught whispers of grace 
 dropped from his throne. Then this is Pentecost, 
 and behind is the conversion of the world." 
 
 There is diversity of gifts, and one differs from 
 another in fitness and function as well as in glory. 
 This was sure to be realized in introducing him, by 
 one who had become really acquainted with the 
 loving, the lovable, and love-inspiring Dharmapala. 
 He responded: 
 
 "Peace, blessings, and salutations, brethren. 
 This congress of religions has achieved a stupendous 
 work in bringing before you the representatives of 
 the religions and philosophies of the East. The 
 committee on religious congresses has realized the 
 Utopian idea of the poet and the visionary. By 
 the wonderful genius of two men — Mr. Bonney 
 
310 world's religious congresses. 
 
 and Doctor Barrows — a beacon-light has been 
 erected on the platform of the Chicago Parliament 
 of Religions to guide the yearning souls after truth. 
 
 "I, on behalf of the 475,000,000 of my co relig- 
 ionists, followers of the gentle Lord Buddha Gau- 
 tama, tender my affectionate regards to you and to 
 Dr. John Henry Barrows, a man of noble tolerance, 
 of sweet disposition, whose equal I could hardly 
 find. And you, my brothers and sisters, born in 
 this land of freedom, you have learned from your 
 brothers of the far East their presentation of the 
 respective religious systems they follow. You have 
 listened with commendable i)atience to the teach- 
 ings of the all merciful Buddha through his humble 
 followers. During his earthly career of forty-five 
 years he labored in emancipating the human mind 
 from religious prejudices, and teaching a doctrine 
 which has made Asia mild. By the patient and 
 laborious researches of the men of science you are 
 given to enjoy the fruits of material civilization, but 
 this civilization by itself finds no praise at the 
 hands of the great naturalists of the day. 
 
 "Learn to think without prejudice, love all 
 beings for love's sake, express your convictions 
 fearlessly, lead a life of purity, and the sunlight of 
 truth will illuminate you. If theology and dogma 
 stand in your way in search of truth, put them 
 aside. Be earnest and work out your own salvation 
 with diligence, and the fruits of holiness will be 
 yours." 
 
 The Vedas, they say, have no beginning and no 
 
FAREWELL MEETINGS. 311 
 
 end, and that is because their streams flow from the 
 eternal fountain of the water of life. ' ' Tliere is a 
 river the streams whereof make glad the city of our 
 God, ' ' and in every land waters of instruction and 
 refreshment are provided and preserved for those who 
 are there, by a providence Avhich embraces them as 
 truly as the most favored. Something of this faith, 
 uttered in the introduction of Swami Vivekananda, 
 was justified in his own words. 
 
 "The World's Parliament of Religions has be- 
 come an accomplished fact, and the merciful Father 
 has helped those who labored to bring it into exist- 
 ence and crowned with success their most unselfish, 
 labor. My thanks to those noble souls whose large 
 hearts and love of truth first dreamed this wonder- 
 ful dream and then realized it. My thanks to the 
 shower of liberal sentiments that has overflowed this 
 platform. My thanks to this enlightened audience 
 for their uniform kindness to me and for their 
 appreciation of every thought that tends to smooth 
 the friction of religions. A few jarring notes were 
 heard from time to time in this harmony. My 
 special thanks to them, for they have by their strik- 
 ing contrast made the general harmony the sweeter. 
 Much has been said of the common ground of 
 religious unity. I am not going just now to venture 
 my own theory; but if any one here hopes that this 
 unity would come by the triumph of any one of 
 these religions and the destruction of the others, 
 to him I say: 'Brother, yours is an impossible 
 hope.' Do I wish that the Christian would become 
 Hindu? God forbid. Do I wish that the Hindu 
 
312 world's religious coj^gresses. 
 
 or Buddhist would become Christian? God forbid. 
 The seed is put in the ground, and earth, and air, 
 and water are placed around it. Does the seed 
 become the earth, or the air, or the water? No. It 
 becomes a plant, it develops after the law of its own 
 growth, assimilates the air, the earth, and the Avater, 
 converts them into plant substance and grows a 
 plant. Similar is the case with religion. The 
 Christian is not to become a Hindu or a Buddhist, 
 nor a Hindu or a Buddhist to become a Christian. 
 But each must assimilate the others and yet pre- 
 serve its individuality and grow according to its own 
 •law of growth. If the Parliament of Religions has 
 shown anything to the world it is this: It has 
 proved to the world that lioliness, purity, and 
 charity are not the exclusive possessions of any 
 church in the world and that every system has pro- 
 duced men and women of the most exalted charac- 
 ter. In the face of this evidence if anybody dreams 
 of the exclusive survival of his own and the destruc- 
 tion of the others I pity him from the bottom of my 
 heart, and point out to him that upon the banner of 
 every religion would soon be written, in spite of 
 their resistance: 'Help and not fight,' 'Assimila- 
 tion and not destruction,' ' Harmony and peace and 
 not dissension.' " 
 
 A quiet lawyer of Bombay, secretary and repre- 
 sentative of the Jain Association, a form of religion 
 he declared older than Buddhism, Mr. Ghandi, won 
 many friends, to whom he said in parting: 
 
 "Are we not all sorry that we are parting so 
 
FAEEWELL MEETINGS. 313 
 
 soon ? Do we not wish tliat this parliament would 
 last seventeen times seventeen days ? Have we not 
 heard with pleasure and interest the speeches of the 
 learned representatives on this platform ? Do we 
 not see that the sublime dream of the organizers of 
 this unique parliament have been more than real- 
 ized ? If you will only permit a heathen to deliver 
 his message of peace and love I shall only ask you 
 to look at the multifarious ideas presented to you in 
 a liberal spirit, and not with superstition and 
 bigotry, as the seven blind men did in the elephant 
 story. Once upon a time in a great city an elephant 
 was brought with a circus. The people had never 
 seen an elephant before. There were seven blind 
 men in the city who longed to know what kind of 
 animal it was, so they went together to the place 
 where the elephant was kept. One of them placed 
 his hands on the ears, another on the legs, a third 
 on the tail of the elephant, and so on. When they 
 were asked by the people what kind of an animal the 
 elephant was, one of the blind men said: ' Oh, to 
 be sure, the elephant is like a big winnowing fan.' 
 Another blind man said: 'No, my dear sir, you 
 are wrong. The elephant is more like a big round 
 post.' The third: 'You are quite mistaken, it is 
 like a tapering stick.' The rest of tliem gave also 
 their different opinions. The proprietor of the cir- 
 cus stepped forward and said: ' My friends, you are 
 all mistaken. You have not examined the elephant 
 from all sides. Had you done so you would not 
 have taken one-sided views.' Brothers and sisters, 
 I entreat you to hear the moral of this story, and 
 
314 world's religious congresses. 
 
 learn to examine the various religious systems from 
 all standpoints. 
 
 "I now thank you from the bottom of my heart 
 for the kindness with which you have received us 
 and for the liberal spirit and patience with which 
 you have heard us." 
 
 Prince Momolu Massaquoi, of the Vey Nation, 
 West Africa, is a Christian convert, educated in 
 Liberia and in this country;, but his heart is near 
 his people, and on many occasions he testified to the 
 reality of their religion and soundness of their mo- 
 rality, both the Mohammedans and pagans among 
 them. He did not appear before the parliament in 
 any formal address, though he spoke in the subor- 
 dinate congresses, winning all witli his dignified 
 and simple bearing and unaffected grace of speech. 
 Presented as a re23resentative of Africa, he referred 
 to the receptive and teachable character of the 
 African, to his affectionate disposition and suscepti- 
 bility to supernatural influences and guidance, and 
 said: 
 
 ' ' Permit me to express my hearty thanks to the 
 chairman of this congress for the honor conferred 
 upon me personally by the privilege of rei)resent- 
 ing Africa in this World's Parliament of Religions. 
 There is an important relationship which Africa 
 sustains to this particular gathering. Nearly 1,900 
 years ago, at the great dawn of the Christian morn- 
 ing, the world saw benighted Africa opening her 
 doors to the infant Saviour Jesus Christ, afterward 
 tlie founder of one of the greatest religions man ever 
 
FAREWELL MEETINGS. 315 
 
 embraced, and the teacher of tbe highest and noblest 
 sent ments ever taught, whose teaching has resulted 
 in the presence of this magnificent audience. As I 
 sat in this audience listening to the distinguished 
 delegates and representatives in this assembly of 
 learning, of philosophy, of systems of religions, I 
 said to myself : ' What shall the harvest be ? ' 
 
 ^'The very atmosphere seems pregnant with an 
 indefinable, inexpressible something — something 
 too solemn for human utterance — something I dare 
 not exx)ress. Previous to this gathering the greatest 
 enmity existed among the world's religions. To- 
 night — I dare not speak as one seeing visions or 
 dreaming dreams — but this night it seems that the 
 world's religions, instead of striking one against 
 arfother, have come together in amicable delibera- 
 tion and have created a lasting and congenial spirit 
 among themselves. May the coming together of 
 these wise men result in the full realization of the 
 general parliament of God, the brotherhood of man, 
 and the consecration of souls to the service of God." 
 
 At this point in the programme occurred a scene 
 in Columbus Hall in which the audience in Washing- 
 ton Hall could not participate. Doctor Barrows 
 referred to President Bonney as the one to whom the 
 marvelous success of the parliament was due, where- 
 upon the vast audience arose as by a single impulse 
 and gave the Chautauqua salute with enthusiasm. 
 
 Mr. Bonney stood for a moment, after the enthu- 
 siasm subsided, almost overcome with emotion, and 
 then said: "Not unto us, not unto us, but unto 
 
316 world's religious congresses. 
 
 thy name give glory — to tlie God that inspired this 
 movement and has guided and aided it by his bless- 
 ing, through a multitude of the best men and 
 women in the world under the leadership of Doctor 
 Barrows." The Apollo Club then sang the Halle- 
 lujah Chorus. Its rejjetition was demanded, and 
 President Bonney remarked that it was most htting; 
 it had never been given on a more appropriate occa- 
 sion, though it probably never entered the thought 
 of the gifted comj^oser that such an occasion as the 
 present could arise. While it was being sung the 
 second time the Eev. Dr. George Dana Boardman of 
 Philadelphia was introduced in Washington Hall, 
 and delivered this remarkable and effective witness: 
 ''Fathers of the contemplative East, sons of the 
 executive West, behold how good and how pleasant 
 it is for brethren to dwell together iu unity. The 
 New Jerusalem, the city of God, is descending, 
 heaven and earth chanting the eternal hallelujah 
 chorus. " 
 
 Brief speeches from American representatives fol- 
 lowed, from which we select passages as showing 
 their estimate of the event. 
 
 Dr. Emil Hirsch said: "None could appreciate 
 the deeper significance of this parliament more fully 
 than we, the heirs of a jpast spanning the millenia, 
 and the motive of whose aciiievements and fortitude 
 was and is the confident hope of the ultimate break 
 of the millennium. Millions of my co-religionists 
 hoped that this convocation of this modern great 
 synagogue would sound the death-knell of hatred 
 
FAREWELL MEETINGS. 317 
 
 and prejudice under which they have pined and are 
 still suffering, and their hope has not been disap- 
 pointed. Of old, Palestine's hills were every month 
 aglow with fire-brands announcing the rise of a new 
 month. So here were kindled the cheering fires tell- 
 ing the whole world that a new period of time had 
 been consecrated. We Jews came hither to give 
 and to receive. For wbat little we could bring we 
 have been richly rewarded in the precious things we 
 have received in turn. According to an old rabbin- 
 ical practice, friends among us never part without 
 first discussing some problem of religious life. Our 
 whole parliament has been devoted to such discus- 
 sion, and we take hence, with us in parting, the 
 richest treasures of religious instruction ever laid 
 before man. Thus the old Talmud ic promise will 
 be verified in us, that when even three come to- 
 gether to study God's law his Shekhinah abides 
 with them." 
 
 Dr. Frank Bristol, beginning with a stanza 
 from Burns' " Shall brithers be for a' that," said: 
 "Good, and only good, will come from this parlia- 
 ment. To all who have come from afar we are 
 profoundly and eternally indebted. Some of them 
 represent civilization that was old when Romulus 
 was founding Rome, whose philosophies and songs 
 were ripe in wisdom and rich in rhythm before 
 Homer sang his Iliad to the Greeks, and they have 
 enlarged our ideas of our common humanity. They 
 have brought to us fragrant flowers from the gar- 
 dens of Eastern faiths, rich gems from the old mines 
 of great philosophies, and we are richer to-night 
 
318 world's religious congresses. 
 
 from their contributions of thought, and jjarticu- 
 larly from our contact with them in spirit. Never 
 was there such a bright and hopeful day for our 
 common humanity along the lines of tolerance and 
 universal brotherhood. And we shall find that by 
 the words that these visitors have brought to us, 
 and by the influence they have exerted, they will be 
 richly rewarded in the consciousness of having con- 
 tributed to the mighty movement which holds in 
 itself the promise of one faith, one Lord, (<ne Father, 
 one brotherhood. A distinguished writer has said 
 it is always morn somewhere in the world. The 
 time hastens when a greater thing will be said: 'Tis 
 always morn everywhere in the world. The dark- 
 ness has passed, the day is at hand, and with it will 
 come the greater humanity, the universal brother- 
 hood.' " 
 
 The Rev. Jenkin Lloyd Jones bade "the parting 
 guests the godspeed that comes out of a soul that 
 is glad to recognize its kinship with all lands and 
 with all religions; and when you go, you go, not 
 only leaving behind you in our hearts more hospit- 
 able thoughts for the faiths you represent, but also 
 w^arm and loving ties that bind you into the union 
 that will be our joy and our life f orevermore. " And 
 referring to an intended motion for a second parlia- 
 ment of religions, he continued: "At first I thought 
 that Bombay might be a good place, or Calcutta a 
 better place, but I have concluded to move that the 
 next i)arliament of religions be held on the sacred 
 banks of the Ganges, in the ancient new city of 
 
FAREWELL MEETIJ^GS. 319 
 
 Benares, where we can visit these brethren at their 
 noblest headquarters. And when we go there we 
 will do as they have done, leaving our heavy bag- 
 gage behind, going in light marching order, carry- 
 ing only the working principles that are applicable 
 in all lands." 
 
 Mrs. Henrotin, always working, never hurried, 
 giving to every j)reparation that womanly touch 
 needed to quiet anxiety and stimulate courage, bore 
 her testimony to the earnest and harmonious work 
 of the committees of women, and to its worth, 
 especially in connection with the denominational 
 congresses, quoted above. And Miss Chapin fol- 
 lowed: 
 
 ' ' We have heard, ' ' she said, ' ' of the fatherhood of 
 God, the brotherhood of man, and the solidarity of 
 the human race, until these great words and truths 
 have j)enetrated our minds and sunken into our 
 hearts as never before. They will henceforth have 
 larger meaning. No one of us all but has been 
 intellectually strengthened and spiritually uplifted. 
 We have been sitting together upon the mountain 
 of the Lord. We shall never descend to the lower 
 places where our feet have sometimes trod in times 
 past. I have tried, as I have listened to these 
 masterly addresses, to imagine what effect this 
 comparative study of religions would have upon the 
 religious world and upon individual souls that 
 come directly under the sweep of its influence. It 
 is not too much to hope that a great impulse has 
 
320 world's keligious congresses. 
 
 been given to the cause of religious unity, and to 
 pure and undefiled religion in all lands." 
 
 Bishop Arnett, of the African Methodist Episco- 
 pal church, always poj)ular, always frank and genial; 
 said many good things, but nothing better than this: 
 "The ten commandments, the sermon on the mount, 
 and the golden rule have not been superseded by 
 any that have been presented by the various teachers 
 of religion and philosophy, but our mountains are 
 just as high and our doctrines are just as pure as 
 before our meeting, and every man and woman has 
 been confirmed in the faith once delivered to the 
 saints. Another good of this convention: it has 
 taught us a lesson that while we have truth on our 
 side we have not had all the truth; while we have 
 had theory we have not had all the practice; and 
 the strongest criticism we have received was not as 
 to our doctrines or methods, but as to our practice 
 not being in harmony with our own teachings and 
 with our own doctrines." 
 
 Bishop Keane made a characteristic address, 
 asserting the primitive unity of religion and appeal- 
 ing for a restored unity; and then Mr. Bonney said: 
 "In the midst of all these representatives of the 
 various faiths and churclies sits a Presbyterian min- 
 ister who has performed one of the greatest offices 
 ever committed to the hand of man — the unifica- 
 tion of the world in the things of religion. That 
 man now comes to say his closing words to this 
 World's Parliament of Religions, and I have the 
 
HON. FUNG QUANG YU, 
 
 Secretary of Chinese Legation. 
 
FAREWELL MEETINGS. 321 
 
 honor to present Rev. Dr. John Henry Barrows, 
 chairman of the general committee." When the 
 ovation which followed had subsided he spoke as 
 follows: 
 
 "The closing hour of this parliament is one of 
 congratulation, of tender sorrow, of triumphant 
 hopefulness. God has been better to us by far than 
 our fears, and no one has more occas'on for grati- 
 tude than your chairman, that he has been upheld 
 and comforted by your cordial cooperation, by the 
 prayers of a great host of God's noblest men and 
 women, and by the consciousness of divine favor. 
 Our hopes have been more than realized. The sen- 
 timent which has inspired this parliament has held 
 us together. The principles in accord with which 
 this historic convention has proceeded have been 
 put to the test, and even strained at times, but they 
 have not been inadequate. Toleration, brotherly 
 kindness, trust in each other's sincerity, a candid 
 and earnest seeking after the unities of religion, the 
 honest purpose of each to set forth his own faith 
 without compromise and without unfriendly criti- 
 cism — these principles, thanks to your loyalty and 
 courage, have not been found wanting. 
 
 "I thank God for these friendships which we 
 have knit with men and women beyond the sea, and 
 I thank you for your sympathy and over-generous 
 appreciation, and for the constant help which you 
 have furnished in the midst of my multiplied duties. 
 Christian America sends her greetings through you 
 to all mankind. We cherish a broadened sympa- 
 thy, a higher rfespect, a truer tenderness to the 
 
322 world's religious congresses. 
 
 children of our common father in all lands, and, as 
 the story of this parliament is read in the cloisters 
 of Japan, by the rivers of Southern Asia, amid the 
 universities of Europe, and in the isles of all the 
 seas, it is my prayer that non-Christian readers 
 may, in some measure, discover what has been the 
 source and strength of that faith in divine father- 
 hood and human brotherhood which, embodied in an 
 Asiatic peasant who was the Son of God, and made 
 divinely potent through him, is clasping the globe 
 with bands of heavenly light. Most that is in my 
 heart of love, and gratitude, and happy memory 
 must go unsaid. If any honor is due for this mag- 
 nificent achievement, let it be given to the spirit of 
 Christ, which is the spirit of love in the hearts of 
 those of many lands and faiths who have toiled for 
 the high ends of this great meeting. May the bless- 
 ing of him who rules the storm and holds the ocean 
 waves in his right hand follow you, with the pray- 
 ers of all God' s people, to your distant homes. And 
 as Sir Joshua Reynolds closed his lectures on ' The 
 Art of Painting' with the name of Michael Angelo, 
 so, with a deeper reverence, I desire that the last 
 words w^hicli I speak to this parliament shall be the 
 name of him to whom I owe life, and truth, and 
 hope, and all things, who reconciles all contradic- 
 tions, pacifies all antagonisms, and who, from the 
 throne of his heavenly kingdom, directs the serene 
 and unwearied omnipotence of redeeming love — 
 Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the world." 
 
 At the close of Doctor Barrows' address, Mr. 
 
FAREWELL MEETINGS. 323 
 
 Bonney, who from lirst to last had shown such 
 appreciation of everybody, and such felicitous sense 
 of the fitting thing to be said in the opening, and 
 encouragement of the parliament and every one of 
 the diverse subordinate congresses, closed with an 
 appropriate summing up and forecast of results, 
 from which we select these characteristic passages: 
 
 ' ' The influence which this congress of the relig- 
 ions of the world will exert on the peace and the 
 prosperity of the world is beyond the power of 
 human language to describe; for this influence, 
 borne by those who have attended the sessions of 
 the Parliament of Religions to all parts of the world, 
 will affect in some important degree all races of 
 men, all forms of religion, and even all governments 
 and social institutions. 
 
 ''The results of this influence will not soon be 
 apparent in external changes, but will manifest 
 themselves in thought, feeling, expression, and the 
 deeds of charity. - Creeds and institutions may long 
 remain unchanged in form, but a new spirit of 
 light and peace will pervade them, for this congress 
 of the world's religions is the most marvelous 
 evidence yet given of the approaching fulfillment of 
 the apocalyptic prophecy, ' Behold ! I make all 
 things new.' 
 
 ''And now farewell. A thousand congratula- 
 tions and thanks for the cooperation and aid of all 
 who have contributed to the glorious results which 
 we celebrate this night. Henceforth the religions 
 of the world will make war, not on each other, but 
 on the giant evils that afllict mankind. Henceforth 
 
324 world's religious congresses. 
 
 let all throughout the world who worship God and 
 love their fellow-men join in the anthem of the 
 angels : 
 
 "Glory to God in the highest! 
 Peace on earth, good will among men!" 
 
CHAPTER yil. 
 
 WHAT WILL BE THE RESULT? 
 
 rriHE world's congresses of 1893 have advanced 
 
 JL the thought of the world fifty years." 
 
 "These congresses will exercise a power- 
 ful influence on mankind for centuries to come." 
 
 "The Parliament of Religions is the most wonder- 
 ful event since the time of Christ." 
 
 ' ' The results of these congresses seem likely to 
 be too vast and far-reaching to be easily specified." 
 
 So have able and competent judges passed upon 
 the merits of these meetings. It is to be hoped that 
 the proceedings, from first to last of the whole 
 exhibit of the thought of the times, of which it has 
 been said, "It marks a new era in literature by 
 its wealth of thought and felicity of expression 
 gathered from all parts of the world," may be pub- 
 lished by the United States Government and j)laced 
 in the libraries of the world. Then results will take 
 care of themselves. 
 
 But of this movement in the religious world 
 especially, which has attracted such wide-spread 
 attention, many are asking, "Whence comes it? 
 What does it mean?" No one has given any 
 better account of causes than its originator, who 
 refers it to "the New Age." Speaking to the 
 Columbian Catholic Congress, in an address grate- 
 
 (325) 
 
326 world's religious congresses. 
 
 ful to earnest Catholics, and instructive to all fair- 
 minded men, President Bonney said of the spirit of 
 the age: 
 
 ^'Descended from the Sun of Righteousness this 
 spirit of progress is filling the whole earth with its 
 splendor and beauty, its warmth and vivifying 
 power, and making the old things of truth and 
 justice new in meaning, strength, and energy to 
 execute God's will for the welfare of man." 
 
 After rehearsing some of the evidences of prog- 
 ress in Catholic deliverances and decisions, and 
 among Protestants on the other hand, he says of 
 the meaning of these changes: "Blind indeed 
 must be the eyes that can not see in these events 
 the quickened march of the ages of human progress 
 toward the fulfillment of the divine prophecy of one 
 fold and one shepherd, when all forms of gov- 
 ernment shall be one in liberty and justice, and all 
 forms of faith and worship one in charity and 
 human service." 
 
 There are many who will not see it so. There are 
 some Catholics who can conceive of one fold only 
 as Protestants and heathen are gathered into the 
 allegiance of Rome, and there are some Protestants 
 who would not enter a fold which should include 
 Catholics without the most solemn subscription to 
 their own catechism of faith and to their ecclesias- 
 tical polity. There are some, perhaps there are 
 many, who, so far from rejoicing that the heathen 
 give evidence of a real religion, are so little confi- 
 dent of Christian truth and triumph that they 
 greatly fear the effect of this comparison and 
 
WHAT WILL BE THE RESULT ? 827 
 
 friendly iatercliange. The religious press reflects 
 all these prejudices, doubts, and fears. It must be 
 admitted that bigotry is not dead, and that one 
 love-feast is not the millenium. The old-line theo- 
 logians and ecclesiastical managers, who took little 
 part in the congresses, look with distrust upon the 
 movement. They recognize that an important event 
 has occurred, but seem uncertain as to results, and 
 hesitating as to the attitude they ought to assume 
 toward it. On the other hand, it is obvious that the 
 great body of worshiping and working Christian 
 people are much impressed, and expectant of good 
 results; though just what permanent results and 
 healthful movements are to follow they have not 
 clearly defined. 
 
 One thing is clear, namely, that there is a new 
 spirit in Christendom, a si^irit not very generally 
 or generously adopted by religious leaders, perhaps, 
 but strong enough to bring into conspicuous cooper- 
 ation a few broad and able men, from among Catho- 
 lics and Protestants, and representing both orthodox 
 and liberal views, and to so far dominate opposition 
 and quiet distrust and stimulate generous impulses 
 as to issue in this universal conference. A few years 
 ago, these men could not have worked together for 
 three years to a common end; could not have 
 issued the call in the name of Christendom with- 
 out a clamor of i^rotest that would have dis- 
 counted its validity; could not have conducted 
 a programme covering three sessions a day for 
 seventeen days without getting into disgraceful 
 conflicts and humiliating displays of bad feeling. 
 
328 world's RP]LIGIOUS CONGKESSES. 
 
 There is a new spirit in Christendom, not only of 
 toleration and good feeling, but of faith in the 
 divine care for all men, of respect for the 'liberty 
 of willing and thinking ' which belongs to all men 
 of divine gift and must be regarded in all efforts to 
 help and benefit one another. There is in this new 
 spirit, moreover, less concern about the form of 
 belief than about the fruit it bears; a disposition to 
 judge its substance and quality by the life it con- 
 fers rather than by the form of its statement; a con- 
 viction that the true principle of unity is love and 
 not faith, fidelity in life to what a man understands 
 to be the will of God and not uniformity of confes- 
 sion. Where this bond of charity, the common 
 possession of an inward acknowledgment and liv- 
 ing loyalty to what one believes to be of the divine, 
 exists, matters of faith are subjects of reasonable 
 conference and instruction among brethren, the 
 wise helping the less wise and pointing out errors, 
 not to compel, but to show a better way of life. 
 The recognition of this true bond of brotherly love, 
 the fellowship of those who are seeking to do the 
 will of God, is not by any means an indifference to 
 llie comi)arative value of beliefs, or to the distinc- 
 tions of truth and error, but a new estimate of the 
 end of all right belief, which is to guide the life into 
 harmony and union with God. It must be called a 
 new spirit, rather than a defined doctrine, because 
 it has come in like the vernal influences of sun and 
 wind, and is operative rather as an impulse than as 
 a definite purpose. But it has come into Christen- 
 dom, and has been met and sweetly reciprocated by 
 
WHAT WILL BE THE KESULT ? 329 
 
 the representatives of the non-Christian faiths. It 
 is new and it spreads. However few relatively to 
 the whole body the representatives of Christian 
 churches who T)articipated in the j)arliament, it is 
 manifest that in this spirit they feel the support of 
 a large following, and, as was often said, of an inspi- 
 ration from above. Whatever opposition to this 
 si^irit there may be, it is overawed and cautious in 
 expression. Whatever doubt and criticism of the 
 spirit in Christendom was shown by oriental relig- 
 ionists, was criticism of a spirit formerly and else- 
 where manifest, not a doubt of the genuineness of 
 this spirit of brotherhood and helpfulness in the 
 parliament. This new spirit has come to stay. 
 Those who like it may rejoice in it; those who do 
 not may adjust themselves to it, as to the spirit of 
 the age, which is J^yond their control. 
 
 It seems likely that a second result of these con- 
 gresses, and one inseparable from the new si3irit 
 they have exhibited, will be a change in the method, 
 and perha^Ds in the message, of Christian mission- 
 aries. Intimations have come back recently from 
 the missionaries in many lands that the natives do 
 not so much reject the Christianity of the gospel 
 in the Lord's words and works, as the sectarian 
 dogmas and the attempt to impose sectarian 
 organization and control upon native Christians. 
 Witli the new spirit of brotherhood for all who are 
 faithful to their best, and recognition of the great 
 value of the non- Christian faiths to those who are 
 loyal to their teachings, the motive of missions 
 must become more helpful, and the methods more 
 
330 world's religious congresses. 
 
 accommodated to native ideas and conditions. 
 Some are fearing that the effect of the congresses 
 will be to discourage missions, at least temiDoraril}-; 
 that, from an idea that they are not needed, funds 
 will be cut off, and from a false hope of salvation 
 for all the motive of missions will be destroyed. 
 This may be true to some extent with respect to cer- 
 tain missionary methods, and the appeal of certain 
 societies committed to them; but it is more likely 
 that the desire to carry the fuller light of the gospel 
 to those who are doing their best to please God, but 
 are ignorant and in error, will prove in the long 
 run a stronger motive and a richer enthusiasm than 
 the fear of their damnation or the desire of secta- 
 rian triumphs have ever furnished. 
 
 The gentle Dharmapala was not by any means 
 free from prejudice, but his prejudice was not 
 directed against the gospel of Jesus Christ or the 
 preaching of that gospel in the East. Addressing 
 Americans, he said: "You are free from the bonds 
 of theology and dogma, and I want you seriously to 
 consider that the twentieth century evangelization 
 is in your hands. I warn you that if you want to 
 establish Christianity in the East it can only be done 
 in the principles of Christ's love and meekness. 
 Let the missionaries study all religions, let them 
 be types of meekness and lowliness, and they will 
 find a welcome in all lands." The Eev. George T. 
 Candlin, missionary in China, said, "The meaning 
 of Christianity from a missionary point of view is 
 infinite desire to give and willingness to receive." 
 The Rev. E. E. Hume of India, discussing "How 
 
WHAT WILL BE THE RESULT? 331 
 
 we might do our work better," said, "First of all, we 
 might some of us know the thoughts of non- Chris- 
 tians better. We ought to study their books more 
 deeply, more intelligently, more constantly. We 
 ought to associate with them in order to know their 
 inmost thoughts and feelings and their aspirations 
 better than we do." Again he said, "Where we 
 find truth we should more cordially . and more 
 gladly recognize it;" and he warned against the 
 jealousy that sometimes is found where there 
 ought to be only gladness that God through his 
 eternal Word enlighteneth every man that cometli 
 into the world. And finally, he said there are 
 "phases of Christian doctrine which are put before 
 orientals as essential to Christianity which are 
 only Western theology," and which instead of 
 attracting repel the minds of non-Christian people. 
 Such testimony will have an influence, and we may 
 expect missionary boards sooner or later to adjust 
 themselves to the new spirit in Christendom, and to 
 adopt a new motive, and more generous method in 
 the field. When the motive shall be to instruct 
 the willing-hearted in the simple faith of the 
 gospel, and to preach to all repentance for the real 
 remission of sins, that all may grow more worthily 
 as the children of God, we may expect to see 
 methods adopted which will look to the training of 
 Christians rather than the making of Presby- 
 terians, Congregationalists, Methodists, and so 
 forth. The movement has begun, and Mr. Cand- 
 lin's conundrum is likely to be meditated: "Given 
 a Christendom of religious sects wrangling about 
 
332 
 
 minor points of doctrine, to produce a universal 
 harmony from their united action." 
 
 This leads to the suggestion of another result 
 likely to follow these congresses, namely, the recog- 
 nition of the need in Christendom of a sound basis 
 of faith, simple, self-attesting, and witnessing its 
 divine origin. In the papers read before the parlia- 
 ment, with a few exceptions, there is wanting that 
 apostolic assurance which rests in the confidence of 
 divine authority. It is manifest that the authority 
 of tradition and of councils is a thing of the past, 
 and that the authority of self-evident truth has not 
 been found, except, it may be, in such general prop- 
 ositions as that God is, and that righteousness alone 
 is profitable. The aspiration of reason, in its new 
 sense of freedom, is to know who God is, and how 
 he operates in the universe which he transcends, and 
 such a conception of righteousness as will reconcile 
 the providence of God with the recognized laws of 
 cause and effect. The reliance of progressive 
 thought is just now upon the revelation of God in 
 consciousness and to the reason. It is sure, sooner 
 or later, to discover the weakness of its own methods. 
 The aspiration of the human soul is ever for an ulti- 
 mate authority, for the voice of God. And when 
 the hope that is centered in the person of Jesus 
 Christ, and the thought that is beginning to see in 
 him the larger meaning of divine providence, seeks 
 to define itself to the oriental religions, and to speak 
 with the authority of a divine commission to wealth 
 and poverty, to sinners high and low, it is sure to 
 feel the need of a more definite, rational, and con- 
 
WHAT WILL BE THE EESULT? 333 
 
 vincing doctrine than it is yet able to utter. The 
 more it tries to find it, the more it will see it can 
 not make it, but must find it in the Word that is 
 written, in the Scripture that calls itself the Word 
 of God; and in that as the vesture of him who is so 
 named in apocalyptic vision. When God is seen in 
 Christ, and Christ is seen in the written Word 
 "opening in all the Scriptures things concerning 
 himself," men will search in the Scriptures, and n(;t 
 in the processes of their own thought alone, for the 
 faith of God^ — universal, self-attesting, divine. 
 The world's religious congresses reveal the need 
 of such assured, universal truths, coming down to 
 man from above, meeting all needs, applicable to all 
 conditions; the need, in short, of a gospel which is 
 the gift of God, and not a troublesome tradition of 
 the elders, nor yet an immature siDeculation of the 
 newly enfranchised reason. The recognition of the 
 need, if it becomes general, will lead to the prayer 
 that goes before reception. All history witnesses 
 that the providence of God is beforehand with his 
 people's need; and that before they ask he x)rovides 
 the answer, to be revealed when they shall be ready 
 to ask. 
 
 Our human needs are prophecies of gifts. 
 They were not planted else. We crave, we have; 
 We yearn for and obtain; the soul's deep want 
 Prepares the soul, thus thirsting, to receive 
 The good it wants. 
 
 Even now the answer is within reach. From 
 deliverances before the parliament quoted in this 
 brief review, we could construct a series of state- 
 
334 world's religious congresses. 
 
 ments ecumenical to the practical religious needs 
 of all men, if they could separate their attention to 
 them from the thought of traditions and from their 
 prepossessions. Brought together from different 
 addresses, and from those too which had through- 
 out the clearest tone of authority grounded in a 
 divine conviction, they would read something like 
 this: 
 
 That the glorified Lord, Jesus Christ, is God with 
 us^ from whose presence comes the Holy Spirit to 
 protect and empower and save. That the Bible is 
 the Lord's Word, containing within the history and 
 symbol and parable of its letter an infinite wisdom 
 capable of unfolding itself in the minds of those 
 who will live as it teaches. That there is a spirit- 
 ual world where we shall live forever, and that our 
 state there, in heaven or hell, will be the inevitable 
 result of the motives which we make our own by 
 choice and life in this world. That the Lord saves 
 those who love him and keep his commandments, 
 imparting wisdom and power in so far as they shun 
 evil and do good in acknowledgment of him; and 
 that in very truth God is no respecter of persons. 
 
Dr. Barrows' Great History 
 
 OF THE 
 
 Parliament of Religions. 
 
 15,000 SETS (30,000 Volumes) 
 
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 All the World is Buying Dr. Barrows' Book 
 
 2. Because while it does not profess to give in full all the addresses given at 
 the Parliament and the Congresses, it does give unchanged and complete 
 those in which the world is especially interested. It gives the oriental papers 
 almost without exception in full. It gives sixty pages of Pung Kwang Yu's 
 great address on Confucianism, whereas its imitators give but six. It gives all 
 of Professor Drummond's powerful paper; its imitators give one-third. It gives 
 Canon Freemantle's splendid address on the " Reunion of Christendom "" and 
 W. T. Stead's unrivaled paper on the " Civic Church," not one word of which ap- 
 pears or can appear in the cheap imitations. It gives in its 1624 pages just that 
 which the world desires to preserve. 
 
 All the World is Buying Dr. Barrows' Great History 
 
 3. Because in its editing, its scholarship, its typesetting, its printing, its illus- 
 trating, its paper, its binding, its convenience of handling it is as thorough and 
 creditable a piece of book-work as was ever sent from the press. We have not 
 saved money by making it a cheap scrapbook of newspaper reports, or by jam- 
 ming into one unwieldy, insecurely bound volume a mass of matter which can be 
 made serviceable only when divided into books of smaller bulk. 
 
 All the World is Buying Dr. Barrows' Book 
 
 4. Because its superb illustrations of quaint and curious religious buildings, 
 scenes, customs, and its lifelike portraits of the great men and women of the 
 religious world, gathered at ^reat expense from every corner of the globe, ren- 
 der it worth its price as a religious album alone. 
 
 All the World is Buying Dr. Barrows' Book 
 
 5 Because it seems that all the rest of the world and the provinces are after 
 it; because everybody knows that we are running two great printing houses 
 night and day to provide the 15,000 nets (30,000 volumes) which have been already 
 purchased, and the 10,000 sets (20,000 volumes) which we must deliver before 
 January 1st. 
 
 PKRLIKMENT PUBLISHING COMPHNY, 
 
 CHICAGO. 
 
 A. C. Bartlett. HENRY L. TURNER, President and Treasurer. 
 
 Board of Reference ^ Byr^nT^ Smith. SCHILLER HOSFORD, Vice-President. 
 
 O. S. A. Sprague. D WIGHT B. HEARD. Secretary. 
 Henry L. Turner. 
 
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 University of California 
 Richmond, CA 94804-4698 
 
 ALL BOOKS MAY BE RECALLED AFTER 7 DAYS 
 
 • 2-month loans may be renewed by calling 
 (510)642-6753 
 
 • 1-year loans may be recharged by bringing 
 books to NRLF 
 
 • Renewals and recharges may be made 4 
 days prior to due date. 
 
 DUE AS STAMPED BELOW 
 
 DEC 2 6 1996 
 
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